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Donovan: Good. See you then.
I was determined to get Cole back, but I needed to work on myself a bit first.
CHAPTER 19
COLE
Adam and I were in his makeshift studio, trying to work on some new material, but my mind was consumed with Patrick. I was so worried about him. Maybe I’d done the wrong thing by not going after him, but I didn’t want to cause him any more pain than I already had.
It had been a week since Patrick walked away from me. When it happened, Adam had called Cooper to see what he thought we should do. When I asked about him, Adam told me Cooper had it under control.
“I know it’s hard, but he’s not alone and he’s getting the help he needs to process all this. Cooper said he got in touch with his therapist, and he’s already seen him twice.”
My best friend amazed me sometimes. “Have I told you how proud I am of you and how you’ve made things right with Cooper?”
Adam shrugged. “It’s Michael. He’s my Patrick.”
He put that in terms I would understand. “Yeah, he is. And I’m so fucking happy for you.”
“Aww, you two are going to work this out. You’re physically incapable of being apart from one another. It’s like you two grew into the same person over the last twenty-five fucking years.”
My mouth hung open, ready to refute that, but as I thought about it, he was right. Patrick and I had been inseparable since we were seven. And now we were closing in on thirty-three.
“You’d think after twenty-five years together, we’d have our shit worked out.”
Adam scoffed. “You do. Life just got in the way, and someone put some shit on him that he didn’t deserve. Just like my mom did me.”
I thought about what he said, but I couldn’t remember anything in the past that would have affected him so much.
“Can you think of anything that would have affected him so adversely? His parents don’t care that he’s bisexual. And they’re fine with me. You know him as well as I do.”
Adam laughed. “No one knows him the way you do.”
I smiled at him. “Do you know you’ve already started sounding like Michael? You’re picking up that Southern accent of his.”
“Probably. You should do what I did and channel all that into a song. It would be great to follow up with another one.”
“Maybe.”
I hadn’t told him I’d already started writing. Most of it was down, but I was too raw right now to share it. And if we didn’t work this out, I might never let it see the light of day.
When Adam told our parents about what had happened, they came to Adam’s for a visit. Before they arrived, they stopped by the house and dropped off some of Patrick’s favorite foods to him. She had to see him first, and I kinda loved that about her.
“Food is my love language,” my mother said as she served me a second piece of her pecan pie. “I know in my heart you boys are going to work this out. There are no two people in the world that belong together more than you and Patrick.”
“I hope you’re right.”
She snorted. “I am right. Your father and I watched your face light up every time you talked about him. You always asked for extra chips in your lunch so you could share with him. You didn’t even want to share with Adam, but you’d give Patrick anything you had.”
I smiled at her memory. “Spicy Doritos. He loved them. Still does.”
“I know. There were two bags in the things we dropped off, just in case he forgot why he loves them.”
I stared at my mother, who’d become his mother when his parents moved to Michigan after his uncle died. His grandparents weren’t handling things well, and they needed to move to care for them.
But Patrick stayed, and we started college together, never looking back. But somehow we’d frozen in that one spot and hadn’t been able to move forward.
“Thanks for loving him so much.”
