Chapter 294

Darren felt fine.

“On the one and only note of seriousness for the day,” he announced as they reached the station entrance. He stopped, dislodging them both, and turned to Ethan, hand out. “Congratulations, Ethan.”

Ethan paused and something in his face shifted. He smiled and shook Darren’s hand. “Thanks, man.” He paused, then squeezed Darren’s caught hand before letting it go. “Thanks for being here as well, mate. Wouldn’t be right without you.”

Darren twitched his mouth in a smile, feeling oddly good but oddly embarrassed too, and Paul slung his arms around both of them. “Wouldn’t be right,” Paul announced, “if any of us were missing. So let’s get dolled up, get that music played, and get wasted.”

Ethan hailed a taxi, and Paul caught at Darren’s elbow.

“I meant it,” he said lowly. “I’ll match your drinking tonight. You look out for the groom there, and I’ll look out for you. Deal?”

Darren nodded. “Deal.”

“And I can send awful photos to your boyfriend!”

“Not a deal!”

* * * *

Rachel decided it was going to be a girls’ night in. Jayden wasn’t sure he appreciated the presumption that he was, therefore, a girl, but he did appreciate the Thai takeaway she ordered in bulk, the stack of DVDs that would have had Darren running out of the house screaming, and the insistence, the moment he got back from work, that he changed into his pyjamas, crack open a lager, and put his feet up.

“There’s no serious shite tonight!” Rachel sang up the stairs when he was chased away to change, and Jayden had actually laughed.

So here they were, feet up on the coffee table, watching Dogma(Rachel had a weird asexual crush thing—she called it a ‘squish’, God knew why—on Matt Damon, which Jayden personally found to be utterly unfathomable) and gnawing their way through generous helpings of panaeng curry, Pog curled up between their hips and purring contentedly.

Jayden felt kind of content too.

He had his laptop open on the arm of the sofa, Facebook on the screen, because Paul was uploading pictures from the stag do from his smartphone, and Jayden was watching out for Darren via that evidence. It had started out as concern, but Rachel had turned it into a bit of a game, and his worry was bleeding away as the evening wore on.

“So,” Rachel said as Alan Rickman dropped his trousers on the screen, “when are you going to this wedding?”

“Saturday morning. That’s when they actually get hitched.”

“And then you’ll romantically propose to Darren and outshine the happy couple?”

Jayden flushed. “Um, no.” Why was everyone insisting they get married?! Even Mum had mentioned it in her last phone call!

“Why not?” she wheedled. “You should get married. You can have gay weddings now, and that’d be really fun. You’d be the bride. You’d be a bride-zilla!”

Jayden didn’t know what that was, but decided he didn’t want to know either. “Well, we’re not getting married.”

“Shame,” Rachel said. “You will eventually.”

“Maybe we won’t.”

“You will. You realise you haven’t called him your boyfriend in ages? It’s partner now. You’re so married in your head.”

Jayden jolted, startled, when he realised she was kind of right. About the boyfriend thing, anyway. “We’re not married in my head,” he protested feebly.

“Uh-huh,” she said. “Anyway,” she rescued some rice from her jumper, “it’s nice now he’s doing better.”

“Yeah,” Jayden agreed quietly.

“He’s a right prick when he’s ill.”

“He’s a right prick in general,” Jayden said, and they giggled guiltily. “No, he’s not,” he admitted. “He’s lovely sometimes. Most of the time.”

“Most of the time with you. I’m just saying,” Rachel warded off his protest, “I’m glad he’s not a lawyer. He’d be a bitch in a courtroom.”

“He could have been, he’s smart enough. His father’s a lawyer.”

“I don’t doubt it,” she muttered and rolled her eyes. “I loved his brother when he came round. Met him for all of ten minutes, but oh my God, that family failed at raising normal douchebag posh kids.”

Jayden sniggered—because it was so, so true. Well, maybe. “Maybe his little sister turned out normal.”

“Or maybe not,” Rachel said snidely and grinned. “You have to get married so I can see these legendary parents.”

“I doubt they’d even come,” Jayden said, and when he thought hard about it…maybe they really wouldn’t. “They never even send cards. Christmas or birthdays. And apparently last time he spoke to his mother, she referred to me by the wrong name.”

Rachel giggled, then it turned into a laugh when a new picture popped up on Facebook, of Paul crushing Darren into a bad selfie with him. Paul was beaming that ridiculously huge smile of his; Darren was eyeing him dangerously out of the corner of his eye. “Oh God,” Rachel said, “Darren’s so going to pour that beer on his head.”

It was lager, Jayden estimated, and Darren looked slightly fuzzy-eyed, but not drunk yet. He fished his phone out of his pocket and sent a quick text. Glad to see you’re having fun :) xxx

The next picture, predictably, showed Paul drenched in some unnamed fluid. Darren had disappeared; perhaps he was taking the photo. They were in some bar, dark and busy, and Ethan’s blond mop was clearly visible amongst the sea of friends and colleagues. (And family, judging by one lookalike with the same goofy expression.) Several people were dressed like fairies, for some reason, with oversized tutus and glittery wings and all. Jayden laughed at the put-out expression on Paul’s face, and then Darren confirmed he had the phone by uploading another selfie with Ethan, both of them grinning like loons and looking a little worse for wear, but happy and open. Relaxed.