“You’re a pretty hot motherfucker yourself,” he said, his hair damp, water webbing down hisface.
I grabbed the small bottle of soap from a nook in the wall and a rag from the rack and passed them to him. He scrubbed down, and then we switched, him heading out and drying off with a towel while I cleaned up. When I finished, I headed into the living room, where he was stretched out on the couch, watching TV, making himself comfortable, which I admittedly enjoyed more than I shouldhave.
“Did we still need to go out and talk business? I feel like I took up most of our time with sightseeing. And what sights to see,” he added, scanning meover.
“I’ve had my own share of sights too.” I plopped down on the couch beside him. “Yeah, I say we get back into some clothes and head out for dinner, and we can chat about all those things we should have been talking about today. Then I have to cram some ideas together to present to Hacksmore tomorrow after everything is signed and the deal’s inplace.”
“Crazy to think I’m gonna be on billboards and in commercials and shit likethat.”
Once again, the way he said it proved how in over his head he was, much like with our messingaround.
“I hope you know what you’re getting yourself into, Jace. I love what you’re doing for your community. It’s maybe the most noble thing I’ve seen anyone do, but like I said, it’s not easy to be in thespotlight.”
“You’ve never wanted any of it? Ever? Come on. I find that hard tobelieve.”
“I definitely don’t have an interest in it.” I wanted to leave it at that, but I could tell by the way he kept looking at me, he expected more than that. “Remember that night at your mom’s when we were talking about those people who wind up in rehab and leaving their kids? That’s my mom,” I explained. “She was a hot, trendy actress in a TV series for a while. It catapulted her into the spotlight in the nineties. Made her this bigshot celebrity when I was a kid, and it fucking wrecked our lives. I don’t think fame makes people horrible, but it amplifies what’s there. And with my mother, that was an addictive personality and this desperation for public approval that she wasn’t getting that only kept her hooked. She couldn’t be there for me when she couldn’t even be there forherself.”
I waited for him to ask what so many others would have if I’d shared that—who she was. This sort of salacious desire to know about the fallen TV vixen. Instead, he just said, “I’m sorry. Everyone deserves a parent whocares.”
“I imagine you had a hard time with that too, being in the shelter as akid.”
“I was one of the lucky ones, at least, and found an amazing mom and dad. Not everyone’s so lucky, and if life’s shown me anything, it’s that sometimes the ones stuck with a family they didn’t choose have it a lotworse.”
“Well…it was what it was, and we’re fine now…or as fine as we can be, but that’s all that matters, and if you don’t mind us just leaving that there, that’d begreat.”
“I respect that. Thank you for sharing as much as youdid.”
“Thank you for listening,” I said, meaningit.
This wasn’t something I talked to a lot of people about. Certain aspects, particularly about my past, I preferred to keep close to my chest. Because of my past, privacy was something I’d learned tocherish.
12
Jace
“How about we get a pizza?”
“A pizza? Really?” Daxasked.
“Ah, that’s right. You and the diet thing. Well, we can go out if we haveto.”
“I can probably get some chicken wings on the side, and that’ll be plenty forme.”
Since we’d spent the day running around, neither of us had wanted to leave the confines of Dax’s hotel room, which worked just fine forme.
I enjoyed Dax’s company. Messing around with him had been a blast, and I appreciated how cool he’d been about my level of experience, or lack thereof. He’d allowed me to enjoy things at my own pace, and if ever an experience could have shown me exactly how into guys I was, this was the one. Becausedamn. And after we finished, he didn’t chase me off or let things getweird.
We ordered some pizza and wings. Dax said he needed to respond to a few emails and did so on his laptop while I watched TV. Neither of us chatted much, not feeling like we needed to fill the space with random conversation, which made me feel even more relaxed withhim.
When the pizza finally arrived, I got it while Dax finished sending an email. I set it on the counter and opened it, grabbing a slice and diving rightin.
Dax hurried in shortly after. Like me, he was still wearing just a towel around hiswaist.
He looked meover.
“You know,” I said, “you keep looking at me like that, you’re going to give me a bighead.”
“I like the kind of big head I give you,” Dax teased, approaching me. He raised his hand to my face and ran his thumb across my bottom lip. As he pulled it away, I noticed some cheese on his thumb, which he eagerly licked off, reminding me of the way he ate my cum when we were messingaround.
