Thankfully, it wasn’t a stretch for the bottle of wine, and he grabbed it, raising it to his mouth and drinking straight from it, hoping enough of the alcohol now would make whatever the morning brought them hurt less.
8
Leonidas
It didn’t take much convincingto get Andy to spend the night. He was operating under the illusion that Leonidas would be gone when he woke, but little did Andy know, Leonidas wasn’t going anywhere.
For one, because they were in his flat, and two…
Well…
Leonidas didn’t want to go anywhere.
The sunlight crept over the windowsill, and he unwound himself from Andy’s pale arms and legs. He was naked, Andy having hours before divested him of his clothing, and he remained that way, padding into the kitchen to make some coffee. He filled up his kettle from the sink and plugged it in, then leaned against the counter and stared across the studio at Andy, who still lay sleeping.
Andy’s hair was a tangled mess, his body exposed…barely covered by Leonidas’s white sheets. There was a spattering of finger-shaped bruises near Andy’s hip where Leonidas must have held him too hard, but he wasn’t regretful of it. He would be sad to see Andy go, and he knew Andy would go, because Leonidas wasn’t going to be in Paris forever and neither was Andy. The needy and desperate feelings he was having were surely lust, and they would pass.
The kettle beeped, and he flicked it off, waiting for the water to simmer and boil. He dumped a spoonful of coffee into a mug, then poured in the water and looked back at Andy while he stirred. Andy had rolled onto his stomach with his arms spread wide. His hand patted around Leonidas’s pillow, apparently not finding what he was looking for, but gripping the pillowcase in consolation just the same.
He knew he needed to send Andy away.
Leonidas said he’d be in Paris until he didn’t want to be in Paris any longer, but the truth of it was, he had plans for the summer, and if he spent the next week with Andy, he probably would fall in love.
The next week.
He didn’t need two months.
He’d had more than two minutes, nearly half a day, four orgasms…it was enough and too much, and a tease of the future all at once.
He cradled his coffee mug in his hands, still watching Andy sleep. With a sigh, he grabbed his cell phone from the drawer in the kitchen and powered it on. He rarely used it, hating the leash, and the battery was almost full. The screen told him it was just after six, which meant it would be after seven back home. His mama should be awake.
He took his coffee and his phone into the WC, tiptoeing past Andy and hoping the creaking of the ancient door didn’t wake him up. Once inside the small bathroom, he closed the door and sat down on the lid of the toilet. Leonidas took a drink of his coffee before it cooled to room temperature and tasted like garbage, then he set the mug on a small shelf and called home.
“Leonidas,” his mama answered the phone. “My baby.”
“Mama.” Leonidas had never been able to shake the childish endearment for his parents, growing up and addressing his father more formally, but never his mother. Not to imply he didn’t respect her, just that…it felt better that way. She’d always treated him as her baby, and he’d been happy to wear that badge.
“You’re up early.”
“Yeah,” he agreed.
“Couldn’t sleep?”
“I slept. A little.”
It was long after midnight by the time he and Andy had fallen asleep. They hadn’t done more sexually than they’d done downstairs, but they’d touched, and kissed, and talked about their favorite places in the world. Andy said he loved Belgium, Leonidas, while he loved to see the world, didn’t care for any place more than he did Greece.
“What’s bothering you?” his mama asked him, her voice soothing and familiar.
His head dropped forward and he stared at his naked knees.
“I think I could fall in love with a man I just met,” he answered.
He could hear her laughing at him, but not in a mocking way. It was more knowing, more assuring.
“Your father says he loved me from the first time he saw me,” she said.
“I find it hard to believepaterahas a romantic bone in his body.”
