Hey Bartender, Love me (book 2)

Chapter 14

"It's just paperwork," Luke sighed to himself as he slouched in his seat at the bar. "You can do this,"

    He and Ashton had gotten back from Florida 3 days ago and this was their first day back to work since they'd left New York 2 weeks prior.

    Luke was having a tough time. He was managing at best. He was obviously sad at the loss of his father, but he had the support of his friends, and now his family. It had been weird with them since he started dating Michael. He'd gotten so angry when Luke talked about them, he slowly stopped doing it. And once Michael went crazy he obviously couldn't contact anyone. But he was glad he got that sorted out and his family wasn't mad at him for not speaking to them for a while. They were on good terms again, and that made him happy.

    It was still hard going back to normal life. Everything was somehow different but also the same. People still came up to him and talked to him like nothing was wrong, but there was just a space missing in his heart that kept pulling him back to the reality that his dad was gone. He was still expected to do paperwork, manage his bar, eat food every day, but he didn't want to do any of that. He just wanted to sit with his dad one more time, hold his hand, hear him laugh...

    He wouldn't get to though, so he just had to put on a brave face and move on. If he acted a certain way enough, he would start to believe it and then things would get better.

    "Lu, you don't have to do this, Doll," Ashton walked over to him, putting his hands on the boy's shoulder as he watched him stare at the papers in front of him for ten minutes. There were tears shining in his eyes when Luke looked up at him, but they hadn't yet fallen. "You can take another couple of days if you need. Me and Harry can manage for a bit if you want some time—"

    "No, I have to get back into it or I never will." he shook his head. He'd been feeling off all day and didn't know why.  "I'm going to go into my office for a bit and work on this." Ashton looked at him in concern, but let him do what he wanted. Luke offered his head for a kiss, which Ashton obliged. "Can you come get me when you're ready to eat?"

    "Of course, Darling. Are you sure you don't need anything?"

    He shrugged, slowly slipping away.

    "Just need to be alone a bit. I'm gonna try to get this done,"

    "Yeah, okay. I'm here if you need me."

    That caused a small smile from the blonde.

    "I know you are. Thank you, hon." Luke blew him a kiss before walking away.

"Can you..." Luke stopped and turned around, cocking his head to the side. "Would you leave the door open a bit so I can see you? I just...I'm worried about you, Muffin."

Luke blushed at the nickname but nodded.

"Yeah, I can do that."

    Ashton sighed, resting an elbow on the bar counter and rubbing his forehead. He needed Luke to tell him what it was he wanted so he could give it to him and make him happy.

    Trouble was, Luke wanted something he couldn't give him, or he didn't know what he wanted.

    "How's he doing?" Harry walked over with a bottle of gin in his hands. He grabbed a cup and poured some out, sliding it over to his friend.

    He shrugged helplessly.

    "I mean not great. He hadn't seen his dad in like 7 years, then found out he was dying and got to spend 2 days with him before he did."

    Harry bit his lip, leaning against the counter. The two of them looked over, watching Luke inside the office. He was doing something on the computer, but he didn't look very focused.