Charlie still couldn't believe that the man he'd obsessed over the past couple of weeks was standing right in front of him.

"Sorry if this is unexpected," Ben said, holding out the bouquet of flowers. Ben noticed Josh right behind Charlie. "Oh, I'm sorry. Is this a bad time?"

"No," said Charlie abruptly. "Not at all. It' just... unexpected." He turned to Josh. "I'll see you later, Josh."

"Ok," said Josh. "But um... can we talk? Later?"

"Of course," said Charlie.

"Wow, um, sorry," Ben said as Josh walked away. "I didn't mean to interrupt, I just... "

"No, you weren't interrupting," said Charlie. He took a breath and smiled. "Hi."

Ben smiled back. "Hi."

"I never thought I'd see you again," Charlie said, as they walked around the block. I mean, I left so abruptly and... "

"I know. And at first I thought you just weren't interested. Or that maybe you had a boyfriend. Trust me, I spent weeks agonizing over it. Then I thought I saw you at this Gala thing... "

"Omigod, that WAS you... "

Ben chuckled. "I didn't spill my drink on you on purpose, I swear. But then I couldn't find you after... "

"Yeah, things got... sorry, my life's been sort of complicated."

"Oh I get that. Life has a way of getting complicated, I guess. But then, after, I thought, what's the harm in asking? And if it turned out you weren't interested or had a boyfriend, at least I'd know. And if you were interested or didn't have a boyfriend, well, all the better for me."

"So how did you... ?"

Ben shrugged sheepishly. "I looked up your patient file. Stalkery, I know... "

"No, it's fine," Charlie chuckled, reluctant to admit his own attempts at trying to find Ben online.

"I could've called I guess, but if it could be the last chance I'd see you, I wanted to actually see you."

Charlie stopped and kissed him on the cheek. "I'm glad you did."

"So does this mean that you're interested?"

Charlie kissed him in reply.

"So... are things still... complicated?"

"A little. Not too much. I just... there's a couple of things I need to figure out."

"Nothing that can be mucked up by me taking you out for dinner, I hope," Ben said, offering the flowers.

"Not at all," Charlie said, taking the flowers. "Wait, so you were just waiting on my front stoop?"

"I buzzed up but no one answered."

"How long were you waiting for?"

"Doesn't matter. I would've waited all night if I had to."

"You're a rare one, Benjamin Finn," Charlie smiled, kissing him. They stood there for a while, kissing on the corner of Halsted and Buckingham. Ben broke the kiss.

"Wait. How do you know my last name?"

Charlie smiled sheepishly.

*

It was moments like this Charlie wished he were a better gay. He had this lovely bouquet of flowers and no vase to put them in. His phone vibrated with a text from Josh: "Can we go to dinner some time? Talk?"

"Sure," Charlie texted back. He never thought that he'd be in this dilemma, that two guys he'd been interested in and thought there'd be no way in hell of pursuing things with were both vying for him at the same time. He felt so strongly about both in such different ways... he had to make sure he was making the right choice.

"Someone home?" Hunter weakly called out from his room.

"Just me," Charlie said, walking in that direction. Hunter was standing in his doorway, his face lifeless, his eyes red with crying. "Omigod, Hunter, what happened?"

"It's my Dad," Hunter said, breaking into sobs uncontrollably. Charlie caught him as his knees buckled underneath him. Hunter spent the rest of the night crying in bed. Charlie held him the whole time.

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Glad to be back for Volume 4! Just joining us? Catch up now:

Volume 1 -
Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four, Week Five

Volume 2 -
Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four, Week Five

Volume 3 -
Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week Four, Week Five

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