“What?”
“I was supposed to do this thing with Elliot last night and I totally blew him off.”
“I’m sure he’ll understand that a better opportunity came along.”
“That’s rude.”
“You’re the one who ditched him,” he reminds me with a careless shrug. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask. You said Elliot flew you out here, but how did he find you in the first place?”
That is such a crazy story with an even crazier outcome. “I did this video on TikTok. It was stupid, but it got me a lot of attention, and he started DMing me, asking me if I’d ever done any modeling.”
“What was the video?” Cassius asks.
“It’s dumb.” And embarrassing and silly.
“I’ll be the judge of whether it’s dumb or not. Tell me.”
Something about the way he speaks to me really focuses my attention. Kind of like when my dad and brother tell me what to do, but way hotter. Not that I think it’s hot when my dad and brother boss me around. I just like how authoritative they are. It’s easier that way.
I say to Cassius, “I’ve never been diagnosed but I think I have some sort of ADHD because I get bored and distracted really easily, and in class I could never sit still, so I fidgeted a lot, and because I’ve always had a bit of an oral fixation, I used to chew on my pens and pencils or suck on the drawstrings of my jackets…” I’m rambling. Cassius stares at me, waiting for me to get to the point. I glance down at his hoodie. “I can just show you,” I offer. He nods, so I place the hoodie’s drawstring in my mouth. Using my tongue to carefully manipulate it, I loop the string over onto itself so that it forms a knot. I pull the drawstring on either side, then stick out my tongue to present the knot to Cassius. He stares at me, unnervingly silent.
“I told you it was stupid.”
“I would have flown you out to L.A. too,” he says with a nod. “But not to take your picture.”
“You’re joking, right?” I really can’t tell with him. His humor is so dry.
“I’m one hundred percent serious. You’re sexy as fuck, Adam. Too bad Elliot got to you first. I’d have recruited you to be my personal cock attendant.”
I laugh out loud. “You say the craziest shit.”
He smiles. “It’s a coveted position. With many, many benefits.”
“I’m sure it is.” My cheeks hurt from grinning, and his sweatshirt feels stifling hot.
“So, whatison the schedule?” Cassius asks.
“So… crap. I forgot about that.” The job will probably be good money, but there’s a lot of prep I’ll need to do beforehand. “I have a shoot this afternoon with an L.A.-based company that makes athletic wear for men, which means they’ll probably want me shirtless, so I need to get in a workout right before so my abs and arms will be tight and not flabby. And Elliot’s going to be pissed at me for not returning his texts or calls, so I gotta make things right with him.”
“Are the two of you in a romantic relationship?”
“No, why?”
“He called you an obscene number of times.”
“How many is obscene?”
“More than once.”
“He gets worried about me, I guess. Because I’m new in town.” But not so new anymore. Elliot can be a bit of a worrier. Still, I don’t like to upset him. “He’s been really good to me. If it weren’t for him, I’d still be working at Chili’s in Pigeon Forge and getting cussed out because I forgot someone’s honey-chipotle sauce or some shit.”
“Sounds like you weren’t a very good server.”
I laugh. “I was trash. The women didn’t care so much, but the men...” I shake my head. “Anyway, I should probably go.” I glance down at my plate to see I’ve eaten more than half the omelet and a whole piece of toast. I haven’t had bread in weeks, unless I ate some of that last night too. Sucks for me that I was too high to really enjoy it.
“You’re not going to finish your breakfast?” Cassius asks.
“Nah, it just means more time on the treadmill.”
