CHAPTER NINE #2
“I’m sorry,” his father said with a grimace. “I did interrupt.”
“No! No! There’s no one in here—”
“Leif,” Aksel said, sounding exasperated. “When have you ever lied to me? And why are you doing it now? I certainly don’t care if you have someone over. You’re a grown man and what you do in your personal life is your business. I didn’t mean to interrupt. Please, go back to uh, your guest.”
“It’s not …” Leif’s voice trailed off because it was true. He never lied to his dad. “Shit. I’m sorry I lied.”
Aksel reached out and patted his shoulder. “Hey, it’s okay, son. This is awkward, I get it.”
“Yeah, just a bit,” Leif admitted with a sigh.
“So, I’ll let you go. Sorry for the interruption. I should have texted before I dropped by. I’ll do so in the future. Enjoy your night.”
Leif really didn’t want his dad to tell him to have good sex. And that was kinda what he was doing, right?
“Sex is a natural part of life, you know,” Aksel said with a laugh, clearly reading his discomfort. “You don’t need to stress about this.”
“I’ll, uh, try,” Leif said, rubbing the back of his neck.
Clearly sensing Leif wanted him gone, Aksel stepped back. “I really am sorry. G’night.”
“Night, Dad.”
Leif closed the door behind him with a sigh, then locked it. He slumped back against the door, closing his eyes and breathing for a moment. Fuck! Had that really happened?
When he opened his eyes again, he jumped at the sight of Tanner peeking around the wall.
“Is the coast clear?” he whispered.
Leif scowled and walked toward him. “No thanks to you!”
“I’m sorry!” Tanner straightened and stepped toward him, looking miserable.
“I know you told me not to move but I was feeling restless and it was driving me crazy. I thought if I grabbed my phone, it would give me something to do and I wouldn’t get so fidgety but I, uh, forgot I had it plugged in and I kinda knocked over some shit when I tried to reach for it. ”
“You don’t say,” Leif said when he spotted his tablet, phone, and charger on the floor by the bed. He bent down to pick them up, then placed them back on the nightstand.
“I didn’t mean to.” Tanner’s voice was weirdly soft.
Leif looked up to see a genuinely upset expression cross Tanner’s face. “I know you didn’t,” he admitted. Tanner was a menace under the best of circumstances, but this was one time Leif was one-hundred-percent sure that Tanner hadn’t tried to sabotage him.
“Your dad is so cool. He’s … the best and I don’t want you to lie to him,” Tanner continued, weirdly earnest.
“Yeah, I know.” Leif sighed and slung an arm around Tanner’s waist, guiding him toward the bed. “It’s my own fault. I should have told him that I was busy and that I’d call him later or whatever.”
“You want me to leave?”
“Uhh, no. It’s okay. You can hang out here for a while. I mean, if you want.” Leif shrugged.
“Yeah? Cool.” Tanner flopped onto the bed on his stomach. “It’ll give my phone more time to charge anyway.”
Leif snorted. “I think I have a spare cable you can take with you.”
“Yeah?” Tanner brightened. “Sweet. Thanks!”
Leif grabbed the cable from his laptop bag and tossed it over to Tanner.
He eyed it skeptically. “Really?”
“What?” Leif asked. It was wrapped neatly into a small loop, secured with a leather snap, and labeled. Like all the rest of his cables.
“You’re such a nerd.”
“Do you want me to kick you out?” Leif asked, pointing at the door. “Because I can still do that.”
“No.” Tanner set the cable on the bed and patted the space next to him. “Get over here.”
Leif took his time walking over, and when he settled on the bed, he grabbed his own phone.
“Hey, so … what are you gonna get your mom?” Tanner asked.
Leif shrugged. “I dunno. Flowers for sure. She likes when I send those.”
“Where do you usually get them?”
“Uhh, one of those online companies. I can’t remember the name.”
Tanner made a face. “Oh, dude, no way. Those are usually so bad. They like, overcharge and you don’t get very fresh flowers.”
“Yeah?” Leif asked, skeptical. Because what the fuck did Tanner know about flowers?
“Or, at least that’s what my mom says,” Tanner added with a shrug.
Okay, that made more sense.
“So what do you do then?” Leif asked a little reluctantly.
“Dude. You gotta find someplace local.” Tanner took Leif’s phone from his hands.
Leif stared at him, open-mouthed, for a second before he gave up. Whatever. It wasn’t like there was anything on there that he was trying to hide.
Tanner’s fingers flew over the screen and a few moments later, he looked up. “Your mom is in New York, right?”
“At the moment, yeah,” Leif said. “She works for a nonprofit there.”
“Cool. What area?”
“What borough?” Leif asked, arching his eyebrow.
“Yeah, that.”
“Manhattan. SoHo.”
“What are boroughs, anyway?” Tanner asked, still doing stuff on Leif’s phone. “I always wondered.”
“Uhh, government districts, I think?” Leif said. “Like counties.”
“Huh.” Tanner held out the phone. “Okay, there’s a list of the best florists in SoHo. There’s a couple that look good but I’m kinda into the one that has a hockey stick and puck in the logo.”
“What?” Leif asked with a laugh as he took it. “What are you talking about?”
Tanner rolled onto his stomach next to Leif, their sides pressed together now. He reached out, scrolling through the list. “This one. Twig & Bloom.”
“Twig …” Leif said, smiling at the nickname for a hockey stick. “Oh, there it is. In the ampersand.”
“In the what now?”
“The—the … and symbol.”
“Oh, yeah, makes sense. It’s a cool logo too. All the flowers twisting around the stick and everything. And the puck for the dot in the i.”
“Yeah, it’s great.” Leif clicked on the link to the shop. “Well, I guess I’ll see what they have.”
“Cool.” Tanner didn’t roll away, just lay there watching what Leif did on his screen. “Hey. Why do you think there’s a stick and puck in the logo?”
“I dunno,” Leif said absently as he browsed through the flower bouquets available for delivery. “The owner is into hockey, maybe?”
“Yeah, that would make sense.”
Leif kept scrolling before he paused at one bouquet. “What about that one?”
“How would I know? I don’t know your mom. I mean, I probably jerked off to some pictures of her at one point but—” He yelped when Leif tackled him and straddled his hips. “What?”
“I swear to God, if you ever talk about my mom that way, I will end you!” Leif said, although he was laughing as he put his hand around Tanner’s throat and mimed choking him, taken by surprised by how playful he was being. How little anger there was under his threat.
Tanner grinned, twisting under Leif, his skin cool in some places and warm in others. “Mmm, foreplay.”
“Fuck you,” Leif said, still laughing as he let go and stared down at him.
Tanner raised up on his elbows and gave him an unimpressed look. “Dude, you can’t even give me crap for about talking about your mom. Last summer you said some totally uncalled for shit in Chicago about my mom.”
Leif winced and rolled off him. “Uhh, yeah, I’m sorry about that.”
“You should be.” Tanner poked his arm. “Besides, I’ve jerked off about your dad too. So, I guess that makes it kinda even.”
“What the fuck?” Leif sputtered.
Tanner dissolved into laughter. “Dude, I’m kidding. Coach Papa Rasmussen is hot, don’t get me wrong. For an old guy, he can get it. But he’s, like … totally off-limits.”
“And my mom isn’t?” Leif asked, because he wasn’t sure he could even deal with the rest of what Tanner had said.
“Well, she’s not my coach. She’s just some … hot supermodel, you know?”
“Ugh,” Leif said with a groan. “I hate you so much right now.”
“No you don’t.” Tanner gave him a cheeky smile. “I ate your ass until you almost passed out earlier. You can never hate me after that.”
“All part of your plan, huh?”
“Pretty much.” Tanner snatched the phone off the bed. “Now, focus. Flowers for your mom.”
Leif sputtered because he was not the one with focus issues here, then thwacked him on the hip in retaliation. But after a few moments of tussling, they settled down again, Leif draped half-overtop of Tanner’s back as he scrolled through the pages of flowers.
“This is the one,” Tanner said, pointing to one that was kind of a pale pink and dusty green. “It’s super pretty.”
Leif opened it in a new tab, then yelped when he saw the price. “That is fucking expensive! Especially for something that’s just gonna die in a few days anyway.”
“Dude, you grew up rich and you make a bajillion dollars right now. You can afford this.”
“My contract isn’t that big,” Leif pointed out.
“It’s big enough.” Tanner leered at him, rubbing his ass against Leif’s hips.
Leif groaned and buried his face against the nape of Tanner’s neck. Ugh, why did he smell good? But instead of saying that aloud, he muttered, “Why are you so annoying?”
“Annoying or not, you can totally afford these flowers,” Tanner said. “Especially since it’s a big birthday for your mom.”
“Yeah,” Leif agreed with a sigh, because for once, Tanner was right.
“And you can suck me off or fuck me after,” Tanner said. “As a thank-you.”
Leif bit Tanner’s shoulder to hide his smile.