Chapter 115: "Am I That Boring?"

Vincent made the call to Jim and asked him to come. Bryce heard him say the name clearly, but when the office door opened a short while later, it was not one man who walked through it. The two of them entered together.

Vincent immediately looked at them, his expression shifting as though he were trying to make sense of something unusual about their arrival.

Bryce, on the other hand, had to fight back a grin, amusement flickering across his face.

Just looking at the two of them brought back the memory of that beautiful and completely unexpected confession he had overheard that day.

He still had no idea how it had ended, and remembering it now only made him feel strangely unsettled about the unfinished story in his mind.

"Kyle, what are you doing here? I asked for Jim to come. I had given you the work to do, so mind explaining to me why you’re here as well?" Vincent asked, narrowing his eyes at them.

He was still sitting on the couch beside Bryce, close enough that there was no mistaking the relationship between them.

"The task is over, sir," Kyle answered.

"Over?"

Vincent sounded genuinely unable to believe it. He had clearly not expected the task he had assigned Kyle to be completed so quickly, and his surprise showed in the way he repeated the word.

"Yes, he helped me," Kyle answered.

Vincent stared at them for another moment.

"You want to say all this time I was thinking Jim was in this building, he wasn’t?"

Frustration had begun to slip into Vincent’s voice, but before it could grow any sharper, Bryce moved his hand and placed it on Vincent’s thigh.

The simple touch immediately made Vincent draw a deep breath.

When he spoke again, his voice had lost some of the harshness it had begun to acquire.

"I apologize, sir," Jim said with a slight bow.

"Following each other around like you’ve suddenly been glued together, where is that behavior coming from?" Vincent asked.

"This is going to disrupt my schedule some time, and you know I won’t like that. Stay in your positions and stick to the tasks you’ve been given. If you’ve become that much of friends, then wait until you’re off work and catch up. Not during work hours."

His voice was no longer particularly harsh, but his words were firm enough to make his displeasure clear.

He then gestured toward Jim.

"Now, you. Go pick up Mr. Sinclair Junior at the house and be back in an two."

His gaze shifted to Kyle.

"You remain behind."

Jim and Kyle hesitated for a moment, exchanging a brief glance.

There was something in the way they looked at each other that made it seem as though neither of them was particularly pleased with the arrangement.

For a moment, Bryce thought they might actually resist, but they simply bowed slightly before turning around and beginning to walk away.

"Come on," Bryce said to Vincent before the two could disappear from the room. "Let them go together. There isn’t anything that you want Kyle to do here now, is there?"

Vincent did not answer.

He simply looked at Bryce, confusion settling more visibly across his expression. There was something about the amusement on Bryce’s face and the ease with which he had spoken on behalf of the two men that clearly made him suspicious.

"What?" Vincent muttered.

"Let them go together if they want to," Bryce repeated.

Vincent looked away.

"Whatever," he said.

Bryce immediately turned toward Kyle and Jim, who had stopped near the door.

"I think that’s a yes. You can go together."

Jim and Kyle looked at him with unmistakable gratitude, though there was also a hint of suspicion in their expressions.

The way Bryce had insisted on speaking for them seemed to have caught them off guard, and they appeared to be wondering why he was so interested in making sure they left together.

Neither of them said anything.

They simply turned around and left.

The amusement remained on Bryce’s face even after the door closed behind them.

There was something about the way Kyle and Jim had entered together, the way they had reacted to Vincent’s decision, and the way they had both seemed reluctant to separate that made Bryce’s mind immediately return to that confession.

Perhaps it had gone well that day.

Perhaps when the car had suddenly stopped, they had been kissing. Perhaps Kyle had finally told Jim that he had been in love with him too.

The possibilities excited him.

He had heard enough that day to make him curious, but not enough to know how the story had ended. Now that he had seen the two of them together again, his curiosity had only grown stronger.

He wanted to know what had happened after that moment, whether the confession had changed anything between them, and whether what he was seeing now was actually the result of that conversation.

He planned to get closer to them, and once he did, he would find out.

The thought alone made the unanswered question feel even more interesting.

Bryce finally turned back toward Vincent, only to find him staring at him with the same confused expression.

"What?" he asked, the amusement on his face only deepening.

"Spill it. What’s going on in that beautiful head of yours?" Vincent muttered, leaning closer. "Are you shipping them or something? Because if you’re, then that’s really crazy."

"I’m not shipping them. Actually, this is not my place to say, but they might be dating," Bryce replied, stressing the word might.

"Okay, that’s so not true," Vincent replied, clearly caught off guard.

"You can see it if you want to, you just don’t want to."

"Why would you think that? Kyle has a girlfriend," Vincent said, as though that alone was enough to make it impossible for the two of them to be together.

"No offense, but you had a wife too," Bryce replied, reminding Vincent of his own history.

"You’re right, but I don’t think they are. It just doesn’t..." Vincent trailed off, then shook his head. "Okay, whatever."

"I heard them confess to each other," Bryce said, as though he could no longer keep the information to himself. "Actually, Jim was the one who confessed, and I never got to hear Kyle’s response. It’s been bothering me. I want to know how it actually happened, not just to know that they’re dating after the confession."

Vincent chuckled. "Why are you so invested in it? Anyway, that was unexpected. What was he saying to him? That he’d been silently into him?"

"Yes," Bryce answered, completely unaware that they had fallen into the same kind of gossip people had been indulging in about their relationship.

"They were talking about us when it started, and then the conversation just developed until those words finally came out. The way it happened made it so interesting that I couldn’t stop wanting to know how it actually ended. I want to know what Kyle said to him, how he reacted."

"If they’re that much into each other, then I think you just made the mistake of letting them leave together," Vincent said. "Because now I’m certain that car is going to stop somewhere along the way for a few sessions before they remember they were supposed to be doing something."

"As long as they eventually remember and carry out the task."

Bryce answered without taking his attention away from the fantasy he had constructed around the two of them.

"Wow, you’re really invested in their story. Almost more than you are in your own," Vincent remarked.

He placed his hand over Bryce’s, which was still resting on his thigh. So absorbed in his thoughts was Bryce that he had completely forgotten his hand was still there.

"Am I that boring that you’re so fascinated by another love story?" Vincent murmured.

As he spoke, he guided Bryce’s hand farther up his thigh, toward his groin.