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

and after that first week of spending time only with one another, Sherman knew he had made the right choice. By the time this lockdown was over, there was not a chance that the two lovers wouldn’t be closer than ever. Maybe Covid would end up being a good thing? It sure seemed that way.

But that was also the first week, the honeymoon period as it were. After that, when the true effects of lockdown started to be felt, that’s when things began to fall apart...

Chapter Seventeen

It was exactly one month into lockdown and things were not going well for Bradley and Sherman. Not one little bit.

It started every morning, when Bradley’s alarm went off. After the first week of lockdown, he had gotten into the habit of setting an alarm, lest he spend literally all morning in bed like a great big slug. Sure, that first week it was fine and even a little bit of fun, but Bradley wasn’t going to put his life on hold because he couldn’t leave the house. That would be ridiculous.

His alarm went off at 8AM and that was when the drama started.

“Turn it off!” Sherman moaned jokingly into his pillow. He then rolled over and reached for Bradley who was now turning the alarm off. “Buuuuuut seeing as we’re up —”

“Not today,” Bradley said. He slapped Sherman’s hand away and went to climb from bed.

“Come on,” Sherman moaned. His hands slipped forward and reached for Bradley’s cock. “What else are you going to do?”

“Ah, work?” Bradley was on his feet, but still forced to fight Sherman back.

“How about I work on that cock?”

It was such a little thing, and Bradley knew he was being silly getting annoyed by it, but every single morning they had the same exchange. Sometimes it worked too, when Bradley was in the mood. But sometimes it didn’t, and when it didn’t, Sherman acted annoyed and childish and like only his time – of which he had plenty – was what mattered.

The problem wasn’t Sherman’s lustrous appetite. It was the fact that he had nothing to do, so he assumed that Bradley was the same. Lockdown for him was a holiday and he just assumed that it was the same for Bradley. Well, it wasn’t.

Once Bradley was up, he hurriedly showered and then rushed into the kitchen to make breakfast. This was where the second problem arose. As he moved through the kitchen like an expert – he basically was by now – he heard Sherman slowly climbing from bed, showering and getting ready... although for Sherman, getting ready simply meant changing which sweatpants he was going to wear all day. And all the while, Bradley would be hard at work cooking for two.

As always too, as if it were on purpose, Sherman appeared in the doorway just as breakfast was being plated. Today, Bradley was actually in a slight rush by his usual standards, so he only had time to make scrambled eggs.

“Just eggs?” Sherman moaned in what he probably assumed was a playful manner. “We had these yesterday.”

“And you probably will tomorrow,” Bradley responded idly. He wasn’t paying his boyfriend attention, because he knew that if he did, he’d get mad. Rather, he sat down across from him at the kitchen bench and proceeded to eat his eggs in silence... or at least he tried.

“Whhyyyyyy?” Sherman complained playfully. “Oh! What about omelets – remember that one you made on the first day? I still dream about —”

“You can make it,” Bradley cut in while staring at his plate full of eggs.

“Me?” Sherman acted shocked and appalled. “There’s more chance of the sky falling.”

“If only,” Bradley muttered under his breath.

Today’s was a particularly bitter exchange compared to usual. Ordinarily, Bradley was willing to either play along with Sherman’s complaints, or ignore them entirely. But today... well, it was starting to get on his nerves.

Sherman didn’t cook. Like, ever. Not once since lockdown had started had Sherman so much as heated a pan on the stove, let alone actually make himself a meal. It was insane! And it wasn’t that he didn’t know how to either. It was just that he didn’t have the inclination. Since his mid-twenties, Sherman had hired a housekeeper to do that for him and since then he’d just kind of forgotten the process. When lockdown started, Bradley was more than happy to do the cooking, but under the assumption that Sherman would eventually pick-up the slack in due time. That time never came.

This laziness extended to the house chores too. Bradley cooked and cleaned. He did the laundry, he mopped the floors, he scrubbed the shower. He was basically the apartment’s housekeeper, he worked on it so often. And as for Sherman? Nothing.

Worse too that when Bradley did bring this up about a week earlier, Sherman shrugged it off and even made the ‘joke,’ “At least your rent is free.” Bradley had to bite his tongue so hard he nearly tore it off.

Needless to say, when breakfast was done, Bradley was gone from that kitchen before Sherman had a chance to even hint that he wanted to hang out today and that Bradley should just drop what he was doing. He tried it most days now, and that – along with most things – was really starting to wear at Bradley.

The next several hours were always the best in Bradley’s day. In lockdown it was important to find a way to keep busy and pass the hours, lest one lose their mind. Some people worked from home. Some binged every show in existence. And some, like Bradley, worked on passion projects which they hoped would amount to something once this terrible time was over.

Just before lockdown started, Bradley had auditioned for a TV show called Firing Day. Well, the good news was that he’d