Chapter 8 #2
Alex blew a raspberry. “I wish. How my gay friends found partners here is nothing but a mystery to me.”
“Well, the two of us are living proof that it’s possible to meet someone.”
“Sure. If you weren’t leaving tomorrow…” There was a sadness in Alex’s voice that twisted my insides. “Man, that sounded miserable. Forget that I said that.”
The mattress creaked as Alex rolled onto his back. He let out a sigh and rubbed a hand over his face. His words still lingered in the back of my mind as he turned back to me.
“Are you going straight back to Las Vegas tomorrow?”
“Actually, no.” I probably shouldn’t have told anyone, but he deserved some honesty from me.
“Don’t tell my parents, but my friends came along on the trip.
They drove me here and will pick me up tomorrow.
We’ve got this whole round trip planned.
But if anyone asks, when they pick me up, they’re just a shared Uber. ”
“Sounds fun.” He put on a smile, but the way he fell silent afterward made my stomach turn.
“Alex, I...” I raised my arm toward him, but stopped before touching him.
“I wish I could just take you with me tomorrow.” I hovered my hand close to him a little longer, my fingers itching to feel his skin, but then pulled my arm back, pretending I just wanted to stretch.
“Although that’s probably weird to say after we’ve only known each other for a few hours. ”
“It’s not weird,” Alex said a few seconds later. “Because if it were, it’d be weird that I wished you’d stay longer, too.” He reached his hand toward me.
I grabbed his wrist and pulled it close to my chest. “Well, I’m here now,” I said, letting the thought hover between us a little. “And isn’t now all that we have?”
“Then why are you lying down there?”
I didn’t need any more of an invitation. Without a word, I climbed into his bed. He lifted his blanket and threw it over my shoulder, welcoming me with his warmth. We wrapped our arms around each other. He tucked his leg between mine.
“That’s better, isn’t it?” I whispered.
“Yeah,” he whispered back, resting his head against my chest.
Time passed, and neither of us spoke until he eventually said, “I don’t want to sleep.”
“Like this?”
“Not at all, I mean.”
I rested my hand on the back of his head. “We can be stupid and stay up all night.”
“I’d love that.” His voice softened. “Do you wanna share my headphones and listen to some music together?”
“What music?”
“All of it.”
When I blinked my eyes open, Alex was already hitting the keys of his electronic piano keyboard.
His head bobbed up and down, a pair of run-down over-ear headphones hugging his ears.
The sun was rising over the mountaintops, reminding me of all the mornings I had woken up in this room—just never with a hot guy sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed.
I pushed myself up, one of Alex’s black earbuds rolling down my chest. We had used them the night before to show each other our favorite musicians and songs, and apparently, we had fallen asleep in the process.
It had been so cozy with him under the blanket.
How could I not relax into the best night’s sleep I had in years?
He played for another twenty minutes without noticing that I couldn’t take my eyes off him. Only when I moved to adjust my legs did he turn to face me, his hands rushing to pull down his headphones.
“Did I wake you up?”
I shook my head. “I am surprised, though. Usually, I’m the one who sneaks out of bed.”
He kept his voice low as he clutched his headphones. “Sorry, I had some ideas I didn’t want to lose.”
“Is it the song we recorded yesterday?”
“Uh, no.” He blushed. “I might’ve written another one already.”
“Another one?”
“Or two?” He smiled shyly. “Last night was… inspiring. I swear, I meant to work on ours first, but then I had so many other ideas that I didn’t want to forget…”
“There’s no need to be so flustered about it.” I nodded toward his monitor. “Can I hear that one, too?”
His gaze dropped to his laptop. “It’s very rough.”
“I thought we were in a band now. Come on.” To get a better view of what he was doing, I lifted the blanket, threw it over my shoulders, and climbed toward him.
Alex sat cross-legged on the carpet, wearing only his red sleeping shorts. His skin was smooth and glowed in the morning light, in contrast to his brown hair tucked behind his headphones. He quickly adjusted a few tracks in his recording program and tweaked a few settings.
“It’s just some chords and premade drums. Nothing like the stuff I showed you yesterday.
I haven’t written any lyrics yet, but there is a guitar track that I’d turn into vocals.
” He held out his headphones toward me. “I hope this old pair is okay? They’re worn down, but they have the best sound out of all of the ones I own. ”
“Of course.”
I took the headphones and put them over my ears. Once they were in position, he pressed the spacebar on his laptop. Instantly, a beat kicked in, accompanied by chords, synthetic strings, and an electric guitar “singing” the melody, just like in the other songs he had shown me.
This wasn’t even close to being rough. If he could do this in less than an hour, what could he accomplish with a proper studio and more time?
Alex buried his hands in his lap, watching the track move on the screen. His right shoulder twitched in my direction, but if that was a sign that he wanted to look at me, he definitely didn’t give in to it.
I focused on the song. After thirty seconds, a catchy chorus kicked in. The track was as danceable as the one I listened to yesterday, but it felt more… lively? Like the first warmth of the year, making one want to be outside for hours, exploring nature and the city, forming new bonds.
Throughout the second verse, he still didn’t look at me. Only when I hummed along to the second chorus did he dare to glance my way.
“The song is good. It makes me want to dance and sing along,” I said.
It also made me want to kiss him and wrap my arms around his chest. This humble guy drove me so wild that I would have even considered blowing my friends off to stay a few more days, if it wouldn’t raise questions with my family.
The tunes ended a little too abruptly—a friendly reminder that this was still only a demo.
I took off the headphones and held them out to him. “Damn, Alex. You make me want to stay longer in Seastone so I can hear each new song firsthand.”
I wasn’t going to, for many reasons, but that was the truth. If he had been around when I still lived here, who knows how different my life would be right now? He was someone I would’ve hopelessly fallen for back then—and would now if I didn’t have to be realistic.
He took the headphones back and stored them next to his laptop. “If you want, I can send you the files whenever something’s ready. You’d only have to give me your number.”
“Smooth,” I said and motioned toward his phone resting on the right corner of his piano keyboard. “If you want me to record some vocals, we’d have to exchange numbers anyway.”
He glanced at his phone, then at his laptop. He moved more hesitantly than I would have liked.
“Unless you think it’s weird now, after what we did last night?” I asked.
“Last night was fun.” He blinked heavily, keeping his gaze on his screen. “And it’s okay that it was only that.”
“Yeah?”
He nodded as he turned to me. “I’d still love it if you could record some vocals for me.”
“Me too.”
He finally handed me his phone. I typed in my number and called myself right away so I would have his number, too. When I handed it back, he stared at it a little too long.
“I, uh… Thank you.” He squinted his face. “About yesterday… don’t take this the wrong way, but I actually think we should keep everything that happened last night between us.”
“Wait. You don’t want to walk downstairs hand in hand and announce our engagement?” I teased.
Luckily, he laughed at my joke. “Of course, I would. Who wouldn’t want a whirlwind romance?
But you know, weddings are expensive, and I’m a poor musician who shovels cow dung and scrubs bathrooms all day.
” His gaze fell onto the piano keyboard.
“And you’re a sailor who’s only in town for a day.
Now, if you’d gotten me pregnant, that would’ve been a different story… ”
“Well, if that was your goal, maybe I shouldn’t have been the one bottoming—and we should’ve skipped the condom.”
We chuckled together. I buried my face in the sheets to muffle my laughter. Things could have ended so differently if life hadn’t been cruel. At least, we both agreed on how to handle it.
When I looked back up, he was leaning against the bed frame, his head resting on the blanket. His lips were pressed together as if yearning for a kiss. He was so close. All I had to do was reach out and tilt his chin to turn his face toward me.
I rested my right cheek on the mattress, still staring at him.
“What?” he asked softly.
“Nothing. I was just thinking about how good a kisser you are.”
A melancholic smile tugged at his lips. “Well, that’s a compliment I can definitely return.”
“How about one last make-out session?”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“All the other decisions we’ve made were bad, so what’s one more?”
“That… sounds about right.” He glanced at my lips and licked his own. “I guess it’s also our last chance.”
We stared at each other for a few seconds—like the two fools we were—before I cupped his chin and pulled him in for a kiss.
I scooted closer and let my hand wander down his chest. He sat up. As our tongues tangled, my hand brushed over his stomach and reached for his bulge. The thin fabric of his briefs confirmed that he had gotten hard instantly. I wrapped my fingers around his shaft and squeezed it.
He sat up a little more, stretching his right arm across the bed until his hand landed on my lower back. He lifted his ass slightly, trying to reach farther, but after a second, he gave up with a chuckle.