“You mean who does what to who? Is it a two-way street or do things only go one way?”
“Something like that. Sorry if that was inappropriate to ask.”
“Rex, honey, you’re the farthest from inappropriate that you can possibly get. I think it’s normal to be curious about it. Especially when your not-boyfriend is involved.”
Rex nodded, but didn’t say much, just kept eating. I realized that he wasn’t going to ask more questions, but he looked open to hearing more about it.
“I’m vers, so I’ll top or bottom, and Quinn is vers too, but he has preferences. Most of the time he tops, but sometimes he’ll bottom. He also likes a lot of things that have nothing to do with penetration, so working with him is always fun.”
“What do you like? Like, what are your preferences?”
“I like to make people feel good. I mostly go with the flow.”
“Yeah, but what do you like? What does Perry prefer?” Rex shook his head. “That was probably too personal, sorry.”
“No, you’re fine. I—” I shoved a bite of burger in my mouth so I could gain some time to answer the question. There was something about being around Rex that made me want to crack my head open like an egg and show him all the contents inside.
I like making people happy. I like being the reason they feel good, and making them feel good makes me feel good. But what did I like? Specifically?
“I like the attention,” I told Rex without looking away. “I like how they pretend that I’m the center of their universe. I like feeling wanted, feeling important. Sure, I like having my ass eaten, and I love riding someone as much as I love taking them, but it’s not… like yeah, there’s certain things I enjoy more than others, but I want their attention.”
“So you’re an attention whore?”
He smirked at me, and I let out a breath, feeling relieved that he kind of understood even if he’d framed it as a joke.
“Basically.”
“Then you’re in a good line of work.”
Coming from someone else, the comment might have been a dig, a barb, a tiny cut designed to hurt me. But coming from Rex, it was authentic. He genuinely meant that I’d found a good place to be, and that my job was suited to me. And he meant it in a positive way.
“When is this shoot again?” he asked, dabbing his face with a napkin.
“Tomorrow. After this I have an appointment to get a manicure. Got to make sure the fingernails are as smooth as possible.” I was also getting my hole waxed afterwards, but that seemed like too much information.
“I think you definitely have the more glamorous job. Tomorrow I have a bunch of spay and neuters scheduled with a local organization that captures feral cats. We sterilize them and some of the friendlier ones sometimes go on to the shelter to find a home, but the truly feral ones get a small notch taken out of an ear and released back where they were caught.”
“You notch the ears? Doesn’t that hurt?”
“No more than getting neutered, I’d expect.”
“Touche.”
“But it’s so they’re not recaptured. This way the organization knows that they’ve already been sterilized. Cat colonies can get out of hand quickly, so we do our best to try and mitigate that by adopting out the adoptable ones and sterilizing them so they can’t make more kittens.”
“Kittens are cute, but I get why you do this. When I was a kid, a friend had a cat who wasn’t fixed and they were always trying to find homes for kittens. I never understood why they didn’t just get her fixed.” I remembered the way his mom always seemed stressed about having more kittens, but my friend loved the nearly constant stream of them they had. “I think half the town ended up with one of her kittens before she was sadly struck by a car. They got a male cat after that so that ended their kitten production.”
Rex glanced at his empty takeout container, then at the clock. I was already standing by the time he started to excuse himself.
“My thirty minutes are up, plus a couple.”
“I’ll let you get back to work, but thanks for making time for me. I didn’t want to have this conversation over the phone.”
“Well, thank you for coming by. My staff is always on me for working too much.”
“Maybe I’ll come by again then.”
The corners of Rex’s eyes crinkled when he smiled. “I’d like that. I can’t promise that I will always be available, because some days are crazier than others, but please feel free to try.”
