Isaac
What the fuckwas I doing? Had I almost kissed Max earlier? And why was I flirting with him now? For the love of Christmas trees, I didn’t even know if he was gay.
I mean, he was really nice to me, and his eyes sometimes went that dark brown that looked like they could devour me whole. But what did I know? It had been such a long time since I’d been with someone that I wasn’t sure I could spot interest if it squeezed my butt and stroked my dick.
We were walking past all the shops with Christmas display windows. Some had Christmas music blaring so loud we could hear it from the street.
Max was saying something about pretzels. Street-bought pretzels were better than shop-bought pretzels? I didn’t know because my thoughts were going back and forth between the present and that moment earlier when I looked at Max’s eyes and thought I could see all the way into his soul. Why was he spending his day off with a stranger he knew nothing about?
“We’re here.”
I barely registered Max talking to me until he stopped.
“What?” I looked up at Max who was staring back at me as though he couldn’t figure me out. Considering my thoughts had boarded a train to an unknown destination, I was struggling to figure myself out, as well.
“This looks suspiciously like the Empire State Building,” I gasped, finally noticing where we’d stopped.
Max laughed, and it was as though it came from a place deep in his chest. It sounded warm and whole, like the place you’d want to go to hide from the world.
“Let’s have a look inside.” He winked, his smile making my legs turn to jelly.
I followed Max toward the building in complete bewilderment. When we got inside, I looked around the large lobby. Could you be starstruck for a building? I think the answer was a resounding yes from me.
“We have an Express ticket, so we can check out the gift shop first if you want.”
“We what?” I exclaimed. “We’re going up?” I didn’t believe my eyebrows had ever been that high up on my forehead.
Max was grinning at me, and I couldn’t help but reach to him for a quick hug.
I only wanted to express my gratitude, but now I had my arms around him and felt stupidly self-conscious. Who just throws themselves at people like that? I removed myself from Max’s embrace and felt heat creep up my spine all the way to my neck as I started walking toward the gift shop.
I didn’t dare look at him in case he realized my embarrassment, but a few seconds later, Max touched my shoulder, so I turned around to see him wearing a pair of novelty glasses with little Empire State Buildings on either side of the frame.
He held up a tie that had a picture of the building on a rainy day. “I think you should buy this,” he said. “What do you think?”
“Mmm, it’s not really my type.”
“Oh, what is your type, Isaac?” He came closer to me, but I couldn’t see his eyes behind the glasses.
You, Max, you are my type.That’s what I wanted to say, but instead, I grabbed a small snow globe from the shelf and showed it to Max. “I like this little one. I can take home my own mini Empire State Building.”
We walked to the cashier and I paid for my snow globe while Max bought the silly glasses.
Moments later, we joined the express line to the elevator. Max held his phone up to someone with a scanner, and within twenty minutes, we were on our way.
I was pretty sure I was living someone else’s life because there was no way that I was going up the Empire State Building. Nope, stuff like this didn’t happen to me.
The elevator was full of people, probably tourists, all wanting to experience something they’d seen countless times in the cinema.
“Is this real? I feel like I’m in a movie.” I whispered to Max, who was standing next to me and leaning against the back wall of the elevator.
Max laughed again. God, I liked that laugh. He leaned closer and murmured. “Would you like it to be a movie?”
“No, I want this to be real life, but knowing my luck, in a minute, Alex is going to throw a bucket of cold water on me and I’ll wake up. That’s something he would do,” I said matter-of-factly. Then I whispered, “Max, don’t let him, please. If this is a dream, I don’t want to wake up.”
I didn't often do things for myself, but today definitely counted as doing something for myself.
I was looking into Max’s eyes, and in that split second, they went from warm to stone-cold, and he leaned away from me. Only slightly, but enough that I could no longer feel the warmth of his body. There it was. The fucking bucket of water. Ice. Cold. Water.
