“Yeah, okay,” he said, then laughed at whatever the douche on the other end said to him. “I’ll make those changes and get them over there this afternoon.”
He nodded, his eyes darting back and forth as he tried to pay attention.
“Okay, thanks Michael. Have a good trip.”
Well,there’s a bright spot.
Nick ended the call and tossed his phone on the bed. He looked over at my naked body with the now-baggy condom still on my deflated dick.
Nick reached out and put his hand on my thigh. “I’m sorry, babe.”
I nodded and curled my lips in, still not taking my eyes off the ceiling.
“Preston, I don’t know what you want me to do. I had no idea I was going to be assigned the Bob Vila of renovation architecture. I have to answer the call.”
I took a deep breath before I looked at him. I knew he felt stuck in the middle.
“I want him to stop fucking calling you. That’s what I want.” I got off the bed, stripped off the dry, unused condom, and went to put on sweats.
When I walked out of my closet, Nick was no longer in the room. I was being an asshole, but I couldn’t help it. It was all this pent-up sexual frustration, and I’d missed him. Our schedules were making me crazy.
The apartment was quiet except for the sound of rustling clothing. I walked into the living area where he was collecting his clothes from a couple of hours ago. Sitting down on the sofa, I reached up for him and pulled him to me. I hugged him around the waist and put my cheek against his stomach.
Nick dropped his clothes next to me on the sofa and ran his fingers through my hair. He knew that helped relax me when I was feeling stressed.
Breathing in the scent of him, I was pretty damn sure I’d never get enough of him.
“Where are you going?”
He continued to massage my scalp as I shifted to look up at him. I could see the regret in his eyes. “You heard the call. I’ve got to go home. New copies have to be delivered to the plumbing supervisor before the holidays. If I don’t, it puts us almost two weeks behind.”
“You know I don’t care about two weeks. That’s not going to make or break the opening. It’s almost Christmas, and I can guarantee you the plumbing contractor is not going to look at the plans until after the holidays. This is just a way for him to keep you under his thumb.”
Nick pulled away from me and sat on the sofa. He covered his face with his hands, then threaded them through his hair. I knew I was responsible for his frustration, and I hated it. The selfish asshole in me had ruined this for us.
“This is not about you. This timeline is about me and the very reason I didn’t want to get involved with you. I thought you understood my career had to come first right now. You promised it wouldn’t be an issue. Your career is established while I’m trying to get mine off the ground.”
I sighed. “I know, but I think he just wants your fucking attention. I saw the way he looked at you at that first meeting. There was no reason for him to hide his interest, since they knew nothing about us. Then he invites you to lunch and ruins our day, again. It was all I could do to get through it without punching him in the goddamn face.”
Nick laughed humorlessly. “Are you serious?” He sat back up and turned toward me to put his hands on my face. “Listen to me when I say to you that he’s not looking at me in any way other than a mentee, you fucking asshole. He’s got a girlfriend he’s taking to Miami for Christmas and I have you.”
I scoffed, still in his hands. “That doesn’t mean anything and you know it. I’m bisexual. Maybe he is, too.”
Nick dropped his hands from my face and shook his head. He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and rubbed his temples. “I can’t do this with you right now. I know you’re upset we were interrupted, but I have to do this. It’s the difference between whether I graduate or not. He’s contacted a magazine about doing a story on all this. It could mean internship offers for me. This is a huge fucking deal.”
“A big fucking deal for him. Don’t think for a minute he’s not getting something out of it.”
While I seethed with all my irrational anger, Nick sat beside me and didn’t move. I could feel him looking at me.
Neither of us spoke for a moment, both sitting there stewing in our anger. But when he spoke, mine quickly began to fade away.
“If you can’t handle this, Preston, then maybe we should rethink what we’re doing here. I love you, but I refuse to justify why I’m working with the mentoryourequested to get the initial plans ready to build.”
I looked into his eyes and saw the hurt and anger there. I reached for his hand and brought it to my lips for a kiss. Nick held my hand tightly, and I knew he didn’t want to let go of us.
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled. “I know this is on me, and I’m being selfish. I just want my time with you—uninterrupted. We’ve had less than three nights together in the last three weeks. I miss you and I’m all out of sorts. I need my daily dose of you.”
Nick’s eyes softened, and his anger began to dissipate. He leaned his head on my shoulder as we laced our fingers together. “I need that too, but I don’t know how to fix that right now. I told you it was going to be crazy, and there were going to be times when we wouldn’t see each other.”
