2. Sandway #2
Jake turned around to look over the back of the couch.
He could see from there that it was a photo of his aunt and uncle’s wedding many, many years ago.
Isabel looked the same but younger, and Uncle Mark had been full of life—a far cry from the photos Isabel had sent the family when he was dying a year ago.
He was skin and bones the last Jake had seen, with an ashy cast to his once deep brown skin and a thin, scruffy beard.
What remained of his hair was still black, though.
He’d never gotten a chance to see it gray.
“You don’t have to sell the house,” he said.
“I do, dear,” Isabel replied. “I have to leave sooner or later, and it’s best to do it now while I still have the energy to pack up my life and go.”
“You don’t need the money, do you?” Jake got up from the couch, rag hanging limply in his grasp, and joined Isabel over by the built-in.
“Certainly not,” Isabel said. She was still looking down at the picture fondly, her gaze drifting much further away than anywhere in Eventide.
“Marcus had a good job, and he left me with more than enough to live off for the rest of my life. There’s simply nothing keeping me here anymore.
It was our house before, but it’s not mine now.
Honestly, it was Marcus who loved this place from the very beginning.
It’s grown on me over the years, but it was never my first choice. ”
I can see why. Jake didn’t dare speak the words aloud, but he thought them loudly enough that he was pretty sure Isabel could read his mind.
“And so all I can see here is Marcus,” she continued.
“I want to move on from that. We had a very nice life together, and now it’s time for a new chapter.
I want to enjoy the family I have left rather than dwell on who’s gone.
” She set the picture down, adjusting it so it looked out at the rest of the living room again. “I have to stop wallowing.”
“You really loved Uncle Mark, didn’t you?” Jake asked, surprising even himself with the sincerity of his question.
“I did.”
Jake kept staring at the wedding photo. “I guess not everyone’s cut out for that kind of life, huh?”
“Maybe not.” Isabel didn’t seem too concerned with Jake’s sudden shift in demeanor.
If anything, she still seemed a little distracted.
“But I can tell you one thing, Jakey: you’ll never be happy if you settle for the wrong person.
It’s better to be alone and have other fulfilling relationships in life than be stuck with someone who makes you miserable. ”
“I won’t have to worry about that, Aunt Isabel.”
Isabel chuckled. “Never say never. If love like that is meant to be, it will find you. In the meantime, get to work before this poor old house collects any more dust.”
Jake worked in sweet, solitary silence while Isabel put away the groceries.
As he dusted with one hand, he pulled his phone out with the other to search for something to do over the weekend.
The best days of the week were fast approaching, and he needed something to occupy his mind—and his body.
There was a theater, but it looked worse than dilapidated inside based on the pictures in the handful of one- and two-star reviews, and it seemed to only play movies that had been out for months, at the earliest. There was also a bar, but it looked sleazier than any of the places Jake cared to frequent back home.
“If I went in there and tried to hook up with a guy, I’d probably get myself killed,” he muttered to himself, pausing to spray cleaner onto a shelf.
Last, and certainly least, there was the bookstore where precious little Robbie Eaton said he worked, but Jake never wanted to have to cross paths with that man again in his life.
It was bad enough that he’d accepted his help in Sandway.
He couldn’t bear the thought of handing money over to him for some book he wouldn’t actually get around to reading.
There was only one other option, and once Jake finished cleaning the built-in, he wandered back over to the couch and sat down on the edge, eyes glued to his phone screen.
He opened MatchdUp, the dating app he’d used for almost all his hookups in the past. He updated his location and held his breath as he waited for the results to refresh.
There had to be at least one non-straight man in Eventide.
It was statistically impossible for there not to be.
A single profile popped up. Jake stared for a moment, mouth dropping open slightly. It wasn’t possible. He refreshed the page again. There was still only one profile.
“He’s gay?” he murmured, swiping his thumb up to read the rest of Robbie’s bio. “No. Absolutely not. Fuck that simpering little prick.”
“How’s it going?” Isabel called from the kitchen.
Jake slammed his phone onto the coffee table, screen-side down. “Great,” he called back.
He didn’t pick up his phone again, instead busying himself with more dusting. He was out of options; doomed to live a life of boredom for the next half a year—and that was if he was lucky and the house sold reasonably quickly.
It didn’t make sense, but part of him blamed Robbie Eaton for it, for being the only other gay guy in Eventide looking for another man, for ruining his first day in town, for reminding him exactly why he didn’t want to be here.
Jake got over his shock at seeing Robbie on his dating app fairly quickly. It helped that Isabel kept him busy all day, and by the time he finally got into the shower and brushed his teeth for the night, Robbie was but a faint name in the back of his mind.
He climbed into the tiny bed in his room, messing with the blankets until they were adequately rustled around and practically falling off the bed.
It was the only way he could sleep, and he’d been doing it since he was a child and his mother would complain when she had to make the bed after he’d kicked the blankets off during the night.
He turned off the lamp on the nightstand and fluffed up the pillow before resting his head on it and closing his eyes.
He opened them again a moment later. It was too early to fall asleep, and no matter how much light the curtains kept out, no matter how much his body ached from jumping straight from sitting in a car all morning to moving around all afternoon, he couldn’t sleep.
He grabbed his phone off the nightstand, the dim glow lighting his face in the dark room, and did the one thing he swore to himself earlier he wouldn’t do.
Robbie’s grinning face stared blankly at him as soon as he opened the app. Jake forced himself to read the bio again, if only to convince himself this was a terrible idea.
Passionate about nature and volunteering, it read. I love long walks on the beach, the smell of freshly made bread, and trying new things. Jake rolled his eyes. Looking for something long-term.
That was the one part that posed a problem for Jake.
That, and the fact that this was the man who gave Jake a snide little smirk in Sandway that would be burned into his mind forever.
Still, Robbie seemed like the kind of guy who got starved for attention easily.
Maybe he’d be open to a one-night stand just for the thrill of it.
If he was good enough in bed, Jake could certainly get over his hangups just this one time.
With a deep breath, he opened the chat box and began to type.
He hated being the first to reach out, and usually he didn’t have to worry about that.
Jake was always somewhere near a handful of guys looking for company, and he was conventionally attractive enough to interest at least a few of them.
It wasn’t even vanity that made him think that; it was just what he’d learned from many, many experiences.
As soon as he sent the message, he sank his head back into the pillow, resting his phone on top of the blanket. To his surprise, it vibrated only a few seconds later.
Not interested.
Jake narrowed his eyes. “Fucking asshole,” he muttered. “I’m the best he’s gonna get out here and he knows it.”
He typed a response, his thumbs hammering at the screen.
Come on, just one night. It’ll be fun.
Three dots appeared.
After my first impression of you at the store? Forget it. Go to sleep, Jake Wynn. My answer’s not going to change.
Jake set his phone back on the nightstand with a huff. Robbie didn’t know what he was missing, but he’d regret it eventually.
Of course, it was probably for the best that he wasn’t interested. Jake knew guys like that, and they got clingy more often than not. He was still dealing with the one who’d texted him earlier today. It was always a mistake giving them a real phone number instead of keeping it on the apps.
“I don’t need him,” Jake said under his breath. “A wet blanket would probably be better in bed than a spoiled prick like him.”
He slid his hand under the blankets, pushing down his boxers.
There was little more discouraging than masturbating oneself to sleep, but Jake had done it many times.
It wasn’t so bad, really, at least when there wasn’t anything else to do.
And Jake well and truly had nothing else to do as the sun set on his first day in Eventide.
He wrapped his hand around his cock, closing his eyes. The rest of the house was silent, save for the occasional bird chirp just outside his window. It was annoying, but Jake soon forgot about it entirely, tuning it out as he became insulated in his own little world.
He came, wiping the evidence away with a tissue from the box on the nightstand, fixed his shorts, lay back in bed, and sighed. Tomorrow would be a better day.
Or not. Probably not.