Chapter 3

Today he thinks he’ll do that. He has this

idea in mind that he must’ve dreamed of, he doesn’t know, but a

triple flip up onto a curb, he thinks he could maybe pull off

something like that. Doesn’t hurt to try, anyway. “I might head

out,” he tells Richard. Then he remembers this morning. “Are we

meeting for lunch?”

“Are we?” Richard asks.

CJ hears the frown in his lover’s voice. “I

thought we agreed to it,” he says. He doesn’t sound too convinced.

With so much time on his hands, it’s sometimes hard to separate the

day and night, what happens from what he thinks happens. “Did I

tell you I’d catch up with you sometime today? Right before you

left this morning.”

Richard laughs, a rich sound that curls

through CJ like thick cream. “You were out like a light, babe,” he

says. That’s his phrase, CJ knew it was coming, and he thinks it’s

cool that he knows his guy so well. “You didn’t say anything when I

kissed you goodbye. Maybe you—”

“Dreamed it,” CJ finishes for him.

“Maybe I did.” He listens to Richard breathe for a moment, then

asks, “You want to, though? I can meet you somewhere. What time is

it anyway?”

“A little after nine.” CJ hears papers

rustling as Richard leafs through his appointment book. “I’ve got a

sales meeting at eleven thirty, hon. I’m not sure I’ll be out

before noon.”

CJ waits. After a moment or two, Richard

tells him, “No later than one, if you want to wait that long? If

not—”

“I’ll wait,” CJ says. It’s not like he

has anything else he reallyneeds to do. “One?”

Richard amends, “Or a little after that. I’ll

call you before I leave, how’s that sound? Oh—before I forget.

There’s a list on the stove, babe. A few things I need you to pick

up.”

“Okay.”

“We’re out of milk,” Richard continues.

“Or we will be. There should be just enough for your cereal. I left

it for you.”

CJ grins at his guy’s thoughtfulness. “Okay.

How about Harrison’s then?” A local grocery store with an eatery,

on the bus route and close to where Richard works, too. They can

grab a bite to eat and once Richard heads back to the office, CJ

can get what groceries are on the list. Not to mention that there’s

an old piece of concrete piping that the city abandoned in the

grassy lot beside Harrison’s—some of the older boarders hang out

there. Well, boarders hisage, now. He’s getting older

himself. Twenty is pretty damn old in his eyes. “Richard? What

about Harrison’s?”

“Sure,” his lover murmurs, distracted.

“Ceej, I’ve got to go. I’ll call before I leave.”

“I might not be here.” CJ frowns at the

phone. He hates whoever it is in Richard’s office taking his guy’s

attention away from him, where it belongs. One of the admins or a

courier. “Who is it?” he wants to know. “Tell ‘em to go away.

You’re talking to me.”

Richard sighs. “Hon, I have to go. I’ll call

you.”

“Don’t bother,” CJ says. “I’ll meet you

there. One o’clock.” He can hear a muffled voice through the

phone—Richard covering the mouthpiece as he speaks to someone else.

Not me.“Richard?” CJ asks. “I’m still here. You said

one?”

“About that. Look—” Richard’s voice

takes on a hard edge, his business-speak. It’s one of the only

things about his guy that really pisses him off, the easy way he

can dismiss CJ when he has work to do. “I’m not sure how long the

meeting’s going to last, okay? Aroundone or so, I don’t

know. I’ll call you…”

“I’ll meet you there,” CJ mutters. Fuck

whoever’s in his office right now. Hewas talking to him

first. But if he says anything, Richard will remind him that he’s

the one at work, he has a jobunlike some people he could

mention, and he has to go. Then he’ll hang up on him, pissed, and

CJ will get mad and Richard won’t meet him for lunch… “Forget it.”

It isn’t worth the hassle.

“What?” Richard asks.

CJ shakes the blankets off as he climbs out

of bed. “I said forget it. I’ll see you at one.”

With another sigh, Richard says, “Babe, I

said I don’t know what time—”

“You said one.” CJ gathers the phone up

from where it rests between the sheets and sets it back on the

bedside table. “See you then. Love you.”

Before Richard can argue, CJ hangs up. He’s

not mad, he tells himself. Richard’s busy, that’s all. He shakes

the blankets into some semblance of order and then shucks off his

boxers. Naked, he pads out into the hall, scratching his disheveled

hair as he tries to remember the bus schedule. It’s still early. He

has plenty of time.