What Is Love - Barlow/Williams

Part 24: Hope You Hear Me Thinking Too

Chapter Summary: Gary has a lot of explaining to do. (I keep meaning to say my apologies for the strong language sometimes used.) See end of chapter for author notes.  WARNING: Long chapter!

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Gary was somewhat confused. Well, perplexedly stunned would be more accurate. He knew he wasn't a frequenter of one night stands, but he was sure it didn't include going to work together the next day.

He wasn't sure what to do, maybe he should make some excuse for not going to the studio, he thought to himself.

Lucas turned back to him, having filled his coffee mug, and smiled. Gary felt himself flush, he felt so alien in his own skin, "Erm...right" Gary said trying to be as nonchalantly as possible, particularly as Lucas approached him and tried to cuddle him, "I better go take a shower then", Gary quickly said, avoiding Lucas' embrace as he made a beeline for the stairs.

"Shame, I've just taken one – otherwise I would've joined you!" Lucas called, to which Gary could only shyly laugh in reply. However, Gary's fake demeanour dropped as soon as he was out of view. In fact he felt a slightly indignant scowl form on his face as he ascended the stairs; – Yes, he may not be used to all this but, 'surely first asking to use someone else's shower, before actually using it was the etiquette thing to do?', he silently considered. He wasn't too sure his en-suite bathroom was even 'guest-ready' – 'wait – was Lucas even a guest?'  he pondered. But once up the stairs, only a worried frown could be found on his face as he surveyed the damage; messy bedsheets and scattered clothes strewn across the room produced an instant queasy feeling as he was reminded of the previous night's activity, in mere memory flashes. Then he saw it, a used condom screwed up, no doubt discarded at some point, post-coitus. From the soreness of his backside, Gary was pretty sure he knew who'd 'topped' last night, and so it was actually with massive relief he saw Lucas had been responsible enough to use a rubber, at least.

Finding his discarded jeans, he plucked his abandoned phone out of the back pocket, miraculously undamaged; and it was with a horrid mix of nausea, shame and guilt that he observed how many calls he'd missed that night, four from Mark alone! But Gary couldn't worry about that now, there was only one name he was searching for. Closing the door to the bedroom, he scrolled to the name he needed, and tapped call before he entered the en-suite, and locked the door behind him.

Luckily the phone was picked up after just two rings;

"Doug?" Gary tentatively asked.

"Gaz – thank god! Mark tried calling you –" came Howards worried voice.

"I know".

"Well, are you alright?" Howard asked with genuine concern, "Last night you were 'two sheets to the wind', I thought that maybe you'd-, I mean, you did leave with –"

"I know, I'm fine" Gary quickly interjected a little shortly, not sure how much he wanted to disclose on the phone, "Look I can't talk much right now, but I was thinking that we don't really need to go into the studio so early today. It's only a couple of changes to a couple of songs anyway, and last night was a late one, so how about we just meet up there later, say around –"

"Er...Gaz, we're ALL already here! We've been waiting for you since 9am! After all you're the one that suggested yesterday that we should get in early", Howard told him.

'FUCK!'

"I...er...yeah, you're right...I forgot", Gary tried to sound normal but inside his head he was yelling profanities – how could he have been so stupid to let this happen?!