“Når som helst, son. Anytime.”
We’re going to listen to each other, so help me god.
16
DeShaun
My knee is killing me after walking around the gallery for hours, and I’m still a little sad and unsettled, so I’m set up on my chaise in the living room with more bags of frozen vegetables. Just as the glass of wine helps unwind the muscles of my jaw and shoulders, someone pounds on the door, rattling it.
I swear to Jesus, if it’s the kids down the hall again, I’m going to the property manager. I grab my cane, wincing while I make my way to the door. Of course, if it’s not the kids, my gun is in reach.
More pounding. “DeShaun, let me in."
"Odd?” I ask, fumbling the lock as I check the door cam app on my phone. “What are you doing here?"
He puts his face in the camera. “Let me in and I'll tell you."
Hope flares in my chest, damn near singeing my eyebrows.
I open the door and step aside, staring at him as he walks into my place. He stops in the middle of my living room, running his hands through his hair, shifting on his feet, looking like a Norwegian god.
"Odd…?”
Pinning me with a glare, he launches into it, his East Texas coming through loud and clear. “So I went on a date, just like you and everyone else suggested. And itsucked.”
I hide my smile. “Odd, I don't need to know about—”
"Oh, you’regonnalisten because I'mdonewith this shit.” He pauses and holds up a finger. “But first, I have to apologize for the Grindr app going off in the middle of the meeting. That was not intentional. Anyway, not that it matters, but I ended up going out with a woman."
I pinch my eyebrows together. "Why are you telling me this?"
Running his hands through his hair, he rolls his eyes and then stomps over to me. “I’m telling you that I went out with somebody who was the exact opposite of you—bubbly, cute, not shy about getting flirty. Everything about you flipped around, that's who I went with. And it was afiasco."
I bite my lip, the grin nearly taking over before I shut it down. Looking at him carefully, I ask, “Why was it a fiasco?"
"I don’t know. Maybe it was the ten thousand texts I got from everybody saying how sad you looked at the gallery tonight. Or that my date went missing for nearly twenty minutes to take a work call. Or the fact that my brother and Omar showed up midway through. Though, I take that back. She saw that they were a couple and her mask came right off. Which was helpful.”
Wait, what? “She’s homophobic? In Austin?”
“Yep. And—”
“Wait,” I say, interrupting him. “Did you put that you’re bi in your profile?"
Clutching the air in frustration, he answers, “Why the fuck does that matter?”
“I’m sorry, you’re—”
“Of course I put that I’m bi in my profile,” he says, cutting me off. “But she clearly hadn’t read it all that closely. And then she decided to ask me if I fuck my brother."
I curl my lip. “What the fuck?”
“Exactly!” He throws his hands up and resumes his agitated pacing. “But that actually wasn't the worst part of the date."
“Worse than some random jerk asking if you fuck your brother? That seems…unlikely.”
“Yes,” he hisses, pivoting wildly to crowd into my space. He sucks in an uneven breath, his body trembling as his gaze shreds the reflexive, paper-thin arguments I’ve been making for years. “She wasn't you.”
Quick as fire, he hooks his hand around the back of my neck, dragging me in for a fierce, angry kiss. I can’t help but sigh into the assault of his lips, my body roaring back in response as I lean into him, returning violence for violence, our teeth clashing and tongues doing battle with each other. The smell of his skin, the taste of his mouth…everything.I need him so badly.
