He chewed contentedly for a while, staring out at the water. He really was starting to feel better, courtesy of the sun on his skin and a little food in his belly. “So, um, how long is the invite for?”
“You remain until I release you,” Helio told him, his voice sounding kind of weird and flat.
“Oh.” The strange wording triggered something in Benny’s brain. He looked at Helio—really looked—and thought over all their interactions so far. He considered Helio’s otherworldly good looks, his strange way of speaking, his odd behavior this morning.
And suddenly, it all clicked.
Benny had it figured out.
Helio waslonely.
Of course he was. People were probably afraid to approach him, right? He was rich, successful, good-looking—lots of folks found that kind of thing intimidating.
So Helio was looking for company, and maybe he could only really relax where there weren’t a lot of people around. It was no skin off Benny’s nose. What he’d wanted for this vacation was sun and sandy beaches. The dancing had been super fun, but Benny had gotten his fill of that last night. And maybe he would have liked to get laid at some point, but…there was always the chance Helio would be interested in that eventually as well.
All Benny’s odd jobs at home were pretty flexible—none of them needed him immediately or anything like that. There was the plane ticket, but Helio was clearly rich. He’d pay for a replacement when it was time, right? If it came to that.
He might get sick of Benny in a day or two anyway. Most men who were initially interested in Benny seemed to want him to change eventually—wanted him to be less of a meathead or something.
But for now, this guy needed a friend, and Benny had always been friendly.
So Benny grinned his warmest, friendliest grin. “Cool, man. How about a swim?”
When Helio just stared some more, Benny figured he was feeling shy. That was fine. They’d get more comfortable with each other in time.
3
Benny
Private islands were the freakingbest.
Benny was curious now about all the miserable rich tourists his hometown got over the summers. Like, how could they be so mean if their lives were like this?
Or maybe they were rich but notprivate islandrich. Maybe that was the problem.
Benny still didn’t know where exactly they were, or how they’d gotten there, or how to get back again, but he figured Helio had all that covered. For now, the weather was always perfect, the water was always welcoming, and the sand never got hot enough to burn his feet.
Even the sun seemed to cooperate, turning Benny a perfect golden brown without ever giving him a sunburn. And the nights were always just as warm, the full moon lighting up the ocean bright enough to see practically clear as day. Benny made sure to take a moonlit swim every night before bed, eager to take advantage of every bit of this vacation while he could.
He never saw any animals though. No birds, or fish, or mosquitos. That part was kind of weird. But maybe animals weren’t allowed on rich people’s private islands. Maybe there was some invisible net in the ocean to keep the sharks away, and special insect repellant pumped into the air that the birds didn’t like.
The rare times when Benny wasn’t outside on the beach, the villa itself was a pretty chill place to hang. He’d explored enough to know it was set up in a square surrounding an inner courtyard that was full of lush, tropical-looking vegetation, none of which Benny could name. There were lots of bedrooms—although only two were occupied, his and Helio’s—and an enormous dining room looking out onto the ocean.
Vacation home goals, basically.
And whatever the villa didn’t have quickly appeared whenever Benny asked for it. The very first night, he’d mentioned how it would be pretty chill to have an Xbox to unwind with in the evenings, and the next day, one had been all set up in one of the spare bedrooms, along with a massive television to play it on.
Helio’s staff must work hard as hell. Not that Benny ever saw them though. He hadn’t seen a single person except for Helio. It was kind of like how there was always ample food around but no kitchen that he could find.
Benny pondered the weirdness of that—was the kitchen, like, underground?—as he snacked on some pineapple rings in his lounge chair, the sun drying up the last bit of water on his skin from his swim.
He rolled onto his stomach, hiking up his swim shorts to get some sun on his butt cheeks. Not that he had to do much hiking—since he hadn’t brought his own clothes, Helio had provided him with a vacay wardrobe. A lot of it was several sizes too small for him, especially the shorts. Which was funny becauseHelio wasn’t all that much smaller than Benny. And he definitely wasn’t shorter.
A shadow fell over the sand in front of Benny’s face. Benny smiled. He didn’t have to look up to know who it was.
It was only ever one person here.
He rose onto his elbows on the lounge chair, shading his eyes. “Hey, man. Fancy a swim?”
