“Yes. Work has been crazy. Two people quit, so the rest of us are picking up the slack.” Alison paused as she navigated making a right turn into traffic. “What did Sam say?”
“He’s at the house now. He made the hospital front desk aware that Brandon might show up. Are you sleeping enough?” I asked, taking the conversation back to her since she tried darting back to Sam.
“I’m probably not sleeping enough.” Alison laughed and then added, “I think I need a good session at the club. Aside from you, no one can really scratch my itch or meet my needs. Can we clone you?” I laughed. “Do you think he’d go to the hospital? I mean, doesn’t he hate them?” Alison asked while in the midst of another yawn.
“I thought there might be a chance that he would go where he had friends and trusted people. Even though he doesn’t enjoy going to visit doctors, he trusts Sam.”
“Plus, Sam is hot.”
“I doubt Brandon views Sam as being hot,” I mumbled while I continued to scan the sidewalks.
“He views you as hot, so I don’t know how he wouldn’t think of Sam as being hot. Not that you’re not hot, just hot in a different sort of sadist way,” Alison teased.
“You are aware that Sam is a sadist as well, correct?” I teased her.
“Yes. Yes, I am aware,” she said with a hint of amusement to her voice. I made a mental note to try to encourage Sam to arrange a session with Alison. She was very much a handful, and Sam usually avoided bottoms who were also bratty. Sam’s schedule didn’t allow for much free time either.
“Brandon is very different. He is a very sexually playful young man, but he’s driven more by what he wants emotionally. And I think it’s because of the time he spent in the kink house that he looks at the emotional benefits other than visual benefits.”
“He’s too mature for only being twenty-one.”
I smiled as I thought about how much fun and playful Brandon is. On top of that, he’s an authentic masochist and can keep up with me … so far. I haven’t unleashed everything on him yet.
While this appeared to be a safe area, it didn’t ease the ache that he could be walking around somewhere. It was dark now, and Brandon wasn’t a fan of the dark. My inner thoughts started to vocally tumble out of me. I recognized this as my way of coping.
“Do you think he’s walking around on the streets?” she asked me.
“Brandon isn’t keen on the dark. So I don’t think he’d be wandering around. We may as well go back, Alison.”
“Are there any friends of his that you haven’t checked with yet?”
“Brandon’s closest friends are Andrew and Joshua. There are club acquaintances, but no one that Brandon would run to.”
“Are you sure you want to go back? We can keep looking. There’s a drive-thru over there for coffee. We can stop there and then pick up our search,” she offered.
“Thank you, my dear. We’ve been out for hours. I’ll resume my search as soon as it’s light out.”
Our drive back to Malibu was quiet which allowed me to get lost in my thoughts of Brandon while I dragged my tired eyes along the sidewalks. After Alison parked my car in the garage, Joshua pulled into the driveway. As the three of us walked inside together, Joshua told us about all of the places he had searched while he was out.
Once we got inside, Alison and Joshua flopped down on the couch while I went to check Brandon’s phone. It was fully charged now. I unlocked the screen with Brandon’s passcode and then checked for email, texts, or any other sort of notifications. Sam chatted with the others while I was occupied with the cell phone.
“Andrew, when are you leaving?” I heard Alison ask.
“I don’t know. I thought I might sit and chat with James for a little bit. Why?”
“I was going to offer to buy you a coffee if you drove me home. I am so tired,” she declared.
“You can’t bribe me with coffee. I own a coffee shop, remember?”
“Oh, yeah,” she sleepily drawled.
“You’re shit at negotiating, Ali,” Joshua jabbed.
“Whatever.” Ali waved him off.
“You can’t offer to buy the coffee guy a cup of coffee to get something you want. Watch, this is how it’s done.”
Joshua pulled himself upright after being in a slouched position and cleared his throat. I sat down in the black leather chair that was near the couch and eyed Sam patiently. He knew my patience was about gone and that I was worried about Brandon.
