“Nick’s such an asshole,” Kai mumbled through the pain.He approved when I put my consoles and games in a box I never got to unpack after moving here.Fuck, I was too busy making jams and dinner and trying out my newest blend of tea…and that was what I wanted, right?Because you want the man you love to be happy, and…
Kai rested on the floor for several minutes, just breathing through the pain.I hate these migraines.Nick is probably right about the ocean air helping with them—I mean, fuck Nick.The pain got worse, and to calm himself, Kai went through the ingredients of his jams, starting with the Cherries Like Summer one.
“Heart cherries, raspberry juice, lemon zest, sprigs of mint…”
He made it all the way to the rosehip jam next to him before his vision cleared and his head stopped spinning.Gingerly, he stood.
The anger about Nick was still there, so Kai began angry stacking the remaining jam.“Fuck you,” he said.“Fuck you, fuck you.”One by one, the jars went from their box onto the shelf in a rain of fucks.
The chimes above the door jingled.Kai hefted the jar he was holding in case it was Nick.
“Greetings,” said a man Kai hadn’t seen in town before, even though the town was tiny.Painfully tiny.What was I thinking moving here?They don’t even have same-day shipping.
A stabbing pain in his forehead made him blink the man back into focus, the mystery of why Kai had agreed to move to this tiny armpit of civilization temporarily forgotten.
The very first thing Kai noticed about the newcomer was that he was pretty.No, not pretty,Kai corrected himself.Pretty was for boys, and this was a man.He looked beautiful, dark curls reaching almost to his eyes, which were a piercing, grayish blue.He had strong cheeks and broad shoulders that reminded Kai of the swimmer he’d dated during freshman year in college.
The newcomer’s sweater was gray like his eyes and almost as unremarkable as the dark jean jacket, though both fit well in that certain way that made Kai’s mouth water.The man’s pants were just the right amount of snug too, but Kai tried to look him in the face like a normal person, not like someone stuck in a too small town without any access to dating apps—slicing pain again.Kai blinked.
“Hi,” he managed.
“Are you going to throw that at me?”the newcomer asked, pointing at the rosehip jam Kai was still holding.
“Huh?Oh!Sorry, no.I thought you were someone else.”He put the jar on the shelf, lining it up neatly with the others.
The man blinked.“Ah.Okay.Well, listen, this will sound weird, but have you been feeling a bit out of sorts as of late?Other than wanting to throw jars at people’s heads?”His grayish-blue eyes went wide.“Which I would have caught!I’m agile and good with my ten—hands.I’m good with my hands.”
The man had a nice voice even if something about the way he spoke was maybe just a little off.Kai couldn’t quite put his finger on it, perhaps a strange accent that had almost faded?
“Is this your pickup line or something?”Kai asked.
The newcomer tilted his head, and his black curls shifted, reflected the light from the store lights in iridescent hues.“Not intentionally so, but if you were amenable to being picked up, that would actually be killing two fish with one arm.Are you?”
Kai looked at him.“Am I what?”
“Amenable to being picked up?I would be grateful.I’ve read about things to do on a first date, so we could go to the movies or take a long walk on the beach, or Netflix and chill?”
Kai grimaced.“There isn’t a movie theater here.I mean, what the fuck?Why would anyone live in a place where they can’t just go grab a movie and—”
Bright pain almost took out Kai’s vision.His neck muscles locked up, and his jaw clenched shut.
“Oh?Are you quite all right there?Could you look at me?”
The man was there all of a sudden, right in front of Kai, one hand on Kai’s forearm, not grabbing with the harshness Nick often had, just holding steady.This is so nice,Kai thought, and at the thought, another wave of pain washed over him.
The man simply kept steadying Kai, and once he could do so again, Kai looked up and said, “I get migraines.Sorry.Didn’t mean to worry you.”
“Migraines?That’s what you think?”
“It’s—yeah.They suck, you know.”
The man looked at Kai with eyes deep and wide as the midnight ocean.“Your skin has a taste to it.I mean, no.I didn’t mean to say that.What an odd thing to say, as if I could taste your skin with my suck—hands!As if I could, which I can’t, obviously.Perhaps rest would help.With these…migraines.Sleep is good.”
Kai nodded.The man let go of him.“I was thinking of closing early today actually.It’s been a shitty day, if you know what I mean.”
The man grinned.“Like when you look for a fish, and there is no fish to be found anywhere even if they were plentiful when you didn’t want one?”
“Uh, maybe.I don’t fish.”
