Capturing Oliver (BoyxBoy)

Chapter Twelve

They had been sitting around the table for way too long. The leftover food had long cooled on their plates but their wine glasses were being constantly refilled. Aiden realised quickly that everyone except him was over twenty-one. Ava started clearing the plates and Aiden joined her. Oliver was too engrossed in his conversation with Robert and Alice to notice that Ava and Aiden had left the room. Aiden followed Ava into the kitchen with a couple of plates balanced on his arm.

"Just put them next to the sink," Ava told him. She started loading the plates into the dishwasher.

Aiden left the plates next to the sink and lent back against the kitchen island. "Do you throw these dinner party's often?"

"Sometimes. We meet up at least once a month, the five of us. We go to different restaurants in the city mostly, other times we do home cooked meals. We've never done it at Oliver's house though."

"Have you been to his house?" Aiden asked. He was quite curious to know.

"I have, yes," she admitted, "but I don't think the others have."

"Why?" Aiden asked. Ava paused in her movements. "You don't have to tell me. I really don't mean to sound like I'm prying on my boyfriend's life."

"It's not that, Aiden," she admitted. Ava took a step closer to Aiden. "I honestly find it hard to know how much to reveal about Oliver's life. He is the most private person I've ever known, and I won't break his trust."

"I wouldn't ask you to," Aiden assured her. "Believe me, I know what you're talking about."

"Oliver doesn't let people into his life. I've seen it over the two years that I've known him."

"He must have let you in," Aiden said. "You and him share some sort of bond."

Ava nodded. "We do. It happened over time. We started talking on the phone every once in a while, then having coffee a few times a month, and then it grew. It took a long time for me to gain his trust. He has told me things that I am sure he hasn't told anyone else, and I don't share those secrets with anyone, Fran included."

Aiden nodded. "You must be a special person, he obviously trusts you very much."

"You," Ava pointed at him, "must be a very special person."

"Why do you say that?" he asked.

"I have heard about other men Oliver has been with. He's told me what happened, but only after. He calls me when the relationship has ended, but never during. So imagine my surprise when I get a phone call the day after your first date telling me all about this photographer with long dark hair and deep brown eyes who took him on a hike and made him climb a tree."

Aiden's face morphed into pure shock. "He called you after our first date?"

"He couldn't stop talking about you."

"I...I am shocked."

"I was too," Ava told him. She had a huge smile on her face. "He didn't tell the others though. He sent a text in our group message a few days ago asking if his boyfriend could come to dinner tonight. I got a lot of surprised phone calls that night."

"He must really care about me," Aiden muttered. He didn't understand the magnitude of what had been going on tonight.

He thought about what Ava had said. He called her after their first date. That first date where they had fallen over in the dark and taken silly photos of themselves up on that rock. He knew there was something different about what he and Oliver had right from the beginning, but now he knew that Oliver felt it too.