The Will of Love and Life (Peterick)

Chapter Seventeen

October 03, 2016

Patrick was typing a will draft when Joe snuck into his office. Patrick heard the door open. Joe wasn't very good at sneaking around, but he didn't even glance the divorce attorney's way. He hoped that ignoring him would make him go away, but that worked to no avail.

Joe set a blue gift bag on Patrick's keyboard, and the estate lawyer's eyes finally flickered up to look at him.

"Why is there a bag on my keyboard?" Patrick asked, unimpressed. He was incredibly busy and wanted no part in Joe's scheme.

Joe sighed and sat down on the edge of the seat in front of Patrick's desk. "Just open it," Joe said, loosening his tie. "Trust me, you'll like it."

"Okay." Patrick glanced at the bag, then back over to Joe. "What is it?"

"Your extremely late birthday present. Or, better yet, extremely early one."

"Since when did you ever get me anything for my birthday?"

"Just open the damn thing."

"Is this a prank?" Patrick asked, hesitantly reaching out to lift the bag from the keyboard and setting it in his lap. "Is it going to explode or something so you can laugh at me?"

"If I wanted something to blow up in your face, I would give it to you in public," Joe said. "Now open it. I promise you'll love it, Patrick."

Patrick carefully moved the white tissue paper out of the way, still slightly wary of what could be inside. So he was slightly confused when he saw a wooden picture frame. He glanced up at Joe, who rolled his eyes.

"This is the part where you take it out of the bag," Joe hinted, prompting an annoyed eye-roll and scoff from the sassiest lawyer in Chicago.

Patrick took the frame from the bag, and his blue eyes widened when he saw the picture it held.

"It only took me so long to get it to you because I didn't know how big to make it. Or how to print it out. I had Sarah do it, actually."

"How did you get this?" he asked, staring at the picture reflection of Pete's dark brown eyes.

"I ripped it from Instagram, but this was my mom's idea. We figured that maybe if you had a picture of you and your pretty boyfriend on your desk, you'd be less irritable during the day. But if you don't like it, blame her entirely."

"I know he's pretty, you don't have to reiterate it," Patrick muttered. And with Patrick next to him in the picture, he looked even prettier, because Patrick considered Pete to be completely out of his league. "He's way too pretty to like me."

"There's a reason I picked that one, you know."

"Why?"

"Don't you see the way he looks at you?"

Patrick shrugged and looked back down at the picture. It was taken in front of the fence they were always leaning back on, with Pete cuddled into Patrick's right side. Patrick had light red lipstick smeared on his cheek from where Pete kissed him, and you could barely notice it on Pete's lips. Pete was looking more at Patrick than at the camera, even though he was the one with the arm outstretched to take a picture. Patrick was smiling, a slight blush on his cheeks. Pete looked happy, and he had the biggest smile on his face just from looking at him.

"He looks at you like you're his entire world. You need a reminder of that every day: that you make him happy, and he makes you happy."

Patrick ran his knuckle down the picture of Pete's face on the other side of the glass.