Chapter Thirteen
Lunch went well. Bas pushed water on his friends, making sure they gulped down a few bottles as well as loaded up on the fresh fruits and veggies they’d been given for lunch. Dane even drank a protein smoothie he watched the bartender make. When Dane chugged the peanut-butter-banana drink down, Bas finally had hope that he would get better. If Bas had to show up every day to make him a protein shake and buy him a crate of peanut butter, he would, just to get Dane back up to a healthy weight. And clearly Dane’s thinking had improved. He hadn’t snapped at either of them even once.
They had a private bathroom with covered mirrors, and a tiny dining area. They’d be on to the deep tissue massage next, then the little stuff—hair, nails, facial. So far both Adam and Dane were holding up okay. Adam’s sense of humor had drawn Dane out of some sort of weird, quiet, funk when they were wrapped. Now Dane ate with gusto, devouring fruit and veggies at a pace that nearly matched Adam’s.
As they headed toward the massage rooms, Adam reassured Dane about what was to come.
“Ru’s given me a few massages. He says this is a thousand times better ’cause they really get in and work the muscle. Loosen you up. But you’re still gonna be covered. They won’t, like, touch your butt or anything. Ru says they do that sort of massage in Malaysia, but I think it would be too weird to have anyone else touch my butt.”
“But you let Ru, right?” Dane had gotten to questioning Adam more about his relationship with Ru. None of it seemed to be meant to be hurtful or even intrusive. Dane had an almost childlike inquisitiveness, and Adam was answering things he’d normally be too shy to speak about. Bas hoped Adam’s honesty would help Dane overcome whatever emotional hurdles he’d been facing when it came to sex. He hadn’t heard an insult from the guy all day, which meant Dane wasn’t uncomfortable or hurting. That had to be a good sign.
“Ru can touch my butt all he wants. He likes to put his hands in my jean pockets. I really like that if we’re kissing. And if he gets a good grip when we’re rubbing, that’s really, really good.” It was the first time Bas had ever heard Adam talk so intimately. “He’s got a really nice butt too. Gets all weird when I stare at it, but it’s nice.”
“Weird how?” Dane asked as they laid down on tables separated by the barriers again. “He doesn’t like it?”
“Ru has this weird body image. He thinks he’s fat, that he’s got some sort of love handles or something, but he doesn’t. He’s very fit, a healthy weight, and his shoulders and arms are amazing. It’s embarrassing to think about him like that in public. I can’t stop drooling when he wears one of those muscle shirts.”
Bas laughed to himself, wondering if Adam was sporting a hard-on he’d have to let wane before they turned him over, but kept his comments to himself. He was beginning to think Tommy was brilliant for putting the three of them together, Bas and Dane because they’d already met and Bas knew Dane’s hang-ups and how to handle any panic attacks that might come, and Adam and Dane because they were on the same mental wavelength when it came to intimacy and people outside their tiny worldview bubble.
The spa thing was a nice break. Bas had to admit he hadn’t had a grief-filled thought all day. In fact, he couldn’t remember feeling this relaxed since long before his gran went into the hospital.
The massage began, and all three of them fell into silence. The only sounds that any of them made for the next hour were quiet moans of relief. This time Bas fell asleep, waking to Adam and Dane standing over him in their robes.
“What’s next?” Adam asked. “I’m liking this spa thing.”
“Hair, nails, facial.” He touched his face; yeah, he needed a shave, and it would be nice to have someone do it for him. Adam had nothing but peach fuzz, but Dane had gone beyond scruffy to full-bearded wild man. His bright blue eyes stood out on his face framed by long blond lashes. Even now he was handsome. Bas had to shake himself out of his study. No reason to make Dane uncomfortable. “Let’s go finish beautifying ourselves. I need a shave.”
Dane touched his face too. “Me too. Tommy was comparing me to Jesus this morning. But wasn’t he hairy ’cause he wandered a desert forever or something?”
“No idea,” Adam said. “I’m Jewish. Studied the Old Testament, which has stuff in it about not shaving, but never really looked at the New Testament. You do sort of look like all the pictures of him. Very white—which would have been wrong ’cause he was Hebrew—blue eyes, blond hair, long and scruffy. Not bad. Just not what a guy born in that part of the world would have looked like.”
“Was probably harder to shave back then ’cause they didn’t have Bic,” Dane said, appearing to think about it. “Did they have blades back then? Was that what they used? How scary. Did they even have swords like in the movies?”
Adam laughed. “Yeah, pretty sure they didn’t have Bic.”
“You should keep some of it,” Bas said, thinking hard about the lines of Dane’s face. “Trim it down a lot, but the beard looks good on you. What do you think, Adam?” It was the first time they were acknowledging to Dane that they were looking at him. He hoped Adam took the positive and ran with it like he normally did.
“You have such pretty eyes,” Adam said. “The blond scruffy is nice. Reminds me of Thor. Just don’t wear anyone’s drapes. That’s weird.”
Bas doubled over, he laughed so hard. Dane just looked confused.
“Who’s Thor?”
“He’s a superhero in comics and movies. Marvel universe. Based on a Norse legend, I think. You haven’t seen them?” Adam steered them toward the seats where they’d be getting hands, feet, and hair done all at once. “Chris Hemsworth is pretty hot. Too many muscles for me, but his eyes are pretty. The long hair is a little much. But if you’re going to do facial hair, that’s a good example. I have the movies if you want to watch them with us sometime. Ru loves superhero movies. I never watched them before I met him. Now I’ve seen them all enough to have them memorized. Tommy is a huge Iron Man fan. Has this cool art in his condo like Iron Man is breaking through the wall. Lights up and everything.”
All of their mirrors again were covered. But their stylists came with small handhelds. Bas smiled at his companions as they were all led off to sinks to be shampooed before being stuck in the chair for a while.
“You should have Chris Evans’s hair and Chris Hemsworth’s scruff. You could be the ultimate superhero,” Bas told Dane. “Those are two hot blonds.”
“Robert Downey Jr. has almost the same cut as Evans,” Adam told them. “At least in the lastIron Man. And his facial hair is nice. Sophisticated without going over the top unkempt. The first movie he was really scruffy.”
“Drool worthy,” Bas agreed. “He is a very good-looking man.”
“I’d like to see these movies sometime.” Dane took his seat in the chair. His stylist asked him how he wanted it cut. He shrugged. “Shorter so it’s not in my face?”
“Classic,” Bas told the stylist. “Fred Astaire-like. He’s got piercing eyes and the great bone structure that go so well with that timeless look.”
The stylist smiled and nodded. Bas sat back to let his hair be worked over, just a trim for him. His own style was long on top with closely clipped sides. He rarely wore it without heavy gel to sweep the length up. It was very metro and had gotten him nasty comments more than once from those macho men who weren’t assured of their own sexuality. But on the rare occasion that he frequented a gay club on an 18+ night, he got plenty of attention. And Tommy’s style wasn’t all that different, just longer on the top, so straight boys wore their hair that way too.
