A Shoulder To Cry On... (A Studs & Steel Novella)

By Heather Mar-Gerrison

Fernando, I was utterly certain, was, one hundred per cent, as straight as an arrow... and I was, one hundred per cent, as gay as a rainbow...He was never going to fall in love with me. It was utterly hopeless... but I was a hopeless romantic and so I hoped...
Jaime is profoundly deaf following a serious infection when he was younger. It's never held him back and he's at university and holding down a job in a swanky gay nightclub. Fernando is his childhood best friend who has just found out his girlfriend is cheating on him behind his back. Understandably upset, he goes to offload on his best friend.
He gets to his place of work to find him dancing with two guys and the feeling of jealousy that goes through him is a bit of a shock. They've only ever been friends. He's always had girlfriends and Jaime's usually been single...
Only he isn't single anymore - and Fernando doesn't know what to do with that unwelcome news.
This is a standalone novella and is part of the Studs & Steel series. It has no cliff hangers and is a happy ever after...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Heather Mar-Gerrison
• Release date: Aug 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463083918

Heather Mar-Gerrison

I love to write M/M romance and as a sucker for a HEA, you're guaranteed one in my books. #happyheatherafters

Book preview

A Shoulder To Cry On...

(Studs & Steel #6.5)

A Studs & Steel Novella

Heather Mar-Gerrison

Smashwords Edition

Heather Mar-Gerrison Copyright 2017

Beautiful Front Cover courtesy of Shutterstock designs

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanically, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except where permitted by law. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. The Author holds exclusive rights to this work.

Fernando, I was utterly certain, was, one hundred per cent, as straight as an arrow… and I was, one hundred per cent, as gay as a rainbow... He was never going to fall in love with me. It was utterly hopeless... but I was a hopeless romantic and so I hoped...

Prologue

Jaime

I felt normal. I looked normal. I was normal.

I just happened to be deaf... I wasn’t always deaf. Up until I got that horrible illness when I was a kid, I’d been exactly the same as everyone else but now I was the same as everyone else to look at – I was just different. I was profoundly deaf in one ear and pretty much deaf in the other one if I didn’t wear my hearing aid – and that made me abnormal to some...

Thankfully, they were few and far between and I was generally able to get on with my life – and have boyfriends and therefore a lot of fun – in peace.

Mum and Dad were fully supportive of me – as was my older brother, Josh.

I was perfectly happy – well, mostly.

I would be perfectly happy if my best friend was gay, too but sadly, he was as straight as a die – and in love with his girlfriend. Her name was Sasha and she was adorable. I could totally understand why he loved her. I kind of loved her too. I just loved him more and wanted him to be mine. It was never going to happen… Sometimes, as heart-breaking as it was to accept, love just didn’t happen between some people.

Fernando and I had been friends since we were little kids. We met in junior school. He was ten and I was nine, since he was one of the oldest in the year and had turned ten at the end of September. My birthday was later in the year than his, in April.

Fernando was from a pretty well-off family. His father ran his own company and Fernando worked for him from leaving school; he was really good at what he did and was running a whole team of his own by the time I was going to university. He didn’t go to university like me. He was doing some sort of qualifications in business that were the equivalent to what I was doing in uni. The only difference in our education status was that he wasn’t going to be in debt until he was old and grey, like I was...

Sasha was going to university this year, too – not the same one as I went to. She was all the way down in Exeter. Fernando had already said that he was going to drive down there every weekend he could, to see her, which totally sucked since I wanted to see him at the weekends...

I’d chosen a university relatively close to home. Far enough away that I felt like I was being independent but close enough that I could get home pretty easily. That way, I got to stay around Fernando because honestly, we really didn’t function well without each other. I guess he did better than I did. He functioned pretty well around Sasha – and I sometimes thought it was just me that didn’t function without him. Maybe... He’d always kind of been my knight in shining armour...

It all started just after I’d gone back to school after contracting meningitis and spending a couple of weeks in hospital, fighting for my life.

I remember walking back into the classroom the week after the summer holidays had finished and therefore after everyone else had started back and being able to remember how noisy it was supposed to sound – but being faced with utter silence, even though it still looked as chaotic as it always was.

I looked at my new teacher, feeling slightly bewildered. She smiled at me, Welcome back, Jaime. She said.

I smiled back at her. I’d already gotten really good at reading lips in the short time I’d been rendered deaf and I could work out most of what people were saying to me. I answered her.

She put her finger to her lips and I understood that I was talking too loudly.

I nodded, Sorry. I muttered as I looked around and found that a few of the kids were laughing at me.

With my face on fire, burning with shame and embarrassment, I turned to my usual seat and looked around for my friends. No one made eye contact – well, no great surprise there. I didn’t really have many, anyway. There was, however, a new boy sat opposite my seat. He was eyeing me curiously but there wasn’t a hint of amusement about my faux pas. Only concern on his beautiful face.

As for the rest of the kids on the table, they’d all moved onto to something else and were all completely ignoring me – as was usual. I’d never been one of the popular kids. I was a little delicate for most of the boys to want to play with, as I wasn’t great at sports but the girls weren’t interested in me, either and I spent most of my time on my own. I can’t deny that it hurt a little that I’d almost died and still no one was interested in being my friend.

I looked back at the new boy. He looked back at me with a frown, Are you okay? he asked.

I nodded, feeling tears begin to pool in my eyes. I wiped them away angrily. I didn’t care that they didn’t like me. I didn’t like them, either.

He stood up and came around the desk to me, Take no notice of these idiots, he said, putting his hand on my arm and making me feel instantly calmer, They’re not worth knowing.

I nodded, trying to smile. He was being nice to me. The least I could do was to be nice back. Okay.

He smiled, You’re a bit loud, he said, try putting your fingers against your throat here, he grabbed my hand and placed my fingers against my windpipe, You can feel how loud you are and you can tell when it’s quieter because it vibrates less.

I frowned, Uh? I’d missed some of what his lips had said because I’d been concentrating on the colour of his eyes. They were such a beautiful shade of green. He was really kind of beautiful for a boy. It didn’t occur to me that it was odd to find another boy beautiful.

He grinned, showing even, white teeth in his golden-brown skin and I was immediately hooked. We settled down into the lesson and with a whole lot of help from Fernando – and a whole lot of patience from the teacher, I got through my first morning back without a hitch.

For some reason I couldn’t fathom – and still have trouble with, even now – Fernando was eager to be friends with me and we spent break time together chatting about ourselves. I got excited telling him about my brother and our dog and where we lived and I guess my voice must have been getting louder because I started attracting attention to us.

When I realised a load of older kids were laughing at me for being too noisy, I got all upset and embarrassed but Fernando managed to make me feel a whole lot better about that in seconds, too.

You can work out your volume control. He said again, Look. He took my hand and placed it on his own throat. Fernando. He said.

I nodded.

FERNANDO! he shouted, See?

Ahh, I got it. I nodded, Thank you. I said, trying to make my voice quieter.

He grinned and nodded, You’ve got it.

I was so glad he’d been sat opposite me. It was easy enough to talk to him, I just read his