“Wilder!”
I had to smile at his frustration; he wasso easy to get wound up. “It’s nothing like what you’re probably imagining. Iwas having coffee yesterday, and I heard two guys behind me having aconversation. One of the guys has evidently been watching me for a while and…Iguess has a crush on me. Although, that sounds like we’re in elementary schoolagain.” It was better than saying he was stalking me, which might worry Grayand had a negative vibe to it.
A chuckle came over the phone. “What didyou think about him?”
“He’s attractive. I kind of want to sketch him.I think it would turn out really well.” It was easy to picture my littlestalker leaning against the window, waiting for me to draw him. It should’vebeen harder to imagine, except I might’ve browsed around the Leashes and Lacewebsite earlier.
I wasn’t sure if that made me the stalkernow or not.
“I didn’t ask if you thought he would makea good subject, what you think abouthim?” He stressed the last wordlike it should’ve been obvious what he’d meant. I thought I’d answered itreasonably well.
“I’ve only seen him in person once that Iremember, and I’m not sure eavesdropping on the conversation counts. So I don’tknow what I think about him beyond what he looks like.” That should have beenself-explanatory.
Gray sighed like I was testing his patience.“Well, did you think about getting to know him or was it just somethinginteresting? Like,oh it’s cute, the sexy gay guy likes meor was theresomething else to it?”
“I don’t know, but I can’t get him out ofmy head.”
“You were the straight guy that every gayguy in the art department tried to seduce. You never seemed to be interested inanyone besides being a little open-minded. He’s not the first gay man to findyou attractive or even flirt with you. And let’s face it, a coffee shop isn’tlike he bumped into you when you were drunk and horny at a club.”
It was my turn to chuckle. “No, I was verydefinitely sober. And I think if he’d just come on to me in a bar or somethinglike that, I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about him. This was different.It was sweet.”
“It sounds like you moved beyond a straightguy getting head kind of situation into something possibly romantic. I’m notsure you can call yourself straight when you’re describing this guy as sweet.” Graysaid it like we were discussing going after a new commission. It helped keepeverything in perspective.
“Probably not.” Gray had been prettyconvincing in college when he’d said that getting sucked off didn’t mean someonewas gay. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have let him go down on me the first time.
I was starting to think that I should’vedone a little bit more introspection in college. But even looking back, Icouldn’t picture myself dating any of the guys who’d hit on me. Of course, itwasn’t always easy to picture dating some of the women that hit on me either. DoctorBarbie or Engineer Barbie never hit on me…it was always Fashion Barbie or HookerBarbie. No one interesting in the long run.
Gray pushed again. “Are you going to talkto him?”
“Evidently, he’s been at the coffee shop atthe same time I’ve been for a while. I’ll probably see him tomorrow.” I stillwasn’t sure how I’d missed him. If I couldn’t recognize a stalker, it wasprobably time to stop reading at lunch.
Gray sighed again. “What are you going todo when you see him?”
“Say hello?” It wasn’t like I had to throwthe guy down on the floor in the middle of the coffee shop and kiss him.
Gray snickered. “I’m not expecting you tohave sex in the store, Wilder.”
“Getting arrested isn’t high on my to-dolist.” I knew how I looked. I’d been going there long enough that the staffknew me. But I wasn’t going to do anything to push my luck and have someonecall the cops on the scary guy.
“Are you just going to say hi and leave itat that, or are you actually going to talk to him?” Gray sounded like he wasspelling it out for a child.
“Am I going to flirt with him?” I had toadmit that might not be the best idea.
Gray laughed. “We both know you’re notterribly good at that. Didn’t you say you were reading? Maybe he’d beinterested in your book.”
I started shaking my head before the wordseven came out. “Probably not.”
Gray laughed again. “What are you readingthis time?”
I sighed. “Gone with the Wind. I’vebeen alternating between classics and more modern series. And after readingTheLord of the RingsandHarry Potter, I was looking for somethinglighter.”
“Only you would call that lighter.”
“What? It’s almost a romance, and it’s one book,not a dozen in a series.”
“Okay, no book conversations yet. Any cluewhat he does for a living? Maybe that would work.”
The conversation just kept getting moreinteresting. “He’s basically a model.”
