Heero's POV
The Wedding Planner Part 47
Confessions
Wufei hadn't cooled off by the time I arrived at the office. Not that I'd expected him to; but I thought he might have at least pulled himself together enough to carry off a civil greeting.
Instead I got a piercing glare as I stepped out of the elevator. "You'd better have the explanation of the century, Yuy, or--" His gaze raked me from head to toe, no doubt taking in the still-damp hair I'd hastily rinsed in Duo's bathroom sink, and the wrinkles in my clothes which had spent the night carelessly dumped on the floor. "Oh fuck," he breathed in quiet dismay. "You didn't!"
I could feel the heat rush to my face. "Now isn't the time," I muttered curtly, brushing past him to head for the meeting room.
His hand shot out and caught my arm in a vise-like grip. "You fucking slept with Maxwell, didn't you?"
I nodded silently, jerking my arm free and walking away.
But of course I wasn't going to get off the hook that easily. He was at my side in a heartbeat, holding out a file folder, his voice suddenly calm and casual. "Here are the reports we're supposed to go over. I printed them off your computer this morning, while you were busy fucking your wedding planner."
I turned on him so quickly we ended up nose to nose with less than an inch separating us. "Don't say it like that!" I snarled. "It wasn't like that!"
His eyes widened slightly, and his jaw dropped. "You're in love with him, aren't you?"
Again I nodded curtly, turning and resuming my walk towards the meeting room--thanking my lucky stars it was at the far end of the building and would give me a few moments more to pull myself together.
Wufei caught up quickly, looking at me out of the corner of his eye, as if he were trying not to spook a skittish animal. "At least tell me you've told Relena the wedding's off."
"I will."
"Will? When?!" he demanded a bit too sharply.
"She's in Europe for a few days. I'll talk to her when she gets back."
He gave a wry snort. "When the cat's away..."
Again I spun to face him, glaring heatedly into his stern, dark eyes. "I'm not playing with Duo. This isn't a game!"
"I'm not suggesting it is," he replied with maddening calm. "But until you call off the wedding, it's still wrong."
God! He sounded like Duo now. "I didn't mean to sleep with him, 'Fei. I just went over to apologize for kissing him--"
"You kissed him? When?" Wufei shook his head. "Goddamnit, Yuy--you picked a hell of a time to have an affair, you know." His gaze traveled past me to the elevator at the end of the hall we were in, and the two vice-presidents of our department who were emerging. "We really don't have time to discuss this right now, but we need to!"
"What's to discuss?" I asked curtly.
"Everything!" he snapped back.
"We will. Later." I turned back around, and walked quickly up to the approaching executives, greeting them on my way into the meeting room just in the nick of time.
~*~
I wasn't sure whether to be glad the meeting dragged on all day or not. It gave me a chance to focus on something other than my colossal blunder. I was so wrong for sleeping with Duo. Wufei was right about that, and I knew he'd have plenty to say on the subject when we got out of the meeting.
Meanwhile, we were both thoroughly occupied with our work, which was a pleasant respite from the soul-searching I knew lay ahead of me. Lunch was brought it so we could continue to work uninterrupted; and it was after six before the meeting broke up, and we scattered to our individual offices to finish any loose ends.
There was that phrase again--loose ends. Duo and I had so many I was afraid we'd never get them all tied up. But I felt a flutter of anticipation at the thought of seeing him again that evening. I just hoped he'd be as eager to see me.
With him in mind, I hurried to complete my work, contemplating bringing him Chinese takeout for dinner.
Wufei Chang was not the Chinese I had in mind.
In fact, I had kind of hoped to slip out of my office without Wufei noticing, but of course he was way ahead of me...waiting by the elevator.
"Going somewhere, Yuy?"
I sighed, nodding towards the elevator. "Home."
"Whose?"
There was no skirting the issue with him; he knew damned well I was going to see Duo. "I need to talk to Duo. This morning was kind of--rushed. I'd like to make sure he's okay with what happened."
"Exactly what did happen?"
The elevator dinged open and I stepped inside with my shadowy conscience alongside. Sadly, we were alone in the damned thing.
"Well?" Wufei asked coolly.
"Relena wouldn't spend Monday with me. Said she had a luncheon that was apparently more important than our relationship." I looked defiantly at my friend. "It was at the Luxembourg Embassy."
My friend had the decency to wince a little. He knew all about Geoffrey. God knows I'd spilled my guts to him about it when it happened. "So you hopped in bed with your wedding planner to even the score?" he asked caustically.
I felt my temper flare. "Stop calling him 'the wedding planner'. He has a name, Wufei. Duo. Call him Duo."
"Fine. You hopped in bed with Duo to get even with Relena."
"No!" I was about ready to punch something, and Wufei must have realized it, because he backed off just a little.
"So why did you?"
"I--" Oh, fuck it all! "I'm in love with him, 'Fei. All right? Is that what you want to hear?"
He sighed, closing his eyes and leaning against the back wall of the elevator. "I want to hear that you're going to clean up the mess you've made of this, Yuy."
"I wish I knew where to start."
The elevator opened into the parking garage, and I sighed in frustration, checking my cell phone even though I knew there'd be no signal there. Wufei tagged along as I headed for my car. "When did you--? When--?" He fumbled momentarily, apparently having trouble asking the obvious question.
"I spent the day with Duo on Monday, after Relena refused to cancel her appointments for me. We went sailing, to an amusement park, and for a walk on the beach."
"Holy shit, Yuy!" Wufei exploded. "You had sex on the beach with him? How did you not see that coming?"
"No, we didn't have sex on the beach," I growled back, thinking it was actually a very appealing idea, in spite of the current turmoil. "I kissed him and he got angry, told me he quit, and bolted."
I could almost see the light bulb go on over Wufei's head. "Ah--hence your sleepless night and your distraction yesterday."
"Exactly." I stopped by my car, setting my briefcase on the roof. "So last night, I went to his apartment to apologize."
Wufei chuckled at that, shaking his head.
"What?"
"Isn't that how Milliardo got in the door?"
I felt that all too familiar upwelling of anger. "Are you comparing me to Mill?"
"Not at all--just noticing the similarity in tactics is all."
"It wasn't a 'tactic'. I didn't go there for sex, 'Fei! I honestly went to apologize and ask him to come back to work."
"Work? Planning your wedding?" Wufei asked with obvious shock. "Are you telling me you essentially told him the kiss was nothing and that you still intended to marry Relena? And then slept with him?"
I gaped for a moment, trying to sort out the conversation Duo and I had before our second kiss and the resultant tumble into his bed. "I--I just wanted him not to quit yet." I glared at Wufei. "This isn't going right," I assured him. "It made more sense yesterday."
"I'm sure it did."
"I told him we couldn't just forget the kiss ever happened, and that I had to figure out what to do about it. He--" I suddenly recalled the expression on Duo's face when he'd asked if I just kissed him out of curiosity. "I just meant to prove it did matter...that it wasn't just a whim. But when I kissed him again..." I shrugged helplessly.
Wufei put a hand over his face in a despairing gesture. "God, Yuy. What happened to your self-control?"
"For Christ's sake, you've been pushing me about my sexual preferences--nagging me to figure out what I wanted--and now that I did, you say I've got no self-control?"
"In a word--yes." He scowled darkly at me. "I advised you to get counseling, Heero, not jump into bed with him. And certainly not before breaking it off with Relena! What the hell were you thinking?"
"I wasn't!" I sighed, rubbing my forehead wearily. "I wasn't. Okay? For once in my life, instead of thinking, I just went with my emotions. And in defiance of all that is logical, I slept with Duo Maxwell."
Wufei sighed deeply. "Do you have any idea how you're going to proceed from here?"
"I guess, first, I need to talk to Duo." I looked warily at my old friend. "Like I said, this morning got a bit hectic, and I've been in that meeting all day."
"So you have no idea what his expectations are."
I shook my head. "Not really. No. He seemed bothered at the thought of my breaking up with Relena for him."
Wufei gave a snide laugh. "Great. He wants to be your 'mistress.'"
"No!" I snapped sharply. "Damn it, 'Fei. You've got him all wrong. He was upset at the idea of stealing me from her, and he was even more adamant that he didn't want to be in an illicit relationship."
"He already is. You both are."
"I'm going to fix that."
"How?"
"When Relena gets back from Europe next week I'm going to tell her I want to cancel the wedding plans. I've already told her we need counseling; I think that's the best place for me to try to break the news to her that I might be--gay."
"Might be?" Only Wufei could say so little and convey so very much sarcasm.
"Okay. I am."
"And do you honestly think you can then take up with Maxwell and she won't realize how and when you became aware of your sexual preferences?"
"I don't care!"
Wufei shook his head. "Then perhaps you'll care about this. How are you going to break the news to your parents?"
Well that stopped me cold. I honestly hadn't thought that far ahead. But sooner or later, I'd have to let my parents know the wedding was off. And of course they'd wonder why. And I could just imagine where the conversation would go from there. "I--I'll figure that out later."
"You have a lot of things to figure out later," he pointed out. "I thought I advised you to figure them out first."
"Well I didn't," I ground out bitterly. "Okay? I didn't. And now I just have to do the best I can to make things work."
He seemed to wilt a little at that, losing some of the rigid tension from his shoulders. "You really love him?"
"I thought I made that clear."
"This isn't just a crazy mid-life crisis type thing?"
"I'd have to be in mid-life for it to be that," I said dryly, regaining a shred of humor.
"Then you need to proceed very carefully," Wufei said with a dark tone to his voice. "If you make one wrong move at this point, you stand to lose everything."
"How so?"
"You said Duo doesn't want to steal you from Relena." He shook his head. "But he already has. How are you going to break up with her, without him feeling that it's his fault?"
How indeed? A familiar three-word phrase ran through my head.
TBC...
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