The weather had turned cold and wet, the darkness of winter all around, inside Dale Head two men unaware of the storm raging outside they were only interested in each other, wrapped in each others arms Aaron didn't think his life could be any better, so what if Jackson hadn't proposed even with Emma's not so subtle hints to his boyfriend during the interview The few days since the article had featured had seen little change in his life although for Jackson they had been more significant, He'd offered his class mates the chance to work on the barn for a share of the profits which reminded Aaron once again of the kindness the builder showed to people
Emma had gone away with some other information, particularly around the opening of Anna and Bens Restaurant hoping to get an interview with the two of them, Jackson had mentioned it to the couple when he'd dropped Bean off later that day, the couple seemed surprised that their Restaurant was news worthy,
their shopping trip had been successful all the furniture and crockery had been ordered meaning that the opening was set for the middles of November
There had been no further incidents and the two young men had started to relax believing that Brett would by now have been interviewed by the police, knowing that the law was involved making him realise that he couldn't treat them the way he had, they were settled and happy, nothing was going to affect that, Aaron had even had a night out in town with his best mate Adam, Jackson had declined the offer to tag along as he wanted to catch up with Premier Refurbishment business and he'd arranged to telephone both Ralph and Shirley for updates he was particularly interested how the purchase of the block of flats was progressing
Adam and Aaron had started their night in The Woolpack but soon opted to go into Hotton there were more bars to chose from and also Bar West, a Gay bar that they had been to before it was usually at Adam's insistence as he wanted his friend to be happy and to do that he needed a boyfriend, now, they went because they liked the bar it had a pool table and the larger was cheap, Aaron was wary now and never left his drink unattended and kept his thumb over the top of his bottle, he was approached by men during the evening but none of them were of interest to him he had everything he wanted in a partner and that was Jackson
Jackson had gone to bed just after 11pm he was tired as he'd had a busy day studying and then he'd caught up with the news from Shirley and Ralph, Shirley hadn't stayed on the phone long, the company was running like a well oiled machine nothing to worry about on that front, Ralph had spoken a little longer, it was the first time he'd negotiated such a big purchase and Jackson had listened to him voice his worries before reminding him that he could do this, He'd ended the call the way he always did reminding his Foreman that he was only a phone call away, He was just about to settle down to sleep when he'd heard a taxi pull up, Aaron shouting goodnight to Adam as the taxi pulled away and then he heard his key in the front door
Aaron tried to be quiet but the more he tried the louder everything he did seemed to be, the door had banged against the wall, then he dropped his shoes, he caught every squeaky board on the stairs, the toilet as he flushed it seemed to echo throughout the upstairs so he wasn't surprised when he opened their bedroom door to see the muted light of the bedside lamp still illuminating the room a sleepy looking Jackson eyeing him with curiosity as he walked in
"Sorry, did I wake you?" Aaron apologised
"No I wasn't asleep it's okay"
The builder watched as Aaron sat on the side of the bed pulled off his top and then unbuckled his belt pulled down his jeans taking his boxers with them before climbing into bed, he was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, Jackson would have smiled but Aaron had started to snore
"Aaron, be quiet"
No response, but the snoring increased in volume, so the builder dug him in the ribs
"Be quiet, or turn over"
That seemed to work as Aaron turned onto his side, Jackson slid further down the bed, turned off the light and settled down for some much needed sleep, but unfortunately Aaron turned back onto his back and proceeded to snore and grunt like a herd of pigs, Jackson gave up trying to get the mechanic to quieten down instead he turned onto his side facing away from his boyfriend and his beer soaked breath, well he should have just gone with them he thought as he tried to sleep
Aaron made the breakfast during the week so Jackson took his turn at the Weekend, he hadn't slept well due to his boyfriends continued snoring well into the night, he'd just gone over to sleep when Aaron had got up to use the bathroom, stumbling around the room and waking up the exhausted builder. Jackson eventually had about 4 hours sleep, the mechanic found his very tired looking boyfriend standing over the toaster not noticing the smoke billowing out of it
"Hey sleepy head you trying to burn the house down?"
The builder looked confused for a second before smelling the burning toast and hitting the cancel button
"What's up" Aaron had come to stand with the builder
"Just tired I guess, you kept Me awake"
Aaron wiggled his eyebrows at Jackson
"I don't remember doing that" Aaron was smirking knowing full well that they hadn't had sex the previous night
" And if we had, you would have remembered?, you were in a bit of a state"
"No I wasn't" he dropped a quick kiss on the builders lips "I'll go to the shops, we are out of bread, can't have toast without bread" he kissed Jackson again before leaving the builder to clean up the remnants of the cremated first attempt at toast
Aaron stepped out of the front door, the temperature was only just above freezing and the ground was slippey as the frost was quite hard, the mechanic stuck his hands in his pockets as he walked down to the shop, he saw the postman he looked freezing not a job he'd like he thought as he shivered and burrowed further into his jacket as least it wouldn't be long before he was back in Dale Head in front of the Aga warming his feet
The letter box rattled as the post dropped through, it Jackson picked it up and looked, there were the usual brown envelopes, bills, they'd get to those at some point during the weekend so he put them on the table, there was a larger envelope it felt heavy, he looked, it was addressed to him, he ripped it opened and took out the contents, he felt sick, there in his hands were dozens of photo's of Aaron, his Aaron, those photo's showed him kissing a man and that man definitely wasn't him, why had Aaron done this? Jackson thought they were happy but Aaron was cheating, he had the evidence in his hand, what other explanation could there be?, He dropped the photo's, picked up his coat and walked out of Dale Head and out of Aaron's life