With a sigh, he turned off the laptop and unplugged it, then carried it to the bureau. Hiding it would make it less tempting to check his emails or do a little bit of work. Experience showed that “a little bit of work” always stretched into hours.
He slid the top drawer open and tucked everything away, making sure the charger wouldn’t tangle. The resealable baggie of rice with his old phone peeked out from under a pile of pens and markers, and he grabbed it before shutting the drawer.
Aaron didn’t have much hope, but Rachel had sworn by this method. According to her, she’d rescued multiple wet electronics this way. It’d been worth a shot. And even though he had a new phone, he wouldn’t mind getting his pictures and contacts off the old one. Then, eventually, he needed to figure out how to set up cloud backup.
To his amazement, the screen blinked to life. He rushed into the bedroom to plug it into his computer before it died again. The monitor flickered on, revealing his browser—still open to fifty tabs of random articles and message-board threads. He chuckled before closing the whole thing. One night of playing with Jay had taught him more than weeks of scouring the internet.
Jay was the perfect Dom—forceful and confident, with a hint of ever-present sweetness right below the surface. That sweetness was why Aaron had felt safe trusting him with his most intimate fantasy. Deep inside, down to his bones, he knew Jay would take care of him.
After downloading everything he needed off his old phone, Aaron lay on the bed and scrolled through their texts. He enjoyed reliving their easy back-and-forth, the silly jokes and the goofy selfies. It struck him that these exchanges didn’t read like awkward conversations between two people who barely knew each other. Aaron and Jay had been in sync from the very beginning, slotting together like two puzzle pieces.
Their connection had grown too strong to ignore. Aaron needed to get his head out of his ass and make the first move. Soon. The risk of rejection was nothing compared to thepossibility of losing Jay forever because he’d been too afraid to try.
After reaching the top of the conversation, he smiled at the very first message and zoomed in on the photograph from the shibari workshop, impressed by the intricate design of colorful knots weaving around his arms. It was a beautiful sight.
He’d meant to set it as his profile picture onKink Talk, but it had been forgotten in the chaos of the past few weeks. Still, he felt the urge to show off. To brag about Jay’s skills. To share something with his online friends.
With a few clicks, he uploaded the image and took a moment to admire his new thumbnail.
No matter what happened in the future, he would always have the memory of that night. He would always cherish all the memories of all the perfect times he’d shared with Jay.
It was enough.
Kink Talk
DomPetty: Someone has a new profile pic. Air, you get up to something exciting this weekend?
SubAir: It’s from a while back, I just forgot to post it. Gorgeous, isn’t it?
SubZero: Your Dom has some nice rope skills.
DommyBoy: I’ve tried shibari twice and I just keep getting tangled up in the rope.
SubSequins: It’s not for everyone. I’m glad I don’t have to try. It’s giving me flashbacks to when I attempted knitting.
SubMarine: How does it feel? I don’t think I could do full body, but just arms might be fun.
SubAir: It was incredible, but I’m into restraints. It might make you anxious if you don’t like them.
DomPetty: Submarine, you have to do it with someone willing to go slow and check in often. You’d have to tell them that you feel apprehensive about it.
SubZero: Is this from the same guy you’ve been mooning over? Chica-bow-wow.
SubAir: Shut up, yes.
SubScribble: I haven’t been able to find fun rainbow rope like that anywhere. Ask him where he got it.
Chapter 32
AARON
For once, Aaron had nowhere to be and nothing to do. He could enjoy his rare lazy Sunday to its fullest, which meant sleeping in, then snacking on junk food and binge-watching his favorite shows all day.
That didn’t last long. By early afternoon, he’d gotten bored. The need to do something productive made him itch, so he decided to organize his bookshelves. Singing along to his favorite playlist while carefully assessing each book to decide whether it deserved eye-level shelf space, he almost missed his phone vibrating on the table, Jay’s name flashing on the screen.
“I was under the impression that people your age preferred texting, and yet you keep calling,” Aaron quipped as he picked up the call.
“My grandparents taught me well,” Jay snarked back. “I have a question for you.”
