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“If you tell me to back off, I will. But anyone with eyes can see that man is smitten.”
Jasper snorted. The thought of someone as worldly and posh as Konrad being smitten was hilarious. “I don’t even know if he swings that way,” he said as he stood up. He folded his arms on their shared half wall. Hiyori stared at him, and Jasper looked away, conceding. “Okay. Yeah, probably. But even if he does, I don’t think he’s interested in me like that.”
“Then why do you think he keeps inviting you for dinner and bringing you lunch?”
“He likes to feed people and he’s killing time until the restaurant opens.” Jasper shrugged. “And maybe he’s lonely.”
He could relate to that. Even if he lacked the right to complain, since his loneliness was self-inflicted.
Hiyori relented with an expression of clear disagreement, but she didn’t push the issue. “Have a good day off.”
“See you Sunday.”
Jasper got home after an hour of having nothing better to do than mull over their conversation while he drove. It kept knocking around in his skull while he fed the dogs. He could believe Konrad was somewhere on the vast queer spectrum, but attracted to him? No. Konrad needed someone who could take a sip of wine and recognize notes of citrus and rosewater, or whatever the fuck.
Konrad had been all over Europe, and Jasper had been excited to buy an old farmhouse in the middle of nowhere.
He hadn’t had anyone over since Hiyori helped him move in, but he’d done a lot of work to the place since he’d been there. No more holes in the roof or old water damage stains. The quilt he had tossed over the back of the couch wasn’t cashmere and the legs of his coffee table had been chewed, but it was clean and it was home. When Jasper went viral after winning that award and his financial situation made a sudden improvement, this was the house he chose. On a big piece of land like he’d always wanted, with plenty of room for the dogs to run and a lake where he could fish when the rare urge struck.
Jasper put the thought firmly out of his mind as he checked himself in the mirror for any catastrophic wardrobe malfunctions. He looked acceptable. His black jeans didn’t have any holes in them, and he wore a long-sleeved shirt that almost sat off his shoulders but not quite, just black and simple with silver rivets going down the sleeves. He’d only worked a half day at work with his plans in mind, so he had time to start dinner and let the dogs out one more time.
When he saw headlights coming down the driveway, he whistled for the dogs and they clamored through the door, chuffing and nipping at each other when too many tried to go through at once. A car door closed outside and Jasper gave the house a final once-over. He’d closed the door so no bugs would come in, and admittedly, to give himself one last moment of privacy before he opened his home to someone.
Konrad knocked and Jasper raised a finger to the dogs, warning them not to start singing the song of their people as they so loved to do every time they heard anything.
He opened the door and Konrad stood on the other side, in a full suit, carrying a covered dish and looking as out of place on Jasper’s porch as Jasper probably looked in his restaurant. “Hey. Come on in.”
“You said you were making dinner, so I hope you don’t mind that I brought dessert,” Konrad said as he came inside.
“Probably best that you did, in case it ends up being the only thing you eat,” Jasper said with a laugh, taking it from him and putting it on the counter. “Dinner may not agree with your palate.”
“On the contrary, it’s a rare treat to be cooked for. I’ve been looking forward to it.”
Konrad seemed to always know exactly what to say. It would have been infuriating, if it wasn’t so reassuring.
“Ah, hello,” Konrad said as nearly half a dozen wet noses came to investigate him. He offered his hand to be scented, and if he minded them getting their hair on his slacks, he didn’t show it. “This must be the Hayes family.”
Jasper grinned. He introduced them one by one, doubting Konrad would remember almost half a dozen names but unable to help the proud father that came out whenever he got the chance to introduce someone to his dogs.
He started with the friendliest, his female red pitbull Siouxsie, and his other girl who always stayed close to her, a big Bernese Mountain Dog mix named Legosi. Next was his clumsy boy Corvus, a black curly-coated retriever, and then Gomez, a black and white husky. Bringing up the rear was his old boy Orion, a big hound mix. Jasper finished his introductions and then shooed them gently, not wanting to leave Konrad stranded in a sea of dogs. “Make yourself at home. I’ll check on dinner.”
It was beyond strange to see Konrad sitting on his couch. The man looked so at odds with his surroundings, but there was also no trace of judgment as he looked around Jasper’s living room. Only curiosity. His eyes scanned the worn paperbacks on the bookshelves with interest, seemingly unbothered by their heavily creased spines.
Jasper peeked in the oven and set a timer for thirty minutes. He’d already brought the moonshine in, and he poured some into two mason jars to give Konrad the true Southern experience. Plus the way Konrad’s eyebrows rose when he was handed a jar to drink from was priceless. Jasper laughed, sitting next to him on the couch. “Give it a try.”
Konrad passed the rim of the jar under his nose like he would a glass of wine, and he coughed delicately at the smell. He took a sip and his eyebrows lifted again as he swallowed. “What a singular flavor.”
“Just wait until you get to the bottom, you won’t even notice.”
“I doubt I’ll notice much of anything by then.”
Jasper laughed again, something he’d found came easy with Konrad. He took a swig from his own jar, and it wasn’t the best batch he’d ever made, but not half bad. “Can I hang your jacket up? You might start runnin’ a little warm.”
“That would be lovely, thank you.”
“So formal,” Jasper chuckled, watching Konrad shrug gracefully out of his suit jacket. He took it from him to go hang it on the coat rack—also chewed.
“Not formal, not with you. I simply try to exercise good manners,” Konrad said as Jasper returned to the couch.
