Rodrigo ended his call and turned. The moment he realized he wasn’t alone he launched toward Sev, fist raised. He stopped inches away, eyes wide, and dropped his fist.
“What the fuck, man?” Ro laughed uneasily. “You scared the shit out of me.” His gaze slid to the laptop screen, and Severin could tell he wanted to snap it closed, but he didn’t do it.
“You take pictures of me when I’m not looking? That fishing one has to be from a few years ago.”
Rodrigo’s gaze shifted away and he tried to look casual. “I like taking pictures.”
Severin only had a few pictures left after the rampage he went on after his mother, Sutton, died. Minnow had salvaged a few. He’d never thought to take new ones – some of Minnow and Rodrigo. Maybe Loïc. Church and Ilse and the girls. Mementos only served to make a person sad after something was over. Mementos made him uncomfortable.
“You followed me home?”
Severin sat in Rodrigo’s leather office chair, and turned the laptop so it would be easier to watch the slideshow.
Rodrigo grumbled something, but grabbed a paper with a phone number scrawled across it, and started another call, turning away from Severin as though his presence was distracting.
For every photo of Rodrigo’s family, there was one of Severin, or of Severin’s family. They’d been close for so long it wasn’t odd – hell, Rodrigo had been friends with Church before he’d even met Sev. Of course he cared about Sutton and Church and Ilse, but the pictures of Severin usually had a different tone. No family goofing around pictures, other than a few of him playing Lego with his nieces, and one of him smirking as he held Church in a headlock. One of Sutton smiling at the back of his head when he hadn’t known she was there. There were so many pictures of Severin alone – working, looking thoughtful, looking mean. Years of pictures taken by a lover, not a buddy. Pictures Rodrigo had never shown him.
He turned his attention back to Rodrigo, whose demeanor had changed completely from when he’d made the last call. The charming, business Rodrigo was still doing the talking, but the tension in his body spoke of his awareness of Severin’s proximity, as if he couldn’t ignore he was there.
When the call ended, he sighed heavily and turned back to Severin.
“Can I help you, your majesty? You do realize I came home to work to get away from distractions.”
“Is that what I am to you? A distraction?”
Rodrigo’s jaw flexed. “You’ve been the biggest distraction in my life for years.”
“You sound resentful.”
He shrugged and took a guest chair on the other side of the desk, putting a speed bump of pretentious oak between them. “I guess it’s my own fault for waiting for you while I was in the friendzone. I did try to get over you – at least in the beginning.”
Severin cast back in his memory for names. “Subira, Jenn, Tabitha?”
“Among others. Once, I went on a date with a man who sort of looked like you, but I bailed after dinner.”
The idea of Rodrigo with another man pissed him off. “And I’m supposed to assume that was because he didn’t measure up to me, somehow? Because I’m so fucking charming? Maybe he was too pretty for you.”
“He just wasn’t you.”
“Minnow isn’t me, either.”
“Minnow is Minnow. She’s perfect for me. She’s not a replacement for you. I would have tried to seduce her, myself, if you hadn’t met her first. I would have kept her too, if she allowed it.”
Tension tightened every muscle in Severin’s body, but he wasn’t sure why. I
t just happened sometimes around Rodrigo. He thought about it – gave himself permission to examine it rather than ignore it the way he usually did – and realized it was the same tension he got when he fucked with Minnow, like when he used to push things onto the floor just to make her clean them up. Hell, he used to do similar shit to Rodrigo. He was here to do it again, if he was honest with himself.
“Give me a tattoo.”
Rodrigo shifted in his seat. “Now?”
Clarity settled on him.
Fuck.
How many times had he shown up here demanding Rodrigo drop everything and tattoo him? Had it been some sort of twisted flirtation? Had he been awkwardly flirting with Rodrigo all along?
That was a humiliating revelation.