Dreaming of You (14 page)

He turned around and I pulled my knees up, spreading my legs. I looked at him innocently, and bit my lip with a half smile.

He closed his eyes, rolled his head back, and groaned. “Cut that out, you little cuss. You know damn well it drives me crazy when you look at me like that.”

“I can’t help it.” I frowned. “You’re like man-crack and I need another fix.” I lunged for him unsuccessfully as he dodged my efforts, leaving me on my stomach.

He moved to the side of the bed and slapped me on the ass. “It’s getting late, you little tramp. Shouldn’t you start getting ready?”

I shoved my face into the bed and moaned. I turned to look at him. “Can’t I just stay here in bed and wait for you to come home?”

“You don’t want to go out with Sam and the guys?”

No, I want to stay here naked in this bed and wait for you to come home and fuck me till I can’t see straight
. “Of course, I was just kidding.” I rolled over and watched him move about the room, pulling out clothes. “So, exactly how did you and Sam meet? I never got the whole story there.”

“Oh, well, it was nothing really.” He began pulling on the white boxer briefs. “Kinda funny. I’d gone down to the bar for a drink after work. It was maybe the second or third time I’d been. I sat down at the bar and ordered a drink. I was looking around.”

“Cruising,” I accused.

“Okay…cruising,” he said with a smirk as he pulled on a pair of dress pants. “Anyway, Sam was working behind the bar. He made me my drink, introduced himself, and we started talking. Out of nowhere, this guy comes up to the bar and slams his glass down. He was extremely rude, saying something about his drink. He’d ordered Absolut. He’d been drinking Absolut for years, and this was not Absolut. He made a point of saying Absolut a lot. Then he declared that he’d wanted a lemon twist, not a fucking lemon wedge.”

“What an ass.” I reached back for a pillow to prop myself up.

“Sam stood there with a blank expression just long enough for everyone around the bar to begin to feel uncomfortable.”

Logan stood there looking at me in what I presumed to be the same way. I laughed, realizing I was getting a reenactment.

“Waaa! Waaa! Waaa!” Logan screamed, imitating the way an infant cries, which nearly startled me off the bed.

I began laughing as he went on, scrunching up his face, getting his whole body into it.

“That’s what he did, for like an entire minute while this guy stood there looking like the idiot he was. Then Sam told him, ‘It’s a fucking cocktail, shithead, not a harvested organ that would save your mother’s life if only you could get to the hospital in time. Now get out of my face and don’t come back unless it’s part of your twelve steps.’”

“He said all that to him?” I asked, wide-eyed.

“It was hysterical; everyone around the bar was laughing, and the guy stormed off in a hissy. Sam turned back around and I looked at him and said, ‘Okay…I want to be
your
friend.’ We’ve been friends ever since.”

“Jesus, I could never do that.”

“I know.” Logan pulled a shirt off a hanger in his closet.

“Before you put that on, let me get one more good look.”

He got that sexy half smile and sauntered around the room, running his hand slowly over his abs. “It’s all for you, baby.”

I smiled, chewing on my lip, trying not to laugh. I let out a pathetic whimper.

“Ah, dry your eyes.” He slipped on his shirt. “Before the night’s over and done with, I promise to fuck you till you can’t walk right.”

I laughed out loud as he tucked his shirt into his pants. He walked over to the bed and laid a big kiss on me. He pulled away. “Now get your very hot but lazy ass out of bed and get ready.”

“Yes, sir,” I said with a salute.

“Hey, I’m likin’ that sir stuff,” he said, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, don’t hold your breath waiting for the next time you hear it.”

“Time will tell, boyfriend.”

* * * * *

As soon as Logan left, I ran through the shower and got myself ready. I panicked briefly, thinking about what to wear. Then I caught a glimpse of the bump on my head in the mirror and decided it couldn’t possibly matter. Short of a ski mask, nothing was going to hide that. When I finished getting ready, I looked at the clock…it was four fifty-five. I had an hour to kill, so I kept the promise I’d made to myself earlier by going through all his closets. While I found no discernable collections of weapons, I did discover that my boyfriend was completely anal. He was organized to the extent of it being considered a personality flaw. I’d always considered myself a clean person; but after seeing his apartment, I felt like I needed to hop on the first plane home and spend the rest of my week off doing things like pulling out the refrigerator and scrubbing the back of it with a toothbrush.

As I closed the door to his perfectly organized hall closet, I had a slightly evil thought. I walked into the living room and surveyed the terrain. I knew as I was doing it that it was very childish, but I couldn’t stop myself. It felt utterly delicious as I hopped around the room moving a piece of sculpture two inches to the left, then taking the coffee table book from one end and moving it to the opposite end. I walked over to the wall of shelving and opened a drawer under his flat-screen. I found all his remotes and a
TV Guide
, which I removed. I began to close the drawer and stopped, leaving it partially open. I tossed the various remotes over the coffee table and end table and pushed the lamp on the end table back a few inches. I looked around and saw a collection of vases sitting neatly in a row on a wall shelf. I ran over and moved them around, jumbling up the order.

As if possessed by mischief-making mythical elves, I ran toward the kitchen and stopped in the doorway. I looked around the room. It was very quiet as my gaze darted from one object to another. I took one step in, half expecting an alarm to go off screaming,
Intruder! Intruder!
I slowly entered the kitchen. I reached up toward the pot rack, my fingers inches away from one of the pans. I stopped and slowly pulled my hand away. Something told me this would be the one room it wouldn’t be all that smart to fuck with. I began to back out of the area. In a fleeting act of defiance, I turned and pulled one of the drawers out, leaving it just barely open, then turned and ran back into the living room.

I looked over the room once again. My gaze locked onto the furniture. I started visually moving them around the room in my head as the doorbell rang. I turned swiftly, feeling guilty, as if caught on tape by hidden nanny cams with apartment security now waiting on the other side of the door to drag me off to bad-boyfriend jail. I walked over to the door and opened it to find Sam on the other side.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

“Um…yeah, just let me grab my wallet.”

I turned and ran back through the apartment to Logan’s bedroom and retrieved my wallet from the nightstand. I came back into the living room and found Sam standing there looking around the room. He opened his mouth to say something.

“Let’s go.” I gave him a sweet smile. “I’m starving.”

“Yeah…sure,” he said, turning and following me out the door.

* * * * *

I listened to the
click
from my seat belt as Sam pulled out of the complex.

“We’re picking Willy up on the way. Bradley and Nick are meeting us at the restaurant.”

“Cool.” I was twiddling my thumbs as we drove along. “Bradley and Nick are the couple?”

“Yeah, we’ve all been friends for years. A little over a year ago those two decided out of the blue they were in love.”

“So, basically they both had too much to drink one night and had sex?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Sam answered with a chuckle, “I think that’s pretty much the way it went down.”

“Must’ve been some good lovin’,” I said, trying to keep my hands still.

“I’d say so. It took a while to get used to seeing them together in that way.”

“I bet.” I looked at him. “That rarely happens, though…two friends winding up as a couple.”

He made a sort of humming noise and we drove on for a bit, not saying anything. I pulled down the visor and slid open the mirror as Sam messed with the CD player. I checked out my bump in the reflection when I heard…
Just ask him.

Excuse me?

Quit being a fucking pussy and ask the goddamn question.

I can’t just blurt it out.

Pussy.

It takes a little finesse.

You’re pathetic.

Go to hell.

Little pansy queer boy’s too scared of the big mean man.

“Fuck off!” I yelled out loud, slamming the visor up as Sam jumped, jerking the car around.

“What the hell!” He placed a hand over his chest.

“Oh, I…sorry. It was too quiet.”

“O…kay.” Sam glanced over at me from the corner of his eye.

“Sorry, won’t happen again.”
Nice going, dumb-ass. Good way to gain someone’s trust.

“You really are a little odd, aren’t you?” he asked.

“Difficult to argue that one at this point.”

“I’ll say this much for you, you’ve got balls.”

“And I’m not afraid to use them.” I laughed.

“I should say not.” He looked at me with a half smile. “Your little redecorating scheme back there.”

“Oh…yeah, I don’t know what came over me. I intended on just moving a few things to poke fun at his analness. It got a little out of hand.”

“That’s funny,” he said. “I wish I could be there to see his face.”

I bet you do, I thought, feeling a little sick to my stomach, beginning to worry how Logan would react.

Using his turn signal, he moved into the next lane.

“So how long have you been in love with him?”

He jerked the car, bumping into the median before stopping at the light.

“Sorry?” he asked, looking mildly uncomfortable. “What…what do you mean?”

“Logan…how long have you been in love with him?”

Sam laughed nervously, giving me a you-must-be-crazy look. “That’s just… We’re just friends…that’s all.”

“I realize that.” I was tapping my finger lightly on the door handle. “But how long have you wanted to be more than just friends with him?”

Sam moved the car forward as the light changed. “You’re crazy.” He squirmed in his seat a little turning the corner. “What would even make you think that?”

“I understand if you don’t feel comfortable talking to me about this. You don’t even know me. I just sensed it from the moment I met you at the airport. You looked a little too uncomfortable watching us kiss. Rather than pretending I didn’t know, I thought I’d simply address it and get it out in the open. Maybe it was wrong of me to say anything. I apologize if I’ve offended you.”

He turned the car into a small apartment complex and pulled over to the side. He reached down, put the car in park, and turned to look at me, studying my face, obviously wondering whether he should or could trust me. “He doesn’t know, and I don’t want him to.”

“Oh my God.” I held up a hand. “I’m not trying to pull an Aaron Spelling-type bitch-fest confrontation here. I come in peace.”

He seemed to relax a little. “It’s very difficult, well, not difficult…it used to be. I don’t know what it is anymore, but I do know I don’t want to alienate him from my life. He’s still the best friend I’ve ever had.”

“And I don’t want to come between that,” I assured. “I suppose that’s why I brought it up. I mean, I don’t know exactly what’s going on between Logan and myself. We live so far apart, it’s hard to allow myself to imagine anything permanent coming out of it. At the same time, it’s difficult to imagine something permanent not to come out of it. Either way, I’d like to think we could be friends…get along at the very least. Honestly, it makes me really uncomfortable to think that you might feel threatened by me.”