Jonathan Banks and Peter Giles have worked together for five years, business partners in a planning firm that bears both their names. From the moment Jonathan was hired, the attraction between the two men was instantaneous and mutual, but he was dating someone else at the time and turned down Peter’s advances.<br><br>Now Jonathan’s boyfriend is out of the picture, and he’d love nothing more than for Peter to ask him out again, but he knows his partner all too well. Peter doesn’t take rejection easily. He likes flirting with Jonathan, sure, but doesn’t want to take the chance of getting turned down a second time. He's satisfied with the way their friendship is, and fears anything more intimate might ruin what they already have.<br><br>But everything both men have planned and worked for together is threatened on a cold, wintry evening when Peter’s car won’t start and Jonathan has to give him a lift home. Can the two friends move past their own fears and trepidations, and begin to build a future together as partners outside the office?

Not According to Plan

We are friends,Peter reminded himself, easing open the bedroom door. Inside the room was pitch black; he navigated to the bedside table blindly, hoping he’d left nothing on the floor he might stumble over on the way. When his leg bumped the side of the bed without incident, he smiled in victory.


Then he thought, Who am I kidding? I’ve liked him since day one. Fuck sitting around doing nothing. I should’ve kissed him. I missed my chance.


With fumbling fingers he found the lamp and turned it on. A golden circle of light pushed back the darkness, illuminating the bed but not much else. As he sank onto the mattress, he sighed and ran a hand through his disheveled hair. If Jonathan hadn’t gotten home yet, was it too late to call and ask him to come back? Would that look terribly bad?


Who cares? At least then I won’t be alone.


Flopping back onto the bed, Peter reached into his pocket to pull out his phone. To his surprise, it started to ring as soon as his fingers brushed over it.


Chapter 10