Olivier breathed out, pausing by his desk. He looked small then, thin and delicate, and Eric kind of regretted being pissed with him.
There were so many things Eric wanted to say. About the baby. About Total Sounds. About... them. Him and Olivier. He didn’t know where to start.
“Look, I’m sorry about your business,” Eric said, so at least he could get that off his chest. “I didn’t even know this was your shop until last week. I’ve been working on the Total Sounds branches for the past three months. Way before any of this happened.”
Olivier glanced at him sidelong. “But you knew when... when you came in here last week. When we, um.”
Olivier blushed, and Eric tried not to think about last week. When he’d had Olivier stripped naked against him, his ass smooth and tight. “Yeah,” Eric said. “I knew then. I should’ve mentioned it to you. Sorry.”
Olivier sighed, but he didn’t look angry at all. “If you’d mentioned it then... things wouldn’t have gotten complicated.”
Was this complicated?
Then Olivier touched his belly, and Eric froze. How did the baby make things complicated?
“That’s my baby,” Eric said.
“N-no, it isn’t.” Olivier gulped, looking away.
Eric stopped breathing. He remembered Olivier saying, I don’t love you, and Olivier’s eyes when he’d looked at Eric, wide and hungry. That had been years ago, when Ollie had lied and shattered their relationship.
“You’re lying,” Eric said.
“I’m not!”
But Olivier huddled against the table, his shoulders hunched. Eric had the sneaking feeling that Olivier wasn’t being truthful right now, either.
He stepped closer, closing his fingers around Olivier’s arm. Then he pressed his nose into Olivier’s hair, just breathing in honey and carnation. Olivier smelled good, like he always had. “Ollie,” Eric whispered. “Tell me the truth.”
Olivier shivered. “You should leave.”
“I’m not leaving.”
“Why?”
“Because I care about you,” Eric said, pulling Olivier against himself. “I want to make things up to you, okay? I want to help your business recover.”
He hadn’t planned to say that, hadn’t even thought about it. But the moment it passed his lips, Eric knew it was the right thing to do.
Olivier sighed, sagging against him. “How? I’ve done everything I could, Eric. I’ve changed all the prices. I’ve advertised all over. I’ve sent out flyers to the neighborhood, and it’s just... not enough.”
His voice trailed off. Eric felt his resignation, his despair. So he pulled Olivier into his arms, kissing his ear. “I got you into this mess. I promise I’ll get you out.”
“How?”
“There’ve been small businesses holding their own in busy neighborhoods,” Eric said, thinking about the case studies he’d done in college. “It won’t work if you’re in direct competition with a big store—”
“Then what am I supposed to do?” Olivier cried.
Eric turned him around, looking into Olivier’s worried blue eyes. “You provide goods or services that large stores can’t sell. Total Sounds might have all the cheapest inventory, but you saw Mrs. Antoinette back there. She wanted those bronze strings.”
Olivier snuffled, nodding slowly.
“So if you switch your focus,” Eric said. “If you specialize in rarer products, or teach music classes, that’ll give you an edge against the bigger stores. And... if any of the products in Total Sounds run out, I could send people over here.”
Olivier’s eyes widened. “Won’t you get into trouble for that?”
Eric chewed on his lip. “Depends on how discreetly I do it.”
It was a gamble. Eric couldn’t take big risks, because he still had a daughter to feed. But if he could send customers to Olivier’s Strings before Total Sounds began to carry specialty products... maybe he could turn things around to help Olivier instead.
“It’ll give you a chance to make an impression,” Eric said. “I’ll go over business plans with you. How’s that sound?”
“It doesn’t sound so bad, I guess.” Olivier breathed out, relaxing a little. “You don’t have to. I mean...”
Eric looked into Olivier’s eyes, daring to hope a little. With Olivier... Eric had been happy, once upon a time. Ollie had pulled Eric to his feet when he fell, Olivier had kissed Eric’s hurts, wiping away his tears.
They had been young and stupid, but Eric felt a whisper of something, the thread that had once tied them together and made his heart say, Mine.
He remembered the shy glances Olivier had sneaked at him when Ollie thought he wasn’t looking. He remembered Ollie leaning into his side as they watched the sun set through their bedroom window.
They had laughed and cried together, and seeing this omega in his arms now, Eric knew he should give things a try. Just to mend some of the hurts they’d given each other.
So he kissed Olivier’s cheek. “I’m gonna correct all the wrongs I’ve done, okay? I want... I want some of what we had, Ollie. Back then.”
Olivier’s eyes grew wide. “Back then? You mean...”
“Back when we were kids, yeah.” Eric pressed their foreheads together, sliding his fingers against Olivier’s warm nape. “Remember when Dad beat my ass? Because I said I’d eaten the cherries off your cake?”
That had hurt. Eric had been six, and he’d bawled like a baby. But Dad would’ve hit Olivier otherwise, and Eric had promised to protect him.
Olivier cracked a smile. “You shouldn’t have. I was at fault. I ate the cherries.”
“Yeah, well. You kissed my sore ass, so that made up for things.”
“You still remember that?”
“Hell, yeah. No one else has kissed my ass.”
“You make that sound dirty!” Olivier shoved at Eric, but he was smiling wider, his posture relaxing. Then he sighed. “Why are you doing this? I mean... you hated me.”
“Not anymore, I don’t.” Eric cradled Olivier against himself. “I hated you because I thought you’d led me on, only pretending to care. But you were lying about that, you bastard. You still love me.”
Olivier flushed, looking away. He couldn’t meet Eric’s eyes, but he wasn’t lying to cover it up, either. Olivier loved him.
Eric’s heart fluttered.
“I mean, I don’t know what I feel about you,” Eric said,
