Chapter 2
Chapter
Two
Thor had to admit that he was very much looking forward to the next beginners life drawing class he was teaching. Not because teaching it was so wonderful—although it was definitely interesting—but he wanted to see if Auggie was as cute and sexy in person as his memory was insisting the guy was.
He’d thought he was going to have to find a new model, but then the guy had shown up about twenty minutes into class. Cute as a button, cheeks red with exertion. It had been easy to believe his reasons for being late, given the huffing and puffing; clearly running had been involved.
Thor thought there was a spark between them.
Of course, that could have just been that Auggie brought out his Daddy tendencies.
The boy clearly needed a keeper. Being late, skipping meals, choosing a high-sugar caffeine drink instead of something more reasonable, not knowing he was out of money in his account…
They all screamed for someone to take Auggie under his wing and help instill some good habits.
So here he was, his usual fifteen minutes early to the classroom, wearing a tight pair of jeans and an even tighter T-shirt.
He grinned at himself. He was wearing seduction clothes.
He hoped they worked because he planned to ask Auggie to supper again, but this time, he wanted to go to somewhere nicer than the student union cafeteria.
He’d only just started setting up the easels when the door opened again, revealing Auggie. A little early, much better. The boy gave him a wave and headed for the alcove. Thor grabbed the robe from his bag and followed. He knocked on the wall as he went in, just in case Auggie was mid-disrobing.
“Here you go.” He offered the robe over.
“Thanks! Not everyone provides a robe.”
Thor shrugged and smiled. “It seems like the polite thing to do.”
“Well, I appreciate it.”
He went back to setting up the easels, and a few minutes later, Auggie came out of the alcove, body totally covered in the large robe, the sash tied around his waist.
“You want some help?” Auggie asked.
“Sure. You can set a palette, a pot of water and a pot of brushes by each easel. I’ll set the charcoal out for them.”
“Cool.” Auggie did as he’d asked, helping him set the classroom up, even after students started trickling in. It was almost time for the class to start when they were done and he nodded at the dais, Auggie heading for it.
“We’re going to do standing today, general relaxed pose, please.”
“Sure.” Auggie let the robe drop off and stood on the dais, one hip slightly cocked out, which Thor knew was more comfortable than standing straight on, his arms by his side, and staring at Thor’s painting behind the desk.
Thor deliberately refrained from checking Auggie out or making any judgments when he did look—he was going to be professional while Auggie was working. Anything else would have been creepy and pervy.
When he called for a break, Auggie slipped back into the robe, rolling his neck from side to side before bending a few times, no doubt stretching the kinks out.
“You good to keep the same pose for the second half of the class?”
“Sure. I’ll just go to the bathroom.” Auggie went and put his shoes on, but stayed in the robe when he trotted off to find the bathrooms.
The second half of the class passed as uneventfully as the first and Thor put his stuff together, then waited for Auggie to come out of the alcove.
“Thanks.” Auggie handed him the robe, which Thor put back into his bag.
Then he grabbed ten twenties from his wallet and passed them over. “Thanks for today. You did much better than last time. Stillness-wise. And it was a harder pose to maintain, too!”
Auggie rolled his eyes. “I didn’t have a bunch of caffeine right before doing it this time.”
“Ah, it affects you hard, does it?”
“On an empty stomach, yeah.”
Well, there was the perfect segue for him. “Speaking of empty stomachs, would you like to have dinner with me?”
“It’s okay, I ate lunch today and had a snack before class, too. I won’t pass out on the way home, I promise.”
“I was actually asking because I’d like to spend some time with you, and there’s a lovely pub restaurant just around the corner.”
Surprise lit up on Auggie’s face. “You would?”
“Is that really so hard to believe?”
“Well, yeah… I mean, I’m just a skinny guy and you’re h—you’re an artist and all.”
“I think you’re lovely, and the word you were looking for was slender.” Willowy would work too. At any rate, Auggie was so much more than just skinny. “Besides, I’d like to get to know you better.”
Auggie continued to look surprised, but then he nodded. “Okay, sure. As long as it’s not too ritzy a place. I don’t want to spend my entire sitting fee in one shot.”
That had been very well done, Auggie letting him know he’d be paying his own way this time.
“I’ve never been there, but it’s a pub, not anything fancy, so I can’t imagine it’ll cost top dollar.”
“Okay, sure.”
“Excellent.” He held the door to the classroom open for Auggie and they made their way down the hall toward the elevator. “So what do you do?”
“Life class modeling,” Auggie told him.
Thor chuckled. “I did know that. I guess I assumed you didn’t make your entire living doing that.”
“No, but ‘I’m a cashier’ doesn’t have the same ring to it.” Auggie shrugged. “It pays the bills, barely, but sitting for three classes a week earns me a nice bit of extra cash, and I try to save as much of that as possible.”
“Oh? Is it interesting?” It didn’t sound like a lifetime job, and it surprised him a little.
“It’s not bad actually. It’s a mom-and-pop corner store. Literally. And the Kostas are good people.”
“Yeah? So many of the corner stores these days are chains.”
Auggie nodded. “But not this one. They’re an older Greek couple. And Mrs. K. is an amazing cook.”
“I like Greek food.” Actually, there wasn’t much food Thor didn’t like, if he were being honest with himself.
“Yeah, I wasn’t sure about it at first, but Mrs. K. has made a convert of me. And most of my dinners during the week are thanks to her generosity. Although I’m never sure if she’s being generous or if she thinks I need fattening up…”
“So she’s not sharing Greek salads then.”
“Oh, I usually get some of that, too. But to be fair, most Greek food is actually pretty healthy. I used to hate eggplant, but I’ll admit that Mrs. K. has converted me between her moussaka and her papoutsakia.”
“Papoutsakia?” He’d never heard of that. Of course, all of his experience with Greek food was from restaurants. He’d love to go to Greece sometime and paint. Hell, he’d love to go lots of places and paint.
“Yeah, it’s this stuffed eggplant dish. It might be my favorite Greek dish of all time.”
“And you didn’t like eggplant, eh? That’s saying a lot for the dish.”
“Hated it with a passion. Still won’t eat it unless it’s from Mrs. K.”
The elevator doors slid open and they went in, Auggie pressing the button for the ground floor. Several times. Thor resisted telling him that once would have been enough.
He held the door to the building open for Auggie, then pointed to the right. “The Stag and Crown is just around the corner and comes highly recommended by my friend.”
“Cool.” Auggie fell into step with him.
“It’s a lovely evening.” It felt like fall was beginning to creep in. Soon the leaves would be gorgeous colors.
“It’s going to be cold soon. Especially if we have a rainy fall.”
Thor wondered if Auggie’s glass was always half empty. He wanted to find out. Of course he was technically Auggie’s employer at the moment, so he was going to have to wait to make his move.
He held the door open for Auggie again when they got to the Stag, then followed him in.
The place was dark and cozy—very much a pub in the old traditional sense. Dark wood tables and chairs filled the place, along with a bar. A huge fireplace sat at one end, surrounded by rocks all the way to the ceiling. It felt old and old-fashioned, and like it was going to be an experience.
“Seat yourselves,” the barman called out to them.
“There’s a two-seater there by the window,” Thor pointed, then put his hand against the small of Auggie’s back and guided him over. “There’s so much atmosphere.”
“I guess.” Auggie looked around. “It’s kind of dark.”
As if on cue, a waitress dropped two menus on the table, then grabbed a lighter from her pocket and lit the candle at the edge of the table by the wall. “Can I start you off with drinks?”
“I’ll just have a ginger ale, please,” Auggie told her.
“I’ll have the same.”
Auggie looked slightly surprised, and Thor chuckled.
“I like the bubbles. They tickle my nose.”
Auggie wrinkled his nose like he was feeling the bubbles but didn’t say anything.
Instead, he took his menu and looked through it.
Thor followed suit, finding a variety of fried foods, and a bunch of dishes he could only call comfort foods.
Definitely pub fare. He hoped it was as good as he’d been told.
“I think I’m going to have the shepherd’s pie. It looks like they make it the traditional way with ground lamb.”
“I’m picking the burger and fries.”
“Not feeling adventurous?” Thor asked.
“Nope. And I don’t want to pay for something I might not like.”
Thor supposed that made sense. He was more of a choose something new because you never knew what your next favorite was going to be unless you did kind of guy.
“How did you get into life modeling?” Thor asked.
“I needed the money, honestly, and one of my roommates at the time had been doing it but had to stop because it interfered with one of his courses. He recommended me and here I am. Three classes a week.”
“Are you a student at the university?”
“Yeah, but I’m only taking one class this semester. I refuse to go into debt, so I’m paying as I go.”
“That’s very prudent of you.” Surprisingly mature, too, for someone who so very clearly needed a Daddy in some areas of his life.
Auggie shrugged. “I watched debt cripple my folks and I swore I wasn’t going to let that happen to me.”
“Was it rough growing up in that environment?”
“Not when I was little. I was a teenager before I realized we were poor and about fifteen when I realized how it was affecting my folks. They were dead by the time I was eighteen and they weren’t even old, but years of stress and unhappiness got to them.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, thanks. At that point, I was already out of the house. I’d been working since I was fifteen to help contribute, but every time I gave them money, they’d spend it on stupid shit instead of paying the electric or gas bill.
” Auggie shook his head. “I don’t know why I’m telling you all this stuff. ”
“Because I asked?”
That had Auggie snorting. “I’m usually pretty good at changing the subject or bullshitting about the worst of it.”
“Well, clearly you feel safe telling me.” That was Auggie instinctively trusting the Daddy in him.
It boded well for a future for them. And the more time he spent with Auggie, the more he got to know him, the more he did want a future.
He was going to have to content himself with post-class dinners like these, though, until the semester was over. Then all bets were off.
“We haven’t talked about you at all,” Auggie told him.
“Ask away.”
“Did you always want to be a painter?” Auggie asked.
“I’ve always been creative, colored outside of the lines, enjoyed drawing and sketching and painting as I grew up, but I don’t know that I’d say I was looking to the painting as a vocation. It’s not like anyone encourages you to put artist down as your career path.”
“No, I bet they don’t. It’s not a way for most people to make money, and you have to do basic jobs like mine to support yourself and then be creative on your own time.”
“You’re not wrong, and I know I am very lucky to have been ‘discovered’ at an early age. I am supporting myself with the artwork.”
“You have any pictures so I could see what you do?” Auggie asked.
“You know the big painting behind the desk in class?”
“Yeah, it’s my focal point when I’m posing.”
“That’s one of mine.”
Auggie’s eyes went wide. “Oh wow. That’s really cool. I like that I can look at the whole thing, look at just parts of it, or just kind of drift in the colors.”
Thor tilted his head. That sounded an awful lot like how he’d heard subspace described. “How so?”
Auggie shrugged again. “I don’t know. It’s just like, I look at it and let my focus go soft and the colors meld together and it’s like I’m floating?”
“That’s fascinating.”
“I don’t know about that,” Auggie protested.
“I do. And it is. As are you.”
Auggie blushed at that and ducked his head. Grabbing his menu, he hid behind it. “Oh man, they have roast beef with Yorkshire Pudding and all the trimmings. I can’t remember the last I had a roast dinner. I might have to switch to that.”
“I’m also switching—I’m having the fish and chips because in my mind that’s the quintessential British pub food, and I use it as a baseline for how good a pub-style restaurant is. If it’s good, I’ll be back and I’ll try other stuff. Like the authentic shepherd’s pie.”
“So the professor is making the pub take a test,” Auggie said dryly.
“Yes, exactly.” He laughed as Auggie rolled his eyes. Oh, this boy needed some laughter and joy in his life.
He felt like he might want to be the one to help with that.