Which Way the Wind Blows

Chapter 13

“Okay, if we keep an eye on our finances, we can stay in this hotel for about two months before we’ll be forced to dip into our cushion,” Victoria said as she calculated their expenses.

“We can’t let it get that far!” Chris insisted. He was taking advantage of the free in-room WiFi connection and scanned the online job listings in the advertising field.

“Do you want to go see Warren tonight?” she asked distractedly.

“No, I want to wait until at least next week.”

Victoria looked up at him from her seat on the bed in surprise. He was engrossed in his work so he didn’t notice the concerned gaze she shot him.

“Chris, all you’ve talked about for the last few weeks was seeing him and telling him you’ve changed.”

Chris looked up from the screen with a frown. “And what exactly can I use as proof of that?” he asked. “I would be dumping myself on him and still have no means of supporting myself. He’ll just think I’m hopeless.” He sat back with a sigh. “And he’d be pretty close to the truth.”

“You’re not hopeless!” she insisted. “You’re trying your best! Hell, you’ve come light years from the guy who wouldn’t even acknowledge you had a boyfriend!”

Chris gave her a lopsided smile before running a hand over his face, tired from the jetlag and worry that came with having no job and frantically looking for a new one, he supposed.

“It’s still not enough yet,” he sighed. “I need to get myself a job and soon so that we can secure a place.”

“I still don’t think that will go over too well with him, you know.”

“We can’t afford New York City rents on our new budget,” he shrugged still surprised at how well he was beginning to adapt to the new financial limits he was faced with. “And unless he’s willing to let me move in with him, which I’m very sure he won’t be … at least for a while, and that’s the best case scenario … I need a roommate. And I’d prefer to have one I can trust.”

“Aw, thank you!” she demurred, blinking her eyes comically.

“Anyway, I only have the place in Seattle for another three weeks before they toss me out, so I need to get my furniture into storage if we haven’t found something by then.”

“At least we won’t be sitting on crates!”

He grinned as he went back to his laptop. “Any idea what kind of industry you’d like to apply for?” he asked.

“I wanted to stay in nonprofit work,” she said thoughtfully, but now that pay’s becoming an issue, I don’t think I can.”

He looked down at the desk in thought before an idea struck him. “You could do volunteer work if you can’t find a position that pays enough. I’m sure there are a lot of opportunities for that in a city this big.”

“Yeah,” she said with a slow smile dawning on her face. “I didn’t think of that. I guess that would work!”

“So,” he said as he clicked a few links on the job web site. “What do you think you want to apply for?”

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“Last night’s guy was all over you, Warren,” Jake teased as they ordered brunch in their now-favorite café.

“Yeah, like the one you had wrapped around you!”

He still couldn’t believe his life had changed so much in the span of a few short months. Things were so different than his life had been in Seattle. For one thing, he had more friends, and not just straight ones. Jake had taken him to his gym a few times and he met other gay guys around his age to talk to. Not like the guys he met at the bars they went to. Those were nice, but never seemed to be into anything more than a fling here and there. David was the only one he’d been with more than once, but they were developing a friendship now and touching the smaller man just didn’t feel okay to him anymore. Though David understood this and they would have actual conversations at the bar when neither was particularly interested in hooking up.

And Jake turned out to be a great best friend, too! He and Warren hung out at work and even shot some hoops on weekends. The blonde was pretty easy to talk to as well … a fact that hadn’t sat well with Sam at first when he told him about Jake. But his college buddy understood Warren’s need to have friends who understood him from a gay perspective. That was something Sam couldn’t do, though to his credit he’d made the attempts. Chloe was thrilled to pieces that things were going so well for him. She’d said she’d always known Chris was holding him back from living a great life. And she couldn’t seem to help questioning him about all of the hotties he was meeting at the clubs and bars. If Chloe were in New York with him, she’d insist on accompanying him everywhere just to watch. He had to bite his cheek to keep from calling her a fag hag … a term he knew would earn him a swat over the head if she were within distance.

“As long as you’re having fun,” Jake grinned.

“And keeping safe,” Warren added before he could put it in there.

Jake saluted him with his iced tea.

“Hey guys!” Pete called as he approached the table. “Sorry I’m late!”

“You beat Freddy,” Warren observed.

“Yeah, he buzzed me to say he was held up on the train,” Pete bobbed his head as he grinned at the approaching waitress. “I’ll have the eggs Florentine and a Coke.”

“A Coke?” Jake scrunched up his face disgustedly. “With eggs?”

“Eh. I have a cast iron stomach.”

“You’d better!”

Pete shrugged at him and turned his gaze to Warren. “How bad has he corrupted you so far?” he asked with a mock solemn expression.

“Really bad!” Warren sighed dramatically. “Oh, the men he exposes me to. I’m ruined forever!”

“That’s the way you should be,” the blonde winked.

The waitress came back with Pete’s Coke and the three talked while they waited for Freddy, who showed up ten minutes later.

“Man, what the hell is going on with that F train?” he grunted as he fell moodily into his chair. “It was stuck in that tunnel for almost 20 minutes!”

“Hangover?” Jake asked knowingly.

“What kind of a Saturday night would it me if I didn’t have one this morning?” Freddy shot back.

“Good point,” Pete added.

“Bad point,” Jake replied. “You could have had a night like I did and not have a hangover this morning!”

“For the last time,” Freddy glowered at him. “We don’t date dudes.”

“So, substitute the dude for a woman,” Jake sighed. “You know, you might get lucky more often if you two weren’t always smashed on the weekends.”

“Yes, daddy,” Pete grinned cheekily.

Jake rolled his eyes while Warren let out a loud bark of laughter.

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Chris pulled a couple of dollars out of his pocket to pay for the Sunday papers when he heard a familiar laugh coming from not far away. Frowning, he gave the vendor his money and turned to look in the direction he’d heard it. His eyes widened and he jumped behind a huge potted plant on the sidewalk as he stared at the table in shock. There, sitting at an outside table of the nearby café sat Warren … and three guys! The blonde one that was sitting next to him kept shaking his head at the two on the other side of the table and giving Warren conspiratorial looks. Were they dating? Chris felt his stomach bottom out at the thought.

He’d never imagined Warren would have put together a life for himself so quickly. But there he was and he was laughing his ass off at something … most likely something the blonde said. He looked his ex boyfriend over sadly as he watched from his hiding place. The dark haired man looked good. Really good. His hair was styled and gelled in place and he was wearing newer clothes than the ones Chris remembered him having in his wardrobe. His eyes sparkled, too. Chris could even see that from a distance. Whatever heartache Warren had experienced over their breakup, it looked like it was long over now. And the blonde was probably one of the reasons, he deduced as he watched him put an arm around Warren’s shoulder.

Well, what can I expect, he sighed to himself. I was the one who fucked up. And he knew that was absolutely true. He also knew he still had nothing to offer his ex as proof that he’d changed. And Warren looked happy now. Really, really happy. Happier than he’d ever looked in Seattle. Chris felt like a stalker as he stood there watching his ex with the three other guys so he turned around and marched off back to the hotel feeling worse than he’d ever felt before.