Chapter Seventeen
Bryce woke before his alarm. Sage was tucked against his side, head on his shoulder and a leg thrown over one of Bryce’s. Bryce watched him breathe for a few seconds before seeing Sage slowly blink up at him.
“Morning,” Sage said.
“Morning.”
“Coffee?”
“I’ll get it.” Bryce eased out and pulled his underwear on and then walked into the kitchen. He set the coffeemaker, filled the carafe, and lined the mugs up. Once the coffee had been made, Bryce changed into his running gear.
“You going now?” Sage asked, rubbing his face with one hand as he came out of Bryce’s bedroom.
“Yeah. I’ll be back after you’ve showered, then we can have something to eat.”
Sage nodded. “Okay.”
The elevator took too long, so Bryce took the stairs. He jogged the three blocks to the gym, carded in, and headed for a treadmill. At seven a.m. there were only a few people there. One guy doing deadlifts, two on bikes, a girl with a jump rope.
He ran two miles easily, bumped it up for the last half mile, then took it back down. He stretched calves, hamstrings, shoulders. Sage sat front and center in his thoughts. The change in their relationship, from friendship to lovers, something Bryce had never expected to happen.
It didn’t bother him. He’d known Sage for a couple of years. Now Sage had him rethinking those thoughts about only being attracted to women. Had he been attracted to Sage all along, and it took him being drunk and his clumsy kiss to bring it to light?
Locker room chatter rolled around him as he sat and thought.
Someone complained about a TA, someone else about a roommate who kept burning things, making their apartment smell like shit.
He took a quick shower, pulled on jeans and a clean shirt, and walked back with his hair still damp under a beanie.
The apartment smelled like coffee when he entered. Sage stood at the stove with a pan and a wooden spatula. He’d shoved his hair off his forehead and still looked half-asleep.
“Gym hero,” Sage said.
Bryce nodded to the kitchen chair on its side. “You still fighting the chair?”
“It’s loose again.”
“Let me.”
Sage stepped aside. Bryce flipped the chair, tightened both screws, checked the wobble, and set it upright, then checked it again. “Solid,” he said.
“Show-off,” Sage said, but he was smiling. He slid scrambled eggs onto two plates along with some toast. “Here you go.”
Bryce took his plate from Sage. “Thanks.”
They sat at the table eating eggs and toast and drinking coffee. When they were done, Bryce asked, “What’s your day like today?”
“Lab at nine. We need to hold the LED chain for five minutes for the checkpoint. Gage thinks the weak joint was the third from the end.”
“Do you?”
“Yeah,” Sage said. “I re-flowed it yesterday, but I want to check it again. You?”
“Bio at ten. If I live through that, I’ve got to study until noon. I’ll bring lunch.”
“Good.”
Sage packed his bag. He checked his notebook, the small toolkit, and a roll of tape. Bryce watched him do it the way he always did.
“I’ll see you later?” Bryce asked at the door.
“Yeah.” Sage paused at the door, then leaned in and pressed his mouth to Bryce’s. With a grin, he pulled his beanie down and left.
Bryce cleaned up the last of the crumbs, shut the light, and grabbed his own bag. Campus was already busy by the time he arrived, with students rushing around or standing in small groups talking.
Bio was a grind. The TA threw a set of kinetics problems on the board and told them to work them out.
People talked too loudly. Dan sat at the back and drummed his fingers until the TA told him to stop.
Bryce stuck with it. Vmax, Km, error bars.
He spent two minutes helping the student next to him redo a graph, then finished his own.
When someone tried a joke about closet doors, he didn’t look up.
Later, he texted Sage. Grabbing food. Anything you don’t want?
No olives. Anything else is fine.
Bryce typed out and sent his reply. No olives. Gage?
Chicken salad with mayo.
The deli on Sixth was half full. He ordered the sandwiches, grabbed two bags of chips and three waters. At the register, the cashier made small talk about the weather, and Bryce nodded in agreement before moving on.
When Bryce entered the lab, he spotted Gage sitting at the bench with a roll of blue tape stuck to his wrist. Sage leaned over the board with the iron cooling in its stand. His face was calm in a way that meant he was concentrating hard.
“Lunch,” Bryce said, putting the bag down.
“Bless you,” Gage said, already reaching for it.
Sage didn’t look up right away. He tapped the joint with the iron, set it down, and flexed his fingers. Then he saw the food and smiled.
“Thanks,” he said.
“Eat,” Bryce said.
They sat on stools at the back of the bench. Gage inhaled half his sandwich, said something about Dan’s playlist submission being a human rights violation, and went to sign a sheet. Sage ate fast like he hadn’t eaten all day.
“How is it?” Bryce asked, nodding at the board.
“Stable so far,” Sage said. “We need it to hold for a five-minute run while the TA watches.”
“We’ll test right after we eat,” Gage said, wiping his hands. “I want this done.”
“Same,” Sage said.
They finished the sandwiches and split the chips. Bryce went to toss the trash and passed a bottle of water to Sage so he would have a drink. Sage twisted the cap and drank half of it before putting it down.
“Ready?” Gage asked.
“Yeah,” Sage said.
They stood. Sage checked the lead, then checked the meter, and nodded once. He tapped the key. The first LED lit. Then the next. The chain rolled clean to the tenth and held.
“Timer,” Gage said.
Sage set his phone. They watched it run. One minute. Two. Someone two benches down argued about resistor values. The TA started down the row. Three minutes. The fourth LED flickered, then stabilized. Sage didn’t breathe for two seconds and then did.
Five minutes. The timer buzzed. The TA stopped at their bench, checked the sequence, checked the wiring, and signed the sheet.
“Good,” she said. “Next group.”
Gage made a small fist and let it go. Sage didn’t fist pump, but his shoulders came down a notch. He powered the board off and unplugged the leads. Bryce felt tension slide out of the room in a way he could count.
“Proud of you,” Bryce said, low.
Sage gave him a look that told Bryce he’d heard his comment, and the soft smile Sage gave him confirmed it.
Gage pointed at Bryce. “Tell Dan if he says, ‘puffy lips’ again, I’m soldering his playlist into silence.”
“I already told him to cut it out,” Bryce said.
“Good.” Gage slung his bag on. “I’m going to the student center. Try not to trip the breaker while I’m gone.”
“Ha ha. Not funny,” Sage said.
Sage wiped the bench, checked that the iron was off, and logged the pass in the group sheet. Bryce watched his hands, thinking about how they’d felt on his body.
“You want to get out of here?” Bryce asked.
“Yeah,” Sage said. “I’m done.”
Outside, the wind was strong. They kept their heads down and their hands in their pockets. At the corner, a bike slid past too close, and the rider said, “Sorry” without looking back.
“You okay?” Bryce asked.
“I’m okay,” Sage said. “It worked.”
“You did good,” Bryce said.
They stopped at the small market for burgers and buns and put them in the basket.
Back home, he put the pan on and cooked the burgers as Sage sliced the buns. “What’s your plan for tomorrow?” Bryce asked.
“Workshop at eleven. I’ll rewrite the notes after. You?”
“Gym, group study. Call my mom.”
Sage looked up at that. “You need quiet for that?”
“No,” Bryce said.
“Okay.”
They ate on the couch with plates on the coffee table. The burgers were better than he had expected. Sage said so without sarcasm and reached for a second helping. They watched half of a cooking show and turned it off when the host started yelling.
After, Bryce took Sage’s hand and led him to his bedroom. Sage grinned as he stepped close, his arms going around Bryce’s shoulders. “Missed you,” he whispered before kissing Bryce.
“Me too.” Bryce returned his kiss, moaning as it deepened. “Can’t get enough of you.”
“I know. I want you inside me all the time. Never knew it could be like this.”
“You’re sure you prefer me to top?”
Sage licked across Bryce’s lips before biting the bottom one. “Yeah. I really like it.” Sage stepped back and stripped. “Come here. Bryce. I want to feel you.”
Bryce grinned and stripped before picking Sage up and dropping him on the bed. Sage cried out and then laughed as he shook his head. He held his arms out and Bryce lay in them, cupping Sage’s face and kissing him deeply.
“Don’t make me wait,” Sage said.
“Not going to.” Bryce grabbed what they needed and placed them on the bed. “Ready?”
“Ready.”