19. Gabe #2
Gabe
I’ll work on making them even better.
He sent a winky face, and several minutes passed. He lazily stroked himself with the hand not holding his phone, looking through the photos Brandon had sent him in the last week. His phone buzzed with a new photo, and he tapped the notification so fast his phone nearly fell on his face.
The new photo was a sexy aftermath. Brandon’s dick was softening, his hand and stomach shiny with come.
It was a POV shot of his belly button to his knees, but he looked naked, even if he wasn’t.
He was bare in rumpled sheets. Gabe’s erection suddenly stood at attention.
He’d been at a simmer for hours, not letting his arousal progress to something he’d need to deal with.
He could draw it out, but he wanted to send back another photo to Brandon, so he let himself appreciate Brandon’s gorgeous body, the slick little drops of come, his big hands that Gabe wanted all over his body.
He framed his own shot to look as similar to Brandon’s photo as he could, though it was obviously him, the lion head tattoo he had on his thigh prominent. He sent it off, then grabbed some tissues off his side table.
Brandon
Glad to have a closeup of that tattoo. Hot. I don’t think it even entered my brain the day you drew me. And those fucking freckles…
Gabe was of the opinion that nothing was sluttier than a tattoo on your thigh, so he liked Brandon’s appreciation. He also liked the acknowledgement of their afternoon in Iowa, however small the acknowledgement was.
Brandon
Thanks, Gabe. Being on the road is hard right now. It’s nice to have a distraction. And a friend.
Sometimes Brandon was this smoking hot pro athlete who made Gabe’s insides melt a bit, and sometimes he said things that made Gabe’s heart squeeze.
Gabe
Everything all right? Do you want to talk?
More minutes passed than had between Gabe’s sexy photo and Brandon’s aftermath photo. Finally, after Gabe had crawled under his covers and set an alarm to wake up from his nap in time for his grocery shift, his phone rang.
“Hope it’s okay that I’m taking you up on your offer,” Brandon said.
“I offered for a reason. Are you okay?”
“Having a bad run out here. Feeling guilty for being far away. I feel like I was encouraged to build this life outside of my family, and it’s just resulted in me feeling like I’m not part of my family.”
“Did something happen?”
“Ashley had to go to the ER. It’s not uncommon. She’s been plenty of times before and she has more ER visits in the future. But I didn’t know until days later, and I just feel so guilty for having this dream job bullshit instead of feeling like I’m living a real life.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that, Brandon. I wish I could give you a hug.”
“Thanks. Honestly, it’s just nice to hear your voice.
With Skylar up in Minnesota, I have a new road roomie, and he’s nice.
Fine. I just don’t know him very well. He got traded into our org while I was in Minnesota, and while Skylar makes me want to throttle him sometimes, this is our second season together, and we know how each other works. ”
“Where’s the new roomie? I assume you weren’t jerking it with him sitting right there.”
Brandon laughed this warm, rough grumble that made Gabe feel like he’d been baked into a pie. “No. He went to dinner with some of the other guys. I declined.”
“I sent off the copies of your story I printed, by the way. They should be waiting for you in Iowa when you get back. They might not make it to Utah in time for Christmas, but I can send you the PDF I put together.” Working on formatting Brandon’s short story into a chapbook and adding a few new illustrations was the project he had been working on for the past couple of weeks when he had downtime.
“Thank you,” Brandon said, his voice heavy and heartfelt. “What are you doing for Christmas?” They hadn’t been able to make Thanksgiving work with Gabe’s work schedule, unfortunately.
“Heading to Wisconsin, where I grew up. My dad lives in Lacrosse, which is close to the Minnesota border.”
“Is seeing your dad a good thing or a bad thing?”
“It’s not my favorite. He’s not outright cruel or anything, but he doesn’t get me.
My queerness, or my art, or the way I’m so tight with my friends.
And don’t get me wrong. He votes in favor of my human rights and everything, but just because he believes I should be able to get married doesn’t mean that he understands my identity isn’t just who I’m attracted to or what I do in the bedroom. ”
Brandon sighed. “I wish there was a way to be out and proud and all of that without having to deal with all the weird gray areas.”
“I hear you. But I promise it gets easier. You figure out how to deal with it. With my dad, I just avoid the topic altogether.”
“What if you have a boyfriend?”
“I’ve never had a boyfriend serious enough to bring home to meet him, and I haven’t brought up anyone else I’ve dated. I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.”
“If you need a fake boyfriend, you can tell him about me.”
The little ache Brandon made him feel quaked through him. They were dancing around something Gabe didn’t want to dance around anymore .
“Maybe I will. Give it a test. See how he reacts. I’ve got those nice prom photos of us. My dad will like that you’re a hockey player.”
“Did he play?”
“When he was a kid, yeah. Never got his weird artist son into a sport, though.”
Gabe closed his eyes as they talked, letting Brandon’s voice become everything that surrounded him.
He heard about the power play, and the way the churn of players through the AHL made it difficult to settle in and gel with a group of guys.
He loved hearing that Jackson and Ryan had been checking in on Brandon, and Skylar, who was staying with them the way Brandon had when he’d gotten called up, was sending photos of Lola.
Gabe demanded Brandon forward any dog photos he got directly on to him.
Gabe wasn’t a phone talker. He preferred the efficiency of a text message or the connection of an in-person conversation.
He hadn’t lost himself in a conversation like this in years.
Maybe ever. He usually spent every phone call thinking about when he could get off the phone, but here he was, hoping it would never end.
Finally, his alarm went off, scaring the crap out of him. Reluctantly, he said goodbye to Brandon and got himself ready for work. He didn’t get the nap he wanted, but he got something better.
He didn’t need sleep to function, anyway.