Page 26 of Grounding the Baker
Austin had been to Sylvie’s Slice every morning before eight o’clock when Liam usually left to do his corporate job from home, but he’d always already left. He’d varied his times, trying a bit earlier, but he didn’t want to look like some crazy stalker by asking for him every time. Austin knew he was being avoided when he’d seen Liam through the window and he rushed into the kitchen. Austin hadwaited, and then been told Liam had left to go to work, so he must have taken the back exit. He wasn’t sure what he’d done, and nothing from all their recent encounters had given him a clue.
“What’s up with your face?” asked Gerard.
Austin was sitting at the bar, nursing a beer, feeling sorry for himself. Maisie was upstairs in the flat watching TV. He’d needed to get out of the house for a couple of hours, and she was more than happy to keep herself entertained. He felt like he was being a shit dad, as he couldn’t get Liam off his mind.
“Nothing. Just thinking.”
“About?”
“Nothing in particular.”
He wasn’t getting into this with Gerard. Austin thought he was acting like a teenage girl with a broken heart, not a man in his forties. And besides, wasn’t he supposed to be pursuing just friendship with Liam? Maybe that’s why it stung more. Did Liam not even want to be friends with him?
“Is this about a certain baker?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Not even if I know why he’s avoiding you?”
Austin looked up and glared at his grinning friend. “Well?”
“He found out you were bi.”
“What? What does that have to do with anything?”
“He thought you were the unobtainable straight guy, so he didn’t get his hopes up. Now, knowing Liam, he probably feels like he might have made you uncomfortable.”
“First, that’s bollocks. Liam couldn’t make anyone feel uncomfortable, and how could he not know I was interested?”
“You do give off straight vibes, with your manual job and appalling dress sense.”
“Get fucked,” he laughed.
“You were married to a woman and have a kid. It’s not an unreasonable assumption for him to make.”
“So, how did he find out?”
“Giselle, of course. That woman doesn’t know how to keep her nose out of other people’s business.”
Austin looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
“That’s different. I am at the epicentre of this community. There’s an expectation from people that I know what’s going on in the village.”
Austin laughed. “Okay, so, if he found out I was bi, why would he then avoid me?”
“Has anything happened between you that might embarrass him now he knows you’re on the same bus?”
“I can’t think of anything.”
“What about the night of Sylvie’s funeral? Didn’t something happen then?”
“He got upset, and I comforted him.”
“How?”
“Well, I didn’t fuck him in the kitchen if that’s what you’re asking.”
“It wasn’t, but good to know where your head’s at.”
