Forget Yesterday

The first week of May. How time flew when Alex was having fun. Fuck, was he having fun. Not only was everything with Jack great (especially in the bedroom), but his job was great, his friends were great, and everything was just…great.

Okay, so maybe he sounded a bit cheesy, but so what! Alex hadn’t been this happy, couldn’t remember a time he’d ever been this happy, so screw it. He was going to take what he could get. Tonight Jack was spending his evening with Emma, so Alex was going to be alone, seeing as Rian was going out for ‘date night’ with Vinny, aka let’s see how drunk we can get and how loud we can have sex to mentally scar Alex. Every Friday night, like clockwork.

But if Rian was as happy as Alex was, who was he to judge?

After work, Alex walked to the grocery store, knowing that there wouldn’t be anything decent for him to eat back at the apartment. Grabbing a shopping cart, he mentally made a list of basics in his head and went round the store picking up the things that he needed (bread, juice, condoms, chocolate…all necessities), until he reached for a carton of milk…and another hand grabbed over his.

“Shit, sorry,” Alex chuckled, taking his hand away.

Then he looked at the person next to him and froze, his mouth drying up. No way. No fucking way. What the hell?!

“Hey, Lex,” Danny smiled, his blue eyes lighting up.

Alex just about managed to croak a ‘hi’ back. Danny? Danny was here? Why was Danny here? What did Alex do to deserve this?

“How are you? You look good,” Danny said smoothly, cocking his hip slightly.

“I’m good, yeah. Been good,” Alex nodded.

The image of Jack’s sleepy face smiling up at him in Alex’s bed this morning made Alex smile. Yeah, he’d been really good.

“That’s good, I’m glad to hear it. Shame I can’t say the same,” Danny said, his smile dropping slightly.

What? What was wrong? Wait…why did Alex care?

“What do you mean?” Alex asked curiously.

Danny smiled wryly.

“Let’s just say marriage isn’t all it’s cracked up to be,” Danny shrugged.

Marriage…hah! Ian sucks! Screw you Ian, you homewrecking slut. Wait, that was mean. Wait, no it wasn’t. Ian wasn’t worth screwing their relationship up over. Hah.

“Oh yeah?” Alex asked, unable to stop himself smiling.

Danny laughed slightly at Alex’s smile, rolling his eyes.

“Yeah, it isn’t,” Danny nodded.

“Well that’s too bad,” Alex said, trying not to sound too happy.

Danny just nodded again, reaching for the previous bottle of milk, as well as handing Alex one too. Alex wanted to shoot himself as he felt his cheeks heat up a little when their fingers brushed, but stammered out a ‘thank you’, Danny smiling once more.

“So what are you up to these days?” Danny asked warmly.

“Living with Rian, working in another tattoo parlour,” Alex replied simply, not wanting to give too much away.

“Still the same, eh? Well I’ve…”

An old lady suddenly reached between them, shaking her head at them blocking the way to the milk. Alex blushed, mumbling an apology, bringing himself to his senses. He shouldn’t be talking to Danny at all, let alone in the grocery store, not after everything he’s done, not after how he treated Alex, not after…

“Do you want to grab a cup of coffee sometime? Catch up properly?” Danny asked, smiling hopefully.

“Uh, maybe,” Alex said without thinking.

What?! Why did he say that?! What the fuck Alex!

“Great. Give me a call, I’ve still got the same number. It was good to see you, Alex. Real good,” Danny grinned.

Alex just stood in silence, jaw dropping as Danny walked away without another word. What the fuck. What the actual fuck.

Without hesitating, Alex whipped out his phone and called Zack, knowing that Zack would listen without judging, unlike Rian. And that Rian would answer during sex while Zack wouldn’t. Eurgh. There are some things that he didn’t need to hear while trying to choose his cereal.

“Sexy Lexy! What’s up, homeslice?” Zack answered cheerfully.

“I just ran into Danny at the grocery store and he asked me out for coffee,” Alex blurted.

“What? What the fuck? He’s married!” Zack gasped.

“I know, I know, I don’t want to go, I said maybe but I don’t want to go,” Alex insisted.

“Okay, that’s good. That you don’t want to go, I mean,” Zack soothed.

“Of course I don’t, I’m with Jack and I love him and…oh my God! Jack! He’s going to be so mad!” Alex whined.

“Why would he be mad? You haven’t done anything wrong – your ex spoke to you and you don’t want to meet up with him…that’s a good thing,” Zack said.

“You think so?” Alex asked, unsure.

“Yes, I do. Relax, Lex. Don’t let Danny get inside your head again,” Zack said firmly.

Alex took a deep breath, making himself calm down, before nodding.

“Yeah, okay. I didn’t do anything wrong. Jack doesn’t even have to know I saw him,” Alex murmured.

“Good boy. Now, I’ve got to go because Matt’s looking all sexy walking by in just a towel and I want to jump his bones so…YES MATTHEW! I’M TALKING ABOUT YOU! Sorry Lex, didn’t mean to shout. Are you going to be okay?” Zack asked.

Alex chuckled softly, nodding to himself.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. Thanks, Zack,” Alex murmured.

“Any time. Save me some poptarts!” Zack said cheerfully.

The call ended and Alex looked at the box in his hand. Poptarts. That’s just freaky.

Alex put the box in his cart anyway and headed towards the checkout. Today was just a strange coincidence that didn’t mean anything. What Jack didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him, right?