Derek watches the two of them interact and can’t help but to feel as if he is a little in the way. Patrick’s tone is warm and flirty and Derek feels a petty stab of jealousy that makes him ache, somewhere deep down inside all those hollow parts. It’s not a jealousy of either one of them specifically, but of what they have. He’s always wanted something like what they have, and he almost had it.

But now he’s sure that he never will. It just wasn’t meant for someone like him.

He wants to get up and make excuses to leave, not wanting to bring the mood down any further, but it feels like it would be rude to do so now that the food has been ordered. Derek didn’t used to care about being rude. He wishes he didn’t now.

“I must have passed all three criteria,” he says after a moment, staring intently at his beer bottle as he picks at the label.