Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 58003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 290(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 290(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
He sighed, glaring at the can of deodorant in his hand as though it had personally offended him. When he got home tonight, he’d apologise. He owed them that.
Because he was a masochist, Shawn went running as soon as he got home from work. By the time he got back to the house again and had showered and changed, it was just after six and all five of his housemates were battling for space in the large shared kitchen.
Even Ben was there, the quiet mature student who’d moved in at the same time as Jude. When he wasn’t cooking or eating, he spent most of his time in his room, so they barely saw him.
As Shawn came in, Jez and Mac looked up and nodded in greeting. But even Jez’s usually friendly face was guarded and his nod was curt.
Shawn couldn’t blame him. Bracing himself, he cleared his throat.
“Um. About last night….”
All heads turned to him. Jez, Mac, Jude, and Dev had their eyebrows raised expectantly.
Ben frowned. “What?”
“You weren’t there, mate,” Jude said.
Ben shrugged and went back to spreading something on toast, but it was obvious he was still listening.
Shawn’s cheeks heated with shame as he remembered his childish outburst. “I was a dick and totally out of line, and I’m sorry. You have just as much right as I do to kiss and cuddle… or whatever, in public. I was just being an arsehole because I was drunk, and because of splitting up with Beth. I had a shitty weekend, but I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.” He addressed Dev directly. “Can you pass my apology on to Ewan, please?”
“Sure.” Dev nodded.
Shawn waited, palms sweating and heart pounding as he scanned Jez’s and Mac’s faces for a reaction, but they remained serious.
“You were a total dick,” Jez finally said, “but that was a pretty decent apology. So I’ll take it. Just don’t do it again, you twat.”
He came over to Shawn and punched him playfully in the arm, almost hard enough to hurt.
Shawn didn’t flinch. He deserved it. “Thanks, man,” he said gruffly. He glanced at Mac, then Dev. “We good now?”
“Sure.” Mac shrugged.
Dev gave a small smile. “Yeah.”
Only then did Shawn shift his gaze to Jude, who was watching the scene unfold, his face impassive. Shawn didn’t feel that he needed to apologise to Jude; he hadn’t had a go at him directly. But Jude was gay, and Shawn’s homophobic comments had probably pissed him off too. “Sorry,” he muttered.
Jude held his gaze, his brown eyes hard to read. A muscle ticked under the dark stubble on his jaw. “No worries. We all say stupid things when we’re drunk. Forget about it.”
Relief and gratitude swept through Shawn. He wasn’t sure he deserved such casual forgiveness; he wasn’t going to forgive himself so easily. Fleetingly he wondered why Jude’s good opinion of him mattered so much, but then he pushed the thought away.
He broke the tension, rubbing his hands together. “Okay, well, I’m starving. Gonna see what I’ve got in the fridge.”
They all went back to what they were doing and Shawn relaxed, his apology over with and accepted.
A couple of days later, Shawn was still doing his best to be a better housemate and friend. So after he’d finished his dinner—late because he hadn’t left work till six and had then been running again—he washed up lots of pots in the kitchen that other people had used and tidied up some things left lying around in the living room.
“Is this either of yours?” He held up a hoodie that was slung over the back of a chair.
Jez and Mac, who were on the sofa watching TV, both glanced his way.
“Nope,” Mac said.
“I think it’s Jude’s.”
Being helpful, Shawn decided to take it up for him.
He passed his own bedroom on the middle floor and went up the second flight of stairs to where Dev’s and Jude’s rooms were. Jude’s door was shut, so Shawn tapped lightly on it. There was no reply, so assuming Jude was out, he turned the handle and pushed. The door opened quietly.
It took a moment for his brain to register the information from his eyes.
Jude wasn’t out.
Jude was definitely in.
He was sitting in a chair with his back to the door, shirtless, dick out and jerking off in front of… fuck, was that Skype? Maybe he had a long-distance boyfriend Shawn didn’t know about.
But the screen didn’t look like Skype; there was a distinctive logo that even from the door, Shawn could see read “Boyz on Cam.” And—Oh fuck. The guy on the screen looked remarkably like Jude himself. Surely he couldn’t be…?
“Shit, sorry, sorry!” Shawn blurted out.
“What the fuck?” Jude wheeled around, simultaneously managing to whip his sweatpants up and slam the laptop shut. “Oh my God, haven’t you heard of knocking?”