In Pieces

by Alexa Land

  It was ridiculous that I was still staring at him, and I finally looked away. “Maybe you want to put on some boxers or something.”

  “Why? It’s not like you haven’t seen me naked before.”

  Well, who hadn’t? Seeing a couple of his films was a far cry from the live-and-in-person version, though.

  Hunter climbed up on the bed and kissed my shoulder, then said, “If you’re serious about wanting to paint me, then sure. I’ll pose for you on one condition.”

  “What’s that?”

  He laid back onto the pillow and grinned at me. “After every session, you and I go head-to-head in Madden.”

  His damp hair was strewn around his face, big blue eyes sparkling, full lips curled into a cocky smile. It made me wish I had a sketchbook handy. I grinned at him as I swung out of bed. “Think you can handle defeat after demoralizing defeat?”

  He laughed at that and threw a pillow at me. “I know I can beat you.”

  As I headed for the bathroom I said, “Is it ok if I hop in the shower? I’m expected for Christmas dinner with my best friend’s fiancé’s family in about an hour.”

  “Sure. Help yourself to whatever you need.”

  When I returned to the bedroom ten minutes later wrapped in a towel, Hunter was still sprawled naked across the bed. “What is this you’re doing here?” I asked, grinning and drawing a circle around him in the air with my finger.

  “Trying to entice you to blow off dinner with your friend’s fiancé’s family and stay with me instead.” He smiled at me cheerfully.

  “I thought we already determined that we’re not each other’s type.”

  He shrugged and put his hands behind his head, a wicked gleam in his eye. “How much of your type do I really have to be for you to flip me over and bury your cock in my ass?”

  “I don’t fuck my friends, Hunter. I do occasionally kiss them, however,” I said, and leaned over and pecked him on the lips. “Did we learn nothing from last night? You don’t need to entice me with sex. Instead, how about remembering that you own some clothes and coming with me to dinner?”

  Hunter sat up and looked at me with a hopeful expression. “Really?”

  “Yup.”

  “Would that be ok with everyone?”

  “Sure. If anyone asks, we’ll just tell them you’re my evil twin.”

  He laughed at that. “Why would I be the evil one?”

  “Because you’re the one that’s naked on the bed,” I said with a grin.

  “Yeah, good point.”

  “Hey, would it be weird if I asked to borrow a shirt? I don’t think I have time to run home and change.”

  “No problem,” he said, swinging out of bed and leading the way to a walk-in closet (despite myself, I checked out his perfect little butt on the way). Hunter asked, “So, is there anything I should know about your friend’s fiancé’s family before we get there?”

  “Let’s see…they’re all a bunch of lushes, they’re Sicilian, and they’re pretty gay-friendly. Oh, and a reasonably large percentage of them are in the mafia.”

  He thought about that for a beat, then said, “Cool. I’ve never been to a mafia Christmas dinner.”

  Dinner was being held in a restaurant owned by one of Dante’s cousins, since Nana’s ballroom (the usual site for family gatherings) was currently being renovated for the wedding. And even though we arrived right at the designated start time, the party was already in full swing, in typical Dombruso fashion.

  Charlie spotted me right away. He jogged across the restaurant and grabbed me in a hug as soon as I stepped in the door. “Merry Christmas, Christopher. So how pissed off are you at me?”

  I grinned at that. “You mean for ditching me at the party while you and your fiancé snuck off for a little holiday merriment?”

  “Exactly.”

  “I’m not mad. It gave me the opportunity to get to know Hunter.” My new friend was standing off to the side, and I grabbed his hand and tugged him closer. I’d texted Charlie last night from the cab on the way to Hunter’s place, letting him know I was leaving the party. I hadn’t mentioned I was going home with anyone, though. “Hunter Storm, Charlie Connolly.”

  “It’s just Hunter Jacobs today,” he told me with a grin. “There are no cameras rolling.”

  “Oh,” said Charlie, his eyes wide with surprise. “You’re Cole’s ex.”

  That obviously wasn’t what people usually said when they met Hunter, and this response caught him off guard. “Um, yeah. I am.”

  Charlie smiled at him and said, “Sometimes this city feels like such a small town. It seems like everyone knows everyone. Come on in guys, and make yourselves comfortable. By the way Christopher, Cousin Rachael’s been asking about you.” He gave me a big wink and I rolled my eyes. At Thanksgiving, Cousin Rachael had tried to have me for dessert.

  “Hunter, you may have to make out with me at some point. Just so you know,” I said as we followed Charlie into the restaurant.

  He grinned at that. “Not a problem. Should I ask why?”

  “It might finally give Cousin Rachael the message that I’m gay, because somehow this—” I swept my hand down the length of me “—hasn’t gotten the point across.” Hunter chuckled at that.

  A few minutes later when Charlie excused himself and crossed the restaurant to speak to Dante’s brother Mikey, Hunter turned to me and whispered, “Oh my God, your best friend is gorgeous.”

  “I know.”

  “God I love the hunky jock type. Why is he engaged?”

  I pointed out the big, muscular figure that had just come out of the kitchen. “That’s Dante, his fiancé.”

  “Mercy,” Hunter murmured, running his eyes up and down all six feet, four inches of Dante Dombruso. “Ok, I see why he’s engaged. And it’s so wrong that I’m picturing myself as the cream filling in a Dante-Charlie sandwich right now.” I laughed at that and he grinned at me. “Sorry, I know that’s inappropriate. I’ll try to keep my dirty sex fantasies to myself with regard to your friends.” Dante had come up behind Charlie and taken him in his arms, kissing his shoulder. Charlie turned, laced his fingers in Dante’s thick black hair and kissed him deeply, as Hunter said, “Aw man, and now I’m jealous. They’re so sweet together.”

  “I know. They’re perfect for each other.”

  “Christopher Robin!” a familiar voice called from across the room. Mrs. Dombruso had also come out of the kitchen. She was in her electric wheel chair, cutting a swath through her family members to get to me, who dove out of the way to keep from getting run over.

  Hunter turned to me with a huge smile. “Is that really your name?”

  “Yup.”

  “It’s so cute.” He was still beaming at me and I rolled my eyes, poking his ribs playfully. I actually liked my name, even if it was a bit on the cutesy side. My mother had named me that despite my father’s protests, a whimsical tribute to a character in a children’s book. Knowing my father, that had to have been a major triumph.

  Hunter laughed, squirming ticklishly, and grabbed my hands just as Mrs. Dombruso came to a stop before us. She was wearing a red velvet ball gown and enough pearls to single-handedly wipe out the world’s entire oyster population, and her white hair was coiled up in two Princess Leia buns on either side of her head.

  “Christopher Robin, there you are! And who’s this, your brother?”

  “No ma’am, this is my friend Hunter. I hope it’s ok that I brought him.”

  “Of course it’s ok! What, you think I’d turn a friend of yours away at Christmas? Screw that! Make yourselves comfortable, boys. And after we eat, I’ll show you my new laptop computer! It’s a real hum dinger. I’ve been working on my online dating profile, but it still needs some of that, you know. Creative embellishment. You two can help me. My family refuses to help, they think I’m too old to date. Bunch of ageists!” She yelled that last part to make sure they all heard her. Soon she returned to the kitchen, not trusting the professional chefs to prepare dinne
r without supervision, and we went and joined my roommates.

  After I introduced Hunter and Dante and we settled in at the table, I told Charlie, “Mrs. Dombruso got a computer. That doesn’t bode well. How did she even buy one today? Aren’t all the stores closed?”

  “I gave it to her for Christmas,” Dante admitted with an abashed expression. “She asked for it a week ago, I didn’t know she intended to try online dating. She told me she wanted it to type up her recipes. I’m so gullible when it comes to that woman.”

  Charlie grinned at him. “You really are.”

  “Once, when I was a kid,” Dante said, “my grandmother adopted a dog with three legs, one ear, and the worst case of mange you’ve ever seen. His name was Stewie. I hate to imagine the strays she’s going to drag home once she hits the dating sites. I just know she’s going to end up with Stewie’s human counterpart.”

  “Oh man,” Charlie said, “I’m picturing that, a guy with mange, one ear—”

  “And three legs,” I added with a grin.

  “Here she comes,” said Dante as his grandmother rolled back out of the kitchen. “I’m willing to offer a major cash incentive to whoever manages to ‘accidentally’ fry her new laptop with a conveniently spilled cocktail.”

  Over dinner the conversation turned to the subject of Gregory Cogburn, the city’s new chief of police. I wasn’t sure which of Dante’s relatives were involved in organized crime, but the new chief had the whole family slightly on edge.

  “I don’t think there’s reason for concern,” Dante’s brother Vincent said. “Cogburn’s setting his sights on making sure the city has a pretty face for the tourists. Apparently he’s going to be pouring all sorts of resources into wiping out prostitution, that’s his first big campaign. He wants the working girls off the streets. I hear he’s going to be gunning for the escort services too, he wants ‘em all shut down. None of that concerns this family.” Exactly three people besides myself in this group knew who that did concern, and Charlie, Dante and Hunter all snuck glances at me.

  I had two main goals when it came to my current occupation: make it out of the business without catching any life-threatening diseases, and make it out without an arrest record. My life was seriously fucked up right now, but I held on to a lot of hope for a future so much better than my past and present. I wanted to make sure nothing I did now jeopardized that.

  Hunter took my hand. “Well, you can always come and make movies with me if you need a change of career,” he whispered. I smiled at him and gave his hand a squeeze. But that was something I’d never consider. I didn’t want evidence of how I’d chosen to spend my early twenties following me into my later life, working against me when trying to build a career and get taken seriously as an artist. Porno movies, like public arrest records, were forever.

  After dinner several couples headed to the little dance floor in one corner of the restaurant, Charlie and Dante among them. Hunter and I hung back at the table, leaning against one another and watching the couples, and he said, “I love that this family is so accepting of your friends’ relationship. If I’d ever tried to dance with a guy at a family function, my relatives would have completely freaked. They probably would have tried to perform some kind of gay exorcism or something.”

  I grinned at that. “What would a gay exorcism involve exactly?”

  “Oh, you know: the whole lot of them donning mullet wigs, which for a large percentage of them would be redundant, and then playing sport fishing videos while reading from the Sears catalog. That’d drive the gay right out of ya.”

  I burst out laughing. “I think that’d drive the good taste out of you, more than the gay.”

  “Same difference.”

  After a while I asked, “Do you ever talk to your family?”

  “No, not anymore,” he said. “When I announced I was moving to California with Cole two years ago, my parents told me ‘if you walk out that door, don’t ever bother coming back.’ Needless to say, I went anyway.” He was quiet for a moment, toying with his dessert fork. And then he said, “I tried to reach out to them a couple times after that, but they wanted nothing more to do with me. I’ve mostly accepted that, I made my choice and knew what the consequences would be. It only bothers me on days like Christmas, when I miss being part of a family.”

  “I understand. I was on my own for a long time before I met Charlie. Now he’s become my family, he’s all I have.”

  “You have these people too,” Hunter said, gesturing at the room.

  “The Dombrusos have taken Charlie into the fold because he’s marrying Dante, and by extension, they’ve been nice to me because I’m his friend. But I’m an outsider. I know it, and they know it.”

  I wasn’t expecting the slap upside my head. “Ow!” I exclaimed, and spun around to see who’d whacked me.

  Mrs. Dombruso was standing behind me with her hands on her hips. She was out of the electric wheel chair, so I hadn’t heard her come up behind me (she was perfectly capable of walking – she just sometimes chose not to). “Bullshit!” she exclaimed.

  “I’m sorry?”

  “Bullshit! No one here sees you as an outsider but yourself, Christopher Robin,” she informed me. “What do I have to do, legally adopt you to make you realize you’re part of my family? Because I will, you know!”

  I grinned a little. “I don’t think you can legally adopt twenty-year-olds.”

  “Details! Now come on and dance with your Nana, Christopher Robin. And cut the crap about not being a part of this family. If I hear any more talk like that, there’s going to be hell to pay!”

  “Yes ma’am,” I said as I let her drag me to the dance floor, shooting an apologetic look at Hunter over my shoulder. He was chuckling delightedly.

  By the time I made it back to the table, dessert had been served. Hunter scooped up some cheesecake and held his fork out to me as he said, “You have to try this, it’s amazing.”

  I pulled back reflexively. “No thanks.”

  He put the fork down and watched me for a moment before saying gently, “I couldn’t help but notice you didn’t eat anything at dinner. I’m forever on a diet too, so I get it. But it’s Christmas, Christopher. Why not treat yourself a little?”

  “I’m not dieting,” I admitted. “I just have some issues when it comes to food.”

  “What kind of issues?”

  “I don’t want to go into it right now,” I said, fidgeting with my napkin.

  Hunter squeezed my shoulder. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

  “I know. Look, it’s no big deal. I’m not even hungry.” I shot him a smile, which he returned even though he still looked a little worried.

  That had been a total lie. I was fucking starving. I hadn’t planned on spending last night at Hunter’s, so I hadn’t eaten since sometime yesterday. I was used to always being hungry, but I was pushing it today, and soon I’d start to get really light-headed. There was nothing I could do about it now though, literally nothing here I could make myself eat.

  Sixteen months ago, I’d been drugged and brutalized by one of my customers. I’d ingested the drugs by being stupid enough to eat a sandwich the man offered me. As a result of that incident, I’d developed an aversion to almost all food. The back of my throat closed up when I tried to swallow anything, and my gag reflex kicked in ferociously.

  The one exception, for reasons I couldn’t begin to understand, were these gross little bright orange snack crackers with peanut butter filling that came six to a pack at the convenience store. I had absolutely no idea why I tolerated them and nothing else. But I was grateful that there was at least one thing I could make myself eat.

  I’d learned to live with my food issues, adapting to them like I did with a lot of things in my life. It wasn’t going to be like this forever. But for now, I was getting through it day by day. And sometimes, like now, hour by hour.

  Chapter Three

  “So, hooking up with a porn star. That’s pretty hot,” Charlie grinn
ed. It was the day after Christmas and we were on the couch in our apartment, enjoying the Christmas present I’d gotten him – and he’d gotten me. We’d both bought each other Xboxes and the same football video game. Yeah, I’d splurged. But it had been a really long time since I had anyone to buy a Christmas present for, so I let myself go overboard.

  It was pretty funny that he’d gotten me the same thing, and it showed how in sync we were with each other. For now the gifts were redundant, but they wouldn’t be for long. He and Dante would soon be moving into their big loft apartment in the Marina District, which was almost fully renovated.

  “We didn’t hook up. We just hung out.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “We intended to hook up, but ended up as friends instead. We spent all night doing this,” I said, gesturing at the TV with the video game controller in my hand.

  Charlie’s eyes were glued to the screen, his brow knit in concentration as he worked his controller. “You spent the night with a porn star, and played video games,” he said incredulously.

  “He’s more than a porn star. Just like I’m more than a hooker. Hunter’s actually a really nice guy.”

  He looked at my profile. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

  “I know.” I tapped the controller and turned to smile at him. “And I just won again. I’m the king of football.” I’d always loved the game. But with my build, this was the closest I’d ever come to playing it. As I stood up and stretched I asked, “Hey, how did Dante like his Christmas presents? I forgot to ask.”

  “He’s excited about the classes. And I did what you suggested, I waited for him naked under the Christmas tree with a big red bow…um, on my lower back. Well, not under the tree, you saw how small the tree was that we got for the loft. But he got the idea.”

  Just then, Dante breezed into the apartment and announced, “We’re all set.” He’d bought Charlie a Land Rover for Christmas and they were heading up the coast to Mendocino, a little inaugural road trip with the new car.

  Charlie beamed at him, then got up and grabbed me in a hug. “See you in a couple days, Christopher. Please don’t let Nana run you ragged with the wedding prep. I mean it. If there are any last-minute details, I can take care of them when I get back.”