Chapter 13 #2
I’m sitting on the steps outside the movie theatre, tickets in hand, when Asher appears in front of me.
He’s wearing a pair of baggy jeans, a bright blue hoodie that reads ‘less upsetti more spaghetti’ across the front in retro lettering, and a small, feminine crossbody bag pulled over his front.
I want to kiss him. I wonder if I could, here in public.
“Hey.” He smiles. “Didn’t have dinner and a movie with the British Ambassador to the US on my bingo card for today, but I’m not mad about it.”
“I’m glad.” I grin. “Sorry it was a little last-minute.”
“I love last-minute. How are you? You look like you’re doing good. I mean, you look good.”
“I’m good. Doing good.”
“I see that. You got a little sun and everything. Are those…” He comes a little closer and lifts up onto his tiptoes. “Fucking freckles?”
“Ah, yes. Rarely seen. Leo took most of them.”
He nods but gives me a commiserating look. “So, what are we seeing? I didn’t get a chance to look at the listings, but I’m easy with whatever.”
I hold out the tickets for him to inspect.
He raises a well-shaped eyebrow. “You really have some kind of death wish, don’t you? Are you in therapy? I have the name of a really good one.”
Through a laugh, I say, “It terrified me as a child, but I don’t expect to be that frightened of an animatronic shark these days.”
“It’s not a real shark??!” He pretends to look shocked. “I’ve actually never seen it.”
“You’ve never seen Jaws?”
“I’m twenty-five years old. Isn’t it, like, an eighty-year-old movie? Plus, I grew up in a religious community where TVs were not permitted. I missed a lot of the pop cultural stuff that makes a person a well-rounded human being.”
“I think you’re incredibly well-rounded,” I say. “Wait, I thought you were twenty-four?”
“Yeah, I was. Yesterday.”
I blink. “It’s your birthday? Today? Why didn’t you say something?”
He shrugs. “What would I have said?”
“I don’t know. When I called earlier, you could have said it was your birthday.” Didn’t he have plans with his friends?
He starts walking towards the entrance of the cinema.
“Well, it never came up. And like, do you normally go around telling people it’s your birthday?
Usually, people—family and friends—they know already.
They wish you a happy birthday and give you a gift, and that’s that.
Though it wasn’t something we ever celebrated, not really.
Only the man himself was celebrated in our house, and it was his birthday every damn day.
” We arrive at the concession stand, and he begins to browse the array of sugary offerings, extreme focus on his face.
My heart aches a little at the idea of a decade or more of Asher birthdays going uncelebrated.
I’d taken a picture of Leo on his birthday every year.
Big grin on his face and a cake in front of him.
“What about your friends? Here in Washington.”
He shrugs again. “They don’t know it’s today. I’ve only known them about a year, and it’s never come up. Like I said, it’s not something you tell people; usually people just know.”
I turn to fully face him, and he does the same.
“Well, okay, now that I know, is there something else you’d rather do today?
Something other than sit in a dark room and watch an eighty-year-old movie with me and eat food that will rot your teeth?
Actually, eating food that will rot your teeth is sort of a birthday tradition.
” I look at my watch. “But it’s still early, we can do whatever you like, something more exciting than dinner and a movie.
Name it and I can attempt to make it happen. ”
He studies me a long moment, one hand in his pocket and the other playing with the strap of his crossbody bag absently.
“I actually really wanna see the movie with you. It’s not something we really did.
I wasn’t kidding, my pop culture references are practically non-existent.
So going to the movies is still sort of cool and new for me, and I definitely wanna get some of those cinnamon hearts.
” He turns to point at them. “And some of that salted butter popcorn. After that, we can see what’s up. ”
“Okay, then. Movie it is. I’m yours the entire day, so we can play it by ear, do whatever you feel like doing.”
He raises an eyebrow. “Except the one thing I really wanna do, because it could literally kill you, right?”
I warm all over as the image of a naked and perfect Asher riding my dick swims into my mind.
Taking a step toward him, I reach out to skim a hand over his cheek.
It doesn’t matter that we’re in the very open foyer of a cinema in the middle of the day—I don’t know a single person in this city who would be in the foyer of the cinema in the middle of the day—because the need to show him a touch of tenderness on his birthday is too strong.
His eyes shutter faintly, and he lets out a soft breath, mouth parting.
“I’m certain I can still make you feel very good without exerting myself too much.”
His bright blue eyes blink open as he draws his tongue over his lower lip. “Yeah, I’m certain you can, too.”
“Let’s get you some teeth-rotting junk and watch an animatronic shark rip people to pieces first.”
“Fuck yesss.” He grins sadistically.