Tom can’t catch a break when it comes to his love life. He isn’t good with romance, as his exes told him in uncharitable terms, and he’s starting to wonder if there’s something wrong with him. So when he finds himself attracted to his temporary roommate, he’s afraid of being called inadequate all over again.<br><br>Alex has serious anxiety which make his life a challenge and his dating prospects slim to nonexistent. He assumes Tom isn’t interested in him because men never are. It’s a pleasant surprise to start a friends-with-benefits relationship, so Alex goes out on a limb in an attempt to impress Tom. When it backfires spectacularly, he thinks all hope is lost.<br><br>Both men are held back by past rejections. Will a minor crisis bring them together ... or tear them apart?

Acts of Service

Technically he hadn’t known Tom before moving into the man’s spare room, but Will had been friends with Tom for over twenty years, so that was all right. Testaments to character from a reliable third party were acceptable, and Alex had it on good authority from both Will and Josiah that Tom could be trusted.


So he wasn’t worried about Tom, but some random guy from a bar or club? That was a different matter altogether. Alex didn’t know how anyone could sleep with a stranger in their house, much less their bed.


He needed to get a new apartment, but the one of Twelfth Street was a bust. The upstairs neighbors had a baby which wailed for the entirety of Alex’s short visit. Children were not in his wheelhouse to begin with, and one which screamed at the top of its little lungs all day…well, he understood why the previous tenant had moved out.


Chapter 7