gotta watch you walk in the room baby, gotta watch you walk out

Chapter Eight

Never let the know that you care. That had been Tin's motto all these years. Now it was almost one hundred percent true. Let them do what they would, he was indestructible.

Pete, on the other hand, he was made of softer stuff. Two weeks had passed since they had left the Bangkok penthouse behind and retreated as far as away as they could without leaving the country, in this case to a dedicated spa resort in the mountains owned by Tin's company. With hindsight it was probably a bad idea given that all the time they had to dedicate to relaxing was just time for Pete to wallow in his heartbreak.

What might look to outsiders like an intimate embrace in on a garden bench was in fact Pete sobbing into Tin's shoulder. Tin was really starting to wish he had been wrong about Ae, but the evidence had been clear. Keen had supplied pictures of Ae and the bastard who had tried to con Pete before, Trump, enjoying a drink together, both laughing together like old friends.

Pete had wanted to confront Ae, had said there had to be an innocent explanation, that Ae wasn't like that. Tin had talked him out of it. "Don't show him that you care," he'd advised, feeling so guilty when Pete's face had crumpled when he'd been confronted with the photos. "Let him believe you're ending things on your terms, don't mention this, don't lose face."

Pete had done it. While Tin had been fucking away the afternoon in bed with Can, Pete had been ending things with the person he loved. The two of them were the same in this, both leaving behind Thai Program boys who had used them in their own ways. Tin knew it would be easier for him to let go of that, that all it would take would be to fuck someone else, for that was all it had been. He just wasn't used to sleeping with the same person more than once, without seeing anyone else in between as well, hadn't understood before that the familiarity of that could start to feel as though there was more involved than just base attraction.

"You'll be away from Bangkok with no chance of bumping into Ae. Work will keep you busy."

Pete was taking charge of setting up an office in New York for Tin's company. Pete's own father was still very much involved in his family business and Pete was reluctant to follow in his footsteps. As far as Tin was concerned, employing Pete was the first step in the right direction toward turning the company around and into his control, with his people working for him.

Two weeks at a spa and Tin felt anything but recharged. He felt utterly drained. When he went to bed at night his mind would not rest, and he thought he might go insane thinking about Can. Wanting him. It was ridiculous really as he hardly knew him. Worse, Can had been on another date with his own brother. Can could be with Tul right that moment. Tin didn't even have Can's phone number, at least not officially, Keen would be able to supply it to him but how would he explain to Can how he'd got his hands on it?

What was he going to do with even if he had it? Can had made it perfectly clear he was only interested in his dick. Tin could get on board with that, definitely, but admitting this made his head spin and his palms hurt. Can already had a loose hold of his heart, if he let him in anymore, he might steal it whole.

-o-O-o-

England in Spring was both sunshine and rain, neither of which came with the heat Can associated with that kind of weather. London had been as busy as Bangkok during the three days he'd spent there playing the lone tourist before his official first day at work. He'd been on the London Eye, visited the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace as well as Madame Tussauds and the Planetarium in Greenwich. His Instagram had never been so busy.

The restaurant he'd be working at had provided him with cheap lodgings with a red-haired woman in her thirties called Willow who lived in a two-bedroom flat above just one street back from Covent Garden with a German Shepherd named Ludwig and two black cats. Willow was an actor and a good friend of the couple who owned the restaurant he'd be working in.