Patrick let out the breath he’d been holding.
“I’ll probably
just nap for a while,” Lee said sleepily. But he snuggled farther down into the
bed, sighing with obvious relief, and was asleep within the minute.
Patrick stood
and watched him for a while. Lee was sleeping soundly. He’d taken up a
comfortable position, curled up on the right side of the bed, hugging the
pillow under his head. Like a kid. But Patrick could see the shape of
the very adult body underneath the duvet, and the developed muscles in Lee’s
arms and shoulders. Patrick sat down slowly on the edge of the bed, still watching.
Sometimes he
couldn’t remember exactly how long ago he met Lee, only that it felt like he’d
been in Patrick’s life for ages. But Lee had been the first person to suggest
Patrick started up his own business.
Patrick had been
rambling on one evening, as he often did, about needing to find a new job: that
his redundancy pay-out wouldn’t last long. They were all in a pub somewhere