27. Camden
Camden
“Do you have a butt plug?”
“Jesus, Cam. What if your mom heard that?”
“She literally just left to go to the bathroom. I think we’re safe.”
“You don’t care about me being here, Luke?”
“He tells you everything anyway, Erika. You would’ve heard about it, eventually.”
I wanted to spend some time with Erika, and give her a chance to be Austin-free for a while, so we were out with my mom, getting an early dinner.
It was one of the pubs near our hotel. We’d been there before, and I still wasn’t taking the Tube anywhere as a precaution, though I felt great.
The new inhaler and the other drug seemed to be working.
Luke leaned in to whisper, “Yes, I have one. Several, actually.”
“Good. I’d like to see those tonight.”
“Fuuuck. Can we go now?”
“Easy, tiger.”
“You guys are a lot of fun to watch. I wish Isaak was more open to talking about kinky stuff.”
“Kinky stuff, Erika? Do I want to know?” my mom said, returning.
I quickly answered, “No! No, you don’t!”
“How many years has it been since high school? When are you supposed to be mature?” she asked.
“Have you met him, Heather? He just came out on international television by kissing me.”
“I am aware, Luke.”
Erika steered us clear of more awkwardness when she asked, “How’s the flower shop, Mrs. Kane?”
“Oh, it’s been going well. Isabel is moving across the state with her fiancé, so I’ll be sad to see her go.”
“I bet. She’s been there as long as I can remember.”
“But it seems like I’ll have an extra helper this summer,” she said, looking over to Luke.
“Oh, a public kiss, and working with the boyfriend? Moving quickly, I see,” Erika teased.
“And he’s living with us!” I said, sitting up a little straighter. I’m sure my chest puffed out too. At least, it felt like it did.
I was thrilled he was coming to stay with us. A part of me wondered if it was because he had nowhere else, but I trusted him when he said it was what he wanted.
It was the same reason I believed him in the hospital. I could tell Luke was serious.
My phone buzzed. It was our group text. The original five.
Graham: Congratulations, Cam. That took massive balls.
Cam: Haha. Thanks.
Tyler: Did you hear me on TV?
Graham: Of course that was you!
Graham: I’m happy for you and Luke.
Luke: I’m happy too! It felt good.
Graham: Lol. I bet!
Cam: Let’s hang out after tomorrow’s events...if you’re free.
Graham: Sounds good.
“Phone’s away, boys. It’s rude, even if you did just declare your love in front of the entire world.”
“It was pretty romantic,” Erika added.
“How did you and your husband meet?” Luke asked. “Ow!”
I kicked him under the table.
“It’s okay, Cam. I should talk about him more.” She took a sip of water and cleared her throat. As she stared into the distance, her eyes lost focus, then she smiled and told us.
“I was supposed to meet a friend at a Baltimore Orioles game-”
“That’s a baseball team, Luke.”
“I know what sport the Orioles are!”
“-but she was a no-show, and the game had already started, so I went inside without her. When I got to my seat, there was a very attractive man in the seat next to mine, and he appeared to be alone as well. There was an empty seat next to him, too. It didn’t take long for us to start chatting.
His name was Cal - short for Calvin - and his friend had also bailed on him.
Watching the game together turned into a date.
He asked me out to dinner afterwards, and then one thing led to another,” she trailed off.
“Was he already in the Army?” Luke asked.
“Yes, he was stationed at Fort Meade when we met. I was a college student in Baltimore.”
“So, your first date was a baseball game?” Erika asked. “And it wasn’t even planned.”
“We actually chose the name Camden because of that date.”
“I don’t see the connection,” Luke said.
“The Orioles finished building a new stadium the same year Cam was born. Camden Yards. We both liked the name, and it reminded us of how we met.”
“I never knew that,” I said.
“Did you think we came up with it? It’s not a very popular name.”
I shrugged, but smiled. “I guess I never thought about it. Thanks for telling us that story.”
I felt Luke’s hand on my thigh, rubbing it intermittently. “Yes. Thank you, Heather.”
The suite was empty when we got back. Again. It’s like they didn’t want to enjoy it.
“They must be with their families,” Luke said.
“Or watching an event?” I suggested.
“Oh yeah, we’re at the Olympics. Maybe we should see some of it?”
“Nah, I’d rather have you naked and in the hot tub.”
“I can do that!”
We stripped down, leaving a trail of clothes across the room. Luke grabbed us some towels from the bathroom and we raced out to the tub, covering ourselves just enough to stay legal before slipping under the piping hot water.
Luke chuckled. “Someone’s eager.”
“Hey, I can be excited. I just came out to the world by kissing my super-hot boyfriend. All the gay boys are gonna be jealous.”
“And some girls, too. Speaking of, we should have toasted the end of America’s Sweethearts at dinner. No one can think you’re together now.”
“Uh...I think that ended when she got engaged to Isaak.”
“Oh shit, I forgot.”
I laughed. “You goober. Haven’t you met him? Erika mentioned something about it.”
“Yeah, I bumped into them at this fancy benefit in New York my parents made me attend. I guess Isaak’s family is from the upper echelon of society that my parents like to pretend to be a part of.”
“I guess there’s a lot about the past four years we don’t know about each other,” I said, as I snuggled into his side. He lifted his arm over my head, wrapping it around my shoulders.
“True, but you can always ask me anything. We have time now, though that doesn’t mean we have to. Whenever you want to talk about it is fine.”
“I don’t mind talking now. Why don’t you tell me something important I might not know. It seemed the first year after Brisbane looked rough for you. You weren’t really doing well at competitions.”
I felt Luke wince a little. “You noticed?” He sighed.
“Yeah, I did not take our forced separation well, even if it was my choice. I...uh...dealt with some depression. I was on some medication for a brief period, but that really fucked me up, so I stopped. It wasn’t until I reached out to Ty that he had me speak with his brother, who then referred me to a therapist friend in New York. ”
I tried to hide my surprise, but I was never very good at that.
“I know. I didn’t publicize that, and maybe I should have, to help with the stigmas of mental health, but I couldn’t handle the public scrutiny, especially then.
He helped me through most of my issues, and I’m still in touch with him.
We talk every few months, so I can vent and reset my brain a little.
Kind of like getting an oil change for your car. ”
“Okay, don’t use mechanical metaphors to explain emotions. I’m way better with feelings than cars.”
Luke laughed. “I’ll try to remember. But since I shared something, now, it’s your turn.”
“Is that how it is now?”
Luke nodded. “Yup. Go for it, handsome.”
“Well, the first year we were apart, I actually started doing yoga, and that kind of morphed into an interpretive dance class. The yoga teacher suggested it. She said it would help my musculature and the tension she sensed in me.”
“Really?”
A brief laugh escaped my lips. “Yeah. I can show you the YouTube videos sometime.”
“There’s video evidence?!”
“Shut up. You love this body, and you’ll like the videos. Dance kind of became my therapy in a way. I could express what I was feeling through my movement and let my frustrations out that way instead of verbalizing them. I had Erika for that anyway when I needed to vent.”
“Hmmm.”
“What?”
“Just imagining you dancing, but all I can think of is you grinding on me in that club in Brisbane.”
I splashed him with the water as I sat up to straddle him face to face. “You liked that.” I could just see his nipples at the bubbly water line.
“I definitely did, but I like this a lot more.” His hands circled around my body to grip my ass. “Ah!”
“What?!”
His hand left my right cheek and came around to head under the water between us. “I need to adjust my dick, you’re crushing me.”
“I thought you liked it rough.”
“Not quite that level of crush.”
“Noted.” I could see his hard dick through the froth now. It was slightly below mine, but they were lined up perfectly. “Doesn’t seem like it affected you that much.” I reached down to take both dicks in hand.
“Fuck, Cam.”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Hellooo, boys.” Colton’s face smeared against the glass door. He yelled, “Better make it quick, Cam.”
I let go of our dicks and would’ve moved completely away from Luke, but I didn’t want to give Colton the satisfaction of interrupting us.
Colton cracked open the door. “Keep going. You’re both hot. I can watch this all day.”
Reluctantly, I slid off Luke’s lap and flipped Colton off.
Now, we just had to wait for our erections to go down.
I slid a little farther away from Luke to help facilitate that.
Colton didn’t give up. He kept teasing, though we had seen each other naked countless times. And I wasn’t going to forget, so when an opportunity involving him and Zephyrus presented itself in the future, I’d get him back.
Eventually, we just stood up, got our towels and headed inside. We chilled with the guys for a bit until it was time for bed. Though I wasn’t planning on sleeping right away.
As soon as we were alone in the bedroom, I went for it. “So...about the butt plug?” Luke ignored whatever he planned on doing and turned to me, eyes wide. “Had you forgotten?” I asked.
He dropped his towel, and I watched his ass bounce across the room to his suitcase. He flopped it on its side, opened it, and started searching through his stuff. “Uh, yeah. I did actually, but don’t worry,” he said, pulling a black case out, “I’ve got you covered.”
He took it over to the bed, and I went to stand next to him, letting my towel fall, leaving us both naked. I don’t think the towel would’ve withstood the force of my hardening dick, anyway.