They had kissed before, but for some reason that last, quick kiss in the car had felt different. Louis kept playing through it in his head and putting a smile on his face. He didn't think he'd ever felt this ridiculous about a man before.
He still couldn't quite believe that David had agreed to go out with him.
Louis thought back to the night before, trying to discern if he’d pressured David into it. David had seemed willing—Goodnight, he'd said and then leaned over the center console to kiss Louis—but he’d also been drinking. Not a lot, he didn't think, but Louis was not a good judge of alcohol tolerance and David had definitely been more forward than he usual.
They needed to have another conversation when both of them were fully awake and sober. Louis needed to clear up that this was really what they both wanted or he'd never know peace.
He needed to tell him about the letter, too.
Louis hadn't meant to keep it to himself. It didn't seem like a big deal, really. It should have been something that could casually slip into a conversation and be laughed off. It was sweet, after all. At least, it was to Louis.
But in the months they’d spent together, David hadn’t so much as mentioned music, let alone that he wrote it. If Louis hadn't seen more than one image on his social media of David holding a guitar, he might have thought that David simply didn't play music anymore. Not only that, but Louis had seen him carrying around his notebook, too, and on the odd occasion that David started humming to himself, he stopped as soon as he realized he was doing it.
Louis wondered what his voice sounded like.
He couldn't really ask, though. He understood that it was a sore spot for David—at least where Louis was concerned—Jennifer had said as much. Louis wondered if he should apologize or if that would just make things more awkward. He hated the idea that he'd made David uncomfortable—maybe even hurt him. It felt like something he should make up to David, though he wasn't even sure how to approach the conversation let alone actually make it up to him.
Then there was Rosemarie.
Despite their don't ask, don't tell agreement, David was Rosemarie's friend, too, and not mentioning that he was dating him felt a little too close to deception.
Louis wasn't looking forward to the conversation, though. She wouldn't outright condemn it, but he knew she didn't actually approve of homosexuality, either as a whole or as it related to Louis, specifically. She didn't like the sensationalized queer lifestyle she perceived and she didn't understand Louis's attraction to other men. One of her most irritating traits, the one that caused the most tension in their relationship, was her refusal to try to understand or even accept ideas that shifted her paradigm.
It would not be a fun conversation.
And before he could do that, he needed to talk to David about talking to Rosemarie.
It hadn't even been twenty-four hours since filming ended, but Louis was already getting restless.
During filming, he hadn’t been happy, exactly, but he had been distracted. Now that he didn’t even have that to prepare for on Monday, he was having trouble focusing on anything productive. Instead, his mind was whirring from David to Rosemarie to Night Mist and then back again.
There was only one more season in his contract, but now he couldn’t even decide whether he should be signing again or leaving after that.
The hopeful part of him wondered if that would be enough time—if Rosemarie would start getting better and he’d need to stay for another season.
Realistically, though, she didn't have that much time. Not without the kind of miracle that Louis didn't believe in.
When he left Weldstone Harbor, he had given himself two years. Two years, had seemed like, if not enough, then at least a time he could cherish with his sister. He could be away from the coast and Weldstone Harbor for that long. He would spend every moment he could with Rosemarie and then he would go back to Weldstone and his real life.
Louis was not a selfless person, he knew what he wanted and he strove for it, regardless of the cost. But it was starting to feel like it wasn't just his decision anymore. He was starting to see how everyone else was tangled up in this decision, too. How David was tangled up in all of this.
They were professionals. David would understand the realities of a long-distance relationship being a possibility. And he had lived in Weldstone Harbor, too. But what if David asked him to stay?
It wasn't only David's life that would be impacted, either, but the entire cast and crew of Night Mist.
When Louis left, they would either have to re-cast his part, write him off the show, or at the very least rebrand it. Louis hadn't considered what a nightmare he was creating for everyone else. Rebranding might work out for David, though. He could take over the show. He loved it in a way that Louis just didn’t, after all.
Selfishly, Louis didn’t want that, either. Louis wanted David to come back to Weldstone Harbor with him. He was going to lose Rosemarie and there was nothing he could do about it. He didn’t want to lose David, too.
So much for his assurances that he was prepared for heartache. He didn't regret it, either, though.
Louis dropped his forehead to the steering wheel as he sat out front of the pharmacy, waiting for Rosemarie to finish running in to grab an ice cream cone. He had been warned multiple times by multiple people, but Louis had never been great at listening to good advice. No matter what happened, someone was going to get hurt.
And Louis didn’t even care. He just wanted... He just wanted.
“You drunk?” a sharp voice asked, rapping on the roof of the car.
Louis's head snapped up to see Jennifer Yang peering through the window at him. Louis straightened, feeling heat creeping up his neck.
“Leave him alone,” David’s instantly recognizable voice said from behind her. David came into view as Jennifer leaned against the hood. David leaned down through the window, a bright smile on his face. Louis's lips curved up in answer.
“She’s just bitter that I had a good time last night and she didn’t,” David said in a gleeful tone, giving him a wink. Louis raised an eyebrow. The other one followed suit when Jennifer glared at David in a most unamused way.
He was clearly missing some context, but wasn’t about to ask.
David leaned down on the open window so he could talk to Louis. “Why are you sitting here?”
“Waiting for Rosemarie,” Louis said, leaning back in his seat just to give himself a little more room to breathe.
David looked beautiful and golden in the sunlight, and Louis almost wanted to kiss him. He could, he thought. He didn’t think that Jennifer would mind. And it sounded like David had already told her, so he probably wouldn’t mind either.
“You made your sister go in while you waited in the car?” David said, sounding aghast.
Louis shrugged.
“She wanted ice cream,” he said. “I did not. This is a compromise.” They were parked just outside the door and Louis didn't bother trying to baby her—that was just a recipe for disaster.
David laughed. “Ice cream in the cold?”
“She’s peculiar like that. Besides, she says after living here for a couple years, you grow accustomed to cold.”
“I don’t know about that,” David said with a laugh.
“I certainly don’t intend to grow accustomed to it,” Louis said. “I hate the snow.”
“I have something for you, by the way,” David said softly, though there was something almost amused in his eyes. His smile said he was up to mischief, and Louis gave him a warning look.
Before he could ask what it was, David had leaned all the way through the window. Their lips met awkwardly at first, the kiss chaste. Louis hesitated for a split second before losing himself in the feeling. His hand came up to adjust the position of David's head, deepening the kiss before David could pull away. His fingers smoothed over David's ear and the hairs at the side of his head rasped against his finger tips. He smelled like something both heady and deep that Louis associated only with David.
Too soon, David pulled back, though he looked pleased.
“Just that,” David said.
Louis gave David a small smile feeling warm affection spread through his chest. Jennifer rolling her eyes at them through the windshield.
With a little jolt, Louis recognized a floral print figure walking toward them carrying a bag in one hand and an ice cream cone in the other. Louis had to wonder if it wasn’t retail therapy sustaining her and not chemo. She seemed to come home with a new knickknack or useless kitchen appliance every day.
He couldn’t quite make out her expression, but there was no way she hadn't seen them. He cursed his lack of forethought. This was not how he meant to break the news to Rosemarie, but it was a little too late for that now.
Louis's gaze must have caught David’s attention because he ducked out of the window and straightened up. His face lit up when he caught sight of Rosemarie, and he jogged over to her like an excited puppy, taking the bag she was carrying.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Whatever Rosemarie felt about the kiss seemed to be second to her fondness for David, because she smiled at him and offered him a lick of her ice cream.
“What are you doing here?” Rosemarie asked David as they approached. Louis got out of the car to open the trunk for her.
“We saw this most practical and fuel efficient vehicle in the parking lot and, figuring it is the only one of its kind in this place, we came to say hi.”
“That’s true,” Rosemarie said, not looking at Louis, “most people in Midtown consider a practical vehicle one that can get out of a snowdrift and pull a horse trailer."
“That sounds appropriate,” Jennifer said, eyeing the Prius as though her Mustang was a credible snow vehicle. “Does this even have four wheel drive? I’m Jennifer Yang, by the way.” She introduced herself when David and Louis failed to do so.
Rosemarie offered her hand to Jennifer with a smile. “Jennifer, I’ve heard so much about you from David. I’m Rosemarie, Louis's sister.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Jennifer said. Louis stared at her suspiciously. Her brusqueness was actually bordering on polite today. It made Louis wonder if she had an ulterior motive.
“Why don’t you two join us for lunch?” Rosemarie offered.
“We’ve just eaten,” David declined apologetically. "Would you like to join us for a movie later? Jennifer and I were going to go see Zombies of Alcatraz. It’s not about vampires, but Jennifer worked on the visual effects for it.”
“I didn’t work on it, my company did,” Jennifer corrected.
“You’re in visual effects?” Rosemarie asked.
“Special effects, actually, but David, apparently, knows nothing about the film industry,” she said glaring over at her friend who just smirked at her.
“What do you think? Up for a movie?” Rosemarie turned to him. She didn't seem too upset and she did look genuinely interested in going to the movie.
Louis nodded, trying to figure out how to interact with this particular group of people.
“A movie sounds... entertaining,” he said.
“Don’t sound so enthusiastic, it doesn't fit your image,” David said dryly, elbowing him in the ribs. Louis casually bumped his shoulder hard enough that David stumbled and laughed.
“I don’t really like movies,” he said.
“Of course you don’t,” David said gleefully. “But will you go with us anyway? Otherwise, I’m stealing Rosemarie because she shows the proper level of enthusiasm.”
“Not on any normal scale,” Louis groused.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” David said, before giving Rosemarie a kiss on the cheek and Louis a slug on the shoulder and returning to Jennifer’s car.
This was not how he had seen his day going and he wasn't quite sure how he had ended up in a position to where he was about to be stuck with Jennifer, Rosemarie, and David. All at once. In a dark theater, where Louis was almost positive the only thing he’d be thinking about was the way David tasted and the warmth of his skin in the autumn air.
*****
“We were not about to go see Zombies of Alcatraz,” Jennifer said as soon as they got in the car.
David shrugged guiltily and gave her a pleading look. “I had to think of something quickly before they got way!”
“You have Louis's number, you could have just texted him to come over,” she said. “That’s a perfectly acceptable thing to do when you are dating.”
David shrunk into his seat. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be alone with Louis. But, well, he was nervous. He wasn't exactly sure what Louis expected of him now. With Jennifer and Rosemarie there, nothing too intimate could happen.
“I wanted to invite Rosemarie, too,” David said lamely.
Jennifer gave him a flatly disbelieving look. “Really? You’re afraid of being alone with Louis, now?” she said. “You are such a loser sometimes. You just fucking kissed him in the middle of the parking lot. What’s there to be shy about now?”
“Well, that was impulsive,” David said. “I wasn’t thinking. Now, I am. And now I’m realizing that I have no idea how to date. Jennifer, how do you date?”
“I don’t. I think dating is a waste of time.”
“Okay, but if you did date, how would you do it?”
“I wouldn’t.”
“If you were me, and you did date, and you were dating Louis, then how would you date Louis?” he asked. “If you were me, hypothetically.”
“Then I would just do whatever it is that you two enjoy doing. Starting out with not inviting your friend and his sister along for the date."
David groaned.
"You’re overthinking this, David. You’ve spent more time with Louis since you got here than you have with me!”
“That’s not true! Or, it’s only true if you count work hours. I am very equitable with my time,” David protested.
“You are not at all equitable with your time,” Jennifer said, jabbing him in the arm with a sharp claw. “Not that I mind. I just don’t like to see you deluding yourself.”
“Sure you don’t,” David said. “Really, though, what do I do about Louis?”
“First, I have to make sure because you are very naive and gullible, is this what you want?”
David sighed. “Why does everyone keep asking me that?”
“Because you are very naive and gullible, weren’t you listening?” Jennifer said. “Is it what you want?”
“Yes, it’s what I want. Probably. I want to try,” David said. “I like kissing him.”
“Good to know,” Jennifer said, making a face that said it was very much not good to know.
“I still don’t know what to do,” David prompted.
“You need to relax and be normal,” she said. “From what you’ve said, Louis seems to understand. I’m not sure why you’re still worried about it.”
David fidgeted in his seat. “Because understanding and actually knowing are different things. I’m not sure that Louis really does know and I don’t want to disappoint him.”
“Why does it matter if you disappoint him?” Jennifer demanded.
“He’s my friend,” David said, offended that she thought he could be so callous.
“It didn’t matter when it was me,” she pointed out.
David opened his mouth and then closed it again. “We were fourteen.”
“Are you saying you had more courage at fourteen than you do at twenty three?”
“I might have, yes,” David said, then actually paused to think about it. “Ugh. No. That’s not it, either.”
“You weren’t afraid of losing me, were you?”
That actually made a lot of sense. “You were already my best friend. We’d been together for ages. It didn’t even occur to me that it might change if I asked you out. And it didn’t. Besides, our mothers would have forced us together again anyway. There was nothing to worry about.”
“You’re afraid of losing him, though?” she asked.
David nodded slowly. That was true. He wasn't sure it was everything, but it was a big part of everything.
Jennifer rolled her eyes. “Only you would be more worried to date someone because you love them.”
“I don’t love him,” David said immediately. He was starting to feel claustrophobic in the car and had to resist the urge to roll down the window and ruin Jennifer's hair. “No, I do love him, but not love love him. I love him like a friend love him.”
“Like a friend that you like kissing,” Jennifer said, emphasizing the last word with a sharp bob of her head.
David opened his mouth and shut it again. “Like that, yes,” David said.
“Davie," Jennifer said, sounding a lot more patient than usual. "Far be it for me to tell you how you feel, but it certainly sounds like what you have with Louis—let alone what you want with Louis—is not the same as what you have with me, now or then.”
David looked at her for a moment in disbelief. Jennifer snorted at his expression when she glanced over but didn’t push the subject further.
“Look up the movie time and let Louis know, then,” Jennifer said. “But I’m sneaking out half way through and ditching all of you because I have a prior engagement.”
“That’s mean.”
“That’s what happens when you don't arrange dates properly. Besides, that way you can drive home with your date—and his sister, because you are infuriatingly dense.”
“Fine. How does 3:30 sound?”
*****
Jennifer had not been lying about ditching him. David shouldn't have doubted her, but he was still somehow surprised when she squeezed past them half way through the movie, whispering something into Louis's ear before leaving the auditorium.
Rosemarie gave him a worried look, but David just shrugged hoping that his wasn’t putting Louis and Rosemarie out too much. He should get a car. Especially if he was going to be here for another season. Maybe he could borrow Jennifer’s.
No, actually, he didn’t want to do that. If he so much as scratched it, he was pretty sure she’d kill him.
Maybe he'd just learn to hitchhike.
Louis leaned over the armrest between them and whispered, “You mind coming back with us? Jennifer said she got a work 911.”
“She’s lying,” David hissed back.
Louis smile was knowing and he nodded. “I figured. What could she possibly have to do now that filming is over, but we weren’t doing anything after. I’m sure Rosemarie won’t mind.”
“You don’t have plans?” David asked, wanting to make sure.
Someone behind them shushed them loudly and David fell silent. Louis glared back at them, but didn’t say anything. He did, however, reach over and give David’s knee a quick squeeze. David’s face heated and his heart raced as he glanced surreptitiously at Rosemarie to see if she had noticed. Thankfully, her eyes were glued to the screen. It seemed that zombies were up her alley, too.
He wondered, suddenly, how much Rosemarie knew about him and Louis. Had Louis told her? It hadn't really occurred to him before now, but he thought that Louis had said that they didn't really talk about his relationships. What if she was upset that David was dating Louis? Maybe she would have rather he stayed friends with him instead of being something more.
If this didn’t work out, would he still be able to keep his promise?
The movie ended without anything too dramatic happening—outside of the film that was. The film ended with a zombie explosion of epic proportions that took out half of California. David offered to take them to dinner, but Rosemarie begged out, saying she was far too tired. She didn’t look tired, but David wasn’t about to argue with her on that point.
“If you need to get going, you can drop me back at the B&B?” David said, hating that it came out more like a question than a statement. Part of him really wanted Louis to tell him that he'd drop Rosemarie off instead, so they could go out to dinner, but part of him also was terrified he'd say exactly that.
"We could—" Louis began and he knew exactly where that sentence was going.
"I'm sorry to make you drive me," David cut in, glancing from Louis to Rosemarie. "I feel bad. We're closer to the B&B anyway, so you can drop me off on your way. Thanks for spending the afternoon with me."
“Yeah, all right,” Louis said, though David thought he looked a little upset.
"It's no trouble," Rosemarie said, frowning between them. She didn't offer any alternatives, though, and David had never been so thankful for the radio as his ability to converse seemed to have deserted him in the face of Rosemarie's potential disapproval of his relationship with Louis and Louis's general Louis-ness.
By the time they were back outside the B&B, David was pretty sure he was going to suffocate from the tension in the air. He barely managed a smile and a goodbye before he was out the door and up the stairs to his room.
He hadn't thought things would be weird after agreeing to go out with Louis. And they hadn't been that afternoon! Why had it all suddenly gotten weird now?
Maybe Jennifer was right and he should have actually called Louis to have a conversation, a date, even, before bringing him along to... whatever that afternoon was. With his sister. If you counted Jennifer as David's sister—which she practically was—it was basically with both of their sisters. It was like they were being chaperoned.
That must have been the lamest date in the history of dates. Louis must be regretting this whole thing.
David collapsed down on the bed and buried his face in the pillow. He was a loser and also a dick. A complete and utter dick.
Louis hadn’t done anything wrong and David was pretty sure that he had upset him today, even hurt him.
He was a coward. He should have gone to dinner with Louis. He wanted to go to dinner with Louis. But he was also afraid to go to dinner with Louis. Should he have agreed anyway? But in front of Rosemarie? Did she even know? Was it weird that he didn't, even as a friend? What if that wasn't even what Louis had been about to say?
It was a mess. David was a mess.
Sure, he had warned Louis that this would happen, but it wasn’t really Louis's fault that he didn’t understand just how broken David was when it came to love and romance and being a human in general. Jennifer was the only one who seemed to be able to stand David’s ineptitudes for long periods of time.
Grabbing blindly for his phone, David mumbled for it to dial Jennifer.
It rang once before she picked up. She didn’t even greet him before asking what he’d done.
“I think I messed it up already,” he said.
“You've been alone for," there was a pause, "an hour and a half. And most of that was in the theater. What did you do, dump your green tea in his lap?"
"Possibly worse," David said. "I panicked."
Jennifer sighed and David explained the situation to her.
"Have you even talked to him yet? I don't mean about this, I mean about everything. And I mean without anyone chaperoning you, too.”
David made a noncommittal noise. “We talked last night."
“No, I mean today. I'm not the one you should be talking to about your relationship. You’re both adults so grow up, take your man on a date, and see where it goes.”
With that, Jennifer hung up. David glared at the phone. He knew she was right, he even navigated down his contact list to Louis's name. His thumb, though, didn’t seem to want to hit send.
David dropped the phone on the pillow next to him and stared at it, willing it to call Louis for him.