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

Finally another nurse came out from a back room and Peter managed to catch her attention. “Excuse me,” he started.


“Did you sign in and register?” she asked in a bored voice, as if his emergency was nothing more than a night’s work for her.


Peter didn’t even spare a glance at the computer screen she indicated. “No, I’m looking for—”


“We can’t help you until you register,” she said, turning away from him.


Peter stepped around the screen to stay in her line of sight. “No, you don’t understand. I don’t need to see a doctor. My friend was brought in here and I got a call—”


“Visiting hours are over,” she told him. “You’ll have to come back later.”


“Goddamn it!” Peter yelled. “Are you hard of hearing or am I suddenly speaking Greek? Will you stop what you’re doing for one fucking minute and listento me?”


That got her attention. The woman stopped and propped a hand on her hip to glare at him. “Sir, you take that attitude back outside right this minute or I’ll call security.”


Chapter 11