We are all fools in love

Hold up, I need to get a knife. Cut the air a bit. 

Don't know if that would work, we'd be better suited to waking everyone up. Then it wouldn't be as quiet.

You can hear the whistling of the wind it’s so quiet. 

You really can, it's very eerie.

There are a few i would trust but none of them have a clue about how to run the coffeehouse. Ah well, i’ll cope i’m sure. Well we do have tea too as you know. 

Well, they wouldn't need to run it very long. Though I'm sure the coffee addicts would survive if you decided to take a day off. I'm aware, I just can make a nice cup on my own. 

For that i would need to close up for two days, imagine the chaos if the coffeehouse was closed?

Get someone you trust to run the shop for two days. Or I wouldn't be among the bunch complaining, tea is rather easy to make on my own.

I may need a holiday.

Nelson was hard as brick but the night had been about them spending time together and he was fine if it didn’t end up with them sweaty, spent, and tangled in his sheets. They could hook up any time but he just wanted a few moments with Henry. He had grown attached to him. They were friends. Henry was generally the first person he called when something was on his mind. Friends had been few and far between over the years and not many of them had managed to stick. He had a finite group and Henry’s name was at the top of the list. Nelson twisted a lock of hair around his finger. There had been something lingering between them for months and he knew what it was. He knew they needed to have a conversation but he truly didn’t know where or how to begin. What if was always the answer. 

Favorite was an easy word for Henry to throw around, it was the way he could tell Nelson how important he was to him, without revealing just how much Henry cared about him. He wasn't an English literature professor for nothing, he could find a word that would substitute that didn't have the same scary feeling as telling someone that you love them. Besides things were fine, they had nights like this often. Honestly, Henry's favorite moments were ones where the two of them could relax like this together, talk or bicker, cuddle or do something like they were doing now. The more time he got to spend with Nelson, the longer the smile stayed on his face and the more he could sleep at night. So Henry wasn't going to lose this, not if he could manage it. With gorgeous Nelson underneath him, and hands in his hair, Henry tried to convince himself that he could.

What’s wrong Henry? 

I guess I don't know if anything is wrong. I just, I don't know what I'm doing and I feel like my choices are coming back at me.

They weren’t together. No matter how hard he tried to move beyond the fact he couldn’t. There were times colleagues on campus actually referred to Henry as Nelson’s significant other but he politely corrected them and assured them their friendship was strictly platonic. In the back of his mind, he often felt guilt. There was no reason for him to be so afraid of the concept of a relationship. He hadn’t truly been in one since his parents’ attempt to arrange a marriage. Now he was actively dating, there was nothing else to call out, they were dating and he was scared. He enjoyed Henry’s company. He could listen to him speak about literature, hours upon hours. Yes, their taste in movies was different but it was a small concession he had to make in order for them to have a pleasant evening. 

Henry couldn't tell you why it scared him so much to ask if they were in a relationship, certainly it would have been an easy question, one he could ask on a lazy morning after sleeping together. But he also didn't want to screw this up. For once, he had the guy that wasn't the asshole, he had the guy that cared about him, the one that missed him when he stayed away too long, the one that knew things about him that other people didn't. And Henry was scared that if he lost Nelson he wouldn't be able to do that again, he had a horrible track record with boyfriends. He knew Nelson wouldn't be an asshole, but he could see the universe being a dick and the one person he wanted a relationship with didn't want a relationship with him. So this non-relationship was alright with him, they were lovers without the label. He tried not to think about it too much.