I can’t resist glancing at a grinning Mel again, and Kaiden follows the direction of my eyes.
He cocks his head, expecting me to elaborate, which I have no intention of doing.
“It seems Mel stopped harassing Russel,” Pete interjects, sounding bored.
“Good for the little turd. Now he can go seek greener pastures.” Kaiden winks at me. “Anyways, we’re going to grill some steaks Saturday at the BBQ spot at Sunrise Beach and you’re welcome to come along.”
The invitation surprises me at first. We have been work-neighbors for a year, and Kaiden has never asked me to join them—mostly because I’m friends with Cole. He ignored me or glared at me in passing and never let me get inside his shop, convinced I was a spy of the devil. But I guess now that his little brother’s boyfriend works with us, he’s decided to partially let go of his grudge. The key word here is partially. But I do love a nice barbecue—even though I have to share it with people. And I’ve been thinking of getting out of my comfort zone, lately. To try and shake things up a bit. Shake off this feeling like I’m…stuck.
“Sure,” I reply.
“Great. Let’s meet there around eleven. And don’t even think about extending your invitation to Lucifer.” He points a warning finger at me.Like Cole would come.
I raise my hands up in surrender, which seems to be enough for him since he focuses his attention on Pete. “Your next client will be here in twenty minutes. You should hurry up or you won’t be able to give your daily office injection to Daniel.”Was he talking about sex?
“Motherfucker!” Pete mumbles before entering the shop without even a parting nod.
Kaiden smiles a bit too brightly at his friend’s back, and then turns to me. “See you on Saturday and tell your boss firecrackers are juvenile and fucking dangerous!”
I shake my head at him even though he has already disappeared inside the shop. My gaze fixes without hindrance on Mel again. Oddly, he’s not looking at me, maybe too busy bickering with Kaiden—they usually sound like an old married couple. But it’s strange not feeling his eyes on me. Even more to be the one staring.
Not that I liked to be the center of such attention.Right?In the beginning, it kind of made me uneasy. But then… When did I get used to it? Am I so self-centered to want his attention back on me? And for what purpose? I’m not gay. Nothing could ever happen between us. His final acceptance is a good thing—if this is really what’s going on. So why does the idea put me on edge? Must be because I don’t like change. But who really does?
I’m still trying to find an acceptable reason for my weird feelings when a couple of minutes later I reach my office on the first floor. A nice BLT sandwich is waiting for me and I want to get to it before my break is over.
The morning crawled slowly with just one customer to break the monotony. But this afternoon I have three appointments penciled in my agenda and two of them are with not-so-easy clients.
I pass Asher’s office and catch a glance of him smiling down at Jordan. Asher has Jordan wrapped so tightly against him that it looks like the much leaner guy is suffocating. But I’ve caught them more times than I can count sucking each other’s faces off, so I know better.
Really not wanting to witness another intimate moment, I keep going till I reach my door. Cole is lying down on the brown three-seat couch near the desk. His eyes are closed, hands linked on his belly. He’s wearing his unequivocal three-piece suit—blue today—a white Korean-neck shirt, and brown leather shoes. His blond, wavy hair is tousled, falling on his forehead and curling around his neck, and it’s the only messy thing about him. That’s one of the reasons why we are friends. But while his almost perfect appearance is a simple preference of his, I have no real choice. I need to be tidy and for my things to be as well.
I close the door—a bit too forcibly perhaps. One of his blue eyes rapidly finds me before disappearing again behind the eyelid.
“To what do I owe this…visit?”
I met Cole in college. We shared a room in one of the campus dormitories for scholarship-awarded students. We bonded over our fondness for burgers, cheap beer, numbers, and tidiness—mine as I said before much more severe than his. The next year, we moved into a very affordable apartment, and we’ve been working together and enduring each other’s presence ever since.
He has a strained relationship with his family, so he’s been spending almost every holiday at my parents’ house. They kind of adopted him.You and your brother were not enough, I needed another boy—that’s what my mother always says.
“Was trying to get some goddamn sleep,” he mumbles. Only now I notice the purple shadows under his eyes and the downward tilt of his mouth.
“Why in my office?” I ask him, rounding my desk to sit in my chair. I clean my hands with a wet wipe, then grab the sandwich and the bottle of water from the mini fridge, and try to enjoy my lunch—without the peace part.
“Jordan is here, and he and Asher can be…frenzied.” His office is adjacent to Asher’s, and I totally get it. I once walked by his door and heard more than I should. The memory makes my dick twitch inside my briefs, just like the first time I caught their erotic noises. And although I was very surprised by my body’s reaction at the time, I just figured hearing two people going at it is hot regardless of their gender.
“Okay, but why do you look like a sleepless zombie?”
“Kaiden,” he growls slowly. I can hear the menace in each syllable.
“What did he do this time?”
He sighs and finally opens his eyes. The light blue irises are even more evident against the redness of his eyes.He sits up and scrubs a hand down his face.
“He somehow got a hold of my phone and turned all my contacts into drag queen names. When Miss Anna Conda kept calling I knew I had to fix it straight away. I spent all night changing them back.” He looks exhausted, but there’s a hint of a smile on the corner of his mouth. After sharing an apartment for ten years and being friends for over twenty, I know Cole very well. He complains about this prank war all the time, but I believe he secretly gets a thrill out of it.
“How the hell did he get to your phone?”
“He’s as sneaky and as slippery as an eel. Fuck, if I know.” He pushes his index finger against his smirking lips while lost in his thoughts. How he can both enjoy and loathe Kaiden’s pranks is a mystery to me.
