Chapter 2 #3
Right, Adrian had wondered why a skilled chef would switch from a Michelin-starred restaurant in London to a hotel kitchen in the mountains—yet he’d been too desperate to question Kojo’s claim that he loved the countryside and was keen to step into a head chef position.
There was a lesson in there, clearly. Something about business smarts and asking the right questions.
Adrian would do better next time.
“Sorry to hear that,” he told Kojo. “Anything like that happens around here, you come straight to me and I’ll fire the person. But also”—he fixed Kojo with a serious look—“lie to me again, and I’ll fire you. I’ll cook myself, if I have to.”
“I can respect that.” Kojo’s smile was genuine as he offered his hand, palm up.
Adrian grasped it for a shake, and despite their little hiccup just now, he did actually like this guy.
He suspected that he’d like Eric too, once Eric dropped the awkward act.
On that note, might be best to delay the introduction to Martin for another couple of hours or so, give Eric a chance to calm down before running into another reason to lose his footing.
Also, huh. So Eric was single, presumably.
Not that it changed how Adrian was essentially his boss.
“All right,” Adrian told Kojo. “Glad we’re on the same page. And in that case, I take it you’d prefer two rooms?”
“That’d be great.” Eric aimed a smile at the side of Adrian’s face. “But we’ve been friends since we were six—more than two decades—so we can also handle sharing a room if that’s easier.”
“Nah, it’s not a problem.” Adrian smiled back. “I’ll ask our housekeepers to prepare the room that belonged to our previous chef.”
“Thanks, mate.” Kojo sounded like he meant it.
“Sure thing. Now…” Adrian looked around the space.
“I need to deal with a few things, so why don’t you guys have a look around, familiarise yourselves with the place?
Then Kojo can join Monika in the kitchen at three thirty or so, and Eric, I’ll meet you in the dining room at five, give you a quick introduction to how we do things. ”
“Sounds good,” Kojo said while Eric nodded quickly, hands in his pockets. Adrian looked forward to nudging him out of his shell, possibly more than he should.
“Welcome to the Gletscherhaus,” he told them with another smile. “We really are glad to have you here.”
“Good to be here.” It was Eric who replied this time, and Adrian welcomed the excuse to study him for a moment. Sue him—he liked looking at pretty things, even if it was innocent browsing without any plans to make a purchase.
There was a spring in his step when he left the room, relief loosening his chest. God, it really would be good to have the extra help because the last couple of weeks had been … a lot.
Hopefully, Kojo and Eric would last a while.
The moment Adrian had disappeared down the corridor, Kojo turned with a grin that would have done a shark proud. “So.”
Eric could withstand the weight of Kojo’s expectant gaze. He could.
Silence.
No traffic sounds, not even a passing car—just the breeze playing with the shutters, the distant rush of the river, and muffled voices outside.
Silence.
“He was on that website.” Oh, bloody hell. Eric hadn’t even lasted a minute, had he?
Kojo tilted his head. “What website?”
“ErosElite.” Eric scuffed a hand over the back of his neck, then crossed over to close the door. It would be just his luck to have Adrian double back for something and overhear them talking. “The, uh. The porn website we used to joke about some years ago? After I came out to you.”
“Wait, let me get this straight.” Kojo’s grin was back, wide enough that his face was at risk of cracking apart. “He was one of the actors—”
“Models,” Eric interrupted, only to wish he hadn’t.
“Models. Okay.” Kojo seemed to savour each word. “So, he was one of the models on that porn website you liked, the one that… I think you said it wasn’t as gross as some of the other stuff out there? Like, nice locations and guys who were hot, not just hung?”
“Yeah, that one. They built at least a bit of a story around the sex, and there were photoshoots too, and behind-the-scenes stuff that could be fun.”
Kojo pursed his lips. “And you’re telling me that Adrian was one of the … models.”
“Yes.” Eric should have left it at that. He really, really should have. And yet. “Not just any model either—he was one of the stars. I kind of fancied him, to be honest.”
Kojo inhaled deeply, eyes narrowing into small slits, the line of his jaw tense with suppressed laughter.
“This,” Eric told him, “is the moment when I remind you about that time you sent a naked pic to your entire nutrition study group, and I didn’t mock you.” Not much, anyway. And only some time after the fact, when Kojo’s initial mortification had mostly turned into amusement.
“Yes.” Kojo nodded. “Right.”
And burst out laughing.
“Wanker,” Eric muttered before he realised that yeah, he’d set that one right up for Kojo—silver platter and all, might as well tie a bow around it.
“Takes one to know one,” Kojo said, complete with the fist motion. Then he sobered. “Does he know you know?”
“Pretty sure he does, what with how I couldn’t meet his eyes and blushed like a little schoolboy.”
“Aww.” Kojo made a lightning-quick attempt to pinch Eric’s cheek. Since Eric was familiar with how Kojo’s brain worked, he ducked away just in time, catching Kojo’s wrist.
“Emotional support, mate—you’re doing it wrong.”
“Oh, come on. You already feel better, don’t you?”
Maybe Eric did, a little. Not that he’d admit as much. “He’s practically our boss, Kojo. I know what his dick looks like both when it’s soft and when it’s not, and I’ve seen him fuck and get fucked, uh … a good many times. I know he’s uncut, for fuck’s sake.”
“You could offer to strip naked?” Kojo suggested. “If you’re concerned about the information imbalance, that is.”
“Why are we friends again?”
“Because you settle me, and I drag you out of your comfort zone?”
“I guess.” Eric sighed, glancing at the mildly nauseating rose pattern of the wallpaper. “Seriously, what am I supposed to do?”
“Address it with him, for one.” Kojo’s tone suggested it should have been obvious when no, it really wasn’t.
“I can’t just walk up to him and say, ‘So, hey, about that time you had a lot of sex for money? Yeah, big fan.’”
“Eh.” Kojo shrugged. “I’m sure he’s heard worse.”
Jesus, Adrian probably had. He didn’t seem to be ashamed of his past, ah …
occupation, for lack of a better word, so they must have treated him all right.
But if he’d visited any gay clubs back then, he would have been hit on left and right by guys who recognised him.
At least some of them must have expected a quick, easy fuck.
Well, and the content was probably still up, so chances were that Eric wasn’t the only guy with a history of subscribing to ErosElite who’d ever passed through the hotel.
Yeah, Adrian would have heard worse.
“It’s probably best if I don’t say anything,” Eric decided, and Kojo scoffed.
“Mate, we’ll be here for a while. You’ll have to talk to him eventually.”
“Not about that.”
“He doesn’t strike me as the kind of bloke who tiptoes around the elephant in the room.”
Kojo had a point there. The interviews and documentaries Eric remembered had painted a guy who put himself out there, who took risks because it was fun, who liked to entertain. It was part of why Eric had liked him so much—Kevin Pine didn’t hold back while Eric had, and maybe still did.
Unless Adrian was a world-class actor, he wasn’t so different from the guy in those clips Eric had watched. And, yeah—that guy wouldn’t just let Eric off the hook. God, Eric would have to talk to him, preferably without embarrassing himself more than he already had.
Right. And why not buy himself a unicorn while he was at it?
“Whose idea was this again?” he asked out loud.
“Oh, grow a pair.” Kojo sounded unsympathetic. “Who knows, could be he’s up for a live reenactment of your favourite scenes?”
“Your empathy is astounding,” Eric told him, and Kojo’s expression softened.
“Stop overthinking it, mate—I’m sure it won’t be that bad. Let’s take a look around, check out the place, shall we? See what trouble we can get ourselves into between now and when I’m expected in the kitchen.”
That would also give Eric an hour to call one of his artists before he was expected to meet Adrian—plenty of time. “Isn’t the point to stay out of trouble?”
“Now where’s the fun in that?” Kojo asked, flashing Eric a smile that carried both a challenge and reassurance. It took Eric a second to smile back, but when he did, he meant it.
“Lead the way.”