Butterflies (boyxboy)

Chapter 21: Regret

"I'm in the shit!"

☆

The sound of the apartment door closing was enough to bring Blake around from his slumber. He looks up at the ceiling, as his sleepy brain slowly wakes up. He grabs his phone and checks his messages. Nothing too special, just a couple of Instagram notifications.

As he heads into the trash laiden kitchen, with surfaces covered with bottles and empty cups and containers, he sees Henry curled up on the couch, still wrapped in his blankets. "Hey! Scooch!" Blake says, rather too loud for Henry's ears as he screws his face up in displeasure whilst reluctantly sitting up on the couch.

"So....spill.'' Blake says, looking over at his worse for wear flatmate. "You spoke to Dale, yeah?"

Henry pulls his hands down his weary face. "Just don't." he begins.

These two words alone peak Blake's interest tremendously! "You can't just say that then not continue..." He protests "Besides, I might have taken a look into your bedroom last night. I know you weren't alone." Blake lets a cheeky grin spread across his face.

The colour instantly drains from Henry's already pale face. "What?...such a pervert. What did you see?" He sounds almost panicked.

"Relax, I didn't actually see anything." Blake says smiling.

Henry breathes out a sigh of relief, but it seems short lived.

"So, I guess Dale likes you back?" Blake says, looking at Henry with playful excitement.

"You heard the door just now I guess?" Henry questions.

"Sure did! Why didn't he hang around for some breakfast?'' Blake pokes Henry playfully in his sides, through the blanket.

"Ah get off!" Henry wriggles in place, half giggling, half annoyed. "It...it wasn't Dale who left.'" The confession seems to blurt from Henry's lips before he can even stop it.

Blake instantly stops his playful antics. "What?...who was it then?"

Henry looks up to the ceiling. He closes his eyes with a sigh. "His boss!"

"His boss? What?...Why was his boss here?" Blake has so many questions, he doesn't know where to start.

"Dale brought a couple of friends, two guys. One was his boss, the other, I didn't get his name, but he looked unique... big eyes."

It's now that the penny begins to drop for Blake. "Is the boss' name Alfie by any chance?"

Henry turns to Blake, eyes wide. "You know him?"

Blake shakes his head. "No, but I most definitely know his friend." He begins to nibble on his lower lip a little. "He's the artist, Tamesh."

"Seriously? Well at least you didn't potentially ruin a good friendship last night." Henry sighs, letting his head fall back onto the couch.

Blake says nothing. He wasn't sure exactly what the fallout of his rendezvous with Tamesh would be until he saw him later at his studio.

***

It's a little after lunch on Sunday and as he waves a feather duster around the cavity of his shop window sill, Tamesh sees a sight for sore eyes walking down the cobbled street.

He hurriedly makes knocking noises on the window pane, which eventually gets the attention of a worse for wear Alfie.

The man in question, diverts his course, making his way towards Tamesh's shop door, his steps quickening as Tamesh opens the door to let him inside.

"Where the hell have you been? You're not answering my messages!" Tamesh complains, closing the door behind the pair.

"I'm in the shit!" Alfie says, almost out of breath.

"Ah Alfie...What have you done now?" Tamesh sighs, as if taking on the burden of his friend's woeful demeanour.

"Give me water first. Then I'll spill." Alfie insists, making his way out the back of Tamesh's shop to his studio, which doubled up as his living space most of the time. Tamesh follows behind Alfie, eventually managing to get around him to go grab a glass and provide his friend with a drink.

He hands it to Alfie who downs the clear liquid in one, not even pausing for air, the drink eventually disappearing, leaving Alfie breathless.

"So...what's going on Alfie?" Tamesh asks once again, folding his arms as if he were Alfie's parent.

Alfie goes to sit on one of the high stools surrounding Tamesh's kitchenette area. He chews on his lip a little before finally spitting it out. "The guy whose party it was..." he starts.

"Yeah... the guy who you said had a thing for Dale." Tamesh adds.

"Well... I might have fooled around with him... twice." Alfie glances up at Tamesh before looking down at his own hands, as he begins to play with one of his silver rings.

"Ah...Alfie! What the hell?" Tamesh declares, looking as equally shamed as Alfie at the news. "Does Dale know?"

"No." Alfie utters under his breath, "I've not seen him since the party. I don't know whether the Henry guy will say anything."

"Alfie, how do you get yourself in these situations?" Tamesh half laughs.

"Just don't...I will tell him... I will." Alfie promises. "Anyhow, the last time I saw you, you were heading towards the balcony to speak to that gorgeous model."

"Ah...yeah...we, we talked." Tamesh says a little sheepishly, hoping Alfie wouldn't pick up on the additional extras that he did not want to divulge. It wasn't Tamesh's place to say that Blake had a child and the less said about Tamesh's error of judgement, the better!

"...And is he gonna come back?" Alfie prompts.

"Yeah. He says he's coming over later." Tamesh adds.

"Well I guess only one of us fucked up." Alfie sighs.

Tamesh nods smiling....if only Alfie knew how badly Tamesh had actually fucked up. He guessed he would find out soon enough.