Inner Sorrow - Part 41: Dating Brad

Part 41:
Dating Brad
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It seemed so much easier to see our relationship weakening as I watched Brad talking to Pal. While he asked how his day had been, and while he made sure that nothing had troubled him to the point of cutting or some other similar, bodily offense. I waited, not sure how to respond.
I didn’t need to know how, because a moment later, Pal muttered a short ‘yeah,’ walked down the hall, and disappeared into his bedroom.
“You ok?” Brad frowned, turning his attention from the hall toward me.
I nodded, spooning soup into my mouth.
I hadn’t realized how bad homemade soup could taste during a bad mood.
“Are you sure?” he continued, stepping forward.
“Can I talk to you about something, Brad?”
“You can talk to me about anything—you know that.”
“Can we go on a date?”
Instead of responding immediately—like I thought he would—Brad waited, staring at me with eyes that sparkled with curiosity. It looked like he might not say anything at all, or reply with a no or something similar, but it didn’t take long for the blank expression on his face to turn into a smile.
“A date?” he asked, the whites of his teeth showing through the curve of his lips. “We haven’t been on a ‘date’ date for over a year.”
“I know?”
“What makes you mention this all of a sudden?”
“Because I’m starting to wonder whether or not we’re growing apart.”
“You don’t really think that, do you?”
“Kinda.”
Stepping forward, Brad fell to his knee and set a hand on my thigh, squeezing the muscle and rubbing the length of my leg.
“Sure,” he said. “Let’s go on a date.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. How about later, after you get off work?”
“If that’s ok with you, sure?”
“Of course it’s ok,” he laughed. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
“I dunno,” I shrugged, spooning the rest of the soup into my mouth and making my way toward the sink. “I just wanted to make sure.”
“Hey,” he grinned, pressing a hand against my chest. “Don’t worry about it, ok? You should’ve said something about this earlier. I don’t like it when we keep things to ourselves. We shouldn’t do that.”
“I know.”
“Let me get this,” he said, taking the bowl from my hand. “Have a good day at work, ok, babe?”
“I will,” I said, leaning against him in a one-armed hug. “Don’t worry.”
We parted ways with a kiss, and with our first date in over a year on our mind.1

“What made you want to go on a date all of a sudden?” Kason asked, adjusting the box of candy between his arm and chest. “Is it because of what we talked about?”
“I don’t know,” I shrugged, crossing my arms. “I guess.”
“You guess?”
“Yeah,” I chuckled. “You, on the other hand, seem to have got yourself a nice guy.”
I elbowed Kason’s ribs, suppressing a laugh as he dropped the box on the counter and pressed a hand over my mouth.
“Can you keep it down?” he whispered. “No one knows?”
“Want me to bite you?” I mumbled.
He let go almost immediately.
He knew I’d do it.
“That’s ok,” he smiled, leaning in close. “I already have someone to do that for me.”
“Ooh,” I grinned. “I bet he’s pretty hot when you’re rubbing your hand up and down his…”
“Dean!”
I laughed and somehow managed to resist sticking my tongue out at him as I turned to ring up a customer’s order.
“You never answered my question,” Kason mumbled, sliding his thumbs into his pockets.
“What question was that?”
“Why you’re so interested in dating all of a sudden. Brad’s practically your husband, you know?”
“You told me to try something,” I shrugged, nudging past him to continue stocking the candy. “I just want us to bond again, that’s all. It’s easier when we’re away from Pal.”
“You don’t like him being there?”
“I never said that,” I frowned, wondering if I’d ever said something to imply that. “It’s just that… well… I’m not going to lie, Kason, but Pal’s been drawing all of Brad’s attention to himself. I know that’s selfish of me, since Pal’s been going through all this shit, but I feel lonely, you know? It’s like another man’s come into my life and stole my partner away from me.”
“I know,” Kason sighed. He reached under the counter, pulled out the ‘This Register is Closed’ sign beside the register, and gestured me toward the door. “You can’t help the way you feel.”
“Some people can,” I mumbled, nodding at a man who held the door for me and Kason. “I’d sure like to be one of those people.”
“Wouldn’t we all?” he chuckled.
Reaching into his pocket, Kason withdrew a pack of cigarettes and pulled one out for himself. He slid a second between two fingers and offered it to me. I took it without question.
“Thanks,” I said, exhaling a plume of smoke with a thankful sigh. “It’s nice to have a smoke.”
“You and Brad stopped buying them?”
“No. We do sometimes, but we’re more interested in making sure we can pay the bills.”
“I thought you guys had money in the bank?”
“We did, before buying the cabin. You know how much that house cost? At least a hundred-K, if not more. We’ve still got around twenty, thirty-thousand in the bank, but it’s nothing compared to what we had from before.”
“Lotsa money,” Kason whistled.
“Not really.”
“Come on, Dean—you can’t tell me having thirty-grand in the bank isn’t a lot of money.”
“It isn’t when you’re trying to have backup money. What if me or Brad got sick or something, or if one of the cars broke down? We’d be screwed.”
“I guess you’ve got a point,” Kason smiled. “What about Brad? He still freelancing?”
“Yeah, he is.”
“That’s good. At least it keeps him entertained.”
“Yeah,” I chuckled. “I don’t know what I’d do if he wasn’t an artist or couldn’t entertain himself.”
“Oh, I’m sure you could think of something,” Kason winked.
With a laugh, I reached over and smacked the back of his head.
I felt better at that moment than I had all morning.