Seth went to take a quick shower, as his usual routines dictated. He liked to be clean when he ate his dinner. He would work out in the morning and have another quick shower afterward before he headed to his office, but he loathed even the idea of going to bed with the grime of the day on his skin and hair.
He showered efficiently, conserving water, not touching himself more than necessary. He was hungry—that was the excuse he gave himself because even a leisurely jerking off wasn’t something he could do without some routine and it wasn’t time for that yet.
In some ways it was odd that he’d had a proper, long lunch with Dev instead of stuffing something in his face and returning to his office as soon as possible. He hadn’t even felt weird about it all day. Then again, he did have a schedule in his head almost at all times. One that said he had an hour and a half for lunch on Thursdays if he wanted to use it. Maybe that had helped?
He wasn’t sure, so he pushed the thought out of his head for the time being. Instead, he got dressed in his most comfortable T-shirt and boxer briefs, then pulled on a pair of worn-out sweats and went back downstairs.
Plating his dinner wasn’t as much of a science, really. Nothing needed to be exactly on a certain part of the plate, for example. Seth felt pretty sure he didn’t have actual OCD, just some control issues, which the schedule in his head helped with.
He sat on the couch, opened his home laptop on the coffee table so it’d be ready in ten minutes or so, and clicked the TV on for company until the Skype call came through.
As usual, the food was great, but eating alone in the silence of the house, with just the TV as a background noise, he realized he felt lonelier than usual. The lunch today had made him feel so good for a while. Pleasant company and good, fun conversation. They weren’t things Seth had ever taken for granted.
His phone buzzed on the coffee table. It was a text. From Devin. Something funny happened in the pit of Seth’s stomach as he opened the message.
I had fun today. I hope the feeling was mutual. Let’s do it again soon?
Seth’s mind read the text in Dev’s voice, and he smiled at the thought.
Definitely fun. I’ll text you early next week?
It wasn’t that he didn’t know his schedule yet; he just didn’t want to seem too keen on meeting again. There’d been a couple of occasions when he was in high school and then college where people had either told him straight up or heavily hinted at him being a bit clingy in his friendships. He didn’t want to drive Dev away with that.
Only moments later, Dev texted him back.Absolutely. You let me know. My schedule is probably more flexible anyway.
Chuckling, Seth started to reply to him, but then thebeep-bopsounded from his computer, and he reached to answer the Skype call.
“Hey, gorgeous.” Leaf’s deep voice rumbled from the speakers.
“Give me two seconds,” Seth answered and held a finger up at the screen. He nearly missed the surprised and amused look on Leaf’s face completely as he typed outI can pretty much guarantee you that. Inside joke. Will tell you next week.and hit Send. Then he looked at the laptop again and put the phone on the table beside it. “Okay, done,” he said, smiling.
“Seemed important?” Leaf asked, raising his brows at him in an achingly familiar way.
“Yeah, you know my mentee, Angel? His brother dropped by today to bring an assignment Angel couldn’t deliver himself. Then I went to Martha’s for lunch, but the brother, Dev, he was there and we shared a table because it was rush hour.” Seth gestured with the fork he’d picked up as he continued his dinner like he always did.
“You don’t say…,” Leaf murmured, the corners of his eyes wrinkling as he chuckled. “Sounds like an interesting guy.”
Seth failed to catch the fact that he hadn’t actually told Leaf anything to warrant that sort of a comment. Instead, he launched into a story about the lunch and how much fun they’d had.
As he was finishing his dinner for real, Leaf let out a littleoomphwhen one of the dogs, Missy, jumped on his lap.
“Hey, baby girl,” Seth cooed at the dog, who tilted her head, trying to figure out where the sound came from.
Chuckling, Leaf shook his head. “I still have no clue how she doesn’t get it. How simple can she be?”
“Hey, don’t you mock my baby girl,” Seth said, the end of the sentence turning mushy again as his bull terrier tilted her head left and right. “She’s just special.”
“So very special,” Leaf agreed, laughing at the look Seth sent his way. “So, there’s some news,” he started, letting the dog slide down on the seat next to him.
Seth didn’t like those words. They always meant Leaf would be gone longer than he’d planned to. “Oh?”
“Yeah. The shelter in Salt Lake City emailed me last night. They need help with some newcomers. Dogfighting ring that got busted.”
The expression on his handsome features made Seth’s heart constrict. He missed Leaf so fucking much when he wasn’t at home, but he understood the way Leaf lived, the job he did. It was so important to so many, and….
“When?” he asked, instead of wallowing in it too much.
“I know I said I’d be home on Sunday evening, but might be Thursday instead.” Leaf looked apologetic.
