Come Back To Me

"No, uh, Colin." The waiter said confusion dancing in his brown eyes.

"Sorry you look exactly like someone I know." Patrick said quickly trying to cover up his slip.

"It's ok. Actually it's good to know that there's another person out there with my dashing good looked it'll take off some of the pressure of having everybody in love with me." Colin said sighing dramatically and brushing his long bangs out of his eyes. Patrick laughed out loud and Colin smiled warmly at him.
"Can I get you guys something to drink?" Colin asked after a minute of silence in which Patrick couldn't take his eyes off of him.

"I'll take a martini please." Marissa said and Colin just nodded not bothering, or more correctly not needing, to write it down.
"And for you?" Colin asked Patrick who was having difficulty making his tongue work.

"Water." He said finally.

"Oh I guess we know who the designated driver is tonight." Colin and Marissa laughed this time.

"Damn straight." She smiled and Colin returned it before leaving to get their drinks.

"He was nice." Marissa said sounding surprised and Patrick nodded, still unable to get that face out of his mind. It was purely coincidence, right? It had to be there was no other explanation.

"Yeah." He said finally and Marissa looked at him questionly.

"Hey you ok?" She asked and he forced himself to look away from where Colin stood taking the orders from another nearby table.

"Yeah I'm fine. Why?"

"I don't know you just looked like you were miles away." She said stroking the back of his hand with her thumb.

"Sorry I was just thinking about when I should give you your present, that's all." He said looking her in the eyes.

"Hmmm, I think now is good." She said so seriously, that he had to smile and pull the black velvet box out of his back pocket. She looked at him with utter adoration shining in her eyes as she recognized the box. Opening it, she gasped bringing her hand to her mouth. The look on her face had him vowing to bring Tim Starbucks every morning for the rest of his life.

"This is just what I've been saving to get! Thank you so, so, so much baby! You are like the best boyfriend ever." She cried and hugged him. He cringed thinking, 'No Tim is,' and that really bothered him.

"That's my job." He said and kissed her forehead.

"Well you're damn good at it." She said and he forced a smile.

"Damn would look you look at thing sparkle." A voice said and Patrick looked up to see Colin smiling down at them and staring at the necklace.

"I know!" Marissa squeaked and hugged Patrick again.

"Sounds like somebody did well." Colin laughed as he set their drinks down in front of them and Patrick blushed.

"I guess so." He said lowering his gaze.

"Now what can I get you guys to eat?" Colin asked. After Marissa had already ordered Patrick looked up embarrassed as he met Colin's expectant eyes.

"Uh. What's good?" Patrick asked revealing that he had yet to crack open the menu.
"Tell you what, if you trust me to pick, I'll bring you out the best thing this place makes, and I should know I see what goes on in that kitchen." Colin said hitting Patrick with that smile of his once again.

Patrick found himself muttering, "Yeah. Ok I trust you."

Colin smiled wider, "Great get ready man, I'm about to rock your world." He said mock seductively and Marissa giggled next to him.

"I absolutely love that guy!" She giggled and Patrick smiled at her.

"Yeah he's not like any waiter I've had before, that's for sure."

Four martinis, two salads, one bottle of wine, a chocolate mousse, and the most heavenly fettuccine he'd ever had later, Patrick sat looking at the check in despair. He had two hundred dollars in his wallet and the check shockingly came out to about 195.

"Shit." He said and looked at Marissa who just shrugged opening her purse to reveal a few different makeup tubes, her wallet, and nothing else. Colin came over to grab the check and Patrick grabbed him by the wrist as he was leaving.

"Do you like to read?" He asked desperately.

"Yeah, why?" Colin said uneasily.

"Because I'm only going to have five dollars left and that would be a tip that I'd be ashamed to give, but I own a bookstore and I'll give you all the books you want if you stop by."

"That could be dangerous; I might take home the whole store." Colin smiled; most people would have just paid the bill and left if they didn't have the money for a tip.

"That's fine! I'd just feel guilty for weeks if I didn't give you a decent tip on a bill that huge." Patrick said grabbing Colin's pad out of his hand and writing down the address, "that's the address, and I'm Patrick. Come in sometime this week and I'll pile you down with books." Patrick said excitedly.

"Yeah sure I'll stop by tomorrow before work." Colin said smiling at Patrick's eagerness to make sure he got a tip. It was a sweet gesture, and it made him wonder again why he'd felt this guy's eyes on him all night when he was so obviously here with his girlfriend. And now he had committed himself to going to see this guy again. Well at least he'd get some free books out of it.

//

Patrick had opened his shop the next morning and was sitting behind his desk with the journal in hand. He felt more alive and happy than he could remember being in a long time. So far he'd had a few customers and some were people he recognized from Tim's store who had stopped by to check out his place. For the first day he was doing pretty damn well.

At around two o'clock that afternoon the bell over the door rang and Patrick looked up to see Colin looking around at all the books with a smile.

"Hey!" Patrick said setting the book down and standing up.
"So I'm here for my tip I guess." Colin said walking over to the old oak desk.

"Look around, find whatever you want.” Patrick said gesturing widely to the shelves on either side of him and Colin nodded smiling. He started walking down the aisles scanning the books as he went. Patrick just sat back down to read the journal. It was hard to make much progress when almost every time he read an entry he found himself trapped in another one of what he was beginning to think might be memories. That was a better explanation for him having these flashbacks than the alternative that he was losing his mind. Although he was starting to believe that was entirely possible. He'd heard somewhere though if you could question your sanity that you still had it. So that left memories or more specifically memories from a past life. He'd never been much of a believer in karma or past lives but considering he was remembering these snatches from someone else’s life he'd better try to start being nice to everyone to try and salvage his karma.

"What's that you’re reading?" He heard somebody ask and saw Colin standing there with an armful of books looking at the journal with interest. Patrick looked at him and then looked at the journal and then back at him. It was almost funny that this guy who looked exactly like the one who was in every single memory he'd had since getting his hands on journal, and yet he had no idea what it was. Patrick was surprised to find that his heart sank at the thought.

"It's a journal from a little over a hundred years ago. This kid is from like the most well to do family of his time and he's completely miserable. His father leaves on some business trip and leave's this kids servant in charge of taking care of the house. All of a sudden this kid finds himself trying to spend more and more time with him. More on like a friendship level than the master/servant level they had been on. The servant is like totally hesitant but the kid keeps pushing until he realizes that the reason he wants to spend so much time with the servant is because he has feelings for him, and that's as far as I've gotten. I know it's going to be good though. Tim said that almost immediately after the last entry in the book that the kid jumped off the roof of his grandmother's house." Patrick explained and noticed Colin smirking, and his heart leapt in his chest. Maybe he wasn't the only one having these weird flashbacks.

Then Colin asked, "You know Tim? I was wondering after I found that Tom Clancy book under religion."

Patrick laughed, "Tim is practically my brother man. I'm his Starbucks supplier."

"That's my usual bookstore. You must be the one he called to get reservations for!" Colin said laughing.

"But he said he called the owner." Patrick said sounding surprised.

"I am the owner, man. I just like to wait tables, what can I say I'm a people person." Colin said laughing, "Do you honestly think I'd get away with these piercings if I didn't?" Patrick’s eyes were drawn the lip ring at the corner of Colin’s full lips and he found himself licking his lips unconsciously.

"Well no, I guess not. It's just that that place is so huge and popular and wow."

"Yeah I know it just kind of blew up in my face. One minute I'm taking out loans to open this restaurant and the next thing I know, BAM, I own the hottest restaurant in town." Colin said shrugging.

"I just opened this place up but I doubt that it'll be the hottest bookstore in town. Is it even possible to have a hottest bookstore?" Patrick asked genuinely curious.
"Why yes there us and this place is hot because hello who do you have standing in front of you?" Colin said haughtily.

"Oh thank you, thank you for gracing my lowly store with your presence." Patrick deadpanned and Colin giggled.

"No problem. As a matter of fact this place is closer than Tim's so you might be seeing a lot more of me."

"Don't expect free books every time."

"Of course not, but I do want to borrow that journal from you."

"Not for awhile though I'm too obsessed with it right now."

"Oh man, I know how that goes. See the great thing about having a restaurant that makes me loads and loads of money. I can now afford to feed my addiction to books."

"I wish I could. After this place I'm going to be just scraping by for awhile."

"Well you can add your first loyal customer to the list." Colin said smiling and scooping up his books. Patrick smiled to himself and looked at the journal. Maybe the guy in the journal wasn't so far off, because that had definitely been flirting, he thought then dropped the book at the thought. Had he really been thinking about Colin like that when Marissa was sitting back at their place waiting for him? First that weird ass dream and now this. Great so now not only was he crazy, he was also having a sexuality crisis. What a way to start a business off, the minute it opens the owner is crazy and possibly newly gay. He was tempted to wander down the self help aisle but stopped himself knowing that if Tim ever found out he'd disown him. So resigning himself to a pink spandex straight jacket he picked up the journal once more.