Chapter 14 - Micah
“Hey, is that…?”
It was the day after our kitchen… encounter, and we were having pizza and watching a show when something on the back porch caught my eye. Asher looked up from his dinner plate and glanced around, confused.
“Hmm?”
I tried again. “Is that the bird house I made for you in fifth grade?” I gestured to a birdhouse, sloppily painted blue and green, on Asher’s porch, visible through his window. I didn’t know how I hadn't noticed it before.
He swallowed his mouthful of pizza and nodded. “It is,” he murmured, giving me a little smile. “I have a family of blue jays that nest in it every spring.”
“You do?” I furrowed my brow, unsure of what to say.
He nodded again. “Yeah. They’ve been using it for… I don’t know, maybe six years now. I love watching them. I know it’s a little nerdy, but whatever. They make me happy.”
Warmth enveloped me as I realized he must’ve kept the birdhouse close for all these years.
“That’s cool.” I tried to play it off, but I was truly touched to know it had meant something to him, my chest tightening with pleasure.
I had mementos from our early years together, too, including one I kept on display every time I moved to a new location.
“You know, I still have the picture frame you made for my birthday that year.”
He chuckled softly and shook his head. “You’re fucking with me.”
“I’m not. I still have that picture of us in it, the one you gave me, from that summer at the pool.”
Asher put down his pizza entirely. “You haven’t even changed the picture in it? Come on, give me a break.”
“I’m serious,” I protested. “I’ll take you to the rental sometime so I can prove it.”
“You’re on. Why don’t you show me tonight?”
“Tonight?”
He shrugged. “You have other plans?”
“Don’t you need to rest?”
Asher snorted and rolled his eyes at me. “I think I’ve been doing pretty well at resting. I’m bored. Let’s go do something.”
“How’s your shoulder feeling?”
He shifted his arm a little, rocking his shoulder back and forth. “Fine.”
“What about your hip? How’s walking going?”
“What are you, my doctor or my mother?” Asher gave me a little smirk. “I’m fine.”
“Why are you in such a hurry to see a picture frame, anyway?”
“I’m bored. I need to get out of this house before I go stir-crazy. It’s this or you take me out to the bar for a drink.”
It was my turn to roll my eyes. “You’re in no shape to go play pool.”
He shrugged his good shoulder. “Guess we’re going to your place, then.”
With a soft chuckle, I nodded. “Maybe we can watch a movie with Kieran or something.”
“That’s the spirit. It’ll be great.”
Once we were finished eating, we headed out to my rental car and I drove Asher the short distance to the place I was sharing with Kieran, a little two-bedroom house a little way across town.
When we arrived, the lights were on and Kieran’s car was in the driveway.
My stomach sank with disappointment, but at the same time, I was a little relieved.
We’d hooked up the night before, sure, but that didn’t mean it was going to happen again, and with Kieran there the pressure would be off.
We made our way up the front steps and I opened the front door, calling out to Kieran as I did. “Hey, you home?”
Kieran called back that he was in his bedroom, and appeared a few moments later, his hair damp from a shower and dressed to go out in tight jeans and a tank top that left little to the imagination. “You brought a date,” he said with a grin.
I coughed in surprise, my face heating as I shook my head. “Not a date. He was getting stir-crazy,” I explained. “I thought we could hang out tonight, the three of us.”
Kieran shook his head and chuckled softly. “Sounds great, but I’m all booked up. I’ve got a date of my own.” He raised his eyebrows a couple of times for effect.
My stomach fluttered at the idea of being alone with Asher again, though I wasn’t entirely sure why.
It wasn’t as if we hadn’t been alone together literally an hour ago, alone together even ten minutes ago.
Somehow it felt different, though. It felt almost like being a teenager again, parents leaving the house while I had my boyfriend there.
The possibilities felt endless. Intoxicating.
Dangerous. Too much and not enough at the same time.
“Well, have fun,” I said as Kieran waved goodbye and stepped out of the house. Once he was gone, I nodded my head to gesture down the hallway. “Still want to see that picture frame?”
He grinned. “Hell yes.”
“Right this way, then.”
I led the way down the hallway to my bedroom where the aforementioned picture frame was.
Even though I moved every few months for work, I kept it with me and it was one of the first things I unpacked at each place.
It reminded me of an easier time, when things were so much more straightforward and less complicated.
“Well, here we are,” I murmured as we stepped into the room I'd claimed as mine.
“And there you go.” I gestured to the frame, in all its glittered glory, glitter accompanied by buttons and pennies we'd found the summer he made it.
It was sitting atop the small dresser, along with a few other photos and some miscellaneous clutter.
Asher made his way over to the dresser and bent at the waist to inspect the photo frame.
I tried hard not to look at his ass. Unsuccessfully.
“Wow.” Asher sounded genuinely surprised as he inspected the photo of the two of us, arms around each other, hair and bodies dripping wet, the community pool in the background.
“What?”
He shrugged. “I don't know. Part of me wasn't convinced you still had it.”
I laughed a little. “Did you think I was lying?”
“No.” He straightened, cheeks coloring. “I mean, maybe a little.”
“Why?”
He shrugged and looked away, embarrassment on his face. “Sometimes it's hard to believe I'm as important to people as they are to me.”
My chest ached for him. I took a few steps closer and pulled him to me to wrap him in a big hug. “I’m sorry anyone has ever made you feel that way.”
He leaned into the hug and sighed softly. After a long embrace, he leaned back and looked at me. “Thanks. I don't think I knew how much I needed that.”
“Anytime,” I murmured, brushing a strand of hair away from his face with my fingertips.
My breathing tightened as I looked at him, and the next thing I knew, I was leaning in and kissing him again.
The moment our lips parted and our tongues met, a soft groan escaped from Asher, sending lightning coursing through my body.
As we kissed, Asher clung to me, his hands gripping my shirt and holding me to him, and my hands moving to cup his face on either side. My breathing became ragged as we kissed, and as the heat turned up between us, the kiss became more frantic.
My phone buzzed insistently, abruptly, between our bodies, tucked into my front jeans pocket. I didn't intend to answer, but as soon as the buzzing stopped, it started up again.
“It's probably spam,” Asher murmured into my mouth. “Let it go.” To emphasize his point, he moved one hand to my groin and cupped my cock, which was already hard and aching. I wanted desperately to rock my hips into his palm, to see just how far he wanted to take this.
“It's just me,” Kieran’s voice called, cutting through my fog of lust and startling me. As his footsteps approached, Asher backed away and straightened his shirt before running fingers through his dark hair.
Kieran stuck his head into the room. “Hey, sorry about the interruption. Just forgot my wallet.”
“I didn't even hear you come in,” I murmured.
He shrugged. “I tried calling to let you know. Twice.” After a glance between us, he smirked.
“Maybe you were busy doing something else.” Asher’s cheeks reddened and he looked down, studying his feet, which only served to make Kieran chuckle.
“You two have a good evening.” With that, he was gone and we were alone again.
“Where were we?” Asher murmured, stepping close to me.
My breath hitched as I pulled him against my body, hands on his hips, gripping the waistband of his jeans near his ass.
Asher’s phone rang.
“It’s probably spam,” I echoed with a smirk. “Let it go.”
He fished the phone out of his pocket and glanced at it. “It’s my mom. I should answer.”
I nodded. “You should.” With his parents on the other side of the world, I knew calling wasn’t an easy task. As he answered the phone, I did some mental math. It was probably two in the morning where they were. I hoped everything was okay.
“Hey, Mom,” he murmured, stepping out of the bedroom. “Is everything okay?”
I didn’t hear much of the rest of the conversation, Asher pacing the hallway and living room as he spoke, snippets of what he was saying drifting back to me.
I sat on the edge of my bed and waited as he talked, thinking over the events of the past few days, worrying about Asher’s reaction to being with a man, how he’d feel when it really sank in, or if he decided to come out to friends or family.
My stomach ached with anxiety and my shoulders tensed as I let the worries settle like a weighted blanket over me.
When Asher returned a few minutes later, he stopped in the doorway, leaning against the frame. He looked so kissable, so fuckable, it was all I could do not to go to him and drop to my knees.
“Everything good?”
He nodded, tucking the phone back into his pocket. “She just wanted to check in on my healing.”
“Isn’t it like, two or three there?”
Asher chuckled softly. “It is. Mom gets insomnia. She said it felt like a good time to call, knowing I wouldn’t be busy.”
“How are they? Your parents, I mean.”
He gave me a soft smile. “They’re good. They still live in Port Grandlin, but they travel a lot.”
“Are you… close to them?”
He shrugged. “Not especially. Nothing dramatic happened, no big falling out. I just… I don’t know. We see the world differently, I guess. I still see them regularly, though.” As I watched him, his Adam’s apple bobbed and he cleared his throat. “We should probably get going.”
“Tired?”
He lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug. “Getting there.”
“Then let’s get you home.” I couldn’t help but wonder what was going through his mind, what had happened on the call that the vibe between us was less this is hot and more someone dropped a wet blanket on us all of a sudden.