2014
~C~
He awoke to a giggle, and a shutter sound, which was rude and weird since he was the only one in the flat aside from Warlock. Crowley peeked his eye open and found his mother standing over him with her phone pointed toward him.
"What are you doing?" He asked, grumbling.
"It's my firm belief that there should always be a picture of a father asleep with their baby laying on them." Erica responded as she tucked her phone in her back pocket, then reached down and gently extracted a sleeping Warlock from Crowley's chest.
He was instantly cold without the warmth of his son resting on him, and he got up slowly, realizing he'd left his robe in his room the night before.
"James would have never done that," He commented before he ducked into his bedroom, grabbing the warm, fluffy thing off the back of his door and shrugging it on. He stepped out as he began to close it, watching his mum gently set Warlock down in his little bounce chair and strap him in, the baby still sound asleep.
"He did, for a small spell." Erica replied, gently running a finger down Warlock's cheek before turning to her son. "There was about three months, I think starting from when you were four months old, that he actually took an interest in you. Didn't last long, of course."
"Of course," Crowley conceded. "Figured out I wasn't his?"
"No," Erica said, as she straightened out her jumper, "He found you boring."
"Ah," Crowley said. "Well, that explains why he was more than willing to sign the accounts over to me, doesn't it?"
"How is the shop coming along?" Erica asked, leaning against the island that seperated the kitchen from the living area.
"Still on schedule to open next week." Crowley said, stuffing his hands in his robes. "Just in time for the holidays."
"Which, reminds me, are you going to go Christmas shopping dressed like that? Might get a few discounts but you won't be very warm."
Crowley looked down at his clothes then at the time, huffing when he noticed it was rounding closer to noon. "It was a rough night. Lock wouldn't settle no matter what I tried until he was on my chest like that."
"And you didn't stay in your room?"
"Well, sometimes moving around the flat helps! He'd spit up on my t-shirt, and I chucked that off, somewhere, and was just… so damn tired, I laid down with him like that and he settled. Fell asleep." He said as he moved his hair off his neck a moment.
Erica gave a grimace. "He didn't just spit up on your shirt, love."
Crowley frowned, grabbed his hair, and grimaced when he noticed the stain in his hair. "Right," He said with a curl of his lips. "I'm going to shower, and then I'll go. Probably see if I can get a haircut."
"No," Erica pouted. "Your hair is gorgeous."
"It's getting to be a pain in the ass." He said, grabbing a hank and pointing to the spit-up in his hair. "And he's gonna start gettin' grabby, I've seen the older babies in group. They grab, and pull, and this? This is just a toy for him."
Erica whined quietly. "If I had hair like yours, I'd never chop it off."
"You would have when I was younger." He said over his shoulder as he turned to the bathroom to take advantage of someone else being in the flat while he showered, and enjoy it far longer than he had in months.
~A~
"Ez!" Eliza called as he came into the flat, brushing snow from his fedora before setting it on the coat rack.
"A moment," He called back, just a touch louder than normal because heaven knows Adam's current state of wakefulness. He took off his tartan scarf and then his long, wool peacoat, hanging everything up proper before toeing off his boots, and venturing to find Eliza.
She was in the living room, a couple of shoe boxes at her side, and photos spread out around her. Adam was on a blanket nearby, swatting at a toy just within his reach, occasionally trying to get his body to do more than just lift himself on his arms a brief few seconds.
Ezra went for him, picking him up and cuddling him close, kissing his head before getting down on the floor where Eliza was.
"What's all this, then?" He asked, looking at the scattered photos.
"Found them in a box in my closet, trying to make room for those clothes Deirdre sent me." Eliza explained, smiling at her son a moment as he began to make babbling noises. "They're all from before university. Look! Us, from when we were still in London." She said, handing him the picture of he and her in their final year in the city, before their dad had his stroke and they would need to move. It was the last days of school, from what he could gather, and they were with a few other classmates on what seemed to be a trip.
"Mum would probably love to have a gander at these." Ezra commented as he began to bounce Adam a little.
"Yeah," Eliza said a bit wistfully. A beat later, and she looked nervous. "I almost got rid of this one," she said as she pulled out a photo from under the stack.
Ezra frowned as he took it.
"Oh," he part stuttered, part cried, his heart not sure what to do as he gazed upon the image of a young he and Anthony. Back in secondary, still in their uniforms, looking at one another. With the photo in one hand and Adam braced with the other, he couldn't hide the pain-laced smile behind a hand like he wanted.
"We can burn it," Eliza suggested.
"No," He said immediately. "No, it's…." His eyes feasted on the image, realizing he hadn't so much as looked at a picture of the man in nearly five years. He didn't have a phone back then that took snaps, and Ezra was never the photographer. That had been Eliza when the mood struck her. Like it probably had in that moment.
"Ez," Eliza said gently, forcing him to peel his eyes away from the picture.
She looked like she was near ready to cry, and then he felt Adam's hand on his cheek, smacking a damp spot.
"I can't let you burn this." He said.
She studied him for sometime. "How do you still love him?" She asked, shaking her head. "How do you look at his face and not hate him?"
"Because he didn't do anything to make me hate him." Ezra replied.
"You told me what happened." She retorted.
"And so you know I have forgiven him."
"But why still love him? I can understand putting it all behind you, but holding on to him?"
"Eliza," Ezra huffed, wiping at his face with his wrist. He tried not to sound cruel, but he couldn't figure out a better way to explain himself. "You've never loved that deeply." He started. "It's… Anthony was… the parts of me that were missing. Or lacking. He didn't make me whole, that would be ridiculous, but he was…. He made me less restrained. Less worried about making sure I was always doing precisely the right thing. I'd have never talked back to Fredrick Martin, let alone punch him in the face before Anthony. I'd have coward and let him say what he wanted about me or anyone else. I'd have never been brave enough to talk to Oscar, and I certainly wouldn't have known myself enough to have told him no when he'd asked me to marry him. And I'd like to think I may have made Anthony a bit better." He looked at the picture of those two young men, opposite in so many ways, but also so very much the same. "It's been five years, yes," He swallowed. "And I have tried to move on, I have. And eventually I'm sure I will because it's unlikely I'd ever get him back…."
"You still have his number." Eliza pointed out. "I've seen it in your phone, call him."
"I can't." He shook his head. "He…. He's out of my reach." He sniffed, then looked at the baby in his arms. "Goodness," He said with a water smile to Adam. "What is with the grown ups getting all sad faced?" He asked Adam quite seriously, and made just enough of a funny face that he got a big, gummy grin in return. "Yes, we grown ups are being quite silly, aren't we? Yes, no more of that." He said, kissing Adam on the forehead before setting him back down on the blanket and getting up, moving to the bookshelf.
"Ez?"
"You are not destroying this picture." He said firmly, gesturing with the photograph before pulling the book Anthony had gifted him and tucking it inside the pages. "I won't look at it and lament over what's lost, but you will not destroy it."
"I won't," She promised. "But, Ez? Let him go? Let him go or… or try. Reach out to him, find him. Just please don't hold on to him. Not like this."
"I'll try." He said, though if he were at all honest, he would admit he was lying not just to her, but to himself.
2015
It had been a few months, and Crowley still had an instinct to make sure his hair didn't get tangled in his scarf or the papoose. And despite what he'd told his mum, he missed it. Bloody hell he missed his hair! It was better for Warlock who had begun to use his grabbing reflex much more often these days, with nothing to grab with it being so short, with just a bit of length on the top. But the time he saved washing it, detangling it, etc, he was now spending styling it. It was like being thrown back ten years, and he had to make sure his hair was always styled just so. Even in the winter when he should be wearing a hat, but didn't.
Well, it was still technically winter, but Crowley found it rather warm for March. He didn't even have Warlock bundled up as much as he normally would, something that his little one seemed to like since it meant he could look around at people while secure in his carrier.
Crowley was in a cafe waiting for a far-too caffeinated coffee when he glanced down at his son and saw him giving a big, gummy grin at someone. He followed his son's gaze to a fairly handsome bloke who was waving at Warlock, mouth "hi" over and over, until he looked up and saw Crowley watching him with a half smile.
"Sorry," the bloke said. "He's just so damn cute."
"Thanks, I tend to think so." Crowley replied, perhaps putting a touch of flirt into it.
He hadn't been with a man in a while, and after Harriet, the only person he'd been with was Bea on occasion to take the edge off for them both. But now he had his inheritance, James couldn't hold the lesser liked parts of his sexuality over his head like a guillotine, so Crowley allowed himself to look. And what's more, if it was an option, he'd allow himself to flirt and perhaps ask out.
The man smiled a knowing smile. "My partner and I are going to start looking into adopting after we get married next month."
Damn. Well, no need to be rude.
"Congratulations. Definitely probably easier parenting with someone else." Crowley mused, keeping the humor in his tone, at least.
The man's eyebrows shot up. "On your own? Really?"
"Yeah," Crowley said as Warlock gurgled. "Worth it, though."
"You know, I mean, I realize this is Soho and all, but my partner and I do have a single friend-"
Crowley laughed. "Appreciate it mate, but I think I'll take a pass in this case. Have to get back to my shop."
"Well, in any case, it was nice meeting you," the man said as Crowley's double shot of espresso in a coffee was called. He grabbed it, lifted the cup in cheers to the bloke, and then left the cafe to head back to the Garden.
It was a near instant success. Instagramers, those who wanted to grow their own food (however small an amount they could in their small flats), and people who wanted the most exquisite or verdant bouquets and plants came to him. Whether it was word of mouth or social media, business was flowing to the point that he was proud to be in the black well before his six month anniversary.
"Oh, you're back." Bea said as he walked into the shop. "You have another bride who would like to talk arrangements." They said with as much enthusiasm as Bea ever mustered, which was to say none at all. Still, Bea being Crowley's only other employee at the moment meant that they were both overworked, and another wedding was likely exactly what they needed to put them in a position to hire someone else.
"Right," Crowley said, kissing Warlock on the head. "Playpen for you, then." He smiled as Warlock squealed as if he had any idea what his playpen was.
~A~
"So sorry, dears," Ezra said as he pushed the pram up to Richard and Oscar's table. "Train was a little later than expected."
"That's alright," Oscar said as Richard immediately went for Adam, gladly picking up the confused looking baby to cradle while Ezra sat just on the other side of him.
This had been a normal weekend thing for Ezra, taking the train to see Richard and Oscar, either just to meet for a cup of tea and to catch up, or to talk about the very fast approaching wedding. And, because he could see how much Eliza needed it, Ezra always took Adam with him to the city.
It was one of the ways he found he could help out. He would get up with Adam a fair amount, either because he wasn't quite asleep yet, or because he was experiencing a spell of insomnia that he hadn't medicated. And, because Eliza was with Adam all the other hours of the day, he would give her some mum time on weekends, bringing Adam with him to London on the train where he always napped on the way there and usually on the way back. It never hurt that Richard was enamored with him, and was usually more than willing to give Ezra a break he hadn't really needed.
"Oh, hello you handsome thing," Richard cooed as he propped Adam on his lap and handed him one of his toys for him to grasp at. "I just saw another adorable little one while I was waiting for our drinks. Single father," Richard said meaningfully to Ezra who rolled his eyes.
"Yes, because a man here in the city is precisely what I need in my life. On top of helping Eliza, and work. Which, by the way, I got the position. The teacher I'm covering will not be returning, and they hired me full time."
"That's fantastic news," Oscar beamed.
"It is," Richard said. "And what better way would it have been than if you had had a date to the wedding to tell this all to, as well."
"You didn't even know him, for all you know he was straight!"
"Oh, he was most certainly not," Richard assured. "He was very flirty before I mentioned Oscar. I didn't get his name, though. Terribly rude of me, wasn't it. Did you see him, Oscar?"
"I did not, love." Oscar said with an amused grin, looking at his fiance across the table with affection.
"He was ginger," Richard said.
Ezra paled. "I don't go in for ginger men these days, and you know it."
"He was handsome, though." Richard conceded. "Strange brown eyes, though. Can't place my finger as to why, though."
"Hmm, well, doesn't matter." Ezra said, glancing affectionately at his nephew as Adam turned toward Richard and smacked the crinkling peacock (Ezra was pretty sure it was a peacock, though the colors were rainbow) against Richard's chest. "I wouldn't take a man I only just met to a wedding between my ex and a man I went on a date with."
"Weddings are for meeting other lonely singles anyway." Oscar mused, much to Richard's displeasure. It was on purpose, of course. Ezra had seen how they purposely ruffled one another, doing so with more affection and Oscar had ever shown him. It was a little painful to see, but he bore that ache gladly. It was just more assurance that he and Oscar were never meant to be, and that he hadn't made a mistake all those years ago.
But at the moment, seeing them banter and flirt, ruffle one another in an affectionate way, it ached more than usual. Perhaps it was because of the mention of a ginger man, someone he couldn't help picture as a certain ginger man from his own past. But the image would be out of date, frozen from their early twenties, and age he knew he certainly didn't look anywhere near these days.
"You sound like Eliza," Ezra managed to partly choke out. "She thinks it's the reason I won't take Gabriel."
"No, you aren't taking Gabriel because you have good taste," Richard retorted quickly, then looked to Oscar. "And don't you dare encourage him."
"Encourage him? To bring the bloke I can't stand? Yes, dear, that is exactly something I would do."
"Is Gabe still seeing that one, the bloke who…, oh what was his name. The really weird one who just stares at you when you eat?"
"On occasion," Ezra cringed. "And it wasn't so much that he watched you eat as he liked seeing people pretend they were satisfied with two bites of chicken and a drizzle of basil."
"Well, our dinner will be much more robust." Oscar assured. "And have you gotten a chance to try on the suit yet? Make sure it fits like it should?"
"Oscar, I only come into the city on weekends, and I have Adam. Or I'm with you. I haven't had the chance."
"We should do that today while you're here." Richard suggested. "I'll gladly watch this one while you're getting sorted." He said as Adam smacked him over the head with the same toy and giggled. Richard giggled, too.
"May I finish my tea, first?" Ezra said, gesturing at the cup that had been waiting for him upon his arrival.
"Of course," Oscar said, watching Richard a moment before turning his attention to Ezra. "How is your mum doing?"
Ezra's smile was thin. "She's holding up." He said, swallowing back the melancholy. "I don't think she's getting better, though. I'm afraid she won't see Christmas."
"I'm sorry, Ezra." Oscar said sincerely. "Is she still at home?"
"For now." He replied, sipping his tea. "She has a nurse with her nearly all the time, and she refuses to move closer to us. We'll go see her tomorrow, as is usual, but she doesn't want us around over much. I think she's trying to make it easier, for when the inevitable happens."
Oscar nodded sympathetically, but likely knew there wasn't anything that could be said. So, Ezra was infinitely glad when he changed the subject back to the wedding.
~C~
"How's business?" James asked gruffly, ignoring Erica with Warlock as she walked around the living room, bouncing him and making him giggle with silly sounds.
Without hesitation, Crowley pulled out the most current report and handed it over.
James almost looked impressed. "You didn't have to." He said as he took the report.
"You'd never believe me if I didn't." Crowley retorted, shifting his gaze from the man who raised him, to his mum with his little boy. He smiled at the way Warlock seemed utterly delighted by Erica's antics, his wide, mostly gummy grin and his limbs flailing.
He was getting so big, being only a couple months away from his first birthday. He was pulling himself along things, trying so damn hard to walk but unable to figure out how his limbs moved yet. There were moments, like this one, that made Crowley feel like he was missing bits of his son's life despite being there for nearly every minute of it. It seemed like just yesterday that he was still unable to crawl, that he was small enough to fit in one arm.
"What, are you in with the mafia or something?" James asked, getting Crowley's attention again, snapping him out of his musings.
"Whaddya mean?" He asked.
"Hardly any loses," James scanned the sheets. "You've only been open for, what, eight months? You're already turning a profit, and a fairly good one at that."
"I know what I'm doing. Funny thing about plants, they're a bit of a renewable resource. You can grow a second or more from clippings if you know how."
"Suppose that course wasn't a complete waste, then," James grumbled.
"Suppose not," Crowley said as he accepted the report back.
"So what's next for you, then?" James asked. "Expansion? Start a chain?"
Crowley lifted his brows, "Neither right now." He replied. "If I open a second location, it would be somewhere I can actually have a greenhouse. Nowhere near London, and with Warlock this small, it's not feasible."
"Get a nanny." James scoffed. "Or find a wife."
"I don't want a nanny or a wife just to have someone who can look after Lock." Crowley retorted.
"Why don't you find the woman you knocked up and make something decent out of her. Couldn't have gotten too far, stupid enough as she was to let it happen."
"Don't talk about her like that." Crowley snarled. "Lock's mum is a good woman who was in an impossible situation."
"I'd say she was probably too ugly to tie yourself down to, but the boy is better looking than you are, so that couldn't have been it."
"Well, this has been a pleasant visit." Crowley said as he got up, crossing the room to take his son from Erica. "But, I suddenly find myself recalling a need to be somewhere else."
"James," Erica grumbled as she slapped her now empty hands against her legs.
"Not my problem if the boy's soft." He grumbled.
"The grown man you call a boy is not the problem, here." She snapped back, and Crowley knew the look in James' eyes well enough to know he'd best grab the diaper bag and hustle out. Which is exactly what he did.
He still didn't make it out the entryway before they started yelling. He snatched the folded pram from the entry and hurried out.
"What a silly pair they are, eh, Lock?" Crowley said to his son who simply giggled at his dad's silly face. "Silly, silly," He hissed, making Warlock positively lose it in his little baby laugh as Crowley opened the small pram with one hand. He wrestled Lock around, then got him fastened into the stroller. Once he was secure, Crowley removed his sunglasses from the diaper bag before tucking it underneath. Lenses securely in place, he took hold of the handle of the pram and headed off.
"Well, Nana and grandpa James as a bust," he began talking to his son. "What else can we do on this sunshiny day, hmm?" He asked, cranning his head over the side a moment to see Warlock was looking about. "Shall we go get daddy some coffee and go feed the duckies?"
He continued on down the road, turning the corner to where he knew he could get a decent cup. He nearly ran his stroller into another as he did, stopping short just in time while the other bloke stumbled.
"Sorry," He said to Crowley. "Bit of a pram palooza out today."
" No worries, mate." Crowley replied with a grin.
The man frowned. "You're… AJ, right?"
"Ah," Crowley blinked behind his shades. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm… AJ."
"Probably don't remember me, we were in the same prenatal class. I'm Peter."
"Right," Crowley replied, not even sure he remembered him, but going along with it. "Well, as you can see, I really was expecting." He said, gesturing down to Warlock. "This is Lock."
"Janie," Peter introduced his daughter. There was a pause. "Listen, are you, umm, free right now? I was on my way to get a cup of tea, and I wouldn't mind the company. Well, grown-up company."
"Right, yeah." AJ said, considering it only a few minutes before deciding it couldn't hurt. "Sure, what the hell."
"This isn't how I thought this was going to pan out." Crowley confessed to the man on top of him on the sofa, and Peter laughed incredulously.
"Wasn't setting out to get here, promise." He replied, and he began to back off of Crowley while adjusting his clothes.
They'd talked for a few hours in the cafe, and Crowley had begun to wonder if he had a chance with this bloke. He'd been at prenatal with a woman, as were pretty much every man there but him. Yet when he'd asked Peter for his number to maybe get dinner sometime, Peter had done so gladly. Still, no way to be certain. Either way, though, to cover his bases, he brought Warlock to his mum and James' for the night (James being out, of course), and then proceeded to have Peter to his place where he ordered in, had a film queued, and some how found himself being furiously snogged on the sofa.
"I'm not complaining," Crowley was quick to assure. "I just… really wasn't expecting," he gestured about with his hands, and Peter smiled, nodding.
"I think you and I share a similar mindset." He said in a roundabout way. "Though I haven't been with a guy in a very long time. Not since long before I met my wife."
Alarm bells began to blare in Crowley's head, and he huffed. "Mate, look, I'm not interested in being a guy on the side."
"You wouldn't be." Peter replied. "Janie's mum left after she was three months old. I haven't heard from her, so safe to assume she isn't coming back."
"So I'm a rebound?" Crowley asked.
"Probably," Peter confessed. "Is that alright, or?"
"I'm not looking for anything serious right now." Crowley said, making sure the man knew upfront what to expect. "I got Lock, and I got a business that's brand new, still, and I can't focus on a relationship right now. Not with any sort of dedication. So, you wanna do this, that's fine."
Peter looked Crowley over thoughtfully. "Yeah," He said simply, and back to it they went.
The wedding was really, truly beautiful.
Oscar and Richard exchanged vows and rings in the rented event room of a hotel, the decorations lending themselves from ceremony to celebration with nothing more than a quick shift from one area to another. And once the seats from the ceremony had been cleared it became the dance floor where the couple had now begun their first dance as husbands, and Ezra stood on the outskirts to watch.
Being Oscar's best man, to most, didn't seem all that out of place. But there were friends of his who had known Ezra from way back when, not to mention the family, and he was fully aware how many eyes went to him when the woman marrying them asked if anyone objected.
He knew because he scanned the crowd, not thinking one bit that somehow he'd be the one so many people were worried about.
Now, at least, they left him alone to sip champagne, standing at the bar and watching from a distance. He could appreciate it all the better from there, because while he had no desire for either Oscar or Richard, he was feeling rather lonely. Weddings weren't something he'd attended often, but they were beginning to have that effect more frequently these days.
As two of his dearest friends shared yet another kiss as a married couple, he sensed someone coming up beside him. He glanced over, expecting to see someone from Oscar's side of things and did a double take at David ordering a scotch from the bartender.
"Hi," David said with a half smile as he waited for his drink.
"Hello." Ezra said, blinking a moment before taking a sip of his drink while David was handed his. "I'm genuinely surprised to see you here."
David shrugged, bringing the tumbler to his lips. He took a rather large drink before he replied. "All I ever wanted for Richard was to be happy." He replied. "If Oscar makes him happy, then so be it. And if he wants me here to watch him marry another man, I'll do so and wish him the best. Because I love him, and you know how the saying goes."
"Indeed I do," Ezra conceded, taking another, fortifying drink. "Still. Letting him go is one thing, Bearing witness to it," he said, glancing at David again.
He took another large drink of his scotch. "You can't tell me that had things been different, and Anthony had found someone to marry, you wouldn't do the same as me?"
Ezra scoffed. "Worse yet, I'd have likely been in the exact same position I am today. Best man to the groom, or at least one of them, depending on who he'd found to love."
"So you get it, you always did. It's what I liked about you." David said.
"Yes," Ezra smiled sadly. "And it's what I had really wanted to love about you."
"Yeah," David agreed, taking the last mouthful of drink in his mouth. He swallowed, setting the empty tumbler on the bar and looked really long and hard at Ezra. "Maybe I'll see you around." He said.
"You're leaving?" Ezra asked with a frown.
David looked at the couple again. "I was here, I saw him married off, I even shook both their hands and congratulated them. But I can't stay here and watch them be that damn happy. Not now, not yet. If I have any hope of being Richard's friend in the future, I need to leave."
"Mind how you go, David." Ezra said meaningfully, and David gave him a sad smile before taking one, long, last look at the grooms before he turned and left the room.
~C~
While he finished his drink, already signaling for the next, someone sat down next to Crowley. He glanced over, then did a double take at the well dressed man beside him at the hotel bar.
"You look like you're worse off than me." He commented, turning back to the barkeep as he sat Crowley's scotch down.
The man looked at his drink, then signaled for the same. "What has you drinking, then? For me to be worse off?"
Crowley took a sip, not wanting to get plastered but still wanting to feel numb. "The guy I was seeing left me to go back to his wife." Crowley replied. "And worse part was I was beginning to like him."
"How long?" The bloke asked.
"We were seeing each other for a few months." He said. "He was at my son's first birthday party."
The bloke hummed, reaching for his glass when it was handed to him. "I have you beat, mate."
"How so?"
"I just watched the man I love more than anything marry someone else." He replied. "My ex, this… fucking fantastic man, who is sorta ridiculously perfect, was the best man. To his ex. Who he introduced to the man I…. Just, yeah."
"If the ex is so ridiculously perfect, why is he an ex?" Crowley asked, frowning as he tried to figure that one out.
The bloke shrugged. "Ever wanna love someone and you just couldn't?"
"No," Crowley replied. "Loved someone I really shouldn't have, and still do. Probably could have fallen in love with someone else in a different world, but didn't. Never had someone I wanted to love but couldn't."
"That was us." The bloke said as he had another drink. "Me and the ex, we… we both wanted someone else and couldn't have them."
"Don't tell me this idiot stood up for the man he was in love with?" Crowley asked incredulously.
"Nah, man the ex love is long gone. Haven't spoken in years, had a fallen out."
"Ah, yeah. I get that." Crowley said, appreciating the irony as he took another drink of scotch. "Ever wonder if it's worth it?" He asked the stranger beside him. "Loving anyone? I mean, aside from my kid, I'm starting to wonder if there's even a point. It's all messy and stupid and never works out."
"Gotta believe it will," the bloke said with certainty. "I mean, I'd like to think one day I'm going to meet someone fantastic, and I'll forget all about Richard."
Crowley smirked. "Named my son after the guy I missed out on, no forgetting there."
"And you called my ex stupid," the bloke smiled, and Crowley had to laugh. "I'm David, by the way."
"AJ," He replied, taking David's hand when it offered. "So what is it you do, David."
"I'm a teacher," He replied, and so started a very mundane conversation about everyday life with no more talks of exes or heartache. At least until Crowley had to excuse himself a moment, heading into the quiet of the lobby to take a call from his mum about Warlock.
~A~
"Of course I'm on my way home," Ezra said to Eliza over the phone as he headed toward the lobby.
"It's late. And aren't you drunk?" Eliza asked curiously.
"Do I sound drunk?" He countered, exasperated. He glanced in the bar as he passed and saw David sitting alone, nursing a drink. For a moment, he almost went to him, but what good would that do? No, if David had wanted his company, he either would have stayed at the reception, or he would have asked Ezra to join him. Aside from that, there was a jacket on the chair to his left, a glass of something at the spot. Perhaps he'd met someone?
So Ezra continued, turning left to the main doors, thankfully avoiding the crowd that had gathered in the seating area of the lobby. It was more than likely that a fair number of them had been at the wedding and needed to step out a moment, and he didn't want them to notice him leaving. Best not to have a confrontation when he'd gone this long with only side long glares.
"No, which means you've somehow managed to do a wedding wrong." Eliza teased. "You're supposed to get drunk and take someone up to a hotel room."
"Tell me again how Adam was brought into being?" He countered with a smirk.
"Don't be an arse." Eliza quipped back. "I doubt Lucas would have brought me to a wedding, and I certainly didn't meet him at one." She said, then sighed. "Honestly, though, Ezra, you should have stayed longer."
"Eliza, I'm tired. Mentally, physically, emotionally, I'm tired. I just want to get the train home, and attempt to sleep in my own bed."
"Well, if you insist. Just tell me about everything when you get back."
"Will do, and I'll see you in a while." Ezra said as he rang off and headed for the train.
~C~
Crowley cut maneuvered through the crowd of what were likely wedding guests, scowling at the lot of them until he managed to make it through and into a clearer space to return to the bar.
He went back to David, and gave him an apologetic smile. "I hate to leave you like this, mate, but my mum got paged by the hospital -she's a doctor- and I gotta get back to my boy.
"No worries, mate." David shrugged, then turned to Crowley with a smile and his hand once more. "Was nice sharing a drink with you, anyway."
"Yeah, good to meet you, too." Crowley replied, shaking the man's hand before grabbing his jacket off the back of the chair and heading out.
He thought, maybe, if he should have asked for David's number. But then, given how Peter played out, he wasn't sure he wanted to be anyone else's rebound any time soon.