Road To Happiness ✔

TWENTY-TWO

School would start up again in a couple more days and all three of them were dreading it. Hugo, not so much. He found that he actually enjoyed his classes. The only thing that made him nervous was having to attend the writing events his lecturer had emailed him during the break. But he'd have Renee or Stefan there with him to translate.

He was out with them again, the third time since he moved into his new home. He would have thought he'd be spending more time in his apartment, but he wasn't complaining too much. He was just glad they still wanted to spend time with him after the mistakes he made when he was drunk. He hadn't had a sip of alcohol since then, too scared that he would repeat his past mistakes.

Bowling, while Renee and Stefan were great at it, was not his strong suit, and he was losing by a mile. Renee and Stefan weren't even bothering to count him their little race for whoever would come first because he was so far behind, but Hugo didn't mind. He bowled the ball, laughed at his failure and watched the friendly banter between the pair.

All three times he had seen Renee since he had moved in, she'd given him knowing looks that made him want to push her away. It always made him blush and he hated it, especially when Stefan noticed and asked him what was wrong. Every time Stefan stood to take his turn, Renee would shoot him a look.

"Would you stop that?" he asked at the beginning of their second game.

Renee laughed at him. "No, it's too funny. You're cute," she replied and then sighed. "I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet, not properly anyway. I brought it up once and he just fobbed me off."

Hugo didn't have a chance to ask what that meant. Stefan walked back over, a smug grin on his face and eyed the pair of them. "What's so funny?" he asked.

"Hugo's inability to bowl," Renee replied instantly, as if she didn't have to think about it. She nudged him to stand and it was then that he realised it was his turn.

"I could teach you a thing or two, you know," Stefan suggested. Hugo's cheeks turned red at the nonchalance on his face and voice, but he nodded nonetheless.

With the ball in hand, he stood in front of the aisle, listening to Stefan's instructions with as much attention as he could muster. He fought off the blush as hard as he could when Stefan helped him stand in the right position, his fingers grazing the bare skin of his arms. He hit a little over half the pins when the other man finally let him go, but it was better than he'd done during the last game.

Renee was laughing on the couch behind them, little giggles that did nothing to help his nerves. He could have turned and blurted the words out the Stefan then if Renee hadn't been there and especially if she hadn't been laughing. It only made him embarrassed and far too anxious to do something about what he felt for Stefan.

He barely signed a word for the rest of the day, but the other two didn't mind. They spent most of the rest of the day bagging each other out for their bowling skills. At least, it made Hugo laugh harder than he had in a while.

The day university classes started back up again, Hugo was slammed with work. He helped Renee go through the notes and he got an email from Tomas about editing his book. They'd been talking a little before classes started up about what the book was about and everything else Hugo needed to know. He'd get the book later that night when Tomas got off work.

He'd even been able to set up the beginnings of his own freelance editing business. He was working mostly through social media and it would take a while before things really got moving. Editing Tomas's book would be able to help with that, he hoped.

His home was silent and empty as he attempted to save the dinner he'd tried cooking. He looked away for a second and what was meant to be pasta sauce was completely burned and inedible. He'd been messaging Stefan, which was a bad idea in hindsight, but there wasn't much he could do about it now.