I rolled out of bed and opened the shutters, not caring about my nudity and semi-perked up morning wood when I was so far away from the nearest other people. Acres of olives and grapes separated me from the nearest other cortijo way out here in the south of Spain. And no one could clap eyes on me.
“Put some bloody clothes on!” someone shouted. I looked wildly around for the source of the sound, and there was Theo, lying on the edge of my pool and looking through the open-plan living area to my bedroom…and directly at me. He was making a square with his hands. “On second thoughts, let me save this to my mental library. Maybe one day when they invent mind probes, I’ll sell the picture for millions and retire!”
I let one hand drop in front of my cock to cover my modesty, though Theo had seen most of it before. “Are you an early bird?” I grumbled. “Makes sense.”
Theo grinned up at me, the sparkle of white teeth evident even from so far away. “Of course. Come on over, I couldn’t work your coffee machine.”
As it turned out,couldn’t workwas doing a lot of heavy lifting. When I made my way into the kitchen five minutes later, now decked in shorts, there was a bag of coffee grounds split and spilled all over the counter-top next to my gleaming machine, which was making an alarming noise. I switched it all off and beckoned Theo through the window. He slunk in sheepishly, cheeks pink and hair damp from his time in the pool.
“I tried to clean up, I promise. It’s just they wouldn’t stick to the cloth no matter how much I wet it, and then they made a mess of the sink. They wouldn’t dissolve like hotel room coffee!”
“Little rich boy who’s never done anything for yourself, let me show you how it’s done.” I swept the coffee grounds off the counter with one hand and into the other, then dumped them in the bin before cleaning up the sparse remainder with the cloth.
“I meant to throw these out,” I said. “These are not good coffee. These were a gift from a sponsor.”
“They look pretty nice,” he said.
“They’re ground already. Coffee grounds never last. Nowbeans,they last a long time.”
I opened up the cupboard that I dedicated exclusively to coffee and carefully measured out beans on a scale for both of us. To his credit, Theo watched attentively as I pulled out my handheld grinder and worked them until they were the right consistency.
“Now we use the coffee machine,” I said.
“That’s a lot of work for one coffee,” said Theo.
“Everything that has any worth is hard work. Neither of us is going to win a championship without hard work. No coffee is good without hard work going into it.”
I extracted us each a double espresso. “Do you take milk and sugar,Teodoro?”
“Normally I have a creamy cookie Frappuccino with extra vanilla syrup,” he said.
“Get out of my house.” I pushed his shoulder. “Go on. Go, and never darken my door again.”
He laughed. “Gimme that.” He took the cup from the counter and gave it a tentative sniff. “Smells bitter.”
“Bitter is best,” I said. I took a sip from my cup and sighed as the flavours hit my tongue. “A morning is not started until I’ve had my first espresso of the day.”
“Sure,” said Theo, wrinkling his nose as he took a sip. “Blegh.”
I deftly took the tiny espresso cup from his hands, grabbed a larger cup from one of the cupboards, poured a little milk and cold water into it and then added a spoonful of sugar. “Espresso is an acquired taste. Let’s get you off the Frappuccinos first and work you towards it.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” said Theo, but he smiled as he sipped from the coffee cup. As if without thinking, he wandered out into the sunlight again and I followed him. We sat together on the terrace and finished off our coffees. Theo’s eyes almost never opened as he lay out in the sun. His skin wasn’t as pale as it had been recently. He seemed to be taking on a little of the sun’s golden glow, and his hair looked almost bleached.
“What would you like to do today?” I asked. “You can just relax, or we could go out on the quad bikes.”
“Quad bikes sound like a good idea, but I warn you my racing manager willmurderyou if any injury comes to me.”
“You better be a good driver then,” I grinned.
“I’ve crashed out less than you this season,” Theo teased back.
“Yeah?” I stood over Theo, making sure to shadow him. “I guarantee I close the points gap between us by the end of the season. You’ll be sorry then.”
His eyes snapped open, and I saw the challenge in them. “Is that a bet? For the whole season?”
“No bets right now, Theodore Tyler. This is my promise.”
Theo stood then, and got so close to me we could kiss. I wanted to, desperately. Instead, I grasped him by both arms. His breathing hitched, and I wondered for the millionth time if he felt the same way as I did about him. “I will beat you,” I said. “And you will be happy for me. Because that’s what friends do.”
