Date Night (Peterick)

Chapter 5

"Thanks for making dinner, Joe. It's really good." I smiled at Joe as I ate the steak he cooked.

"It's not a problem Pete. I'm glad you like it." Joe took a bite of his food and smiled as he chewed. We looked at each other for a moment and looked away as it got awkward after the first three seconds. "So..." Joe said he as he cut at his steak.

"So." I mimicked.

"How do you feel about me, Pete?" Joe asked.

"I don't know, Joe." I avoided his eye contact by focusing on my food.

"Because you know I like you, and I just feel like we need to talk about this so it's not eating me away."

I took a moment to think about how I truly felt about him. Did I care about him? Yeah. Did I like having sex with him? Yeah. Did I see us having a real future together? No.

"I mean... I guess I do like you a little." I answered.

"So, do you want to go one a date maybe?" Joe suggested.

"Sure..." I said chewing my food, not knowing what to do. I don't want to hurt his feelings, and I don't know how to get out of it either, so I just went with it.

"Great! We can talk about the details later I guess. Let this heavy awkward air move away first."

"I can't wait." I chuckled fakely.

*     *     *     *     *

Our date was a classic dinner and movie. Done to death, I know, but this is Joe we are talking about. We sat at the table silently eating our food. We spent so much time together, there wasn't really much to say about each other.

"Did you see the Game of Thrones season finale?" Joe asked at an attempt to make conversation, but he already knew the answer.

"Yeah. I can't believe they did that to the dragon. He deserved better." I said.

"I know! The memes are brutal man."

"They really are. It's far too soon to be joking like that I think."

"Are you okay, Pete?" Joe asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I smiled at him. "I'm just a little sleepy is all" I just told a big fat fucking lie. I simply wasn't enjoying myself in the slightest.

"Well, maybe we could cut the date short and skip the movie, and go back to one of our places and go to bed." He gave me a wink at the end.

"Uhm, not on the first date." I joked, and in reality, I didn't want to sleep with him tonight at all.

"Oh, I see. Fair enough." He laughed before nibbling at his food a little bit.

Silence washed over once again and I started to look around the restaurant. I glanced over everyone's face, but stopping to see the details until I saw glasses and strawberry blond hair. The harder I looked across the restaurant, and I mean all the way the fuck across, the more I was convinced it was Patrick. I focused harder and harder on his face until it was the only thing I was paying attention to. It had been weeks since the last I saw him, but I'll never forget his face.

"Pete? Pete?" I heard Joe repeat my name in the back of my mind getting louder and louder.

"What's up?" I snapped my attention back to him and smiled.

"What were you looking at?"

"Just that painting over there." I pointed to a painting in the general direction I was looking.

"Oh. That doesn't surprise me. You always did focus hard on things like that. Always trying to figure out what it means, or at least what it means to you. Then what it could mean to everyone."

"Yeah, that's what I do." I fake smiled.

"So, what does it mean to you?" Joe asked.

"Hmm.." I turned my gaze to the painting so I could make up some bullshit on this dumb ass abstract painting. "Honestly? I have no fucking clue with this one." I laughed.

"Neither do I." Joe said laughing with me. My gaze was drawn back to Patrick in the midst of the laugh to find him going to the bathroom.

"Hey, I have to go take a massive piss. I'll be right back." I stood up and left the table before he could respond. I made my way to the bathroom and Patrick was there looking at himself in the mirror.

"Patrick?" I called his name. He looked at me and his eyes grew wide. He smiled and began to walk towards me. "How is it go-" my question was cut off with a kiss that made me realize what I was missing these past few weeks.

"I missed you." He said once he pulled away.

"I missed you too." I smiled. I pulled him into another kiss, one that never seemed to end, and I never wanted it to end.

"Wow. What a massive piss you're taking." I heard Joe's voice hit my ears. I pulled away from Patrick and looked at Joe, searching for the words to say, but came up with nothing. "It's fine. You don't have to say anything. I was stupid to think this could work out anyways." He said before turning around and walking out.

"Wanna go back to my place?" I asked Patrick.

"I would love to. Just let me ditch my date." He smiled, to which I smiled in return.

"I'm going to go pay, and I'll wait outside." I said, pulling away from him.

I waited outside for about 10 minutes, smoking a cigarette as I waited. Patrick finally emerged from the restaurant with a girl around his arms. How did I not see her earlier? I guess I was too focused on Patrick.

I felt my phone vibrate and saw it was a text from Joe.

You've always said that you were fucked up, but I didn't believe it until now. You are so fucked up Pete, Sherlock Holmes could not solve the issues going on in your head. I have never met anyone with such commitment issues, someone so emotionally unavailable. At least now you won't have to worry about me falling in love with you anymore, because I'm done with you.

His words stung. They confirmed only how I felt about myself, and that's what made them hurt. It's one thing to tell yourself those things, but the moment another living human being does it, it hurts a hell of a lot more.

"Hey Pete. Are you ready?" Patrick asked.

"Yeah, let's go." I smiled, grabbing his hand and walking him to my car.