Chapter 22
Logan
I’d woken up cuddled with Gage. Damn, that had been the best way to wake up. He’d been adorably fussy with his bed hair and half-awake state. If I was thinking of another man as adorable, you knew I had one of Cupid’s arrows stuck in me.
Neither of us had rushed the waking up and getting out the door process. I’d made him breakfast, and he’d rewarded my cooking with a blowjob. He’d absolutely been late for work this morning, and it was fine. Better than fine.
Despite the fact I’d seen him only three hours ago, I missed him already, and I knew then I’d passed some sort of point of no return. He was just so incredibly easy to love. Was it my fault I felt myself taking that initial tumble already?
According to the dictates of society, I was moving way too fast, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself.
Couldn’t even seem to slow it down any. Honestly, I didn’t want to try.
How could I when the man was sweet to my grandmother, painted a bedroom voluntarily for my sister, and so obviously entrusted himself to me and seemed to take delight in me?
Plus, he spoke geek. I’d never stood much of a chance.
I tried to hold firm, I did, but by noon I couldn’t help myself. I texted him. Pick you up for lunch?
The reply came in quickly. Coney’s?
I honest-to-god didn’t care so long as I could eat with him. Sure. Pick you up in five.
I hopped on my bike and blazed over there, found Gage’s truck in the back of the parking lot, and pulled in next to it.
I’d not actually been in the office before as Gage’s boyfriend.
I’d stopped by weeks ago to get a quote on the renovation of my new building, but obviously that time was different.
I headed toward the back door, taking note of the place.
Gage had mentioned the office had been an old shoe factory, and I could see the remnants of that still.
The brick was old, worn by time and weather, but the pavement around the building looked relatively new.
Stepping in through the door, I was greeted with a wide hallway, and it wasn’t filled with typical office decoration.
Instead, they’d used rich, masculine colors.
No art on the walls, but they’d hung blueprints and photo collages of their houses, and even this building, before and after renovation.
Oh, there was Gage’s house. Damn, it had been that bad before he renovated it?
What kind of yellow was that, anyway, death-by-mustard?
I hadn’t noticed these images before, but I’d only ever been in the front two rooms.
I heard voices conversing up ahead, and since I had no idea which was Gage’s office, I beelined there. Someone could guide me to where I needed to go. I heard two women speaking, one male voice— Oh, Gage! I’d recognize his voice anywhere.
“Please, Gage?” The woman had that charming sort of beg to her tone. “Pretty please with a cherry on top?”
“No. I’m not posing with Asher again. Especially not when he’s with Zar!”
“Oh, no, Asher obviously won’t be your partner,” she quickly refuted.
The second female voice chimed in. “We need to stop using Asher so much anyway, vary up our characters. So it would be you and whoever you can bribe into partnering up with you.”
What was this about? I finally reached the door and stepped into the doorway. “Hi?”
Gage looked up, relieved at my entrance. Apparently I was saving him from an awkward conversation. Sometimes I had excellent timing.
The two ladies, one of them a petite Asian, the other a Black woman with truly incredible multicolored braids, glanced up at me. They paused, these delighted smiles spreading over their faces.
I didn’t know what I’d done to warrant their reactions.
I settled on introducing myself. “Hi, I’m Logan.”
“Oh! You’re Gage’s man. Hi, I’m Shanice.”
I carefully shook hands with her—those nails looked lethal. “Hi. Wait, you’re one of the two people who do photoshoots for webtoons, aren’t you?”
“I am, yes. Gage has mentioned that?”
“Oh, he’s mentioned it.” Good-naturedly complained about it was more like it. “I actually got curious, looked up the webtoon he was a model for. It was a very fun read.”
“You read webtoons, too?” the petite woman said with open delight. “Sold. You can be our next model.”
“Ami.” Gage groaned, head in his hands. “I beg of you to stop.”
“But he’s perfect! It won’t be awkward with him, right? Since you’re together?”
“She’s got a point.” I nudged Gage’s shoulder.
He tilted his head so he could give me a baleful stare through his fingers, which was hysterical. It was so hard not to laugh. I’d be in trouble if I did though. Lips, stop twitching. Hold it in. Hold it!
“I can do it alone, or with someone else, if you’re uncomfortable?” I offered. I didn’t want to force him into it. I just thought it sounded fun and super cool to be a model for a webtoon. Not many people could claim that.
Gage immediately panicked. “No! You’re not going to be in sexy positions with some other man!”
“Eh? Sexy positions?” Now he’d lost me. He’d told me getting up close and personal with a friend had been awkward as fuck, but sexy positions?
Shanice helpfully pulled up a few photos on her phone—something from Asher’s photoshoot with his boyfriend—and three pictures in, I got where Gage was coming from. Those were definitely sexy pictures, despite them still having shirts on. Whew, was it hot in here or was just me?
“Wowzer,” I murmured, fascinated.
“We never do nudes,” Shanice tacked on hopefully. “But we would ask you to go shirtless at one point. Is that okay?”
Gage started grumbling about “Why is this a done deal already?” but I ignored him for a second. Was I comfortable? I checked my inner shame level. Found it completely missing. Oh look, seemed I was. “Sure, I’m fine with that.”
Gage’s glower was back. “You’re not doing this with some other man.”
“Okeedokalee,” I agreed brightly. “So when are you available?”
He let out the sigh of a man who was damned and knew it. “Fine. Fine! I can’t believe I’m doing this again. Ami, Shanice, when are you wanting this done?”
“This weekend too soon?” Ami asked hopefully.
“No, I’d rather get it over with. Logan?”
“I’m not forcing you,” I pointed out. “I just think it sounds fun. You don’t have to do it.”
He continued glowering at me. “Can you do this weekend or not?”
Unwilling to let another man put hands on me, eh? Damn, this possessiveness of his really did something to me. Might need to fuck him after lunch and bring him back later. Much later. He had me all hot and bothered now.
“I can do this weekend, I think. Let me double-check with my managers and confirm.”
We conferred a bit, exchanged numbers and shit, and finally I was able to take Gage out to lunch.
Coney Island was something of a staple up here, with branches here and there, but I assumed Gage meant the one closest to his office, which I knew well.
He drove us there in the truck, grumbling the whole time.
I couldn’t take him seriously. It was like having Grumpy in the seat next to me.
Right, time to change the subject. “So how was your morning?”
“After leaving your house, it apparently went downhill.” Gage sighed, then gestured to the phone in the dash holder. “I’m glad I have my mother and Cooper muted. They’ve blown up my phone ever since I turned it back on.”
“Ah, right, because of the call last night.”
“Turns out it was a bigger boo-boo than usual for Cooper, so he spent the night in the drunk tank. He’s now being arraigned to meet a judge. It was a misdemeanor offense.”
“Oh, I know. One of my misdemeanors was a drunk and disorderly.”
Gage paused. “I sometimes forget you have a past. You’re just so down to earth now.”
“Lots of therapy went into that, trust me. So he got a lawyer?”
“Mom’s spinning, trying to get me to find one for him. I’m not inclined to help with this process at all. The stress of it is part of the whole package. Cooper now gets to sit, anxious, worried that this time he can’t get himself out. Maybe it’ll slow him down some.”
“It sure did me, when I got my first misdemeanor. I ended up getting a light sentence, plus a five-hundred-dollar fine, but I didn’t have that kind of money at the time.
Had to work double shifts to pay it off.
You can bet I was more careful how I drank and where I was afterward. This Cooper’s first misdemeanor?”
“Surprisingly, yes.”
“Then, yeah, it’ll probably be a fine. They don’t do serious jail time until you’ve racked up some offenses.”
“Huh. Good to know. I’m still not helping them with a lawyer.”
“Good! Don’t. Your brother’s ridden the Fuck Around train all the way, and he’s now at Find Out station. If he doesn’t like the destination, he shouldn’t have boarded the train.”
Gage outright grinned. “I love how you just said that. I feel like I should write that down.”
“I mean, feel free to text it to your family. It’s the truth. Don’t like the result? Don’t do it again, then. It’s simple math.”
“That it is.”
“How are you feeling about it?”
“Mainly fed up. Some twinges of guilt here and there, but that’s conditioned programming. I’m not giving in to them. Mostly, though, I’m just tired of this cycle.”
“That’s fair.” He didn’t seem inclined to break his boundary, and I was proud of him.
I glanced at the dash’s clock and did some quick math. “How long’s your lunch break?”
“However long I want it to be. Why are you grinning at me like that?”
“I maybe have plans. My-house-is-nearby plans.”
Gage considered my words for a long second as he pulled into the parking lot and put the truck into Park. Then he ordered me, “Eat fast.”
I loved it when a plan came together.
After appropriately sexing up my boyfriend and picking up my bike back at his office, I decided I’d better get to work myself. I had a day manager, of course, but I liked to be at work and keep tabs on things myself.
I’d just hit my parking lot when my phone rang. I picked it up with a smile because a buddy was calling. “Si, whazzup?”
“Man, how fucking dare you not tell me you two are officially dating!”
“It’s been less than twenty-four hours since he agreed. Excuse me for not texting you immediately. How the fuck do you know, anyway?”
“In that case, you’re forgiven. Ran into Grandma at the gas station and she showed me pictures, gushing about how nice he is and how tall he is. You realize she’s already filling out adoption forms, right? She loves this guy, apparently enough to assume you’re together before you actually were.”
His words delighted me on several levels. “To be fair, he’s an awesome guy. Might be falling in love with him myself.”
“My god, you’re serious. Duuuuude. Say something, you promised me tea!”
“Sorry, been kind of wrapped up in him. Oh! He plays DnD with a group. You wanna potentially join in? They do the occasional one-shot.”
Silas made gremlin happy noises. He was every bit the geek I was, after all. “I’m there. Just give me a date and time, I’m so there.”
“I figured. I’ll text Riggs and let him know.”
“Awesome. Send pics of this guy to the chat group and announce your relationship status or there’s going to be hell to pay later.”
“That’s…a fair point. Will do. Bye, man.”
“Bye.”
I disconnected, thought about it, then trolled through one of those candid shots I had of Gage painting the bedroom.
He had a little bit of green on his cheek, laughing because I’d cracked a joke, and it was honestly my favorite picture of him.
I posted it in the friend group chat, then added I found a boyfriend. This is Gage.
Group chat was silent for about five seconds. And then—explosion.
Yeah, okay, let’s just go in. I could at least sit in air conditioning while fielding the many, many questions and watching my friends collectively lose their shit. Free entertainment?
But hey, spending an hour or so bragging about Gage was absolutely well worth my time.