Confliction ; Joetrick

ten; of lack of bread and Meagan Camper

Patrick woke up when he heard the front door slam shut from downstairs, and the first emotion that rushed through his body was panic. All Patrick remembered after the shower was that both he and Joe went back to bed, and he must've fallen asleep.

He rolled over in his bed, eyes wide as he expected the worst, but he let out a huge sigh of relief as he realised Joe wasn't there. In his place was a small pink post-it note stuck to the pillow that read:

didn't have the heart to wake you up (you look really cute in your sleep) but i had to go :(
call me later, cutie

Patrick smiled as he read the note, pulling on some pants before stuffing the note in his back pocket. Just as he was pulling on his shirt, he heard Elisa call his name from downstairs, and he quickly made it look like he didn't just wake up after having sex with someone that wasn't his wife.

He looked into the mirror, and his mouth dropped when he saw his neck covered in purple marks. The horror, luckily, was only temporary, because he quickly remembered a solution to this problem. He was purely lucky that he had tried a thing with scarves last year and had several lying around, so he tried to drape one around his neck as casually as possible, without revealing any of the hickeys Joe had left there.

When he rushed downstairs to greet Elisa, he didn't expect her to look so confused when seeing him. "Hello to you too, then." Patrick didn't know what else to say, with his wife looking at him like that. As if she knew.

"Aren't you supposed to be at work right now?" She eventually said, still holding Declan in her arms. Patrick wanted to facepalm. He knew he had forgotten something, and now it could be totally obvious what he'd been doing.

If whatever happened between Patrick and Joe before counted as cheating, what happened today was some next level infidelity.

"Yeah, but I felt a little sick, so I stayed home." Patrick tried to stay as still as possible as he lied, trying not to give himself away with any lying ticks. Which seemed to work, as Elisa bought it and turned to place Declan in his chair, continuing to talk to Patrick as she searched the fridge for food.

"Well, hope you feel better soon then." She smiled up at him, pulling out a block of cheese, presumably to make Declan a cheese sandwich. He loved those. "Also, do you remember your friend? Joe?"

Patrick bit the inside of his cheek. "Yeah, the one at the Christmas party, right?" He sat down on the chair beside Declan's, ignoring the ache that reminded him all too well of Joe as he did so.

"Yes, that one. His daughter, Ruby, is good friends with Declan, so I invited them both over on Friday, is that okay?" She paused from making the sandwich to look at Patrick, who had to turn away so he could cover the look of unpleasant surprise on his face.

The last thing he wanted was Elisa and Joe to be in the same household at the same time. Last time that happened, Elisa nearly caught her husband kissing Joe underneath some mistletoe.

"Does he really need to come?" Patrick looked back and saw Elisa frown at this.

"Well, he is Ruby's only parent and he really should be there to keep an eye-- oh, don't tell me you've already ruined another friendship again?" She sighed as she realised what she thought was the truth. Which, in a way, it was, because he wouldn't exactly call whatever it is between himself and Joe 'friendship'​ anymore. That was a little ruined.

Before Patrick could even think up of an answer to that, Elisa let out a small frustrated sigh, and looked at Patrick with pleading eyes.

"We've ran out of bread."