[Those words, how long he had desperately wanted Eddie to say them- to want him they way he wanted to be with him? Richie had spent so much of his adult life with a hole in his chest that he couldn't explain, a void that only Eddie could fill. As stupid as it was, those words even colored with uncertainty caused a familiar warmth to curl around his chest, Eddie was it for him and he knew that the minute he'd stepped into the Jade of the Orient. All of what he'd ever wanted, everything he'd ever had met in unison that night and so he drank and tried to push it down with shot after shot because Eddie was married and happy and he was miserable and didn't deserve what he'd managed to forget.]

Okay... but dude, we haven't even kissed. Not for- [Jesus, more than a decade. Richie knew how long it had been for himself and his self-control was severely lacking. In another dimension, this same situation was playing in a totally different way and Richie had lept across the table like some Casanova to kiss Eddie hard on the lips. That's not the world he was living in now.] So, how are we gonna do this? Do you want me to take you out or...?