The Boy Who Came in From the Cold (14 page)

you
in?”

 

After that, it was business. Big business indeed.

I
T WASfunny wearing Gabe’s clothes. Not as in “ha-ha!” funny, but odd and weird and dammit, kind of sexy. For some damned reason, Todd couldn’t help but think about how his body was surrounded by clothing that usually held Gabe’s. The underwear were especially— what? He couldn’t identify just what the feeling was. Unnerving?

They’re washed
, Todd thought.
It’s not like his ball sweat is in them
.
Todd shivered. Felt gooseflesh at the thought.
My dick is right where Gabe’s has been. Of course, I’m about a tenth of his size, from what I saw through those sweats of his.

Don’t think about it. Dinner. Work on dinner.
No. Laundry first.

That made him think about why he was doing it. Not only because the few clothes he had were dirty, but Gabe had seen him running in his underwear on the treadmill.

With a hard-on.
The thought made him almost need to sit down. So embarrassing. How would he ever face the man again? The look that had been on Gabe’s face. Concern, yes. But more. Lust? Had he seen lust? He thought maybe he had.
Jeez. What did I look like, running like that? And in my fucking underwear.
With a hard-on!
Don’t think about it. Do the damned laundry.

Todd found detergent in the bathroom, grabbed a handful of change from Gabe’s bedroom like he’d been told, and then grabbing the key, went looking for the laundry room. It was pretty easy to find, right in the basement as in most apartment buildings.

There was a little girl there, maybe ten years old, and she was pulling clothes out of a dryer. She looked up. “Hi,” she said. She was a lovely girl, with long brown hair, olive skin, and huge Disney-like brown eyes.

“Hi,” he said.

“I don’t know you,” she replied. “I’m Bianca. Are you new in the building?” She tossed her head, flipping her hair back.
“I-I’m staying with someone for a few days.” How did he explain it? Especially to a little girl?

“With who?” she asked and began to fold clothes.

Todd swallowed. Nosy thing, wasn’t she? “Gabe,” he replied and dumped the bag of laundry he’d brought down on one of the two long tables in the middle of the room. His jeans, sweater, socks, shoes, and briefs (the pair Gabe had seen him in, and he felt his face heat up). And in what had been a last minute thought, he’d grabbed the clothes in Gabe’s hamper. That turned out to be a pair of jeans, some sweats, two T-shirts, a hoodie, and socks and underwear. No dress slacks or shirts.

Dry cleaned probably. Of course.

“Really? Gabe is nice. I think he liked my daddy, but he took too long. He’s with Curtis now.”
Gabe was with Curtis? Wait. What? “Who is Curtis? Gabe has a boyfriend named Curtis?” The thought made his stomach drop.

She laughed. “No. Curtis is my
daddy’s
boyfriend.” She winked. “I got them together.”

“Your dad’s gay?” Todd asked.
She smiled. “Sure!”

Had he woken up in
The Twilight Zone
? A little girl who didn’t care that her dad was gay? What did she mean about…? “What do you mean you got them together?”

“I’m good,” she said. “Course they already liked each other. I just had to help them see it. Now I have two daddies.” She giggled. “You gonna do your clothes, or what?”

“What? Oh.” He cleared his throat, shook his head. He began to separate the clothes. There wasn’t a lot here, but he certainly didn’t want to mix whites with anything else. But then whites turned out to be nothing more than several pairs of socks and a pair of Hugo Boss boxer briefs. The pouch was pretty stretched out.
God
. Why was he even noticing something like that? He felt a shifting in his own underwear— except even those belonged to Gabe.

What was happening to him?
“Do you like Gabe?” the little girl asked.

Todd jerked his gaze away from the underwear. “What do you mean by that?”

She gave him a curious look. “Do you like him?”
“He’s nice,” Todd managed.
She waggled her eyebrows. “But do you
like
him?”
“I’m not a faaa….” He stopped. “I’m not gay,” he said. She looked at him askance. “You’re not? You
seem
gay.” “What do you mean?” He bristled.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I just can tell. Well, usually. Maybe you’re bi?”

“What?” He really had fallen into
The Twilight Zone
! “Bi. You know, you like boys and girls.”
“I like girls,” he cried, his stomach clenching.
She looked at him funny. “What’s your name again?”

“I didn’t say,” Todd answered and felt a trickle of sweat run down his side. He looked away and began shoving the clothes into two different washers.

“So are you an escaped criminal or something?” she asked. He laughed and turned back to her. “No!”
“Then tell me your name. I’ll find out anyway.”

He looked at her, eyes wide, mouth wanting to fall open. “Fine,” he said. “I’m Todd.”
“You don’t have to be so touchy,” she said with a harrumph. “I’m just being friendly.” She folded one last shirt and put her clothes in a basket.

“Why aren’t you in school?” he snapped.

“Well, duh.” She rolled her eyes. “Snow day. You gonna put those underwear in there or just stare at it all day?” She turned on her heel, the toss of her hair surely no accident, and walked out.

“Sorry?” he called out. Then looked down at the underwear in his hand. A pair of Emporio Armani boxers. Didn’t Gabe have
anything
that came from Walmart? God. What a stupid question. He looked back in the washer and found a blue-striped pair of C-IN2s. Then a blue pair with a boxed pattern from Papi. All sexy, like the kinds Todd used to look at on the Internet. He stared at the pair in his hand, so bright and colorful. Had he thought the pouch was stretched out on the other pair? How frigging hung was Gabe?

Then, not even knowing he was doing it, he brought the briefs up to his face, closed his eyes, and inhaled deeply.
God. Gabe’s scent. His ball scent. A lot like Austin’s.
Dammit.

He threw them into the washer, slammed it, and quickly added the coins to start it up. Remembering the detergent, he added that as well, and then started the other machine.

With that he dashed up out of the basement as if he were escaping a dungeon.

 

I—am—going—crazy!

T
ODD found the chicken thawed to his satisfaction, so he rubbed the inside with the bacon grease, added the fruit he’d prepared, rubbed the outside the same way. Then he wrapped it up in foil and popped it in the refrigerator.

He wasn’t sure just when to put it in the oven. Gabe had given him a fairly big window of when he’d be home. The chicken was a little over three pounds, so he figured it would take about an hour and a half to cook, two hours maybe.

Maybe you’re bi?
Shit.
Where had
that
come from?
Busy. He needed to keep busy.
So now what? Another movie?
The balcony. He could do something about the balcony.

A little thinking brought about a plan. There was a broom in the kitchen closet, as well as a dustpan. It would take a little doing, but thankfully there wasn’t all that much snow out there. At least not on the balcony itself. Interesting that it seemed to be the only balcony on this side of the building. Of course, it was the narrow side, and probably not all the apartments in the building were as big as Gabe’s.

So using the dustpan first as a makeshift shovel, he applied it and the broom and in less than an hour had everything looking good. Just in time too. It was starting to snow again, with big heavy flakes drifting down out of a sky that had turned silver. Probably everything would have melted and drained away through the slots in the brick near the floor, but why not do something to help?

After that he went back downstairs to switch the laundry to the dryers. He found himself with a weird sense of dread wondering if he would bump into that little girl. It was the last thing he wanted.

Maybe you’re bi?
Why wouldn’t that thought leave his head?

The thought of Austin and that night in his friend’s basement came to his mind.
You liked it.

I was horny. That’s it.
You liked it.

The basement elevator doors opened, and once more he found people who wanted to know who he was. This time a couple by the names of Harry and Cody. They were all grins when they found out he was staying with Gabe, and this time he just let them think what they wanted to think. They were nice. It was interesting to watch them. They were obviously a couple. They knew each other well, worked well together, did the whole complete-each-other’s-sentences kind of thing and more. They touched each other, but nothing overt or over the top. Just a couple.

A healthier couple than his mother and stepfather, that was for sure.

Why did that seem so weird?
Todd realized this was the closest he’d been to a gay couple. He’d seen gays since coming to Kansas City. He had seen what must be couples. But he’d never been right there, in the presence of two men

who were obviously a couple. They were so… normal. What had he expected? Had he really thought one of them would be wearing a dress or something? Maybe he had. Or metal-studded leather maybe? Rubber suits?

Nice. They were nice. “Christmas was our second anniversary,” Harry, the huskier of the two, said.

“Of course, it could have been more than that,” Cody said. He was slim, with a face made up of all angles. Not unattractive, just different. “But he was blind.”

Harry rolled his eyes. “He loves to tell people that.”

 

“Well, it’s true,” Cody replied. “We were best friends forever, and he finally let himself see how much he liked me.”

 

“How long?” Todd asked with a gulp.

 

“Too long,” Cody answered. “I mean, come on. How did he resist all this?” Cody did a spin and then flexed his muscles.

Harry laughed and pulled Cody into his arms and gave him a quick peck on the lips. “I was stupid is what I was.”
Cody pulled away and went back to their laundry. Their laundry. Two men’s stuff all in the same washing machine.

Like mine and Gabe’s
.
“How long have you been seeing Gabe?”
“What?” Todd asked, pulled from his thoughts.
“How long have you been seeing Gabe? Pretty new, huh?”

“I….” What did he say? He’d already let them think he was in fact seeing the man. “We’re really new,” he said, and felt a little flip in his stomach. Imagine, pretending he was dating a man. His stepfather would have a stroke.

“Well, there must be something going on, or he wouldn’t trust you in his place,” Harry said.

Todd felt a smile flicker across his face. “I guess he does.” Wow. Imagine. But maybe that was just Gabe. Maybe he was naturally trusting. “So he doesn’t have many guys around?” Now what made him ask that?

Harry and Cody looked at each other, then him.

 

“Sorry. Guess I was being nosy,” Todd apologized.

 

Harry shrugged. “I haven’t seen him with anyone in a couple years.” He and Cody looked at each other again.

God. What were they thinking? “Look, I really am sorry. I wasn’t trying to get into his business.”
Harry smiled. It was the kind of smile that lit up his whole face. “No. It’s okay. You like him then?”

Todd sucked in his breath, and then was immediately set upon by a fit of coughing.
Cody jumped forward and began to slap his back. “You okay? Something go down the wrong pipe?”

Todd tried to answer, but all he could do was cough.
Like Gabe?
Did he like Gabe?

And of course, the answer was yes. He hadn’t even known the man for a day. Had only spent one evening and one lunch with him. But the plain and simple truth was he did.

“Y-yes,” he said with a gasp. He liked Gabe.

 

A lot.

 

Chapter 8

 

G
ABE came home to a wonderful smell. Chicken and spices and something more; he wasn’t sure what. All he knew was it set his stomach growling and his salivary glands flowing.

“Todd?” he called when he didn’t see the young man in either the kitchen or living room.

“Your timing is perfect,” Todd cried as he came down the hall. “I can’t believe how perfect. Dinner will be done in just a bit. You want to shower first?”

Gabe saw Todd’s hair was damp, telling Gabe that Todd had just taken one. He was also wearing Gabe’s “The Other Team” T-shirt, and Gabe bet Todd had no idea what it meant. Should he tell him? Gay shirt or not, he couldn’t help but feel a little thrill at seeing Todd wear his shirt.

Now don’t go getting possessive. Todd is straight.
He says he is.
He could almost imagine what Tracy would say.

“Jiminy Cricket! Haven’t you learned your lesson? What did bringing out a kid do for you the last time?”

Heartache. Tons of heartache.
“Look at you,” Todd said. “All covered in snow.”

Gabe glanced at his shoulders, seemingly covered in white downy feathers. He started to shrug off his coat, and Todd darted behind him.