Chapter 29 - Asher
As I sat on the couch that afternoon after I’d gotten home from the job, I found myself watching mindless TV when my phone rang. I answered it without looking, at least half expecting Micah to tell me he was coming by. Instead, it was definitely not Micah on the other line.
“Hon?”
“Mom?” I furrowed my brow,
“Hi, honey!”
“Where are you?”
Her laughter was light and warm, and it activated something soft inside me. “I’m home, honey. Our trip is over. We just got back into town.”
Where had the time gone? “Mom, it’s good to hear your voice. How was the trip?”
“Hold on, honey, I’m going to put you on speakerphone so you can hear your dad, too.”
I settled back into the couch and listened to them talk for a long time, telling me about all the sights they saw, the food they ate, and more. They rambled for ages, but it was comforting rather than annoying.
“And that’s how our trip went,” Mom said finally, wrapping up their stories. “Now, when do we get to see you again?”
“Anytime, Mom. What were you thinking?”
“Come for dinner tomorrow?”
My phone buzzed in my hand with an incoming text and I glanced at the screen.
Micah. Heat immediately flushed through me.
We’d seen each other at work, of course, but we hadn’t really had a chance to speak since we’d…
well. “Sure, Mom,” I said, my voice sounding distant and distracted even to my own ears.
“Listen, I’ve got to go. I’ll see you tomorrow? ”
“Sounds good, hon. See you then.”
I opened my text messages.
Micah: Busy?
Asher: Never too busy for you. What’s up?
Micah: Had a weird couple of days. Want to grab a drink at Copper Elephant? Bring Jackson if you want. Kieran’s coming.
Asher: See you soon.
I texted Jackson to meet us at the bar and changed into clean jeans and a sleeveless black shirt before I headed out. When I arrived, I immediately spotted Jackson leaning on the bar, flirting with the bartender shamelessly.
I made my way over to him and put a hand on his shoulder just as the bartender slid him a bottle of beer. “I’ll take one of those, too, please.”
A moment later, I had a bottle in hand and Jackson’s arm in the other, dragging him over to the pool tables and away from the hot bartender with the shaved head.
As we racked the balls, I spotted Kieran and Micah in the entryway, looking around for us.
I gave them a little wave, my stomach fluttering at seeing Micah.
They made their way to our side of the bar, Kieran leading the way and Micah following close behind. I started to go to him, taking a few steps in his direction, but stopped myself before I made it to the other side of the pool table and gave another wave instead.
“Hey,” I said, trying to look casual. I didn’t feel casual.
Panic was rising in my throat. I’d almost reached for Micah and kissed him—in public.
There were so many layers of why that would have been a terrible idea that my mind reeled.
Micah might be publicly out, but nobody besides Jackson, and presumably Kieran, knew that I wasn’t straight.
Besides that, we’d agreed to keep it casual, temporary.
Public displays of affection hardly felt casual to me anymore. Still, though, I wanted him.
It seemed like an eternity had passed since I'd greeted them, because the next thing I knew, Jackson was laughing at something someone had said and I realized I’d been lost in my own thoughts. I focused my attention on the conversation.
“Sure,” Kieran said, grinning a little and looking directly at Jackson. “But I want to be on your team.”
Jackson’s eyebrows rose, and his smile was as flirty as I’d ever seen it. “Deal.”
The balls clacked as Jackson broke, Micah and I standing aside. “You said you had a weird couple of days?”
He nodded, gaze fixed to the pool table. “Very weird.”
“Want to talk about it?”
“Remember my awful ex?”
I laughed once, humorlessly, and nodded. “Phillip. The one with the condo and the contract.”
“Yeah, well. The contract was… weird. Illegal and unenforceable probably, but he was going to try anyway. He was trying to coerce me into marrying him.”
I furrowed my brow and tipped my head to the side. “Seriously?”
“Seriously. And to make matters worse, it turns out he’s done this shit before. One of his other exes came to find me and warn me not to sign. I’d already figured it out at that point, but I appreciated his help anyway.”
“Hey, you’re up.” Jackson tapped his stick on the ground near me to get my attention.
I stepped away to make my shot, more focused on what Micah had told me than the pool table.
His ex tried to coerce him into getting married?
What an asshole. And to think he’d done it to at least one other person made matters even worse.
I took my shot, missing the pocket because I was busy wondering what Phillip’s long con was.
When I made my way back to Micah, he was leaning an elbow on our bar-height table, gaze following me closely.
I fought the urge to take his hands in mine. “Are you doing okay now though?” I kept watching the pool table as I spoke, paying attention to Micah in my periphery.
He nodded. “It’s done now. He has to sell the condo and send me the money, and if he crosses any other lines, my lawyer says we can file for a restraining order.”
“That’s a relief.” When I looked at him, his gaze was fixed on my mouth.
“It is,” he murmured. “A big relief.”
Heat burned through me as I focused my gaze on him for real, tension stretching tight between us. “So now what?” My heart thumped hard in my chest.
Micah hesitated for a second. “It doesn’t change much. I’m still just here until we see if the studio wants to keep me around.”
A lump formed in my throat, and I nodded silently, turning my gaze back to the pool table. Jackson was laughing and bumping Kieran with his shoulder, cheeks pink and a mile-wide smile.
“Yeah,” I murmured. “When do you find out?”
He shrugged. “Soon. Hell, maybe tomorrow. We’re about to wrap on the post office. They won’t keep me in limbo.”
I gave a tiny nod and looked at Micah again, my chest squeezing painfully. He stayed silent and his jaw worked, muscle flexing.
When he looked at me again, he rubbed the back of his neck. “I—”
“Do you want to get out of here?” My voice was barely audible over the music and the clacking of pool balls.
Silently, he nodded, his shoulders and chest moving as he exhaled in what looked like relief.
I put my glass down and waved at Jackson with two fingers. “I’m wiped. Gonna head out.”
Micah stepped forward. “Hey, will you give me a ride home?”
“Yeah, definitely.”
Jackson looked from Micah and me to Kieran and back at me. “I think I’m going to stick around a while longer. These balls won’t pocket themselves.” He gestured at the pool table, but I knew better.
It was Kieran’s turn to blush. He looked at the pool table, grinning. A moment later, he looked at Jackson. “I’ll stick around and keep you company.”
“I bet you will,” Micah murmured, punctuated with a soft snort of laughter.
A few minutes later, we’d paid our tabs and were heading to the parking lot. Micah climbed into my truck silently and I fired up the engine, my ears buzzing from the loud music inside the bar.
“Your house?”
I nodded. “Fine by me.” My heart pounded as I pulled out of the parking lot, both excited and nervous about what was about to happen, about what I planned to ask for.
After a few moments, Micah reached over and put his hand on mine, where it rested on the gear shifter.
I let him take my hand in both of his and pull it closer to him.
I didn’t live far from the bar and as I drove, my anxiety ratcheted up, the tension in my chest and shoulders building.
We turned onto my street, Micah still holding my hand in his, rubbing the back of my hand with his thumb.
When I finally pulled into my driveway and put the truck into park, Micah practically launched himself at me, reaching across the bench seat and hauling me in for a kiss.
It took me a second to disentangle myself from the seat belt but soon I was halfway across the bench, holding him close, one hand desperately reaching for the fly on his jeans.
Before I was able to get his jeans unfastened, Micah put a hand on mine to stop me. “No, wait,” he murmured, breathing hard, chest heaving.
I frowned. “I’m sorry.” The apology slipped out immediately as I worried he was changing his mind.
He kissed me quickly to shut me up before speaking again. “Let’s take this inside.”
That was definitely something I was on board with. We stumbled inside, stopping to kiss halfway up the sidewalk, and the moment the front door closed behind us, we were stripping each other’s clothes off, losing our shirts and pants, hands everywhere, mouths frantic.
Micah kissed a trail down my neck, my chest, my stomach, until he was on his knees in front of me, both of us naked and breathing hard.
He looked up at me, his brown eyes dark in the dim light, and ran his hands up my thighs.
My stomach flipped as I looked down at him.
I wanted him more than I’d ever wanted anything in my life, and if things were about to end for us…
I put a hand on his shoulder. “Can you…”
“Anything,” he said without hesitation, taking my cock into his hand.
“Can you fuck me tonight?”