Forget Yesterday

Jack has a daughter.

Jack has a daughter.

Jack has a daughter?

The secret he’d uncovered kept Alex in a zombie state for the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday, and now it was Monday morning he felt no differently. How could he not have realised? Why didn’t Jack tell him? Did he not trust Alex? Did he think Alex was unworthy of knowing something so important?

Fuck, Alex felt so stupid. Finding out about Jack’s daughter – no matter how adorable she looked – was not what he expected to do this weekend. Maybe it was a good thing he found out now, before they were officially boyfriends. Maybe it was a sign that he wasn’t meant to be with Jack at all, if Jack couldn’t trust him with this part of his life.

What would a guy Alex’s age do with a small child anyway?

No, maybe this was for the best. Sure, Jack had texted him multiple times on Saturday after Alex had walked away, and he’d even tried to call, but Alex just couldn’t answer. How could he? What was he supposed to say?!

There was one thing Alex did know though – there was no way he could go into work and know that Jack was sitting next door, and to know that he’d probably already spilled what happened to Vinny. No, Alex couldn’t deal with that at all. So he decided to take the coward’s way out.

“Uh, Vinny?”
“Morning Alex! What’s up?”
“I’m feeling really sick this morning – I don’t think I can make it into work,”
“Oh no! Are you okay?”
“I think I will be with some rest and a dark room. One of those migraine and nausea whammies,”
“Damn, yeah being in the studio all day won’t help that. Alright, well take today off and let me know if you’re feeling better tomorrow, okay?”

Alex hated how concerned Vinny felt, especially when this was all fake. Especially when it appeared that Vinny knew nothing about what had happened between Alex and Jack.

“Uh, sure thing. Talk to you later,”
“Yeah, later. Feel better soon!”

Alex ended the call and immediately groaned. Running away from his issues was not the solution – he knew that – but right now he just didn’t want to face the best friend of the man he was dating.

Was dating. Alex hated the sound of that even more.

But if Jack had hidden the fact that he had a daughter, what else was he hiding?

With a sigh Alex flumped down onto his sofa, dragging a blanket over himself as he turned on the TV. A day spent feeling sorry for himself wasn’t a bad idea, right?

*

“Honey! I’m home!”

Alex winced at Rian’s loud yell, pulling the blanket back from his face. All the thinking and worrying and shock he’d put himself through on his day on the sofa had actually given him a headache, so at least he wasn’t lying about that.

“Here’s a chocolate milkshake babe,” Rian announced, crouching down in front of Alex.

“Caramel macchiatos make me feel better when I’m sick,” Alex retorted.

“Mm, Vinny told me that you’d call in sick, but I know your bullshit when I see it and chocolate milkshakes cheer you up when you’re sad or stressed. You’re not sick – you’re stressing over something,” Rian replied matter-of-factly.

Damn Rian and his ability to read Alex like a book.

“How did you figure me out?” Alex sighed, heaving himself up into a sitting position.

Rian sat down on the vacated space next to him.

“Because on my way to see Vinny on my lunch break I walked past Jack and he looked miserable. I didn’t tell Vinny, obviously, but something bad happened between you two, didn’t it?” Rian asked with a sad smile.

Alex bit his bottom lip, but nodded. He could tell Rian what he found out, right? One more person knowing won’t hurt.

“I went over to Jack’s house on Saturday afternoon to see if he wanted to grab some dinner together, but he wasn’t in. I waited on the front steps for a while until I saw his car pull up outside,”

“I’m not seeing the problem here,” Rian interrupted, frowning.

“I’m just getting to that part,” Alex muttered.

Rian held his hands up in mock surrender.

“A young girl got out of his car. She couldn’t be more than five years old. At first I thought Jack was babysitting for someone, but then she asked loudly ‘Daddy, who’s the man on our steps?’,”

“Holy shit,” Rian gasped.

“Yeah, Jack has a daughter. He has a daughter and he kept it a secret from me,” Alex finished, running a hand through his hair.

“Wow, I really would never have guessed,” Rian said honestly.

“Neither would I,” Alex said quietly.

“You’re going to talk to him though, right?” Rian frowned.

“Why would I, when he kept something as big as this hidden from me?” Alex frowned back.

“Because it is as big as this and he was probably worried that you’d react like you did,” Rian pointed out.

Alex winced but nodded. Unfortunately, like always, Rian has a point.

“What can I do?” Alex asked.

“What do you want to do?” Rian replied, raising an eyebrow.

Alex bit his bottom lip and shrugged. He really didn’t know.

“I really like him, Ri,” Alex eventually whispered.

Rian smiled softly and squeezed Alex’s shoulder.

“Then you’ll have to learn to like this other aspect of his life too,” Rian said.

“I don’t know if I can,” Alex admitted.

“Lex, his daughter isn’t going to go away – it’s either Jack and his kid, or nothing. You’ll have to make the choice. You’ll have to decide if Jack is worth it,” Rian said firmly.

Alex swallowed heavily but nodded. He knew he’d have to decide. Was Jack worth it?

“Come on, just relax. Clearly you’ve been overthinking this today, so I think you should just go with your heart,”

“With my heart?” Alex frowned.

“Yeah, with your heart. The next time you see Jack face to face, if your heart skips a beat and goes faster, then you know he’s worth it. If it doesn’t, then he isn’t. Go by instinct, Lex. Thinking obviously isn’t helping,” Rian teased.

Alex couldn’t help but giggle softly, making Rian smile.

“That’s more like it. You’re not going to mope on our movie night round Zack’s tonight, are you?” Rian asked, cocking his head to the side.

Alex smiled slightly and shook his head. If anything, his level-headed friend Zack would help him decide what to do for definite.

“No I won’t, I promise,”

“That’s more like it. Now, drink your chocolate milkshake while I smooth things over with Vinny. I have no doubt that Jack’s told him what happened by now,” Rian announced.

Alex grimaced but nodded. He could do this, right? He could sort his head out over what he learned yesterday. If he likes Jack this much, if Jack was really worth it, then he could accept that Jack has a daughter…right?