Chapter 3
LEO
“Shh, you’ll wake the neighbors.” I steered a tipsy Hudson upstairs to our apartment as he made an off-tune attempt at “Thong Song.”
“ Thong thong thong thong thooonnnng . Have you ever thought about how weird that word is? Thong.” He emphasized a long G.
“Did the name for the underwear or flip-flops come first? Do you think their names are related? Oh! The strip between the toes is like the strip between the butt cheeks.” Of course he’d said “butt cheeks” the loudest.
I probably shouldn’t have bought him that last drink at The Lucky Tongue lesbian bar, but he’d deserved it after losing to the smug librarians and dealing with Ollie’s comments.
Hudson continued his thong musings as I unlocked the front door.
Hopefully, he was tipsy enough that he wouldn’t remember all of Ollie’s remarks.
They’d gotten under my skin and left me unsettled, but Hudson hadn’t seemed fazed.
He’d been teasing Ollie right back and had hopefully missed the meaningful looks Ollie kept shooting my way.
As soon as I got the door open, Hudson plowed through the entryway toward the living room, calling for his cat while making grabby hands.
I reached out and hooked my finger in the waistband of his jeans before he got too far. “Whoa there, cowboy. You’ve still got your shoes on.”
Hudson gasped and looked down at his feet, up at me, down again, and then back up as he cupped his cheeks, looking like the Home Alone movie poster.
“I almost wore shoes into the living room,” he whispered loudly as he haphazardly kicked them off.
I bit back a laugh. Adorable . “But you didn’t.”
“Because you saved me. My hero.” He blinked at me.
Had I ever noticed how long his eyelashes were before?
“You’re a very good friend, Leo, and you deserve to find someone nice.
If you wanna date, that’s okay. I won’t freak out if you bring someone home who leaves dirty dishes on the counter or wears her shoes in the living room.
” His face pinched like the words had caused him physical pain.
I laughed and shook my head. “Go get ready for bed.” I grabbed his shoulders, turned him toward the hallway, then gently pushed.
Ollie had brought up online dating a weirdly frequent number of times.
He’d shared horror stories and given me tips.
I’d recently mentioned off-hand that I didn’t know how to do the app thing, but he hadn’t responded to it.
It was like he’d been saving it all until Hudson was there. What’s he playing at?
I filled Hudson’s water bottle that he’d left drying on the rack, made a detour to my bathroom cabinet, then stopped in his bedroom.
Immaculate as always with his matching cherry wood furniture and smooth white duvet without a single long black cat hair in sight.
I wanted to make sure he hadn’t passed out on his bed because he would be cranky tomorrow if he crashed without brushing his teeth first. I chuckled when I heard Hudson humming “Thong Song” from the bathroom over the hum of his electric toothbrush.
After placing the water bottle and pain pills on his nightstand, I snuck General Ledger a treat. She munched happily from her perch on the bedroom cat tree.
The toothbrush turned off, and I turned away from the cat.
Hudson exited the bathroom and smiled when he spotted me, toothpaste on the corner of his mouth. He shuffled toward me. “Seriously, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
My heart thumped as I recklessly swiped away the toothpaste. Hudson opened his mouth like he wanted to say more, but nothing came out. I should get out of there before I did something I would regret.
General Ledger jumped onto a lower platform, rubbed against one of the scratch post pillars in the cat tree, then stretched her front legs out with her ass in the air.
I reached out to scratch her ears, but she dodged my hand.
Oops. At least she’d remembered we weren’t supposed to get along in front of him.
“She’s a daddy’s girl, aren’t you?” He roughly patted her head as her ears flattened while she glared at him, begrudgingly accepting his affection. “Don’t worry. Leo will grow on you like he did me.”
“Does that make me a wart?”
“More like a skin tag.”
“Gross. Get some sleep.” I clapped Hudson on the shoulder and ignored the warmth in my hand. I needed to sleep the day off so things would return to normal in my head tomorrow.
At the doorway, I turned to ask if he wanted it open or closed. Hudson clumsily pulled off his shirt, and my attention snapped to his thick love handles. I always appreciated cushion on a person. Why am I staring at him? I forced myself to turn away.
After getting ready for bed, I couldn’t sleep because I was too wired. Instead, I opened TikTok and scrolled through comments on my latest video. I usually glossed over them, but now I read them with a fresh perspective and new questions, thanks to Ollie.
While reading comments on older videos, I heard a moan. At first, I wondered if Hudson had fallen off his bed, but there hadn’t been a thump. The next one that came through the thin wall was clearly not a sound of pain.
I usually saved my jerking off for the shower or when Hudson was out, and I’d assumed he did the same because I’d never heard him.
Until now. When a longer, huskier moan came through the wall, I reached for my dick instead of grabbing my headphones like a good person would.
I gave myself a stroke.If I held my breath and strained my ears, I could almost hear Hudson’s heavy breathing.
I itched to know what he was thinking about.
How he liked to touch himself and if it was how I liked to be touched. How he would touch me.
My dick was rock hard. It’s just from sex sounds. Don’t overthink it. Those were always hot, no matter who made them. I’d learned that in college when my boisterous neighbors seemed to go at it a half-dozen times a day.
It didn’t matter that it was Hudson. It didn’t matter that it was a man.
When I watched porn with a man and a woman, it was as hot when the man groaned and grunted as when the woman made sexy sounds.
That was normal, right? My stomach tightened as I stroked faster.
I grew almost light-headed from taking quiet, shallow breaths to hold my moans in.
When I heard a broken-off groan, that was it.
I bit the inside of my cheek as I spilled onto my stomach.
I lay there, spunk cooling on my skin, staring at the dark ceiling with thoughts racing so fast I couldn’t capture a single one.
I’d jerked off to my best friend. That, on its face, wasn’t a big deal.
But the fact I’d pictured us together, imagined what I could do to cause those sounds? That I couldn’t ignore.
I managed to pull a dirty shirt off the floor to clean myself. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but eventually, there was a familiar scratch at my door. I let in General Ledger, and like clockwork, she jumped on my bed and curled up on my second pillow.
Another secret. I had more of those than I realized.