Chapter Four #2
My skin gets tingly where our bodies are meeting, warm and…nope. Here I go again. I hold my hands up. “Fine. You’re the cook, I’m the teacher.”
I tell him how much butter to use, and he gets it going.
I talk Kason through making the simple recipe, letting him do all the adding of ingredients, measuring, and stirring.
He doesn’t argue when I take the pasta to the sink to drain it, and a few minutes later, we’re sitting on the floor, backs against my couch, plates in front of us on the coffee table, along with a bottle of wine.
“I wonder what’s going to happen with Jose and Diego,” he says, talking about the characters in one of our shows.
“Oh my God! Me too! I don’t want them to mess up their friendship, but I want them to get together.” They’re getting very close to hooking up, and while no-strings-attached sex shouldn’t be a big deal, I’m sure something will go down to make it that way. It’s what draws us in episode after episode.
“Realizing you have feelings for your best friend doesn’t have to mess things up. Look at Donovan and Eric.”
“Very true. I think most of us had them clocked before they did. From the start I could tell they were perfect for each other. Jose and Diego, though, they’re newer friends, so that might change things.
They don’t have a lifetime of history between them the way Eric and Donovan do.
Also, why are we talking about these fictional characters as if they’re real? ”
“They’re real to us,” he replies, and yes, I guess that’s true. It’s such a simple, sweet Kason answer, and man, why can’t the world be filled with guys like him?
“We’re probably dissecting their relationship for no reason and they both just want to get laid.” I pour us wine.
“Such a pessimist. Jose totally wants to try for a relationship with Diego. He’s interested in more.”
“Wait. What? Why do you say that?”
“How can you not tell?” Kason wraps an arm around me. “Sweet, naive Ant.”
I roll my eyes. “I’m the opposite of naive. I’m also a realist who has seen nothing to show me that Jose wants to try for a relationship with Diego.”
“Maybe naive is the wrong word.”
“Then what is the right word?”
He shrugs. “Still trying to figure you out.”
I turn to look at him and realize we’re very, very close. The blue of his eyes looks darker than the almost sky color it usually is.
It takes me a moment to compute the fact that he still has his arm around me, that I can feel his breath, that if I just leaned forward a few inches, our mouths would touch and I’d ruin everything. We’d fuck and he’d move on because something about me chases everyone away.
I pull away and clear my throat. “We should eat before it gets cold.”
Kason pulls his arm back and looks at me for a moment. “Yeah…okay. I have a feeling this is going to be the best Alfredo sauce ever.”
“I have a feeling you’re right,” I reply, not joking the way I should be.
We dig into our food—and it’s really fucking good—while we watch the episode, which does, in fact, end with Jose and Diego banging. I’m at a bit of a chub beneath my shorts because the scene was hot and I’ve got a sexy man beside me, but I ignore my frustrating boner.
We end up on the couch together, trying another show, the wine flowing freely.
My eyes are heavy, but I’m having fun, laughing, joking, and watching what should be ridiculous shows with Kason, only they’re not ridiculous at all.
So I ignore my exhausted body, and one episode turns into two and three, and then…
when did my couch get so comfortable? So warm and… fleshy?
My eyes flutter open, sun shining through the window behind me, and—oh, I’m not lying on the couch.
I’m lying on Kason. I have no idea how we got into this position, him on his back, me plastered to the guy like I’m trying to be a second pair of clothing, morning wood at attention and feeling pretty good against his length.
I open my eyes fully and find Kason looking at me with a sleepy, adorable grin. “Good morning, creeper.”
He chuckles, the vibrations echoing through me. “Another name.”
I pull off him, his erection hard to miss as I adjust mine and we both sit up. “Sorry. I can’t believe I fell asleep like that. You should have woken me. That can’t have been comfortable for you.”
“I have no complaints.” He stretches. “Plus, I passed out too.”
“You were staring at me when I opened my eyes.”
“Geez, brat. I just woke up. But I really need to take a piss.”
I chuckle, nodding toward the hallway. “Go ahead.”
Kason heads to the bathroom while I pick up our plates and wineglasses from last night.
That was…so nice, and I absolutely shouldn’t be thinking that way.
On the flipside, why the fuck not? If I fell asleep with Donovan or Hayes like that, it wouldn’t mean anything.
It’s just affection, and the world would be in a lot better place if more people were willing to show it even when it is just platonic and between friends.
Like Donovan and Eric.
Only they’re not a good example because they were in love with each other their whole lives and took way too long to get together.
My point still stands, though. I wouldn’t think twice about cuddling with my fellow jilted exes, so I’m not going to let my brain do weird things about it when it’s Kason.
He comes out of the bathroom a moment later. “Let me help you clean up, and then I have to go. We leave tonight for a road trip, but maybe we can get together when I get home?”
“Go. You don’t have to help me clean up.”
“I don’t mind.”
“It’s fine. Next time, and yeah, I still owe you dinner.”
“You fed me last night.”
“With stuff I had at home. Not the same.”
Kason smiles. It’s a nice smile, one that reaches his eyes and doesn’t have an ounce of inauthenticity to it. “I’d like that.”
“Good. Now get out and go do whatever you have to do to win hockey games.”
He chuckles as we walk to the door together. I open it, and Kason pauses, leans in, then kisses my cheek the way I’d done with him last time, and him to me before that.
It doesn’t mean anything.
At all.
“See you soon, Ant.”
“See you soon, Kason.”
It’s not until the door is closed and I’m leaning against it that I finally breathe.