“No, I’ll run first.”
Right. Exercise. The reason he has all those nice muscles.
“What were you doing on the floor?”
That’s a great question. If only I had a great answer to go along with it. “I dropped something.”
“You dropped something?” He squints his eyes. I’m not sure if he’s examining me or simply trying to look for the object without his contacts in.
“Yeah, my…” Where are any useful objects when I need them? There’s literally nothing around to pretend I dropped. “My lucky penny.”
“What?”
“I know, it’s stupid.” Especially since I don’t buy into any of that superstitious nonsense.
“It’s not stupid, I’m just a bit surprised. Did you get it back?”
“Nooooo…” Since there’s no coin in my hand, I don’t have a lot of choice here.
“I’ll help you look.” Alarm bells play in my head as he starts to get up. The absolutely last thing I need is a mostly naked Chase over here, on his fucking hands and knees, crawling around.
“No, don’t!”
My outburst gets me quite the look.
“I just mean I already checked. It’ll show up, right? That’s part of the luck?”
“I’ve never thought of it that way.” Poor guy looks so confused. He’s not the only one, but I’m committed to the lucky penny bit. I’ll have to pull a penny from the cash register to throw on the floor later tonight so I can pretend to find it.
Great, now my fantasies are becoming extra work and require stealing from myself. It’s only a cent, but it’ll fuck with the system.
“I’m going to…” I point toward the bathroom. “Unless you need it first?”
“Nah, I’m good.”
Thank God, because knowing he was prancing around in those little briefs was one thing. Seeing it in broad daylight is quite another. I’m not sure my heart would survive that.
I know for a fact my cock wouldn’t.
I add thicker pajama pants to my growing shopping list as I duck into the bathroom. Thankfully, I get to spend the rest of theday far away from Chase. It’ll give my whole system a chance to calm the fuck down. Hopefully, by the time I’m back here this evening, all my parts will have gotten the message.
All of them.
CHASE
Nix left nearly an hour ago. During that time, I’ve done nothing but stare at the wall. So much for the curtains allowing me to sleep in.
After he went to shower, I should’ve gone back to sleep. But I couldn’t stop thinking of Nix. Which is becoming an ongoing theme in my life. The real question is why?
Not that I shouldn’t be. I mean, he’s a great guy. He’s been Russ’s best friend forever; that’s not an accident. It’s because Nix is one of the kindest and most caring people I’ve ever met. Always has been. Even as a young kid, he was always giving. Russ went through a lot of hard times, got bullied at school, and generally struggled through a lot of those years. Without Nix…well, I don’t like to think about what might have happened.
Case in point, I haven’t seen him in years. And yet, with one phone call, he gave me a studio apartment, rent-free, plus a job. There’s no one else I know who would do that for their close family, let alone for a friend’s family.
Plus, he’s smart. And cute.
That’s the part my mind trips on a bit. I don’t think I’ve ever described another guy ascutebefore. Not consciously, at least. And yet, there’s no denying that Nix is, in fact, cute.
There’s something about his curly hair and glasses that makes me smile. And keeps me from looking away. I spentlast night trying to watch my show, but I couldn’t stop stealing glances toward him. Fortunately, he was so focused on his book that I doubt he noticed.
