Ross didn’t see Tom for a few days. He had some crazy shifts at the hospital, and Tom himself was pretty busy; some important case was coming up, and Adam was relying on him to get all of the information.

But then a weekend came up, and he knew that Adam tried not to give any work over the weekends if he could help it, so he called Tom up and asked if he wanted to go to Joe’s.

He figured that would be nice and low key. Tom could chat with the guys and get to know them better, and Ross could catch up and see everybody again. Just hanging out at a bar, that was good and relaxed, casual, nothing serious.

Of course, they’d be surrounded by couples the entire time. At this point only Preston was still single—oh, and Brad, Hank’s former roommate before Hank moved in with Eric, but Ross didn’t know Brad all that well, and he didn’t come to the bar much.

Point was, they’d be surrounded by couples. And it might otherwise have put Ross off the idea. He didn’t want Tom to get antsy and think that this was some kind of passive-aggressive nudge or anything. But while it was clear that all four—no, damn, five—couples loved each other, they were never annoying or cloying about being all romantic and stuff like that.

In fact, the most public display of affection Ross had ever seen was Matthew with his arm around Jake, or Travis with his arm around Lance. But then, Travis had been putting his arm on Lance’s shoulders since long before they’d been a couple.

Ross didn’t think it would be a problem, or even something that Tom would notice. Ross had never noticed or felt like he was the odd man out when he’d gone to Joe’s just on his own. And there were always plenty of other people around.

Bill and Nancy, for one, who were best friends and had been coming to the place since Luke’s dad was in charge. There were the construction crews who were working the area constantly because of all the urban development, and the other guys they’d gone to high school with.

It was a lively place, Joe’s, so that helped save it from feeling too much like he was dragging Tom to some big couples night.

Tom had agreed eagerly, and then gotten embarrassed about how eager he sounded. Ross couldn’t help but find Tom’s nerves adorable. He was a paralegal who dealt in difficult cases, for crying out loud. Yet outside of a courtroom setting, Tom seemed hopelessly dorky.

It was probably why he immersed himself so much in his work and didn’t let loose—he felt like he was embarrassing himself whenever he did try and relax.

The day of, Ross found himself feeling uncharacteristically nervous. He knew, realistically, that there was nothing to worry about. Part of why his relationship with Jeremy had become such a problem, and why it had gone on for so long unchecked, was that he’d been doing the whole thing alone.

He’d never introduced Jeremy to Luke, or any of the guys from the bar. He had no other friends to really speak of. He’d had nobody’s outside opinion to get. Nobody to warn him, hey, this guy’s bad news, this relationship doesn’t seem healthy, I don’t like how he treats you.

He’d only had his own skewed perception of things to go on.

This time, he was bringing Tom in right away with everyone else. Tom already had Adam’s endorsement. Ross was going to take things as slow as possible, keep them casual.

This time, he was going to do things right.

He got off work around the time most people were thinking of getting lunch, so he crashed at his apartment for a few hours of sleep before he went and picked Tom up from work.

“Sorry you have to put up with this,” Tom said, gesturing at his leg. It would be a few more weeks before the cast could come off.

Ross had a few ideas of what they could do to each other in the meantime.

“Don’t worry about it.” He still felt a small pang of guilt when he looked at Tom’s leg, or watched how he handled the crutches. “What did the doctor say?”

“She said it’s healing nicely and that you did a good job.” Tom shot him a shy smile.

“Good. And it’s going to keep healing nicely, because you’re going to look after it.”

“Wow, it’s almost like you’re a doctor or something.”

“I’d say it even if I wasn’t a doctor. The more gently you treat it now, the faster it’ll heal, and the sooner you can take that thing off.”

“You just want to be able to get me on my knees again.”

Ross scoffed, opening the car door for him. “I promise you, it’s also so that I can get your legs over my shoulders again.”

Tom laughed, and let Ross help him get into the seat. Ross tried not to just automatically do things for Tom. If paying that medical bill had taught Ross anything about Tom, it was that Tom valued his independence. And Ross knew that if their positions were reversed, he wouldn’t exactly want someone to be helping him with every little thing he did. It was just his leg; it wasn’t like his entire body was in a cast.

Ross hopped into his seat and started up the engine. “You good to go? Do we need to stop by your place first?”

“Nah, I’m good.”

“Alright then.” Ross pulled out into traffic. He knew the way to Joe’s by heart now.

“Rumor has it that Davis has some news,” Tom said. “I overheard Adam talking to Luke on the phone earlier.”

“Paul can’t possibly have proposed,” Ross replied. “I know he’s a bit competitive, but he’s not that competitive.”

Tom snorted. “I mean, I don’t know Paul all that well, but from what I heard from him the night we met, he’s not looking to rush into things.”

“Yeah. Davis is surprisingly okay with it, though. I think he and Lance had a long talk about it. Paul spoils him fucking rotten with romantic gestures, so I think that’s really all that Davis needs for now—knowing that Paul’s paying attention to him and still putting effort into the relationship.”

“That’s nice.”

“Oh, trust me, it’s a miracle. Davis has been obsessed with romance and that big happily ever after since we were kids. I’d already moved, so I wasn’t there for it in person, but I heard about how Luke broke his heart sophomore year of high school. Big drama at the time.”

Tom laughed. “I never had any of that kind of drama. I mean, I did, I heard about it, but I was a wallflower growing up. I didn’t have a close-knit group of friends.”

“I didn’t either, once I moved to the city. There wasn’t all of this in-fill then, and it was a long drive, so I hardly saw anybody. But we managed to keep in touch enough. I was way too busy with school and aiming to become a doctor to really have time for friends, anyway. Although now that I’ve said it out loud, that sounds totally pretentious.”

“You don’t sound pretentious,” Tom replied. “You sound driven. I didn’t have a lot of friends either, and I didn’t know what I was doing with my life. At least you had a plan; you knew where you were headed.”

“I don’t know if it was the best thing, though,” Ross admitted. Man, this conversation was taking a serious turn. “I didn’t learn how to always deal with people. You can get taken advantage of or screwed over.”

“Yeah, but even social butterflies can have that happen to them. Davis is super social, and I’ve heard plenty of stories about him.”

“Well, okay, but Davis kind of brought it on himself a lot; he would jump the gun and start thinking way too far into the future, way too quickly.”

“But Paul understood that. Shitty people are going to be shitty people, whether someone’s a wallflower or not. Now you’re a surgeon, you’ve got your dream job, and you’ve got cash to burn. I’d say that’s a success. You shouldn’t put it down.”

Ross smirked. “Fair enough, I suppose.”

Time to move the subject onto less stressful things. “I don’t think Paul will have proposed. Maybe Davis got a promotion? He works as a customer service person or something.”

“Maybe. And I think if Paul were to propose, everyone would know about it by now, if Davis is as romantic as you say. Paul would need advice, maybe get some help, do something really big and splashy.”

“True, true. I hear Jake just put a ring on top of a cupcake he made for Matthew.”

“That’s sweet,” Tom said. “I wouldn’t call myself a romantic, but that sounds simple and nice.”

“Well, that’s how Matthew and Jake started dating, Matthew would send Jake cupcakes. Jake would give them to other people at first, because Jake’s a sourpuss who didn’t trust Matthew’s intentions, but Matthew just kept at it. Now it’s their thing.”

“Their thing?” Tom asked.

“You know, how all couples have a ‘thing,’ a little signature sort of gift or inside joke or whatever that’s just them?”

Tom shook his head. “Nope. I mean, supposedly there’s the whole ‘our song’ thing, but that’s not the same.”

“Well, okay.” Ross thought of the couples he knew. “Travis always puts his arm around Lance when they’re together. He was doing that even before they dated. That close physical contact, even if they’re having two completely separate conversations, that’s their thing.”

“Huh. And fixing me up after I break a bone, is that our thing?”

Ross laughed. “Please don’t go around breaking your bones regularly.”

Tom grinned at him. “Can’t make any promises.”

Ross tried to avoid thinking about the way that his chest warmed at the thought of them having a thing. Because if they had a thing, that meant that they were a thing. An item. A couple. And he didn’t want that—or he hadn’t wanted that, anyway.

But now, when he told himself that it wasn’t something he wanted, that it was too much work, that it was a trap … it felt hollow for the first time since Jeremy. Wrong. A lie.

He couldn’t afford to feel anything for Tom. Not that Tom wasn’t a great guy in many other respects. But Tom was definitely too busy for a relationship. His reluctance when Ross had brought up the idea had been proof enough of that.

And if casually having a sort-of relationship thing was enough to make him nervous about a coworker taking it the wrong way, and going to the board and making a big mess of things, how much of a bigger mess would it be if they were officially dating? Holding hands and going out to lunch all the time and things like that?

Although of course, stupidly, the idea of going out to lunch and holding hands was sounding appealing. God, when had he become a sap?

Probably around the time he’d realized how easy it was to just be with Tom.

Being with Jeremy hadn’t been easy. It had felt like a workout. He couldn’t say or do the wrong thing or suddenly he was being iced out, or condescended to, or yelled at, or—he didn’t even know. That had been one of the worst parts, not knowing what Jeremy was going to throw at him.

But here they were, chatting in the car, about friends, joking about romance, discussing food and music and the local news, and it was all just so easy. Like being with any of the guys at Joe’s, except, well, he didn’t want to fuck Hank or Travis.

Just don’t do anything, he thought to himself. If he didn’t do anything about it, talk about it, it would all blow over and go away. It was infatuation, that was all.

Tom was someone shiny and new, and someone he’d just slept with. He’d always made sure to keep away from any possible meeting with a one night stand after it was over. This was the first time he was still hanging around one.

Once he spent enough time around Tom, that infatuation would go away. It would all be normal again.

Maybe he was a coward for thinking it, but he wasn’t sure if he could risk his heart again.