Isaac
KnowingMax would have to go back to New York hadn’t made an ounce of difference when it came to falling in love. I wasn’t doing a particularly good job hiding it, either.
It was especially easy to ignore his upcoming departure when he was lying naked in my bed, his body so close to mine we could be mistaken for one person.
“Isaac,” he said in his sleep as he held me tighter. I thought he was about to wake up, but his breath evened out against my neck, his soft, sleepy purr teasing my ear.
Over the last week, we’d spent every single minute together. Max had taken an interest in the Foundation, so while I was working, he’d been happy to talk to the young guys and girls that used it socially. He’d even done a few safe sex sessions.
He had a great way with kids; he gave them the information they needed to be safe without sounding like a patronizing adult, and when they’d behaved like teens and defaulted to crude jokes, he’d joined right in.
At some point, I’d leaned on the doorframe of the room they were in to listen in on the session, and they were laughing so hard I’d gone almostunnoticed.
“I got one,” João had said. “Don’t make a mistake, cover your snake.”
“Plug the funnel, and then enter the tunnel,” Diana had said.
“No shirt, no flirt.”
“Lame.” The kids had all shouted at Max’s attempt.
“Isaac,” Rui had called, making everyone turn to the door where I’d been standing, “we’re making up condom slogans. Can you do better than Max?”
“No glove, no love,” I’d said, sitting down next to Max.
“Ugh, please tell us we won’t stop being funny as soon as we turn thirty,” João had said.
Both Max and I had thrown cushions at him.
In a few short days, Max had built relationships with the volunteers and had joined forces with Tiago against me.
I hadn’t had a decent coffee at work all week because they’d hidden everything, including the sugar bowl. They knew I wouldn’t have coffee without sugar.
I would have planned some kind of revenge, but between the shortage of caffeine and the lack of sleep because Max was keeping me up all night, I didn’t have the energy to plot.
It was good to see Max and Tiago getting along, but it was also another reminder thathe’d be missed once he was gone, and I wasn’t sure how I would handle that.
The other place Max had left his mark was with my family. We’d had dinner with Alex, Joana, and Sofia again, except this time, they’d come to my apartment. Max had become a surrogate uncle to Sofia, teaching her the difference between him and Max, the cat.
He was convinced that when she said Ma, she was really saying Max. I didn’t have the heart to tell him Ma was the only word she knew, and it meant Mom, Dad, I’m hungry, and the least favorite, I’ve done a smelly poop.
Throughout dinner, Alex had kept looking at me in a way I couldn’t quite decipher. It was like he was happy, settled, like everything was right for him, but there was also an undercurrent of sadness.
Even the cat hadn’t fussed over having to spend more time with the neighbor—since he got to cuddle up to her dog more often. I was wondering if at some point he was going to decide he no longer wanted to live with me.
He’d stopped attacking Max every time he turned his back, but then again, he’d also taken to ignoring us a lot more. Well, not unless he wanted food. In that case, he was all over us like a rash, especially when he realized that Max was also a trained cat-food-pouch opener.
In less than a week, Max and I had developed a kind of domesticity and closeness. After we’dcleared everything up, there had been no hiding from our feelings, even though we hadn’t voiced them out loud.
Maybe it was because we knew this would be temporary, so any time thinking or talking about what was to come was just time we weren’t enjoying ourselves, time we weren’t buried in each other’s bodies, drinking in our combined essence.
And fuck if the time we’d spent in bed hadn’t been earth-shaking, life-altering good. There was no doubt that I would never enjoy sex with another person in the same way as I had with Max. I didn’t even want to.
Last night, he’d edged me to the point of insanity. I’d come so close to orgasm so many times, and each time he’d stopped just short of finishing meoff. I’d thought I was going to self-combust the moment I finally came to the best, most toe-curling, skin-flaming orgasm of my life with Max deep inside me. While he’d been busy edging me, he’d done nothing to relieve his own hard cock, so when we’d followed my orgasm with his, I swear I’d heard him sob against my neck.
Having this chance with Max made me so happy. We’d become closer, not just as lovers but also friends. Somehow, I knew that whatever happened in the future,we would always have a special bond, something unique that went beyond the physical connection.
I was also heartbroken that life had given us this amazing gift, but had also put that enormous ocean between us.
