True Romance... on the side - chapter 4
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Vancouver, September
The movie rental place was packed with people. It was a late Friday night and Jared decided to watch a couple movies with Tom and wind down from a rather eventful week.
He was looking through the horror section, half-listening to Tom telling him about what happened last night.
"...and I happened to see his Visa bill..."
Jared turned away from reading the cover of a new Asian gore-movie. "What do you mean: Happened to see?"
"He was shaving and the bill was in his briefcase."
Jared rolled his eyes. He didn't even bother asking what might have happened if Tom got caught.
"And do you know what I found out?"
"What?" Jared surrendered and looked at Tom.
"He just spent 200 dollars on satin lingerie for his wife! I don't think he's ever going to leave her," Tom wondered.
"No one thinks he's going to leave her," Jared pointed out.
"You're right, you're right. I know you're right."
Jared barely stopped himself from eye-rolling again. Instead he returned to skimming through the DVD's.
"Dude," Tom whispered after a few minutes. "Some unbelievably hot guy is staring at you from the comedy section," he poked at Jared's side.
The other man looked up curiously and immediately hid behind the closest shelf. "Oh God, I know him," he muttered, stealing another glance.
It was Jensen.
"He's your type. Y'know: married," Jared explained.
"But he's straight," Tom once again proved that gay men could distinguish a heterosexual without even speaking to them. "Who is he?"
"His name is Jensen Ackles. He's in the entertainment business," the information came back to Jared like he'd never tried to forget or suppress it in the first place. And he had. Really hard.
“Stripper?”
“No, gutter-brain. He’s an actor.”
"He's cute," Tom leered at Jensen, blowing him a kiss with a playful wink and watching with satisfaction as the man blushed and quickly returned to reading a DVD cover.
"Ya' think?" Jared grabbed Tom and pulled him behind the shelves.
Tom brushed off the wrinkles Jared's grip made in his shirt. "So how do you know he's married?" he asked, leaning out of hiding again, observing Jensen.
"Cause the last time I met him, he was getting married," Jared crouched against the shelf, burying his face in his folded arms.
"And when was that?"
"I dunno... a year ago. Maybe," Jared muttered barely audibly.
"So he might not be married anymore," Tom smirked triumphantly.
"So what? He's a total jerk. And I hate him," Jared whined like a five-year old, being forced to go to school.
Tom giggled. "You're defensive. You like him."
"No, I don't!"
"Right. And I'm Liza Minnelli."
Jared looked up at Tom sarcastically. "Nice to meet you, Liza. I loved you in ‘Cabaret’," he sneered. "Anyway, it doesn't matter," he sighed. "He never remembers me..."
"Jared Padalecki."
The familiar voice, under-laid with a soft Texan accent caused Jared to spring up from the ground, knocking down an entire rack of DVD's.
"Um... hhh...Hi, Jensen," he muttered sheepishly, turning brick red, accompanied by Tom’s muffled giggles
"Hi," Jensen gave a small smile and Jared blushed even more. "I knew it was you."
"Yeah, it's me." Jared cast down his eyes as he tried to get a grip over himself. "And this is Tom Welling," he introduced his friend, watching as this time Jensen blushed. Him and Tom shook hands. "Tommy was just leaving."
Getting the subtle allusion, Tom gave him a quick kiss on the cheek - Jared was sure that he did that on purpose, to embarrass him even more - and with a cheerful "Bye, y'all!", he was gone.
"So... how are you?"
Jared averted his eyes from staring at one of the DVD's. "I'm fine," he muttered.
"How's your... um... boyfriend?" Jensen asked, trying to hide his nervousness behind a fake smile.
The younger man couldn't help but look up in surprise. He didn't think Jensen would remember.
"He's fine. Or so I've heard. We broke up," he explained, answering Jensen's questioning look.
"Oh, I'm... I'm sorry to hear that. That's too bad," Jensen gave his condolences.
"Yeah. Well... yeah," Jared finished even lamer then he wanted to. "And how are you? How's the married life treating you?"
Jensen blushed again. "I'm getting a divorce."
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry. Really," Jared couldn't help but pat Jensen reassuringly on the arm. He immediately regretted his outburst and withdrew his hand, but Jensen didn't seem to mind. He simply smiled.
"Well what are you gonna do?" he asked rhetorically. Jared nodded. In situations like this there was rarely anything you could do.
Jensen shook his head, then sighed. "So... what happened with you guys?"
"When we started dating, we both wanted the same things," Jared started his confession, after they sat down in a secluded booth at a nearby bar. It was weird to think that they would finally sit down and talk like normal people, not just exchange semi-pleasantries and thinly veiled come-ons. What was even weirder, was that in the end they did grab a beer together, no matter how many times in the past Jared declined the offer. "We wanted to live together. But we didn’t want to make the relationship 'official', since many of the gay couples we knew drifted apart after they got married."
Jensen didn't comment, even though he wanted to. After all, at least two-thirds of heterosexual marriages he knew got divorced too. Instead, he just sat quiet, listening to Jared.
"You might not believe me, but it's true. As much as marriage changes things for the better in a straight couple, in a gay one the sheer fact of 'getting married' makes the sex that much less attractive," Jared said, bringing to mind not his experiences, but that of his friends. "The worst thing about those couples is that with time, it becomes so normal, so natural to them, that they stop complaining about not having sex. They just state it, like it's a scientific fact in a medical journal or something." He surprised himself with how angry and annoyed his voice sounded. And with the fact that Jensen still hadn't commented. It was somewhat unnerving, if not downright strange. "Marriage just sucks out every sexual urge they ever had for each other," he added.
"I know what you mean," Jensen finally mumbled, staring down into his drink.
"So you can imagine how happy I was, that my relationship wasn't like that," Jared asserted and before he could bite his tongue, he was going on. "We used to have sex on the kitchen floor or the laundry room of our building, not having to worry about what the next day would bring."
Jensen blushed slightly at Jared's words, his imagination running away with him as he pictured Jared splayed on a vibrating washing-machine, kissing some random guy. The image kinda freaked him out, so he didn’t even pause to think where it came from. "So... what happened?" He managed to choke out.
"I don't know," Jared admitted. "I just... there was this one time: I was taking care of my friends’ - you remember Sandy, right? - of Sandy's nephew when I went to visit her. Me and Sandy were walking with him in the park and a passing couple commented on what a lovely family we were. And that got me thinking," Jared smiled sadly, but still his expression was so full of sweetness and hope that Jensen had to smile back. "I used to say I’d never want to have kids or get married. But after that, I started wanting to make my relationship about something more than just sex. I wanted a family."
"And he didn't want what you wanted, right?"
"Yup."
"I'm so sorry, Jared." Jensen apologized, as if it was somehow his fault that Jared couldn't be happy.
The younger man gave an honest laugh. "Don't be. The more I think of it, the more I know that it was a good decision. Imagine we did get married and the subject came back to haunt us after one year, five years... I wouldn't want to be in a relationship like that. Really, it's better this way.” Deep down, Jensen had to agree with him.
"That sounds... I dunno, healthy, I guess," Jensen chuckled, reminiscing the problems he had with his marriage.
"Yeah. Who would've thought I'd ever be the one to talk about being in a sensible relationship, right?" Jared giggled.
Again, Jensen had to agree. Sensible relationships were his thing.
Were being the operative word.
"You know what? The first time I met you, I didn't like you."
Jensen had to laugh at the irony of his own statement. A couple months ago, if someone told him he would be taking a friendly walk through the park with a gay guy who he used to - honestly? - in one way or another, despise, he would've laughed in their face.
"Ditto," Jared laughed, unconsciously thinking the exact same thing as Jensen. Except in his case it wasn't contempt. It was just... he had a rule to never become friends with a straight guy he had the hots for. It tended to end badly.
Maybe - he thought - this is one of those ‘exception from the rule’ scenarios?
"Oh, come on. Admit it. You totally liked me," Jensen prodded Jared's side, making him laugh.
"I did not!"
"Course you did! You were just too stuck up then to admit it."
"And what were you? Tenderheart, the Care Bear?” Jared teased him, for once happy he had such a talent for turning everything into a joke.
“Do I look like I have a big red heart tattooed on my stomach?” Jensen mocked mercilessly, somehow missing the fact that he just admitted to watching The Care Bears. Rather avidly.
"Besides, you’re the cuddly, fluffy one, with the hearts and rainbows, and the whole Labrador attitude. You’re much more of a Care Bear than me,” Jensen remarked. “And you know, it's not like it was entirely my fault we didn’t get along," he added after a moment. "You were the one who wanted to sleep with me, even though I’m not gay."
Jared paused in his steps, shocked. Thankfully, Jensen didn't notice his hesitation. He quickly caught up with the older man. "No, I didn't. You just assumed I did," he smirked.
"Well. Maybe.”
They walked in silence for a while, each buried in their own thoughts.
"Listen... would you like to hang out with me and my friends sometime?" Jared asked before he could think twice. Hoping he won't get accused of trying to turn Jensen gay, he quickly added: "I do have straight friends, y'know."
Jensen glanced at him playfully. "Hold on. Are we becoming friends?"
"Maybe," Jared answered equally playfully, smiling his brightest smile. "Yeah," he admitted after a second. "I think we are."
"Great." Green eyes flickered with amusement, and something Jared couldn't exactly place. "I have a gay friend," Jensen remarked to himself, rather surprised.
"Let's hope it's the last one," Jared chuckled. "Or else I'll start worrying you're going to switch teams."
The other man looked at him intently, then grinned. "Don't you worry about that, Jare-bear," he said, not noticing the grin the spontaneous nickname brought to Jared's face. "I highly doubt I’ll ever turn gay. And even if you were the handsomest man alive - and for the record you're not, I am," Jensen snickered, "I would never have sex with you."
"That's good to know... Jenny-bean." Jared snickered as well, answering with a mocking nickname of his own. He secretly hoped his voice didn't sound too disappointed.
The two men smiled at each other as they walked through the park.
They both knew this would be the beginning of a beautiful friendship...
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