“Um. I um.” Syn thought of backtracking, but there was no point.
“Syn, it’s –”
Syn cut Furi off. He didn’t want to hear the rejection and he was ninety-nine percent sure that Furi wouldn’t reciprocate his feelings. “T-that’s my ride. I g-gotta go,” Syn stammered. Looking horrified he turned on his heels and hightailed it out of there. Syn got in the dark un-marked car and slammed the door shut. He could still see Furi standing at the garage door out of the corner of his eye.
“Drive, Ro,” Syn gritted out, his voice full of emotion.
Ro looked at him a second before he took off. Syn refused to look in the side mirror, not wanting to see a look of repulsion on Furi’s face. “Fuck,” Syn groaned.
“Now what’d you do?” Ro cut his eyes at him.
“I fucked up man.” Syn rubbed his eyes tiredly.
“Let’s go to my place. Fuck the office. I think you could use a stiff one.”
Syn looked up in annoyance.
“I mean a drink,” Ro laughed
Everyone was full of jokes today. But Syn didn’t really feel like laughing right now.
Furi stood there stunned as Syn jumped in the black Lexus and disappeared. He turned to go back into his garage, running his hands through his hair and pulling at the ends. Love. He said he loved me. “Love,” Furi whispered to himself. He didn’t know if it had been a slip-up, like someone said they love pie. Or if he really meant love and freaked because he didn’t want it out yet. Kind of like Furi. He felt it was too soon to say the words. But Furi would give Syn some time and then he’d tell the man it was okay, because he loved him right back. He didn’t care about a goddamn timetable.
‘Love Never Felt So Good’
After a couple hours Furi called Syn but he got no answer. No sooner had he hung up, when Ronowski called him right back.
“Hey, everything alright?”
Furi frowned at the receiver before finally responding with a drawn-out, "Yeeeeees." It registered a few seconds later that though Syn didn’t answer, he made sure that one of his men did, just in case Furi was calling because he was in trouble. “I’m fine. I want to speak to Syn.”
“He’s in the bathroom,” Ronowski replied too fast.
“Seriously,” Furi scoffed. “Put him on the goddamn phone.”
There was some shuffling and muffled curses before Furi finally heard Syn’s voice. “Yeah?”
“We have a date in an hour and a half,” Furi said softly, his anger gone as soon as he heard the man’s voice. Syn was scared and Furi couldn’t blame him. He was too. But sticking your head in the sand didn’t make shit disappear.
“I have to cancel. I have a ton of work to do. I’ll call you,” Syn said in a pained voice.
“Syn, wait. It’s okay, I feel like–”
“I’ll call you soon,” Syn cut him off. Furi heard the call disconnect and looked at his phone in utter shock that Syn had fucking hung up on him.
Furi was not going to let Syn run from him. He must’ve thought Furi didn’t feel the same way, but he’d bolted before he could reply. Otherwise he would’ve known that he felt exactly the same.
Furi called Syn’s phone back but it went to voicemail again. “Stubborn bastard,” Furi muttered. He’d finished the tune up on Syn’s truck and even managed to change all the fluids. The deliveries were all locked up and Doug had left thirty minutes ago. Furi was glad his friend had stayed in the office most of the afternoon because he would’ve easily noticed Furi’s distress. He wiped a few smudges off the hood and tidied up his workspace. Furi realized he was smiling while he locked up his shop. Syn loved him. Furi looked at his phone and saw he only had an hour to get home and cleaned up and then to Savannah for their cruise. He was gonna have to call a cab, he wouldn’t have time to wait for the bus. “Wait a minute. I have a perfectly fine truck right here.” Furi grinned. He raised the bay door and jumped in the driver seat to back the truck out. As he drove off he wished his new apartment over the shop was finished so he could simply go up there and shower but he still had quite a bit of renovating to do before that loft would be livable. Furi was buzzing with excitement. New shop, new home, new love. Everything was finally coming together nicely for him. Out with the old, in with the new, was Furi’s new mantra.
Furi called Syn again when he pulled up to his small basement apartment. No answer. Damn you for making me do it this way. Furi would have to text him.
I’ll be on the dock in Savannah by 7:15. Hopefully the man I love too is there to join me, since he promised to hold me in his arms under the stars.