Break All the Rules (LGBT) ✅

Break all the Rules 17

Part 17

Life in London was easy to get lost in.

Not only was work starting to get busier, Alex was also studying for his June accounting exams and his weekends were no longer as free as they had been. So he ended up missing the episode of Johnathan's chat show which featured Sean and Freddie. He heard a few murmurs of discontent after it aired but, relative to everything else, he didn't think it was too big of a reaction.

So getting a call from Robert was a surprise.

"There's a girl claiming to be Freddie's soulmate," he said without preamble.

Alex had been staring at textbooks all day so he thought he could be excused for his intelligent answer of, "No, she's not."

"Which is something we both know but the general population don't." Robert said patiently. "It's another smear campaign against Sean, talking about the sanctity of soulmates and marriage, and I wouldn't normally worry but they've got Madame Clarissa's words backing them up here. The fact Freddie's loved his soulmate in all of his previous lifetimes is damning."

"And this one has a human face to it," Alex concluded, "nothing gets more sympathy than crying pretty girls."

"Liars, on the other hand, make themselves and their cause look bad."

There were two ways they could go about disputing her claim: Freddie could challenge her about what his soulmark said or Alex could save him the trouble and admit he was his soulmate. One of them was infinitely more effective than the other, it was also less appealing.

"I should tell him, shouldn't I?"

Robert wouldn't ever ask him to do that. Instead, he said, "Freddie called me today because he wanted to know who his soulmate was. He knows he would've told me and he also knows I was lying when I said he didn't."

It took Alex a second to appreciate what he'd said and then he was spluttering in disbelief. "You lied to him for me?"

"I wanted to give you the opportunity to make your own choice."

And Alex knew what he should do. "I'll tell him this weekend. In person."

"Thank you."

He'd felt confident then. Alex was being backed by both Robert and Madame Clarissa but he was feeling more and more apprehensive as the weekend drew closer. He'd imagined so many different scenarios where the truth came out, back when the thing between them had first started and particularly in the immediate aftermath of the accident. He'd always thought Freddie would remember. He'd thought he'd be on Alex's side.

But he wasn't.

So, because Alex wasn't ready to face Sean and Freddie, he went to Jessica's house.

"I didn't know you were in town." Jessica said, opening the door on his second knock. "You didn't say you were coming to visit."

He shrugged, trying to play it cool, "I thought a change of environment would do me some good. I hope I'm not intruding."

She grimaced. "Honestly, at any other moment, I would say no but I've been so busy trying to deal with the fallout from Freddie's soulmate situation. You can come in but I'm not going to be very good company."

He followed her into the living room, watching as she took a seat before her laptop and immediately started typing in response to some email. It was the weekend and she was stressed and working overtime because of this, because of him. Seeing the real effect of it gave him the push he needed to tell her.

"Jessica."

She held up a hand, not looking away from the screen. "Alex, unless you're going to tell me you're Freddie's soulmate, could you please wait?"