Page 16 of Phoenix Rising
“Love you, Arthur, and I’m sorry.”
“No worries, honey.”
Sensing Phoenix didn’t have the energy to walk, I lifted him and nestled him close with his arms around my shoulders and legs wrapped around my waist as B dug around his pocket for the key and dashed up before us.
B unlocked the door and opened it, but when I tried walking through, B stood frozen just inside the threshold so I bumped into his back. I searched Phoenix to see if the movement jolted him awake, but found him sound asleep against me. Adjusting the limp man in my arms, I lifted my head, searching for his bedroom, and gasped.
Despite the brief way Phoenix described his apartment and the vivid proof of his obsession with anything green, enriching the aesthetics of his bakery, there was no way my imagination could conjure the jungle we walked into. With double-hung windows on three of the four walls, it opened up the space, filling it with light. But what stunned me was the overall representation of a garden eden.
Verdant plants scattered throughout greeted us. Monstera’s close to ten feet tall, devil’s ivy sitting on top of overflowing bookshelves, strung along the crown molding that circled the entire room. Spider plants, English ivy, several types of rubber trees, snake plants, aloe vera, lavender, and many, many others I couldn’t identify placed around the room on stands, shelves, and tables, leaving it feeling like a sanctum.
When I peered closer, each terra cotta pot was hand painted. Unicorns, rainbows, pastels of blue, yellow, green, and pink, along with glitter, some multicolored and others were rose, gold,hot pink, purple, aqua, all sparkled with the sunlight streaming in.
The cream and brown striped plush couch claimed the center of the room along with a coffee table, which looked to be a multifunctional piece. Empty pots, trowels, painting supplies, and an old-fashioned blue watering can lay next to books on plants and gardening along with an e-reader. The over seventy inch television was a bit of a surprise and so was the table of power tools in the corner near the kitchen, but at that moment my attention dropped away from the apartment when Phoenix shifted in my arms.
B pushed open a door, which contained even more greenery and art, but what drew my eye was the unmade queen bed, along with twisted sheets and a comforter crumpled on the floor.
After B spent the next few minutes making the bed, I lowered Phoenix onto the sheets, but he whimpered and clutched me closer.
“Don’t worry, Sunshine. We’re not going anywhere.”
As I pressed a kiss to his forehead, he turned on his side and brought his knees up to his chest. B covered him and the younger man tugged the thin blanket over his head before he let out a shuddering sigh and fell asleep.
Although exhausted and tempted to get into bed with Phoenix and B, I knew if I took a nap, I wouldn’t sleep later.
B closed the blinds, leaving the sun shining in through the tiny gaps. We left the door open an inch or two and walked into his living area. It also allowed us to hear him if he called for us.
“He never answered you about staying over?”
Concern outweighed the need to know if Phoenix would put us out of our misery. Despite his protests, he needed us as much as we needed him, and we’d compromise on the solution.
“Don’t worry, B. If he doesn’t want to stay with us, we’ll camp out here.”
It took a brief argument to persuade Phoenix to stay over after he woke up from his five-hour nap. That night, he packed most of his clothes and toiletries, which scenting Phoenix every morning during my shower left me hard more than once, along with a few plants, setting them in the windowsills in the kitchen.
“These are poisonous to dogs,” He pointed out.
I leaned closer and snagged a kiss, smiling against his mouth. “I wasn’t even worried, Sunshine.”
It was extraordinarily uncomplicated the way the three of us settled into a routine.
Waking early, eating breakfast that excluded sugar despite B’s heavy whines, and dropping Phoenix off before we headed to work. I’d pick Phoenix up around two and drove him home, heading back to work until five.
But every night as I cooked dinner with both men keeping me company, I found my craving to belong to someone satiated. Without knowing, the sensation that had gnawed at me over the years leaving me hollow fled because Phoenix and B gave me a sense of fulfillment nothing else in life provided.
It wasn’t about the sex, which was hot and astounding each time, but the bond forming between us, making me whole.
The pounding sound of B stumbling down the stairs brought me out of my thoughts as Phoenix tensed behind me. “Burton Maxwell Horváth,donotfall down those stairs! My heart can’t take it.”
When he rounded the corner, rubbing sleep from his eyes, he spotted us and stuck out his bottom lip in a pout. “I wasn’t going to, Petal. But the bed is cold and empty without you two in it.”
For thirty-one years, I’d never dreamed I could live my life with everything I’ve ever wanted.
Back in my early twenties, I’d grown tired of the dating and hook-up game, but after college and when B went back to dating women, there’d been several years where any hard dickwould do. That grew old, especially when I found no satisfaction scratching that itch. I’d rather take myself in hand and use the variety of toys I’d purchased over the years.
Despite the countless blowjobs, frotting, and hand jobs we shared over the past few weeks, we hadn’t progressed further, despite our outspoken desire to do so. But with our early morning hours, we crashed soon after sunset. B still hadn’t adjusted all that well, but he made a valiant effort, which was how I ended up with him plastered to my chest when he stumbled over to us.
“This is the last morning we’re going to be getting up at the butt crack of dawn,” Phoenix announced with a yawn.
