Mad Gear

Moving On

'So how was the date?' Ray asks when Gerard walks in the office the next morning.

Gerard just shrugs, his back to his friend so he doesn't see the little smile on his face. He doesn't have time to chat about last time, he's already so behind, so he gets to work.

'So that bad, huh?'

'Meh – not bad.'

'Dude!' Out of nowhere, Ray was already sitting next to him. 'That doesn't sound good! What? He didn't kiss you good night? Is he a republican, or what?'

'Ew, not that!' Gerard doesn't really want to talk about it. But he knows Ray won't stop. 'We just – don't work together, okay? It's not that deep.' Ray doesn't say anything, but just looks at him. So, Gerard ignores him and keeps doing the logs.

'Can you stop doing that?'

'Doing what?' Gerard says, playing dumb.

Ray turns off the computer screen and turns Gerard's chair around so that he's facing him. 'Pretending you're busy so you don't have to talk about stuff.' Ray knows him too well, almost as well as Mikey, and that's saying something. There's no point in playing dumb. 'You don't need to check the logs because I already did. So we can talk.'

Gerard rolls his eyes. 'There's nothing to talk about.'

'C'mon! Was it that bad?'

Fine, if he wants to know, Gerard will tell him everything, and it'll get uncomfortable real soon. 'To be honest – he's really good in bed. Like way too good. I slept like a baby last night after he left.'

'Ugh – I don't need to know.'

'You asked me!' Gerard yells, knowing he already won.

'Not about that!'

'Well, nothing else happened. We went for coffee and it was too awkward. I don't know if we're just not compatible, or if it's me who's too old for all this.'

There's an awkward silence in which Ray just looks at him, waiting for him to say something else. But Gerard never does. 'So, that's it?' his friend asks, almost upset about this whole situation. 'You just gave up?'

'I didn't. I knew this wasn't going to work, and we were both mature about it. There's nothing wrong with that?'

'Are you going to at least keep trying? Like going on dates and shit?'

'Hell no.' At least it seems that Ray has given up for now, so Gerard finishes the invoices before heading to the garage to fix Mr. Thompson's truck, keeping himself busy. Trying not to think about Frank's hands on him, or the way he moaned into his ear, which he's been thinking about since last night. Or how tight he felt. And as long as he keeps his hands busy with a wrench, he can't check his phone every five minutes to see if Frank texted. It's not going to happen, and Gerard has to move on.

***

'Good morning, sweetheart,' Frank hears his mom greet him as he makes his way to the kitchen to get some coffee. 'You were up late last night?'

Frank mumbles something into the mug, but he's not awake enough to make any sense.

'You're driving home today?'

'Yeah.' His plan was waking up early to make the drive before the traffic got too bad, but he was too tired and decided to keep sleeping because he won't have any time to rest in the next couple weeks.