by J. M. Snyder
After half a minute or so, Kyle asks, “Do you want him to sleep with you?”
Oh God, hell no.
I hear a hard thwock! as the video game controller smacks Kyle in the arm or leg. He laughs and cries out, “Hey! Kidding, kidding!”
“Don’t even,” Nadia mutters. Then, “Damn it! You made me lose a heart. Go away, will you?”
“I live here, too,” he says.
“Just leave me alone,” she tells him.
Where I’m leaning against the wall, I cover my mouth with my hand to stifle a laugh. They fight like an old married couple. I’m just about to reach for the door to head out there and let them know I’m awake when the door opens and Kyle enters the room. He glances at the bed, sees it’s empty, then turns towards me, a smirk already tugging at the corners of his mouth.
“You know, it isn’t nice to eavesdrop,” he says, his voice low.
I grin. “I just woke up. I was coming out, I swear, but I didn’t want to interrupt anything.”
“Nadia talks all the time,” Kyle jokes. “If you don’t butt in, you’ll never get a word in edgewise.”
Out in the living room, the video game pauses again and Nadia calls out, “Are you two talking about me?”
Kyle leans back against the door, opening it wide. “He says your big mouth woke him up.”
“He what?” she cries.
“I did not!” I say, laughing.
Ducking his head out into the other room, Kyle assures her, “I’m teasing. He says thanks for letting him stay. Don’t look at me like that. He says he’ll treat for dinner. Want to order a pizza? Maybe Chinese?”
She must shake her head or nod, something like that, because I don’t hear her response, but a few seconds later, Kyle is back, all smiles. “You did mention something about owing me dinner, right?”
With a shrug, I say, “Sure. What do you have in mind?”
“There’s this great little place called Nanking,” he tells me. “Best Chinese around, and they deliver. What do you say?”
“As long as I don’t have to sleep with her.” I keep my voice down and nod at the door, my meaning clear.
Kyle laughs. “Yeah, no. She’d kill us both.”
It isn’t exactly an invitation to hop into his bed again tonight, but it’s a start. “Then where’s the menu? I’m starving.”
* * * *
Nadia seemed nice enough when we first met, but now that I’m in her living room, crashing at her place for the next few days, she’s less than enthusiastic to see me. She barely looks up from her video game and then only to tell me what it is she wants to order for dinner—chicken lo mein and spring rolls. “Spring, not egg,” she clarifies, fingers flying over the game controller. “Make sure you get the right ones.”
I want to ask, “Or what?” But Kyle shakes his head slightly, just enough to dry the words up in my throat. Okay, so maybe I don’t want to know or what after all.
I order my standby favorite, pepper steak with onions, Kyle gets sesame chicken, and we throw in another order of spring rolls for ourselves. While we wait for the delivery to arrive, we sit on the couch in awkward silence and watch Nadia shoot and fight her way through screen after screen of bad guys. Once I ask, “Why do you like this stuff?”
“It relaxes me.” Her arms are tensed, her teeth clenched tight as she jabs the buttons on the controller and mutters under her breath, “Fuck, no, no, no—damn it! God! Piece of shit!”
Beside me, Kyle smirks. Without looking over at him, Nadia snaps, “Stop it. Don’t you two have anything better to do than watch me?”
“But this is so much fun,” Kyle teases.
She pauses the game. Now she looks at him, glaring past me in the process. I press back into the sofa, trying to make myself as small as possible. “Go into your bedroom, won’t you? I’m sure you two can find something in there to do to entertain each other.”
My face burns at the hidden meaning in her words. Great minds think alike, don’t they?
“The food’ll be here any minute,” Kyle says, not taking the bait.
Unpausing the game, Nadia turns back to the TV and ignores us. I almost wish he would invite me into his room, if only so we could be alone—first Rob, now her; I’m never going to get him to myself. But after her remark, I can’t think of a way to suggest it that doesn’t sound like I want him to do nasty things to me.
Which I do, really, who am I kidding? So I keep my mouth shut.
When the food arrives, I’m surprised Nadia actually saves the game and turns off the television to eat, instead of just pausing again. But no, she joins us at the table, and even shares her lo mein for some of my pepper steak and a bit of Kyle’s sesame chicken. There’s plenty to go around—the portions are supersized, and I get the feeling we’ll be eating Chinese for lunch tomorrow, as well.
Over dinner, Nadia perks up a little. Now that she’s unglued herself from the video game, she seems more human, more like the woman I met yesterday. She asks about my job and where I lived before, and is a little too interested in Rob. “You would’ve liked him, Nads,” Kyle says with a wink. “Big guy, dark hair, in desperate need of a shave. Right up your alley.”
“Damn.” Nadia pierces me with a hungry stare. “Did he play football in college?”
“High school,” I tell her. Kyle and I share a grin. “Why, you interested?”
Nadia tries to act nonchalant, but it’s too late. I know she is. “Maybe. Is he really cute, or is Kyle just bullshitting me?”
I shrug. “He isn’t my type, but his girlfriend seems to like the way he looks.”
Under the table, Nadia’s foot shoots out, narrowly missing mine before it connects with Kyle’s leg. “You ass.”
Kyle snickers. “I didn’t say he was single,” he points out. “I only said you’d like him.”
She kicks him again, harder. “Just for that, I’m going to tell your new BFF here what it is you do to make money.” Turning to me, she asks, “Do you know he writes smut?”
“Oooh, big reveal,” Kyle jokes. “Sorry to bust your bubble, but I already told him.”
Nadia glares at us, eyes narrowed. “Uh-huh, so you could get someone else to help you try out the sex scenes before you wrote them down, is that it?”
I almost choke on a forkful of rice. Where do I sign up for that?
But Kyle simply shakes his head and laughs. “Someone else? You make it sound like I invite guys over every weekend for orgies just to advance my literary career.”
With a shrug, she asks, “How am I supposed to know what it is you do when I’m not here?”
I almost can’t stop myself. The question begs to be asked. “Do you?”
“What? No!” he cries.
Now I grin at Nadia. “So I’m your first?”
She laughs so hard, a lo mein noodle shoots out of her nose. Which starts both Kyle and me snickering, too.
* * * *
After dinner, Nadia’s back at her video game, and sitting on the couch watching her isn’t exactly how I envisioned spending the first night in my new place. Kyle keeps looking at me from the corner of his eye, as if waiting for me to suggest something else we might do, but shouldn’t he be the one entertaining me? This is his apartment, after all. His bedroom is right there, the door open wide—it’d take all of three steps to disappear inside and have the rest of the evening to ourselves…
Except Nadia would probably be able to hear anything we said through the wall, and knowing her, she’d listen in just for spite. Worse, she might get bored with her game and wander in after us, ruining any chance I might have to take things between us to the next level, whatever that might be.
I mean, is he even interested in me? I think so—I hope so—and now that dinner’s out of the way, he’s moved a little closer to me, which makes me think things might be moving in the right direction.
If only we could get a few moments alone, and I don’t mean simply in the next room.
In another apartment, wo
uld be nice. Hell, another building, even. I wonder how late the pool’s open until, though the sun’s gone down so I’m sure it’s closed now. And, given my luck, my pass probably won’t work anyway.
I glance over at the terrace door. The world beyond the blinds is dark, lit intermittently with streetlamps and the occasional headlights from a passing car. I wonder if the temperature’s dropped any—it must’ve, at least a few degrees, enough to take the edge off the day. Above us is a whole empty apartment where Nadia won’t be able to follow, if I can somehow entice Kyle to come over to my place for a few hours despite the heat…
“Hey, you know what?” I scoot to the edge of the sofa and slap Kyle’s knee to get his attention. “I bet it’s cooled down a bit upstairs—”
“Bet it hasn’t,” Nadia snaps.
I ignore her. “Well, I’m going to head on up for a bit and see if I can’t try to unpack a few things.” To Kyle, I ask, “Want to come with?”
He shrugs. “Sure. Why not?” Looking past me, he tells Nadia, “We can take the fans up. That should help.”
With an exasperated sigh, she says, “I just entered the boss arena. If you want to take mine, you’ll have to get it yourself.”
“The what?” I frown at the television, but nothing about the screen looks any different from the rest of the game.
Kyle nudges me as he stands. “Don’t ask,” he mutters.
As he heads down the hallway towards her bedroom, Nadia calls out after him, “They’re in the closet. Don’t touch anything else!”
“Like I would want to!” Kyle hollers back.
He returns a few minutes later, a four foot stand fan in one hand and a square box fan in the other. Setting them down, he gives me a wink and disappears into his own bedroom, only to reappear with another stand fan identical to the first. He holds it out to me. “We bought these a while back when our air went out one weekend,” he explains. “I don’t know how much good they’ll do, but they can’t hurt. You ready?”
“Unless Nadia really wants us to stay and keep her company,” I joke.
She pauses the game in mid-battle and gives me a sardonic stare. “Go. Now. Both of you. And if you’re going to have sex up there, try to keep it down. I have an early shift tomorrow.”
Kyle blows her a kiss. “Please, that’s so stereotypical.”
Despite the pounding of my heart, I force a laugh. “Yeah. Like all gay guys do is screw when they’re alone together, or something.”
As Kyle picks up the other two fans, he says, “I just meant I’m not that loud in the sack.”
“Seriously?” Nadia asks. “Because when you jerk off, I can hear you all the way down the hall—”
“Leaving!” he calls, heading for the door.
I hurry after him, my face and ears burning. I’m not sure if I’ll ever get used to hanging out with these two.
* * * *
Turns out I was wrong. My apartment is sweltering.
“Feels like an oven in here,” Kyle says as he follows me inside.
The hallway is pitch black, the air still and close and stifling. It really is like stepping into an oven, one set to the highest temperature possible, and we’re the main course. The summer evening outside pales in comparison. I can’t imagine the fans will make much of a difference. “Maybe this was a bad idea,” I mutter. “I didn’t even plug in any lamps before I left. Whose idea was it not to put an overhead light in the living room when they were building this place?”
Kyle’s voice swims out of the darkness. “There’s a light here by the door…”
I hear him pawing at the wall, then suddenly bright light flares to life above us, illuminating the hall. When he starts to shut the apartment door, I tell him, “Don’t. Not yet. Let’s get some air in here first.”
“Open the balcony door to get a breeze going,” he tells me. “There’s a window in the bedroom, too. We can put the box fan in there, face it outward to draw out the heat. That’s what Nadia did the last time we had to use it.”
The hallway light peters out by the bedroom door, but it’s enough to let me find the switch on the wall in there. Two switches, actually, and as I hit the second one, I hear the ceiling fan squeak to life overhead. Directly over my bed, too, which is nice. “That’ll help a bit.”
“It helps a lot,” Kyle agrees. “More than you’d think. Why they didn’t put one of those in every room, I’ll never know. They’re only in the bedrooms.”
Remembering Nadia’s words earlier, I ask, “Do you think your roommate can hear my fan like she says I can hear hers?”
Kyle shakes his head as he opens the window to install the fan. “Her ceiling is your floor. We only barely heard it anyway because the whole place was empty. Once you move all your stuff in here and have the TV going, music playing, people over, I doubt you’ll even notice.”
I sink down on the edge of my futon and watch him muscle the fan into position. His T-shirt pulls across his back like a second skin, and a fine sheen of sweat has begun to seep through the fabric, staining it a darker color under the arms. Is it just me, or has the heat in here dissipated a little? Or maybe I’ve simply grown used to it in the time we’ve been in here.
But when I feel a bead of sweat trickle down the side of my face and wipe at it, my hand comes away damp. Maybe I’m not as comfortable as I think.
I wish Nadia wasn’t home. Then we could be alone down there instead, in the comfort of an air conditioned apartment instead of up here, dying in this heat. Though really, where would things go between us? Maybe if I can get him to join me on the bed…
Once the fan is in the window and plugged in, Kyle turns it on. A deafening rush of air fills the room, but I feel cooler almost immediately. Stepping back, he props his hands on his hips and grins at me, satisfied. “There. How’s that?”
With a nod, I lean my head back and close my eyes. “I almost think I can stay up here tonight.” Hint, hint.
Kyle gives my foot a playful kick. “Shut up. It’s drawing out some of the heat, not cooling down anything. Besides, I thought you were sleeping with me.”
There it is again, a not too blatant innuendo that might be a come on or might be nothing more than joking around. Opening one eye, I look up to find him smirking at me. He’s waiting to see if I’ll take the bait.
Alright. Two can play at this game.
“You and Nadia,” I reply. “I thought we were having a threesome. You did tell her, right?”
He laughs so hard, his face turns red in the heat. “Oh God, good luck with that one! She will chew you up and spit you out before you even know what happened. Besides, I thought you were into guys.”
I grin. “Not only that, she scares the shit out of me.”
Kyle nods. “She should. Nadia is…a piece of work. I love her to death, but not—God, not in that way.”
Leaning back on my elbows on my bed, I look up at him and admit, “When I first met you guys, I thought you two were together. Like, you know, dating.”
“No,” Kyle says with a shake of his head. “God, no. Hell, no. That’s the same thing your boyfriend asked me earlier today.”
I sit up a little too fast. “My who what now?”
But he’s already heading into the hall. “Let’s get these other fans plugged in,” he calls out, “so we can close this door here. Bugs are going to start coming in. We can put one fan here by the bathroom and the other in front of the balcony. That should get the air moving around a bit.”
Scooting off the bed, I hurry after him. “Hold up. Let’s get something straight here. Rob is not my boyfriend.”
Kyle’s sweaty face shines from the hallway light above him when he turns and smiles at me. “You called him your buddy,” he points out. “You two act really close. You used to live with him, so…”
“And his girlfriend,” I add. “Who’s pregnant, by the way. And you think Nadia’s a bitch? You haven’t met Lara yet. She’s the whole reason I moved out.”
Kyle’s eyes sparkl
e with something I can’t quite put my finger on. It might just be the light overhead, but I like to think it’s more than that. Hope, maybe. Please, I pray.
“So you two never…?” he asks.
“Well,” I drawl, “I wouldn’t say never. I mean, there was this one time in school after he got pretty shit-faced at a frat party, and he’s sworn me to secrecy so you can’t breathe a word of it, but it’s not like we had sex or anything, nothing like that. It was fooling around at best, and it wasn’t even all that good because we were both drunk off our asses. But he thinks if Lara ever found out, she’d leave him. Good riddance, I say, but what do I know?”
For a long moment, Kyle stares at me, his expression hard to read. His arms are crossed in front of his chest, his lips pursed as if he’s chewing on the inside of his cheek, his gaze not quite looking at me and not into the bedroom either but somewhere else entirely. Finally his mouth spreads into that quick grin of his and he says, “Actually, he might be surprised. Nadia says most girls get off on two guys together, for some reason. She keeps telling me I should try writing about it because it sells—she should know, that’s about all she reads nowadays—but I don’t know.”
With a grin of my own, I tease, “Why? Too personal?”
But Kyle laughs and says, “Nah, you kidding? It’s been months since I’ve been with anyone.”
Moving nearer to him, I reach out. My fingertips graze the hair on his arm in the first pass; another step, closer still, and my hand rubs along his heated skin. I feel his muscles relax beneath my touch. Now his gaze flickers to my face, now it’s me he sees.
“Me too,” I admit, my voice soft between us. “But I’m not going to lie to you, man. You really are the best thing about moving here, and if you’re even the slightest bit interested—”
“Oh, I am,” Kyle assures me. “I just didn’t want to get my hopes up in case you and Rob were—”
I don’t know what else he planned to say. All I hear is, I am.
Then my blood roars in my ears, my heart beats wildly, my whole body sings with delight. Yes, yes, YES! I lean forward, eyes shut, lips puckered, my mouth finding his in a tender, tentative, triumphant kiss.
