Only You by Jerry Cole (the top 100 crime novels of all time TXT) 📕

honestly at the point where he had started picturing them in the future, just naturally assuming they’d be together always. But love?

As the two men cooked in Sherman’s kitchen, or as Bradley cooked and Sherman watched and cheered, Bradley started to consider if he loved Sherman. Or rather, if he was ready to say the words. They were right there... right on his tongue... he wanted to say it so bad... but he never got the chance.

Sherman’s phone suddenly rang out on the bench beside him. Sherman answered with a slurred, “’Ello... huh... you’re joking – how do you... fuck.”

Bradley listened intently, trying to catch what was being said on the other end. But he had to wait until the phone was down before asking. “Who was that?” It was bad news. Sherman’s posture, expression and tone were enough to indicate that.

“That was Nick,” he explained. He was staring blankly at his feet now. “Apparently, the government is going to announce a nationwide lockdown starting next week.”

“What?” Bradley stopped what he was doing. “How do you —”

“Nick knows someone on the inside. But it’ll be announced on the news tonight. Two months he reckons, no leaving the house, no going to work... nothing.”

“Fuck...” Bradley, like Sherman, was now staring blankly at nothing in particular. This was... this was big. “Fuck.”

“Yeah... fuck.” Sherman tried for a laugh. “Ah well... two-month holiday?”

Bradley wished he could feign false enthusiasm at the thought of having two months off of life, but he couldn’t. All those hypotheses that he had been thinking over previously, all the possible moves he was going to have to make if lockdown went into effect were now looking very real. There was just one problem, he had no idea what he was going to do.

Chapter Sixteen

“I can’t believe you’re even considering saying no!”

“I can’t believe you think I wouldn’t even consider it!”

“Why would you?!”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because...!”

“Because...?”

And on and on the argument went.

They were in Bradley’s apartment of all places, storming from room to room as they argued and fought. It wasn’t a real fight though, like the one they’d had in Bali that time, but just a heated debate... for now, anyhow. Depending on how the debate ended would dictate whether this would turn into a full-blown fight, or peter out into nothingness. As of right now, it could go either way.

“You really don’t see why I think it’s a bad idea?” Bradley was being his usual stubborn self. That was typical Bradley though. Once he got an idea in his head, it was impossible to dislodge it. It actually was somewhat similar to that argument in Bali, where he refused to even consider moving to Sydney. He could be so stubborn!

“I see perfectly well.” Sherman was doing all he could to remain calm. He had been the one to start the argument, but he also knew that shouting wasn’t going to help change Bradley’s mind. And fuck, he needed it changed. He had to change it! “I just don’t think it’s a very good point —”

“That’s just because you’re being selfish.”

“True,” Sherman agreed. “But selfish for the both of us – is there a word for that? When you try and be selfish, knowing it will benefit both parties.”

“Don’t be cute,” Bradley warned.

“But it’s so hard for me.”

Bradley rolled his eyes and for a second it looked like he was about to break into a smile and succumb to Sherman’s charm. But then his face took on that same scrunched look it had been holding on to all day, and he turned and stormed into the kitchen for no apparent reason.

“Can you stop doing that?!” Sherman chased after him.

“Can you take the hint!”

“No, I can’t!” Sherman came to a stop in the doorway, crossed his arms and watched as his boyfriend pretended to look through the fridge. “You know how slow I am. Socially awkward. That kind of thing. It makes picking up on basic social cues really hard for me.”

Bradley popped his head out of the fridge and gave Sherman a look that could only be interpreted as ‘Oh really.”

To this, Sherman offered a big goofy smile and shrugged, as if to say, ‘Classic Sherman.’

This wasn’t a real fight, but only because neither man could let it get to that. In a weird way, they both already knew what the outcome was going to be – at least Sherman did – so they didn’t want to be getting off on the next two months on the wrong foot. Fuck, two months? That was optimistic from what the reports were saying.

The fight was Covid related; something that Sherman predicted he’d be experiencing a lot of over the coming months. Just last week, the government announced that soon the entire country would be going into a two-month lockdown that would see people only allowed to leave their homes for exercise and shopping, and in some cases for work. Where this was perfectly manageable, it was the living arrangements that became a sticking point.

Sherman and Bradley didn’t live together, not really anyway. Therefore, when lockdown started, they were going to have to go to their separate homes and not see one another for at least two whole months. No sneaky visits, no nighttime hangs, no nothing really. It would be as if they were doing long distance again... only this time living less than two kilometers away.

“We’ve done it before!” Bradley had argued when the lockdown was first announced. This was five days ago now, when the reality had only just started to settle in.

“How is that an argument?” Sherman had countered. “We lived in separate cities – we didn’t have a choice!”

“We don’t really have one now either,” Bradley had then continued.

Sherman raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. “Really?” he