Chapter 8 RICK
Janey was my voice of reason. She always had been when it came to a second opinion, but she was also a huge romance reader—probably why she left the book club.
I always overheard Maggie complaining about it, and Janey giggling in the background because the only reason Maggie stayed was for the gossip and less for the books.
“Is this your first boyfriend?” she asked, tucking into one of the cupcakes.
I was sitting in the large red armchair with a newspaper resting on the arm, my chocolate cupcake holding it down. “We’re not boyfriends,” I said.
“If he’s staying the night, that’s boyfriend territory,” Rooney added walking into the staff quarters. He spotted the cupcakes—like a sugar bloodhound, he was right there. “These for everyone?”
“I agree,” Janey said. “That’s boyfriend territory.”
“You’re the one who told me to invite him over for the night,” I grumbled.
“Because I thought you were already going steady,” Janey said with a huge grin on her face—only smudged by the buttercream. “But you can’t ruin it now, or you won’t be able to get these cupcakes again.”
With a mouth full of food, Rooney spoke. “How come we’ve never had these before?” He smacked his lips. “Did they serve these after our fire safety demo at the community center?”
“Because you’ve never deserved them before,” I said, my eyes narrowing in on them both.
Tom walked in, let out one laugh, and commanded them both into the exercise room once they were done eating. He walked up to me. “You’re supposed to be telling them that,” he said. “Or has this guy made you go all soft, Rick?”
I grumbled, grabbing my cupcake and unwrapping it. “I’m not going soft,” I told him. “There’s just something about him that’s made me feel all at peace.”
“For what it’s worth, I could tell there was something troubling you,” he said, sitting in the armchair at the side of me, almost blocking all the natural light coming in through the window. “I’m glad you told us your truth. My wife’s brother is gay, you should’ve told me sooner.”
“The last thing I needed was more people trying to set me up,” I said, and practically inhaled the entire cupcake—not a single smudge of frosting glossed over my lips.
Tom shrugged. “Suit yourself,” he said. “But we could’ve been brothers-in-law, if that’s how it had all shaken out.”
“If it would’ve made us family, I’m glad that never happened.”
We laughed. It was a playful back and forth. There were worse people I could be in-laws with, which had me thinking about my family, and Caspian’s family. I didn’t want to bring him into my mess of a family situation, I didn’t even want to be part of it myself.
“What do you know about Caspian’s family?” I asked.
“He’s from Sugar Bay,” Rooney said. “Think they live a little north of town in the cul-de-sac, I think. I’m not sure.” Tom side-eyed me. “Why? You’re not already planning on asking for his hand in marriage are ya?”
“No, just wondered is all.”
And we were cut off with all-systems go as the alarm sounded.
We knew what we were going into before we got there through the emergency services operator.
Being ready to meet any fight—real or false—was an art, and we were ready and rolling out on the rig in sixty seconds.
There was no job too small, and we got a lot of them.
In fact, the one we were being called out to was a distress call from an elderly woman.
Her parakeet had escaped up an old chimney chute she’d had sealed off years ago—or so she’d thought.
It was a considerably easy job, and one we were more thankful for. When people were really in danger was when the ante was turned up to the max, and we all held our breaths a little. We had a surprising number of animal-related calls, not for any dangerous animals, but for missing or stuck ones.
* * *
There was only a beer with my name on it in the fridge of my bare-bones apartment, so before I could grab Caspian, I had to buy groceries.
It took me fifteen minutes in the local market to grab food, drinks, and a candle to make my apartment more people friendly. I hauled them all into the back of my Range Rover, and made right for the bakery. I was excited to see Caspian again, even though I’d only just seen him that afternoon.
At the street-level door to the apartment, he was standing in sweatpants and an even more cropped top, this one featured the word Love before whatever it was beneath it was cut off.
He looked all adorable, holding a large teddy bear on his back and a brown paper bag in his arms. I looked him over, getting out to help with his things.
We kissed first, the bag of groceries he was holding pressed against his chest as we almost squished it from not being able to control ourselves. I’d opened the car door for his things to go in the back seat.
“It’s my backpack,” he said, turning around to show me the teddy bear.
His friends were standing in the stairway, watching and giggling as they had been every time I’d seen them now. “I thought it was just one big teddy you were bringing.”
“No, they’re inside,” he said. “I also went to the store because I—” He looked into the back seat where my bag of groceries was already strapped into a seat. “Oh, what did you buy?”
“Hopefully different things to you.”
With a cursory glance, I knew they were different. He’d packed an entire thing of whipped cream.
The drive to my place was only a couple of minutes. Then we spent several more minutes in the parking lot beside the apartment building, Caspian breathing heavily and me being quiet, trying to figure out how to tell him I hadn’t just moved in. I just hadn’t furnished the place.
“Is your bed comfy?” he asked.
“First thing you want to check out?”
He shrugged. “If I’m staying over, then maybe.”
“I think it’s comfy. A full night of sleep is important.”
“Yes, it really is, but I do want to warn you, I move around a lot in my sleep.”
I laughed. “You’re warning me of this now? Oh no, well, we might have to rethink this.”
“No, Daddy,” he said, grabbing my arm. “I won’t move too much, I promise.”
Plucking the back of his hand away by the wrist, I pulled it to my lips and kissed it. “You’ll be trapped in a bear hug, even if your T-shirt doesn’t ask for it.” I placed another hand by his cheek. “You’re so warm. I was going to ask where your jacket was.”
He giggled. “Being in the kitchen all day, I like to feel the cold sometimes. Maybe not when it gets to winter, that shit’s freezing.” He looked up out of the car through the front window. “Are we going inside?”
My apartment was on the fourth floor. There were five floors to the building, and there was a lift, so we didn’t have to do too much walking. I carried both bags of groceries, getting more of a clue to what he’d bought. Cas’s only job was to carry that huge bear on his back.
In the mirrored lift, we could see each other, and it was nice to see us together. He leaned against me and tiptoed into a kiss on my cheek. “You’re cold,” he said, giving me another kiss. “That one was to warm you up.”
Once we reached the apartment floor, I had him reach into my pocket for the keys, but I didn’t know which one—both were bulging, one with a wallet, the other my keys, and both had ample space for him to dig around and giggle as he brushed by my cock.
“Found them,” he said, pulling them out of my pocket.
He definitely knew which pocket they were in just and wanted a feel—which I was happy for.
“It’s not much,” I warned him, and every thought I had earlier came back almost to haunt me with his words.
“You just moved in?” was his first question as he walked inside and turned on the bright hallway lights. “Oh my god, they’re bright.” He turned them off just as quick. It was still visible without the lights on, but it was the early evening and getting darker by the minute it seemed.
I led him through the apartment to the kitchen where he stared at me with the bright ceiling light on, revealing the lack of everything. I placed both grocery bags on the counter, and he gave me a hug. “What’s this for?” I asked.
“This place,” he grumbled against my chest. “You need me.”
“You’re right about that.” I hugged him, brushing my fingers through his hair. “I brought some things as well.” He pulled away like a force of nature, swinging the giant teddy bear backpack around his shoulder. “I figured you wouldn’t have stuff like this around.”
“Okay, what is it?” I asked, unpacking the bags.
I was curious as to what he’d brought with him—ice cream, whipped cream, a plate, bowl, spork selection in the same pink-purple princess print.
“Because I’m not sure if you can tell, but I don’t have an awful lot here.
” I opened the fridge to reveal the beer, and he let out another giggle.
“Hey, I don’t really spend much time here. ”
“I think this is actually how I expected you to live,” he said, rummaging through the teddy bag which opened at the belly area. “Except, no pictures anywhere. I thought for sure you’d have some.”
“I do, I do,” I said. “They’re in the bedroom. The family that matters.”
He just stared at me still, no longer rummaging. “Is it just your sister?”
I nodded. “Yeah, it’s actually just two pictures. One of me and her as kids, and another of her family, which includes her husband and my niece and nephew, Lucy and Tucker.”
“Cute,” he said.
“You haven’t seen them yet.”
“I just know they’re gonna be cute.” He pulled out a small purple-ish ornament with a plug attached. “This is my nightlight. But it can be used as a lamp.”
“A night light,” I said, taking it and admiring how I could now see what it was—alongside it being in the shape of a unicorn.
“In case you didn’t have one.”
“And I don’t,” I said.
“Good. I might’ve wondered about all the other littles you’d had in your place, but seeing it, I don’t think you’ve ever had anyone here before.”
“And you’d be right,” I said, my thumb tugging at his bottom lip and chin, opening his mouth slightly. I kissed him. “You don’t understand what you’ve done to me.”
He stuck his tongue out and licked my mouth as I pulled away. I kissed him once more, this time trying to take his tongue into my mouth. “I might understand a little,” he giggled.
“You make me feel good inside,” I told him. That was one way to explain the butterflies he gave me—and for a grown-ass adult man to admit to anyone I they butterflies was going to be met with concerned looks. “Butterflies,” I said, knowing he wouldn’t look at me any differently.
He hugged me now, pressing the front of the teddy bear against me. I just wanted one hug to be chest to chest. “I have butterflies too,” he said. “Also, do you like what I brought?”
“Mostly dessert,” I said.
“And spaghetti letters,” he said. “One of the tins you brought last night.”
“You want them again?” I asked.
He smacked his lips and nodded. “They’re so good, obviously.”
“Okay, okay, well, what else do you want?” I asked, gesturing to the counter where I’d emptied the bags.
“I actually had an idea,” he said, his voice soft. “In the Tupperware.”
There was a box filled with a white-something. I just assumed it was another ice cream or dessert. “Yeah, what is it?”
“Pizza dough,” he said. “I made it myself. It’s ready to be rolled out and stretched.”
“Oh. That’s amazing. You—you wanna make pizzas?”
He nodded. Fuck. I didn’t have anything else for it.
I felt like a failure. I didn’t have anything here for him.
I knew I’d been too impulsive in asking him to come over tonight.
We’d only had our first date thing last night, this was all too soon, and yet, his sweet face calmed me—and those thoughts—as if to say it was actually all okay.
“I brought a pizza tray, and something I usually do is actually use the spaghetti letters in their tomato sauce as the pizza base,” he said. “It’s actually so fun. And I brought a Tupperware of cheese.”
There it was, that second Tupperware of white stuff. “Oh. You’re prepared.”
“I’m a bit of an anxious planner sometimes,” he said, pulling out a large circular tray. “But if you don’t want to make pizza, we don’t have to.”
“I actually bought more of the spaghetti, and I bought some instant mash. I heard littles like making volcanos out of them,” I told him, somewhat apprehensively.
I didn’t know if I was on the right track, or the right sites for information.
And I wanted to be informed. I didn’t want him to tell me what he wanted, I wanted to give it to him and see him happy that I just knew.
He gasped. “I freaking love that! We always make such a mess with mash, so we don’t make it a lot. And yes, dinos, mash, gravy in the middle. We usually see who can make the biggest volcano and stuff.”
“I think we’ll save that one for another day,” I told him. “I think making pizzas would be fun, and maybe I’ve bitten off more than I can chew, inviting you over, but I stand by my decision. At least we’ll be undisturbed here.”
“Unless you get a call,” he said, brows raised in concern.
“That only goes off for major emergencies,” I told him. “And right now, the only major emergency happening is you taking that bag off so I can get to you.”
He dropped the bag. “It’s just clothes. Now, what did you say you wanted to do with me?”