Sonny wasn't sure how long he sat there on the couch before he decided that he would just over and talk to Paul. He knew that Paul was only doing this to get back at him and there was no need to drag Will into this mess. He grabbed his coat and slipped it on before he hurried out the door.
He strode up to the desk at the hotel and asked to be directed to Paul Narita's room.
"What's your name sir?' The clerk asked him "You have to be on his visitor list."
"Sonny Kiriakis." He said.
She considered her list. "Yes Sir, Top floor penthouse." She said. "The code for the elevator is 4756"
"Thank you," Sonny said. He went over to the elevator and pressed the button for the top floor then entered the necessary code. When the elevator stopped, he took a deep breath and stepped out into the hallway. He walked over and rapped on the door.
It was a couple of minutes before the door opened, and Paul stood there shirtless, his pants slung low on his hips.
"Sonny." He said, giving him a slow sexy grin. "What brings you here?"
"I uhhhh, I just wanted to talk to you…. About Will." He said.
"Come on in." Paul said stepping aside.
Sonny walked into the room and looked around.
"Have a seat." Paul said nodding to the sofa that lined the far wall. He went over and picked up a shirt pulling it over his head.
Sonny walked over and took a set. He waited for Paul to pull his shirt on before he began talking.
"So Will said you asked him out." He said, not quite sure how to say what he had come to say, now that he was here.
"Yeah, well we got along pretty good the other day when we had lunch." Paul said.
"I really wish you hadn't done that." Sonny mumbled.
Paul's eyebrows shot up. "Why's that?" he asked. "Correct me if I am wrong here, but you made it pretty plain that you aren't interested in revisiting our past."
"I'm not." Sonny snapped. "I just don't want to see Will hurt."
"And why do you think I am going to hurt him?" Paul asked glaring at Sonny.
"Come on…." Sonny said, "I know you asked him out to get back at me."
"How is me asking Will out getting back at you?" Paul asked, "Do you have something going with Will on the side that I should know about?"
"Don't be ridiculous!" Sonny snapped.
"Then are you saying that you think there is no way I could be attracted to Will…. That he isn't good enough for me?" Paul asked.
"No… of course not" Sonny snapped. "This is getting all messed up. You are twisting my words. I just come to tell you that there is no reason to drag Will into this mess between us. Will is a good man, and he is newly out, and he is not going to be happy being shoved back in a closet."
Paul stood up, and paced in frustration. "I already told you, I am done with that life. In fact I told Will he can write my coming out story if he wants."
"What?" Sonny asked surprised. "You are going public?"
"Yeah, eventually." Paul answered. "I am tired of hiding, I lost one of the best things I ever had in my life doing that, and I am not going to make that same mistake again."
"That's all good, until you change your mind." Sonny said, "I am asking you to please leave Will out of this."
"Sonny, I do thank you for your obvious concern." Paul said sarcastically, "But I think you should just go on back home to your fiancé, what's his name….. Brian, right? Go on back to Brian and mind your own business. Will is a big boy and I think he is capable of making a decision on his own."
He walked over to the door and held it open for Sonny, waiting until he was on the other side of the door. "Have a good weekend Sonny." He said, swinging the door closed.
Sonny stood there staring at the door for a few minutes, then he turned and pressed the call button for the elevator.
He moped around the square for a while, thinking about all that Paul had said. He wondered if he would really go through with it this time. There had been a time that he thought that Paul would make that grand gesture for him. That was what he had really wanted to happen the day he told Paul that he was leaving…..
Sonny placed his packed suitcase on the bed. He made one last sweep through the suite that he had rented using a credit card that Paul had set up for him, so that it could be in Sonny's name. It was the hotel room where he had proposed to Paul, ironically also the one he had been turned down in. He had pleaded with Paul to marry him actually, not that it had made a difference. Once he was satisfied that he had collected all of his belongings, he went back and sat down on the bench at the end of the bed. He went over what he wanted to say in his head, wishing Paul would hurry up before he lost his nerve. He looked at his watch, wondering what could be keeping him, the team meeting should have been over a few hours ago, and the team would be headed to the next stop in this string of away games in a couple of hours.
Mere minutes later, Paul opened the door and stepped inside. He closed the door, making sure to lock it behind him. "Hey Babe." He said, sorry I am late." He said moving over to kiss Sonny softly on the lips.
Sonny waved it off, he was used to waiting for Paul, there was always some fan wanting an autograph, and that one autograph turned into one hundred. As long as there were people standing around asking him to sign things he would stand there signing away, usually till the manager pulled him away. But sometimes it was a team member inviting him out for drinks and wouldn't take no for an answer…. And the excuses always went on and on and on.
"I have to be back soon. The bus leaves for the airport in about an hour." Paul said. "But I wanted to come say good bye and give you the name of the hotel that I wanted you to get in Toronto. I think, it is called…."
"I'm not going to Toronto." Sonny cried out.
Paul looked at him curiously. "Of course you are, I am going to be there for four days and then we have a three day weekend." He said. "We can have some uninterrupted time together."
"I can't live like this anymore." Sonny said, sinking back down onto the bench.
"The season will be over in a couple of months and we will have some down time." Paul said. "I know all the travelling gets tiring, but I promise I will make it worth your while." He teased.
Sonny shook his head. "That's not what I mean." Sonny said. "I love the travelling."
"What is it then?" Paul asked.
"I can't live my life as your secret anymore." Sonny said. "It is killing me."
Paul groaned… "Sonny, baby…. Not this again. You know that I love you, and I would shout it to the world if I could, but I just can't."
"Can't….. or Won't?" Sonny asked. "You could change people's lives, if you would just take a chance." he said.
"I can't Sonny, I can not take the chance that I would not be able to play ball anymore, you know how much I love it."
"Do you love it more than you love me?" Sonny asked pointedly.
"Sonny, please don't ask me to choose between you and baseball." Paul said sadly, looking pained.
Sonny looked at him, and realized that Paul had already made his choice, when he turned down his wedding proposal the night before. "You don't have to choose…" Sonny said.
The pained expression on Paul's face eased up, and he reached out to pull Sonny up.
Sonny stood and side stepped his outstretched hand. "You don't have to choose, I will choose for you." He said. "Good bye Paul, I hope that you find the happiness you deserve someday." He croaked, as he held out an envelope to him. "That's your credit card and the key to your apartment."
Paul took the envelope and dropped it onto the bed. "Sonny…. Don't do this." He said, "It won't be like this forever, I promise."
"Please don't make this any harder for me, than it already is." Sonny said, pulling his suitcase off the bed, clenching it tightly in his hands in front of him. "You know how much I love you, but I have to do what's right for me." He turned and opened the door, hurrying out, and rushing toward the elevator.
Part of him hoped that Paul would chase him down the hall, and beg him not to go…. but he knew that would never happen. He knew Paul would never risk anyone seeing such a display.
"Sonny…." Chad said, pulling Sonny from his memory.
Sonny looked up and wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his coat.
"What's wrong?" Chad asked.
"Hey Chad." He said, "What's up?"
"Nothin' man." Chad said. "You just looked like you could use a friend, that's all."
Sonny silently moved over, making a place for Chad to sit down beside him.
Chad took the seat and remained quiet, allowing Sonny the opportunity to talk when he was ready.
"Me and Brian had a fight." Sonny said eventually, deciding to start from the least complicated end of the problem. Not quite sure how much he wanted to tell.
"It was a bad one huh?" Chad asked.
"He is pretty mad." Sonny said.
"What was the fight about?" Chad asked.
"Will." Sonny said simply.
"That's always been a touchy subject between you two." Chad acknowledged.
Sonny nodded his agreement.
"What about Will?" Chad pressed.
"He has a date Saturday." Sonny said.
"That's great!" Chad said. "But why would you and Brian be fighting about Will having a date? Seems to me that Brian would have been elated."
"Brian thinks I am jealous." Sonny said.
"Are you?" Chad asked.
Sonny looked over at him… "No." He said. "I just don't think that this guy is right for Will."
"Ahhh." Chad said. "So what's wrong with him?"
"He is a major league ball player." Sonny said.
"WOW." Chad said, clearly impressed. "Just what's wrong with that?"
"You know how celebrities are. They are always out for themselves, used to getting their way and they don't care who they hurt. " Sonny said. "I don't want to see Will get burned."
"Not all celebrities are the same." Chad said. "This guy may be a dream boat."
"He can be pretty charming when he wants to." Sonny said. "He certainly knows how to get his way."
"Sounds like you know him." Chad said. "How's that?"
"Paul and I dated a long time ago." Sonny said.
"So wait, let me get this straight you dated the guy that Will is going out with this weekend?" Chad said.
"Yeah." Sonny said miserably.
"Is that what bothers you about the situation, that Will is going out with an old flame of yours?" Chad asked.
"No…." Sonny denied. Then shook his head… "Maybe, I don't even know." He said truthfully.
"Sonny did you make a big fuss about this to Brian?" Chad asked.
"No, not really." Sonny said "I just said that I didn't think that Paul is right for Will and he got mad and said that I don't think anyone is good enough for Will."
"Hmmm" Chad said. "Is that how you feel?" Chad asked. "You know you never seemed to like Will with Neil either."
"NO!" Sonny snapped. "Neil was never good enough for Will, he was always just after one thing…. But there are people….. Like you, you would be good enough for him…." Sonny said.
"Whoa there buddy. I play for the other team, remember." Chad said laughing."
"Yeah." Sonny said. "I'm just making a point."
"Sonny, you know Will is a grown man." Chad said.
"Yeah, but he is still young and, I just want to…" Sonny began.
"I know how much history you two have together." Chad interrupted him. "But I am your friend and I am his friend, I am telling you this because I think you need to hear it. Will waited for you for a long time. He waited for you to realize that yes he lied to you about Arianna but he did it because he was terrified he would lose you. He waited for you to understand that and take him back. But you plowed ahead with Brian. There wasn't a more devastated person in this town the day you showed up at the club wearing Brian's ring, and announced that you were getting married. But Will pushed all of his hurt aside because he couldn't stand to lose your friendship too. He is learning to move forward without you, If you care about him as much as I know you do…you won't ruin that for him."
"Will waited for me?" Sonny said, dumbfounded.
"Man… come on." Chad said, "Why do you think Neil could never get past one or two dates at a time?" Will kept giving him the boot every time he pushed Will for more than he wanted to give."
"I didn't know." Sonny said. "Will kept saying that he was concentrating on Arianna."
"He didn't want you to know, he didn't want you to feel guilty and come back to him because of that." Chad said. "Anyway all of that is water under the bridge now. You and Brian are a couple of months away from getting married, Will accepted that after a very long and painful time, and now he is finally moving on. Now what you need to do is get back to your apartment and let Brian know that he has nothing to be jealous of where Will is concerned."
Sonny's mind was reeling, Will had waited on him, but was over him now…
"Go on now." Chad said getting up and urging him off the bench. "I will keep an eye on Will and the new guy, you concentrate on your relationship."
"Thanks Chad." Sonny mumbled before he walked off.
Sonny walked slowly back to his apartment building. Had he really hurt Will like that? He thought back over the last year and a half. The first several months, he had been so hurt himself that he hadn't cared if Will was hurt or not. Later when they had finally started gaining ground toward friendship again, Brian had been very publicly affectionate, protective of his relationship with Sonny. Will had not spent a lot of time around him a Brian then, and even now he had to acknowledge that at least eighty percent of the time when he saw Will, Brian was not around. He wondered if it still hurt Will to see them together.
He looked up to see that he was at his apartment building. He went inside to find Brian sitting on the couch, nursing a glass of Jack Daniels. Brian looked up when he came in the door, then looked away.
"Where did you go?" Brian asked.
Sonny answered him cautiously. "I just needed to get some air." He hedged. It would probably be best to leave out the part about seeing Paul and warning him off of Will.
"Where's Will tonight?" Brian asked.
"I don't know, I didn't go to see Will." Sonny said, "But I did run into Chad in the square and we talked for a while."
"Hmmm" Brian said. "Did you ask him to watch the club for you this weekend?"
"No," Sonny said. "I forgot actually, but I am sure he won't mind. I think you are right we should get out of here for a few days."
Brian finally looked back up at him. "Really?" he asked.
"Yes." Sonny said, "We need some alone time. No one around but me and you." He continued as he sat on the couch beside Brian. "I love you." He said, "I'm sorry, if I ever made you doubt that."
"I love you too." Brian said. "I love you so much and I don't want to lose what we have."
"We won't." Sonny said, we just have to learn to trust each other.
Brian smiled and nodded, getting up and leading Sonny toward the bedroom.