Chapter 90 Shotgun
Shotgun
Dane lolled in the tub with the jacuzzi jets hammering his back. A half-smile twisting his mouth and a half-rise under the water as he planned the rest of the evening. A couple drinks in the tub, maybe lure Liko into the shower, a bite to eat, then back to—
“What the fuck?” A weird pounding noise had joined the bubbling rumble. Dane hit the switch, praying the motor wasn’t on the fritz.
The pounding wasn’t the tub, it was at the door.
“Dane?” Liko yelled.
“What?” Dane called back.
“You locked the door, dumbass.”
“I did?”
“No, I’m kicking it for funsies.”
He sounded legitimately pissed. “Hold on,” Dane said, and got up and out, dripping across the tiles to flick the switch in the doorknob. “Take a chill, man, I didn’t know I locked it.”
Liko had a lowball in each hand, garnished with lime. He’d thrown on sweats and a heathered blue T-shirt that made his eyes pop out of his face. He stopped a few steps into the bathroom, gazing around. Looking gorgeous and still a little annoyed.
“Well, this is a religious experience,” he said after a tight moment.
“Thank you,” Dane said, easing back into the water. “I worked a long time on it.”
“You painted the sky?”
“No, that was Ethan. All of it, actually. I did no work whatsoever.”
“I’ve never seen bookshelves in a bathroom.”
“After today, you’ll wonder why all bathrooms don’t have them.”
Liko set one glass on the small table by the tub, looking everywhere but at Dane.
“So how many books have you dropped in the bath water?”
“Every book here earned its place by being dropped in the bath water. They’re now counted among the righteous elite. Never to return to the hoi polloi of the living room shelves.”
Liko still stood with his back to Dane, hands on hips, perusing. Dane sipped his drink and watched. A weird energy was coming off him and Dane couldn’t pin it down.
“Did I ever mention you look good from the back?”
“You did. Thank you.”
Is it me, Diane said, or is he the one acting strange now?
Not sure, Dane thought. Liko definitely seemed tense. Even from the back. Dane let a few moments pass, then said, “Why don’t you sit down and have a drink? You brought two of them.”
“I did.” Liko came and sat down cross-legged on the mat, but it was as if he were lowering himself into liquid nitrogen.
“Are you okay?” Dane asked.
“Yeah.”
“You’re not. Look at me.”
Liko looked over, with a faint, wobbling smile.
“Don’t be afraid,” Dane said. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“Me and bathrooms aren’t friends.”
“Oh?”
Liko stared down into the depths of his drink. “Kyle died in the bathroom.”
Then Dane felt like shit. “Oh my God, that’s right. I’m so sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry about.”
“No, it was thoughtless. I forgot.” He closed his eyes, miserable. He found Kyle in the tub, you moron. “I’m really sorry,” he said.
“It’s not you, it’s my nerves. It’s dumb, but I can’t help it.”
“It isn’t dumb. Please don’t torture yourself by sitting here. Thank you for the drink but God, don’t stay if it’s making you upset.”
Liko drew his knees up and sat still. Eyes looking at nothing in particular. Hand still jiggling the ice in his glass. “No, this is okay,” he finally said. “I mean, it’s a good place to face the fear. I can pretend it’s a library with a tub in it. But will you do me a favor?”
“Anything.”
“The real trigger is I had to break the bathroom door down that night. It’s not so much the room itself as the closed door.
But a closed, locked door with the sound of running water behind it makes me irrational.
I’m not asking you to forfeit all privacy, just…
If you’re in the shower or tub, don’t lock the door. Okay?”
“Done.” Dane finished his own drink and set the glass on the table. Liko looked back and smiled up into his eyes. “How about the other half, as the Brits say?”
“Lovely, as the Brits say.”
When he was gone, Dane pulled the plug with his toe and let a third of the water drain. Then he turned the hot tap on and fretted, still embarrassed at his careless gaffe.
Liko came back with the drinks, then perused the bookshelves again.
“Here’s an ode to manly love,” he said, taking down a battered copy of E.M.
Forster’s Maurice. He sat against the tub and read out loud.
He stopped after a few chapters and brought up the whole bottle of gin, a bowl of ice and potato chips.
As the sun went down and the bathroom grew darker, he lit the bathroom’s various candles.
Dane rested an arm on the ledge of the tub, cheek on his bicep, damp fingers playing with a fold of Liko’s shirt. The walls of the room drew close. Even the fixtures seemed to lean on their elbows and listen.
“This is nice,” Dane said softly, drawing up Liko’s neck and behind his ear.
Liko smiled and let the book rest open in his lap. “I might become friends with this bathroom.”
Dane closed his eyes. “Wow, I’m drunk.”
“Same.”
He opened his eyes and they stared a long time. Then Dane slid his hand around Liko’s neck. “Come here…”
Liko’s head tipped back in Dane’s grasp. Still holding the book, he let Dane kiss him. Nudge his lips apart and taste him. Sweet with gin and lime, salty around the edges, sharper in the breath exhaling into the back of Dane’s throat.
“Give me your tongue,” Dane murmured.
With a little moan, Liko followed Dane back into his mouth.
He sighed as Dane’s other wet hand undid a button and slid under his shirt, stroking his chest, his palm making circles on Liko’s heart.
The book toppled onto the tiled floor and now Liko was rolling up and onto his knees and pressing Dane back into the tub, nestling his head down on the ledge.
His other hand found Dane’s cock, hard under the soft water, and gathered it into his fist. Dane groaned in Liko’s mouth, his knees and his kiss opening wider.
Liko pressed their brows together, breathing hard. “You coming out or am I coming in?”
“Sounds like you’re asking who’s gonna top.”
Liko drew back with a side-eye. “You wanna talk about this now?”
“Speed-dating style. Thirty seconds. Go.”
“I don’t have a ton of experience, I’m vers, it’s been a while and we have no condoms. I’m fine with either tabling indefinitely or making a run to CVS. Go.”
“I think I’m vers but don’t have any experience to make an informed opinion. Let’s table literal topping and explore spiritual topping.”
“Is the state of your back conducive to being thrown around a bed tonight?”
“Gentle rolling on the bed would be preferable.”
“And you definitely want me to drive.”
“Not to CVS. Just in bed.”
“Got it,” Liko said. “Either way, call shotgun.”
Dane laughed. “Shotgun.”
Liko pulled the plug and yanked a towel from the track. “Out. Free swim is over.”
A minute later they were wrapped in arms and kissing like each was the other’s dinner. The edges of their mouths blurred and bit, Liko groaning every time he felt Dane’s piercing on his tongue.
“God, you and the kissing,” Liko said. “You might have to start locking doors just to get away from me.”
From far away, Salma barked. Dane heard it, then forgot it as Liko rolled again, getting Dane under him, knocking extra pillows aside, getting Dane’s legs around his hips. He poised on his forearms, palms cradling Dane’s head.
“Buckle up,” he said. “I drive crazy.”
“And you drive on the wrong side of the road.”
Smiling, Liko kissed him, then whispered, “Wait until I turn you over.”
Downstairs, a door slammed.
“Shh.” Dane tensed up and his finger pinned Liko’s mouth. “Wait.”
“What?”
“Shh.”
Dane’s ears strained, wending their way down the hall and the stairs and the little bit of domestic noise that…
Salma barked.
“Dad?” A woman’s voice called.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Dane hissed.
First Liko’s eyes bulged. Then his captive mouth bulged against contained laughter. “Guess who’s coming to dinner?”