I am not lonely [Mystrade]

CHAPTER 121 : An evening

"We are having a pint at the St George with the guys. Are you coming ?" Sally asked, popping her head into her boss's office.
"Mmm  ?" reacted the detective, switching his computer off and collecting his  stuff into his bag. "Pint ? No, sorry, I don't have time for that  today, but thanks anyway."
"Don't have time for a beer despite the  fact Alden is with your parents ? Oho ... Does that mean what I think it  means ?" grinned the young woman, leaning against the door frame.
"You've read too much of your soapy novels Sally ..." the policeman chuckled, closing his bag.
"If  you were to lie, try at least not to blush." his interlocutor laughed  before stepping aside to let him go through. "Well, goodnight then,  Casanova ..."
"Shut up !" Greg smirked before making his way to the lifts.
Of  course, Donovan was right. It was so unlikely for him to refuse a pint  with his team if he wasn't suppose to collect Alden at school that he  couldn't really deny it but he was still annoyed that someone more or less knew what he was up to for his evening because that means that they would want to know every thing about it the following morning.
Putting  those thoughts away, he entered his car and started the engine, already  late on the planning he had set for himself. He had to drop by the  florist and the confectioner before they closed and as he exited the car  park, he was crossing his fingers that the traffic wasn't too bad that  evening.
It wasn't the first time he was setting up a nice evening  for his partner but it was the first time he was doing it for no  peculiar reason other than to see a smile on the man's face and  he was feeling a little tense about the auburn's reaction, but still  not enough to prevent him from making it a surprise to the younger man.
Thankfully  he made it to all the shops he had to visit before the closure and  managed to balance the different items he had bought in his arms while  he was trying to push the Holmes's Mansion's front door. Michael helped  him dispose of the packages before being dismissed for the evening, not  able to hide a little smirk, knowing better than anyone what was going  to happen. After all those years of being at the elder Holmes's service,  it makes very little doubt to him that when one of the two men was  coming back with present, flowers or cakes and dismissed him for the  evening, it wasn't just because they didn't wanted to be disturbed during their game of cluedo, but as his position imposed him, he didn't made any comments and simply wished Greg a good night before retiring.
The  policeman tried to ignore the cook's smile, even if the fact that the  man knew that much about his private life with his partner was somehow  annoying him, and engaged himself with preparing all what was needed for  a nice evening, disposing the flowers he just had bought in three vases  in the living room and lightening a couple of blueberry-sentenced  candles. Then, knowing that the official wasn't to come home before at  least twenty minutes, he decided to left the cake in the fridge and made  his way upstairs to the bathroom, filling the tub with hot water and  bubble bath in order to get rid of the tiredness of the day and the  smell of his office, a mix between coffee, cold tobacco and bacon  sandwiches.
He grabbed his phone and consulted the texts he had  received in the past hours, only to find a couple of messages regarding  the investigation he was leading at the Yard and a text from his father  with an attached picture showing the fish Alden had apparently caught  when they had been fishing that afternoon. He quickly replied to it  before checking once more the last text Mycroft had sent him, just to  make sure he hadn't mistaken.
'Today is dull. At least I shall be  able to be home early. I'd say around 6.30. I love you, take care and  don't put yourself into trouble. -M'
It was twenty past six and the  detective still had to dress himself and to slice the cake so, grunting,  he exited his bath and grabbed a towel. He stood for quite a long time  in front of his closet, not knowing what to wear. He wasn't willing to  go for something too formal, after all it was just supposed to be a cosy  and lovely night at home, but he doubted that a tracksuit and T-shirt  would be enough either. Greg finally decided himself over beige, quite  fitting, pair of trousers and one of those ivory shirts Mycroft had  bought him at the very beginning of their relationship so  he could have something a little more fitting than his old M&S  white work shirts. He sprayed himself with a little of his St-Laurent  perfume and grabbed a pair of black trainers.
He had chose a perfect  lime pie, one of the auburn's favourite, and had even thought about  buying some whipped cream to indulge themselves with and when setting up  the plates, he was just hoping that the official wasn't too far from  home or the cake would get warm and loose all its taste.
6.40 The inspector wondered if it was still too early to send a text to the other man to ask him where he was. After all he was only ten minutes late on a schedule he had told him hours earlier.
6.50  Sighing, Greg decided to put back the plates in the fridge before the  cake start to melt and sat on the kitchen table, taking little sip of a  cold bottle of beer, glancing at his watch every 30 seconds.
At 7,  the policeman started to be really impatient and worried and decided to  send a text, even if he knew that it would probably give his surprise  away. 'What are you doing ? You said you were going to be at home at  6.30 ... -G'.
It took less than a minute before he received a reply,  which let him even more frustrated than he already was. 'Still at work.  Sorry. -M'
Of course, Gregory knew that this was something that could  happen, a last minute scandal that was to keep his husband at work and  it wasn't even the first time that one of their evening was to be ruin  by something like this but for a reason he couldn't explain, this time  it made him more angry than it ever had.
'Can't  you just do that tomorrow ? I want to spend the evening with you. G-'  he tipped back despite the voice in the back of his head telling him he  shouldn't.
'You know it doesn't work like that Gregory. I'm truly sorry but it might actually take me the all evening ... -M'
Again, of course the inspector knew that his lover should probably be the most annoyed of the two of them but he was now so pissed  off that he just shut off the voice in his head and tipped a new text. 'So why did you even give me hope that you would be home early ? -G'
The  bitterness was easy to guess behind the seemingly innocent words he had  sent and of course he knew that the elder Holmes would get it and  indeed, the next text he received was also underline in bitterness and  incomprehension. 'I didn't told  you I was going to be home early, I told you I THOUGHT I would be able  too. Apparently I was wrong. Why are you acting like it is the first  time something like that happen ? You know it's part of the job too ...  -M'
'It doesn't seem to bother you that much. -G'. A part of him knew  he had gone too far with this text, but the detective was unable to  calm down now that he had started.
'I don't know what game you are  playing Gregory but I'm not playing it with you. Yes it does annoy me  and I can understand it annoys you but it doesn't change anything to the  fact it has to be done and arguing over it won't help me finish this  task quicker. -M' The text was now full of cold anger and, if he hadn't  already been to his edge, the scolding tone used by the auburn just  pushed the yarder to his breaking point.
'I don't even know what I'm  still doing with a liar like you. God only knows where you could be. -G' As the policeman  was sadistically awaiting his boyfriend's answer to his last text, his  phone suddenly rang, Mycroft's number spread across the screen.
"What game are you playing Gregory ? What is this bullshit you are telling me ?" the elder Holmes roared, not sorry at all anymore, but angry and confused at the same time.
"You know exactly what I am saying !" retorted the yarder on the same tone. "Stop fucking lying to me !"
"Lying ? You are saying that I am a liar ?" the official nearly chocked. "When have I lied to you ? When have I fucking lied to you Gregory ?"
"I  don't even know why I've taken this call. You'll never going to change  !" the inspector retorted, not carrying if he wasn't making much sense.
"How do you expect me to change if you don't even answer my questions." the official remarked, his voice cold and bitter.
"Go to hell." snapped the older man before hanging up the call and throwing his phone away on the counter.
He was so angry that without even thinking about it he made his away to the bedroom their shared upstairs  and got hold of a small travel bag before starting to fill it with the  first clothes he could find. More he was staying here, more he thought  he didn't belong to this world. This had never been his and at that  moment he had the feeling to had been nothing else than just a boy toy  the auburn could dispose of when he was pleased with him and just let in  the corner when he had other things to play with and he was decided not to let that happen anymore.
Without  a last look to the room and exited it, grabbed his phone and his car  keys and made his way outside. He had no idea where he was to go but the  only thing he was sure of was that he wanted to be as far as possible  from this place and from this posh world that wasn't his. After all, he  was nothing more than a middle-class countryside boy and he shall never have been trapped into believing that all this luxury and poshness could once be his. Of course, he had been played with and he was angry with himself not to have been able to see that earlier.