King's Guard

Chapter Twenty Seven

"I'm fucked."

"I know we're close and all, but I don't need to keep hearing about your sex life so often," Roan spoke, as he turned left.

"Not fucked in that way. Well, that way too..." Kingsley replied with a smirk, before shaking his head and getting serious again. "Can you stop joking for a minute?"

"Fine. Speak, son," Roan said.

"Things are getting more... complicated. More heated. With Lorenzo and I," Kingsley sighed.

"What else did you expect when you started taking the train to pound town with your boss?"

"It was pretty simple in the start!" Kingsley said in his defense. "But now... I don't know what we are. First, we were colleagues. Then we were fuck buddies. And now... I don't even know anymore."

"So, you're like dating? What a shocker. A concept totally unheard of," Roan deadpanned, stopping at the red light.

"Can you tone down the sarcasm by, like, ten degrees?" Kingsley narrowed his eyes at his best friend.

"Alright, alright. Where's your head at?" Roan asked.

"I don't know. He wants more. I think. I want more too. I think..."

"So, just date. Fuck. Fall in love. Get married!"

"Come on, man." Kingsley groaned in frustration. "You don't get it. Your love life is simple."

"No, it isn't."

"Really? You married your childhood best friend. What's simpler than that cliché?" Kingsley retorted.

"And your little office romance isn't cliché?" Roan glanced at the other man, raising a challenging brow.

"Touché," Kingsley muttered. "I'm just way out of my depth, man. This whole... dating thing isn't me."

"You've dated before." Roan pointed out.

"And that's exactly why I don't want to go down that road anymore," Kingsley said.

"So, you're going to what? Stay single for the rest of your life? Be the middle-aged uncle that wears bowling shirts and sips mimosas at noon?" Roan questioned.

"Uncle? I didn't know Kai was pregnant!" Kingsley joked, slapping Roan's upper arm as he chuckled. Roan just rolled his eyes in return.

"Shut up."

"I think I'd be more of a Hawaiian shirt than bowling shirt sort of guy, you know?" Kingsley hummed.

"And you were asking me to be serious?" Roan replied.

"Right. Yeah, uh, back to the topic." Kingsley paused, hesitating a little before speaking up again. "Lorenzo sort of asked me to go somewhere with him."

"What?"

A few hours ago.

Kingsley was regretting every decision that led to him going to college and then getting a job. He rubbed his eyes, struggling not to fall asleep as he worked on the report that was due in just a couple of hours.

Kingsley had spent the night at Lorenzo's, despite it being the middle of the week. Kingsley knew Lorenzo would insist on dropping him off at his apartment before work, and there were only so many excuses that Kingsley can come up with to keep him from finally showing where he lived. That was why Kingsley left early in the morning when Lorenzo was sound asleep.

He left a handwritten note. And a text, just in case Lorenzo failed to notice the piece of paper beside his bed.

It took a while to get a cab at four in the morning, and Kingsley planned on taking a small nap before heading to work. The next thing Kingsley knew, he was being woken up by Roan shaking his shoulders almost violently. Roan had an extra key to Kingsley's penthouse, and when he didn't answer his texts or calls, the man decided to check up on his best friend.