Chapter 5
Chapter Five
YURI
“Where the hell is all my underwear?” I mutter to myself, shoving my folded clothes to one side of the drawer, then the other, before finally taking them all out and unfolding them just so I can be sure that my underwear isn’t folded up inside my shirts or anything weird.
I’m positive I brought plenty with me. Underwear is never something to be cavalier about.
Better to have too many pairs than too few.
But somehow, after a month on the island, I’m down to two pairs, and I’m currently wearing one of them.
I wish I could say I lost them somewhere fun, like on the beach, but I’ve barely even gone to the beach, let alone gotten naked down there.
I guess I’m going to have to track Lux down and ask him to open his store so I can buy some more.
I just hope he has the kind I like. Not like I need a specific brand or anything—I’m not a total weirdo.
They just have to have the right cut, and a soft fabric that won’t chafe.
And I really prefer there not to be any tags, because even when you cut them off, there’s still that little piece that you can feel brushing against your skin in the same place over and over until you have an irritated spot.
Maybe I should just order the ones I like online and not risk it.
Of course, I’ve already learned that getting anything shipped here is sloooooow, unless you get lucky and your order date lines up with the weekly ferry that brings all the deliveries.
So I’ll either have to hand wash the two pairs I have left on a daily basis or suck it up and see what Lux has in stock.
“Oh, I know.” I gasp with delight at having solved my own dilemma and get my phone out.
I quickly pull up the website that carries the boxer briefs I like and place an order, then I fold my clothes and put them back into the dresser.
I’ll have safe ones on the way, but I can go and get a few pairs from Lux in the meantime to tide me over until they arrive.
Good thinking, Yuri. I give myself a mental pat on the back and slide the dresser drawer closed.
It’s hard to know where Lux will be in the middle of the day like this, but at least it’s nice out, so a leisurely stroll to look for him won’t be a hardship.
Maybe I should get one of those carts people have…
assuming I’m staying for more than one season.
The jury is still out on that. I guess I probably need to see what tourist season is like before I decide, but I hate leaving things uncertain. Ugh.
This is why I’m here though, right? To shake up my normal routine, to not be myself for a while as a little treat.
Obviously, that’s going swimmingly so far.
I took Coop’s suggestion and planted some flowers in my yard, but I did double check with Devil first to be sure he wouldn’t mind.
He didn’t and he even loaned me a trowel and some gardening gloves.
Gravel crunches pleasantly under my sandals and the sun warms my skin.
I’ve never been one for tropical climates, but I think I’m starting to see the appeal.
Up ahead, a large cat trots across the road.
It stops to blink at me with big, yellow eyes and a pair of royal blue bamboo boxer briefs hanging out of its mouth.
“Hey!” I’m aware that my indignant shout is lost on a cat, but that furry asshole has my underwear.
It doesn’t seem particularly frightened by my shout, but it’s not inclined to wait around for me to get my underwear back either.
It continues on its way across the street and into the bushes.
I’m not about to let it get away that easily.
“Come back here.” I pick up my pace to a jog and hurry after it.
“Do you know how much a three-pack of those costs?” I dive into the bush, but the cat is already gone.
Just to be sure, I spend a minute peering into the foliage and checking the other nearby bushes.
I’m already crawling around in the dirt, I might as well, right?
The underwear thief is nowhere to be found.
Quick little bandit. With a groan, I stand back up and reluctantly brush my dirty hands off on my shorts.
My knees are smeared with dirt too and I scraped up my arms a bit on some of the branches, which would have been worth it if I’d caught the cat and got my underwear back.
Since I didn’t, it’s just extremely annoying.
I look up and find Cooper watching me from the front porch of a house only a few yards away.
“Morning,” he says with an unbothered smile and a nod, like it’s an everyday occurrence to see his ex-boyfriend pop out of a bush in front of his house.
“It’s, like, two-fifteen,” I point out for god-knows-what-reason. It’s not like it matters what time it is, but it’s hard to let things like that pass without at least informing a person of their error. It’s probably why I always had trouble keeping friends around, if I’m really honest with myself.
“Cool.” He bobs his head and keeps smiling, just looking at me. Not that I don’t like Cooper looking at me, but it’s the kind of thing that’s always made me nervous, especially when no one is saying anything.
“A cat stole my underwear,” I blurt, mostly to explain why I’m in the bush, but also because I don’t know what the hell else I’m supposed to say to fill this silence when the last time I saw him two weeks ago, I think we almost kissed.
“Oh yeah, that’s Mr. Tubbs,” he says, like it’s the most normal thing in the world.
“He takes them over to Storm’s place, and the chef puts them out on a clothesline.
Most of the time, anyway. He kept stealing mine and I kept forgetting to get them back before anyone else grabbed them.
I just gave up.” He shrugs, and I laugh.
“What do you mean you gave up?”
Cooper gives me a pointed look and heat creeps into my face. Oh. My eyes instinctively drop to his shorts, sitting a little low on his slender hips, apparently with nothing underneath them.
“So, you know, you have options.” He shrugs again.
“I’ll add ‘free ball it’ to my list of choices,” I deadpan.
“Cool,” he says again. “You want some coffee? Or a toke?” He holds up the mug in his hand, and I notice a lit joint between two of his fingers.
I glance down the road in the direction I’d been walking and then back at him.
I really should go find Lux and ask him to open his store, or at least go over to Storm’s and see if Cooper is right and all my missing pairs of underwear are flapping in the wind on a clothesline for the whole island to see and possibly steal. But I nod instead.
“Coffee sounds good.”
“Dope. Hold this and I’ll go get you a fresh cup.” He hands me the joint and his half-finished mug of coffee as soon as I step onto his porch, then disappears inside.
I sit down on the steps, setting the coffee down next to me and sticking the joint between my lips.
I only take one puff, coughing again like I did out in front of The Sand Bar a couple of weeks ago.
It’s just enough to give me a pleasant buzz and quiet some of the endless worries that chase each other around inside my head though.
Cooper is back a minute later, handing me a steaming mug and sitting down next to me on the steps. I really shouldn’t have coffee this late in the day or I’ll be up all night, but fuck it. Does one sleepless night really matter in the grand scheme of things?
LYRIC
“Can I ask you a totally awkward question?” Yuri asks after a couple sips of coffee.
“Yeah, man, I’m really not wearing any underwear. When you think about it, it’s kind of a scam anyway. Why do we need so many layers of clothes? Balls need some breathing room.”
He snorts and bumps his shoulder against mine. The space on the stairs is narrow, so we’re sort of pressed together anyway. I guess I could move down one step to give us both a little more space, but I was here first and the top step is the most comfortable one.
“Not that.” He tugs his bottom lip between his teeth.
I sip my coffee and wait. That’s something I definitely remember about Yuri, he needs time to organize his thoughts and shit.
I guess that’s what happens when you have a lot of them like he does.
Me? I don’t need to organize shit. Some days I’m lucky if I have any thoughts at all, and that’s the way I prefer it.
“Not that I social media stalked you or anything, but if I had… it’s possible I might have noticed that all your accounts disappeared a few years ago and a thing like that might make someone wonder if they’ve been blocked. ”
“I didn’t block you.” I laugh, and his shoulders visibly relax.
“Good. I mean, I didn’t think you did, and I almost never look you up anyway.” He clears his throat. “We just… you know… left things on good terms, so sometimes you cross my mind, is all.”
I grin at him, watching that cute blush color his cheeks again as he drums his fingers rhythmically against the mug.
“Yeah, I had to delete all my stuff because I accidentally started making foot fetish content and it got super weird. Not, like, in a kink-shamey way, but like waaaay too many messages all the time and one guy tried to stalk me, so it was easier to just shut it down.”
Yuri turns his whole body towards me and blinks at me slowly.
“I’m sorry but how do you accidentally make foot fetish content?”
“It was the off-season and I had a lot of downtime, and I noticed how crusty my feet looked. So I fell down this rabbit hole of skin care specifically for your feet, and it was kind of fun. I figured other people might be interested in product reviews and progress photos and stuff, and they were… just not in the way I was expecting.”
“That is the most you story I’ve ever heard.” He cackles again. “I always liked that about you.”
“What? That I get super into things and sometimes forget that it’s a sex thing for other people?”
“That you always made things interesting. I spend so much energy making sure everything is predictable and you’re… chaos. In the best way.”
I chuckle and set my empty mug down on the porch behind me.
“I don’t remember you appreciating my chaos all that much when we dated.”
“Maybe not. I miss it though.”
I stare at him for a few seconds and I think I get it.
He’s burned out and he’s looking for joy in simple places right now until he’s ready to go back to his real life.
I can be that, if that’s what he wants. That part was always easy between us.
The chemistry, the heat, the way it felt impossible to keep our hands off of each other.
I remember the way he always sighed against my lips when I kissed him, like my mouth on his was some kind of relief from everything else.
Maybe it was. Maybe it still can be, at least for a little while.
“What?” Yuri asks with a smile stretching across his lips.
“What?” I grin right back.
“You’re looking at me like…” He shakes his head and his tongue darts out to wet his lips, leaving them glistening temptingly in the sunlight.
“Like what?” I put my hand on his thigh and lean in an inch.
“You know like what,” he accuses, but there’s nothing but sweetness and flirtation in his voice.
“You want me to stop?” I ask anyway, even though we both know the answer.
Yuri shakes his head, and that’s all the go-ahead I need.
I slide my other hand behind his neck and pull him to me, our mouths colliding in a hot, hungry, eager reunion that I don’t think either of us ever expected to have.
His lips are just as soft as I remember, and he sighs as they part, the soft sound quaking through me like a clap of thunder as it vibrates around my tongue.
I tease the tip of my tongue against his and he chases it, his fingers twisting around the front of my shirt as our kiss deepens.
“You want to go inside?” I murmur, sliding my hands under his shirt and up the warm, smooth skin of his back.
He breaks the kiss and nods, his hot breath puffing against my lips in heavy pants and his nose bumping against mine.
“Yeah, Coop, take me inside.”