“This stuff’s really pretty. I know you know, but I’m not familiar with it at all.”
“You can scroll through if you want a closer look.” Aras wasn’t sure he wanted to ask, but ask he did. “That about what you had in mind?”
“It could work.” Dane flicked his fingers across the phone screen as he spoke. “Depending on style. It matches really well with what I can see of your interior design, but I was actually thinking of stuff that’s a little bit more modern.”
Aras nodded. It wasn’t a rebuff. Aras had a very traditional style, and his display cases, with their dark woods and ornate carvings, certainly matched. He thought it worked for carnival glass, but if Evanderdidgo with something a little less old school, maybe Dane would have some better input.
Dane gave a low whistle, then turned the phone around. It was a large bowl with an intricate pattern, covered in gold and purple iridescence. Dane pointed. “That isstunning.”
Which helped ease some of Aras’s nerves for sure. It wasn’t the most valuable, but aesthetically, it was one of his favorite pieces in his entire collection. “It’s Northwood’s Embroidered Mums in blue.”
Dane looked at the picture again, raising one eyebrow. “Blue?”
Aras nodded and took the phone, flicking one picture over to the base. “When we talk colors in carnival glass, we’re talking the color of the actual glass. The iridescence is just an effect sprayed over the top.”
When Dane nodded and stretched his hand back out, Aras gave him the phone, and their fingers touched. A static shock raced up Aras’s arm and he jerked back. Dane cringed. “Sorry.”
“Happens.”
Dane flicked back a little bit, still talking. “Anyway, I like the glass shelves you have in your setup, but what do you think of doing a resin or plexiglass, with lighting sandwiched inside? I have something similar in my nice display for my models.” He turned the phone around and pointed to the lights coming down onto the individual pieces. “Instead of the super pointed, directional light, it would give her something softer and more natural.”
“Not exactly natural when we’re pumping in electricity to make it work.” Aras’s chest tightened. “Sorry.”
“For what? You’re not wrong.”
At least I didn’t fuck it up yet. It was ridiculous to change how he was acting—before their job in Three Rivers, where Dane had stepped into a conflict with the contracting crew to support Aras, he’d never changed how he acted around anyone—but Aras didn’t begrudge himself nursing this crush a little bit. Even if that meant watching his mouth just a touch more. “I think I’d have to see an example.”
“Oh, well here.” He handed back Aras’s phone, then dug out his own. He tapped and flicked a few times, then handed it to Aras. “This isn’t exactly what I had in mind, and you can excuse the mess, but the lighting specifically.”
Aras looked over the picture: a set of four wooden shelves, with circular lights sunk in so they sat flush. Each of the mecha models had its own lighting coming from underneath, which cast their shadows extra dark and really showed off the color. Aras really was staring. He’d never seen these models in real life before. He still hadn’t, but even a photo gave him a good idea of the amount of detail. “Do you paint all these yourself?”
“When I have time. Hence the mess you’re not supposed to be looking at in the background.”
If he was going to bring it up twice, Aras was going to check it out. He looked and saw boxes, emblazoned with Japanese kanji and pictures of completed models. Most of them were half open, with bits of gray plastic sticking out. Next to them, on the very edge of the image, were tiny pots of paint, most of them partially used.
“If I had to spray my own glass, I wouldn’t bother, so I don’t see a problem.”
“You can see what they look like before paint if you scroll back a couple.”
Aras found himself…surprisingly interested. Not just because this was Dane, and not just because social convention demanded he show interest in what someone else was talking about, but because…well, how much detail work was going into each of these models?
He scrolled past a few completed models, several sunsets, a penis, and hit a totally gray model of an armored humanoid—
With a tentative glance up to Dane, Aras flicked back and made sure he’d seen what he thought he had. A pale dick with the foreskin partially pulled back, underneath a trimmed red bush.
“I’m so sorry. I think I scrolled too far.”
He handed it back and Dane looked. Then his entire face and neck went crimson. “Oh my god. I…fuck.”
Aras felt like he was about to bust out of his jeans. The image had already been firmly stored away in his spank bank, and Dane blushing so hard the scalp on either side of his mohawk was reddening didn’t make him less cute. That was pure fluster.
Still, Aras wanted to lighten the mood. And maybe he wanted to test the waters a touch. He went back to his gallery and flipped over to his own dick pics, making certain to choose the best one—he wanted to make a good impression—then smiled and extended his phone, screen down. “You can look at mine if it’ll make us even. I’m not offended.” A tiny growl crept into his throat and heat bubbled in his chest. “And you don’t seem to have anything to be embarrassed about, if that’s why you’re worried.”
Chapter eleven
Dane
Danewassocaughtin his own embarrassment, wishing he could melt into the floor and disappear, that he almost missed Aras’s offer. Even once he recognized it, it took his brain a few seconds to shift gears and realizewhyAras had his phone turned upside down.
