The cross pieces were too short again.

Teddy threw the wood down on the table and raked his hands through his hair, the gritty feel of wood shavings against his scalp just another irritation in a day that just couldn't seem to go right. Yanking the design sheet out from under the rock serving as a paperweight, he glared at the measurements.

The bed frame he was working on lay in pieces around the shop, the headboard glowing in the light from the window. He reclaimed the wood from a historical building in San Antonio and had it transported. There was extensive water damage on the wood, and carving useful pieces out of it had been an interesting challenge.

He picked up his pencil to redo the calculations again, only for the lead to break off with a snap, leaving a deep, black gouge in the paper. Staring at the spot, he took two deep breaths and flung the pencil across the room.

It stuck with a cheerful twang into the corkboard placed there for that exact purpose. Decades of frustrations had worn the surface in a snowflake pattern around the center, a fractal of emotion his grandfather had refused to let anyone replace or repair.

Stomping across the floor to retrieve his pencil, Teddy glared at his phone as he passed it. He didn't need anyone's advice, he reminded himself. Everything was fine. Carlos had to be at work early, had classes, had to study. There were a hundred reasons the omega would have left before Teddy woke up.

He twirled the pencil in his fingers and growled under his breath. Except it was obvious Carlos hadn't even stayed long enough to get the scent of Omega Angel on the pillows.

It wasn't that big of a deal, though. He'd just make sure to let him know he was welcome to stay if he wanted, next time.

If there was a next time. Carlos hadn't called.

It hadn't even been twenty-four hours. Was he that freaked out about this?

Yes.

Teddy groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose to ward off the headache that had been threatening him since he'd woken up alone, the sheets cold and stinking of stale sex. He needed advice.

As if conjured by his thoughts, his phone began ringing, practically vibrating off the table.

"Oh, thank God," he muttered, grabbing it up with one hand. "I need help," he said as he thumbed the call on.

"Theodore William Connelly! What did I tell you about stressing your grandmother?"

Tipping his head back to stare at the ceiling, Teddy counted to ten. "Hi, Mom," he said through gritted teeth, a muscle in his jaw twinging.

"Nana is in very delicate health," she snapped. "We made that very clear when we told you that you couldn't stay with her on your little holiday."

Teddy propped his hip against the table, swallowing the urge to remind her again this was his job. He leaned down to look out the window where Nana was rearranging her cast iron patio furniture. He offered to help twice and been swatted about the ears with her fan for his trouble. She was currently holding one chair out in front of her thoughtfully, not a hint of strain in her slender arms.

He tried not to watch for too long because it made him uncomfortable to let her do it by herself. Also, he was pretty sure she broke the laws of physics once or twice.

"I'm just using Granddad's shop," he said.

She sucked in a breath, and he pulled the phone away from his ear just in time for her shrill shout. "So you're putting a...a hobby over your grandmother's health?" She had that squeak in her voice that said she was just getting started.

Setting the phone down, Teddy went back to looking over the bed plans again.

"How ungrateful can you get? That woman worked her fingers to the bone so that this family would never have to suffer, and you are taking advantage of her for your own selfish gain," his mother shouted.

Teddy rolled his eyes. Here it came.

"You're just using this chance to manipulate Nana into giving you a larger share of her will," she hissed.

"No, Mom," he muttered, confident she couldn't hear him. "That's what Declan does." His parents doted on his angelic younger brother, happy to look the other way when it came to the teenager's many, many flaws. It was a common thing, he was finding. Chloe Caldwell was the same way about her husband and son.

"You listen to me, Theodore," she continued. "Your father will be hearing about this, and he is not going to be happy. You had better not step another foot out of line before Christmas, do you understand me?"

As tempting as it was to ask "or what," Teddy swallowed it down. He was spared the necessity of coming up with any reply at all by his mother hanging up on him in a huff.

He stared unseeing at the papers in front of him for a long time, the silence pounding in his ears. It wasn't that he didn't love his family, but very rarely did he like them anymore. It had been different when Granddad had been alive. A jolly Santa Claus of a man, he'd made people playful and happy whether they wanted it or not.

Nana had less patience and more sarcasm, and while she kept the family in line, she couldn't smooth away the rough edges like he had. Teddy didn't mind it, but sometimes he missed the days when they had impromptu snowball fights or Easter egg hunts in September.

Snatching his phone off the table, he forced himself to put those thoughts aside. They didn't get him anywhere. There was nothing he could do about his family.

"I need help, and Cody's still on radio silence. —Teddy"

In the minute and a half it took for his phone to start ringing again, he debated if this was the best idea he ever had or the worst.

"You realize that calling me for advice is probably a terrible idea," Kurt said as soon as Teddy picked up the phone.

"Apparently, I'm desperate," he said dryly, doodling a chest to match the bed on one corner of the page.

"Funny. Is this about the engineering student?"

"His name is Carlos," Teddy said, glancing out the window again. Nana finished with the patio and gone back inside, the top of her hair just visible over the back of the living room couch. "I think we had a one-night-stand."

Kurt paused to think about that for a few minutes. "You think it was a one night only thing, or you're not sure if you had sex."

"Oh, fuck you." Teddy laughed, some of the tension draining out of his shoulders. "I know what sex is, you asshole."

"Please don't elaborate," Kurt said. "So you like this guy enough to want it to be more, and you're not sure he does? Was the sex any good?" In the background, something clattered to the floor and a host of feminine voices started shouting. "Shit. One second. Jesus, stop with the hair-pulling."

He couldn't help himself, he laughed long and hard as he listened to Kurt play referee for his too many sisters. When he was a kid, he hated his laugh. It always led to teasing, the way he brayed and honked like a donkey. He'd gotten old enough not to care anymore, but it wasn't something he let himself do often. He'd laughed more in the last few weeks than he had in years.

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up, buddy," Kurt said a few moments later, a door shutting with a firm click as he spoke. "So before Venice knocked orange juice into the pile of wedding stuff, what were we talking about? Right. Sex. Was it that terrible?"

"No!" His ears burning, Teddy pressed the phone closer. "The sex was fine."

"Fine."

"Great. It was great. Perfect." Teddy rubbed his temple. "It was the best sex I've ever had. I'm not supposed to elaborate, remember?"

Kurt chuckled. "Right. Please don't. I've got another date with one of those finishing school girls today. Mom is sending Lucia along as a chaperone."

"You could just tell her that you're gay."

"You first," Kurt muttered. "Anyway, we're talking about your love life. If the sex was good, what's the problem? Make the guy breakfast and then ask him out again."

Teddy slumped. "He left."

"When?" There was a pause and Teddy could almost see him calculating the time zones in his head. "It's not even nine o'clock."

"I don't know. Before I woke up this morning." He picked up a measuring tape and started measuring the cross braces again.

"Ouch. That's a bad sign," Kurt said, as if Teddy wasn't fully aware of that.

"That's why I called you," he snapped, slamming his free hand down on the table. "I'm going to call Cody. I can leave him a message, and maybe he'll get back to me before I mess this up irretrievably."

"If you want," Kurt said calmly, "but I'm willing to help. I just wanted to make sure we were both on the same page."

Feeling like a heel, Teddy groaned and pressed his forehead against the dusty, dirty surface of his work table. He didn't even care much that he was getting sawdust everywhere. "Sorry. I'm just..Mom called earlier."

"Say no more, man. I know how that goes." There was a long pause, both of them just breathing over the crackling line. It was comfortable, just like it was with all the brothers. He hadn't expected that when his father made him pick a fraternity to join. He certainly never expected to still be this close to them all ten years later. "Okay, so here's what you do..."

Teddy snapped upright, releasing a puff of dust. Snatching up his pencil, he flipped the plans for the bed over to take notes.

"You text him and tell him you had a great time last night," Kurt said. "If he answers, you ask him how his day is. Maybe he'll give you a reason he left so early."

"What if he doesn't answer?" Teddy asked, his hand clenched on the pencil until he could feel the ridges of the grip digging into his fingers.

"Give him a chance. He might be busy. If he doesn't answer by Tuesday, maybe give me a call back. I'll fly out and we can get smashed."

"I have work on Tuesday," Teddy said, his back popping as he slumped.

"We'll worry about that if it happens. You said the sex was great, so I doubt this guy's gonna ignore your texts." Kurt hummed under his breath. "After you've made small talk for a little while, then ask him if he'd like to go out again this weekend. This time, pick a place in advance so he knows you're not talking about just sex."

"What if he says no? What if all he wants is no strings attached sex?" Teddy picked at his cuticle. It wasn't that he was morally opposed to friends with benefits situations, but that wasn't all he wanted out of this.

Kurt sighed. "You're going to have to decide if you're okay with what he's willing to give. If that's the only thing he's willing to get into right now, is that going to be okay with you?"

Sighing, Teddy stared at the headboard. He'd been planning to ship it back to his storage unit in Connecticut so when he got back he could use it in his house. Not that he had a house yet, but more and more, he wanted something that was his. Something steady and stable he could come home to. He had plenty of money to get something nice, no matter what his mother thought.

He narrowed his eyes, staring at it. The cross beams had been too short every time he measured them, but he thought it was because he'd cut them wrong. Now that he was looking closer, counting the boards, he wanted to throw the plans across the room. It was a king sized headboard. He made a king sized headboard for his full sized bed.

"I don't know," he said quietly, running a finger over the smooth top edge of the headboard. "I really don't know."

"Yeah, that's a tough choice," Kurt said. "I hope it doesn't come down to that, though. You deserve better. And why wouldn't he want to go steady," he teased, "you're a catch."

"Shut up," Teddy said, his lips twitching. "You're such an asshole."

"Yes, yes I am." Completely unrepentant, Kurt hung up without saying goodbye, laughing the whole time.

For the second time in an hour, Teddy was left staring at his phone. He vastly preferred the second experience. Running his hand over the headboard, searching for any sign of splinters, he thought about what it would be like to go home to Connecticut alone after having Carlos so close. Then he made himself consider if it would be any less awful to end the whole confusing mess right now.

In the end, it wasn't much of a choice.

"I had a really good time last night. —Teddy"

He was in the middle of cutting the correct sized braces for the bed when his phone buzzed with an incoming call. Surprised, Teddy almost let it go to voicemail.

"Sorry, I don't have a text plan," Carlos said. "I had a good time, too." His breath across the cheap phone's receiver made the line hiss.

Teddy winced. "Sorry," he said. "I'll pay you back for the charges."

"It's fine. How are you doing?"

"I'm supposed to ask you that," Teddy said, glancing at his notes. "How was your day?"

"You're supposed to ask me? I guess my day has been good. What else are you supposed to ask me?"

"I'm not doing it right," Teddy said, groaning. "It should sound a lot more spontaneous than this," Teddy admitted, crumpling the paper in his hand.

"According to who?" Carlos asked, his voice sharp.

Teddy shrugged. "Society, maybe? Kurt, definitely. He's going to laugh when he hears how badly I messed this up, which was the whole point of getting his advice."

"You needed advice to ask me how my day was?" Carlos coughed, but he could hear the laugh underneath. "That's...kind of adorable."

Rolling his eyes, Teddy tossed the paper onto the table. "I'm trying to ask you out again," he said, "and doing a terrible job."

"It's not such a bad job if I say yes, is it?" There was definitely amusement in the omega's voice, but he wasn't mean about it. "You could come over to my place on Friday. I have condoms and lube. I'll even cook some burgers or something."

It wasn't exactly the candlelit dinner he'd been planning, but it was better than nothing. "I'll bring potato salad," Teddy said, pulling his phone away from his ear for a moment to enter the date into his calendar. "Do you have any allergies?"

"Pet names. Don't call me cupcake or pumpkin or sugar bear. It makes me break out in hives."

He paused, staring at the phone in confusion. "I think I would, too," he said.

"So I can't call you my sweet honey bee?" Carlos teased.

"No."

Laughing loudly, Carlos shifted so the line went muffled for a moment. "Fair enough," he said, still chuckling. "I'll see you on Friday?"

"Definitely," Teddy said. "I put it in my calendar, so I won't forget."

There was a long pause, and he started to wonder if he'd said the wrong thing again.

"Is that...Is that a big concern? You forgetting?" Carlos asked.

Teddy sighed. "When I was in college," he said, his voice flat, "I spent two days studying for a final."

"Okay..."Carlos said, drawing the word out. "I've studied for a week for my Advanced Physics finals. What's the big deal?"

"I studied for two days," he said dryly, able to laugh about it after so long, "and forgot to actually go to the final."

"No way," Carlos gasped, then a moment later he burst into shrieks of laughter. He had a very nice laugh, musical and not too loud. "There is no fucking way. What did you do?"

"I begged the professor for a second chance."

"And they let you take it," Carlos said, sighing. "Lucky bastard."

"Actually," Teddy said, grinning wide enough to stretch his cheeks painfully, "the professor told me to suck it up, and I had to repeat the class the following semester. The final was 80% of the grade."

Carlos cackled, laughing until he was groaning, and Teddy's cheeks hurt with the strain of all the smiling.

"I made myself a reminder system after that. I won't forget our date," he said when the line was quiet for long enough to feel a little awkward.

"If you're calling my crappy burgers and shithole apartment a date, then you need to get out more, man," Carlos said. "I better go get started on laundry, or I'm not going to have anything to wear that isn't covered in mulch. I'll see you Friday, okay?" He didn't wait for Teddy to reply, disconnecting the call.

"Everybody keeps hanging up on me today. —Teddy"

"Did you ask him out? —Kurt"

"Not exactly, but we made plans to have sex again. He promised me burgers. —Teddy"

He glanced at the crumpled plans and decided he was done in the shop for the day. Kurt's reply didn't arrive until he was knocking the dust off his shoes on his way into the house.

"Sorry to hear that, man. Good luck with the burgers. —Kurt"

"Who's that?" Nana asked, appearing from the kitchen with a tea tray.

"Just Kurt, Nana," Teddy said, thumbing off his phone. "Do you still have the recipe for the potato salad Granddad used to make?"