Cast Off (14 page)

Then something changed, clicked into place. It might have been the cumulative effect of the alcohol, it might have been the lack of pressure from Ian, or it might have been exhaustion from keeping up his walls, but the conversation relaxed and flowed naturally. Rick even allowed himself to have some fries.

R
ICK
stared up at the flashing lights of the marquee. He’d been a little surprised, but not displeased, that Ian had called him so soon after their Tuesday outing. He did love watching movies.

“Aside from last Saturday, it’s been a while since I bothered to go to a movie. What did you want to see?”

There was something too depressing about going to the movies alone. Clubs weren’t a problem, especially if he was looking to get laid. But movies and dinner out—those were things that always made him feel like he was on display with a big neon sign hanging over his head telling everyone he was alone. The older he and his friends got, the more everyone became homebodies. By default, Rick had become more of a homebody too. Most times he didn’t mind—he’d always enjoyed his own company—but sometimes his house seemed too big for just him.

“Doesn’t matter. We can just grab the next showing.” Ian pulled out his wallet and stepped into line.

Rick followed—physically, at any rate, because he certainly hadn’t followed Ian’s statement. “The next showing of what?”

Flipping his wrist over, Ian checked the time. “It’s eight now. Are you hungry?”

Rick shrugged. “Not hungry, but I do like to get popcorn at the movies.”

“Okay, then. We’ll just grab whatever movie’s next. Unless it starts in the next ten minutes. Then we’ll take the one after that.”

Had he missed something? “Don’t you want to go to a specific movie?”

“Nah, not really. My parents couldn’t afford to take the whole family out to the movies very often and on the few times they did… with seven kids there was absolutely no possibility for consensus. So my parents started the ‘next showing’ policy. Whatever time we arrived at the theater, we’d go see the next showing. Back then, there were sometimes exceptions made based on rating, but most of us just got into the habit of taking the next showing of whatever was at the theater.”

“But, but….” Rick couldn’t come up with a coherent argument. He’d never heard of anything so Zen. Not when it came to anything to do with schedules. “What if the next movie’s awful? Or not a genre you like?”

Ian spread his hands out, the ultimate gesture of “whatever.” “I’ve seen a lot of good movies that I might never have otherwise seen.”

“Uh-huh. And the shit ones?”

The boyish grin he got was just adorable. “The shit ones give you plenty to talk about.”

“So how come you knew about that midnight showing of
Raiders
on Saturday?”

“Mmm. It’s a classic. I’ve seen it tons of times and had heard it was having a small revival at the indie theater. It doesn’t have to all be forging into the unknown, you know.”

“Okay, then.” Rick gestured him forward. Unsurprisingly, it took Ian a few moments to convince the girl behind the glass that he really did want two tickets to the next movie, whatever it might be, but it didn’t take nearly as long as Rick expected. Then again, Ian had already convinced him to break or bend several rules.

He’d never met one of the proverbial silver-tongued devils before, but he suspected Ian might be one of them. Convincing cats to become vegetarian and selling sand to Egyptians. At this point, Rick was beginning to believe Ian could charm the blue from the sky.

Ian returned from the box office waving two tickets. “Better hurry. We’ve got fifteen minutes to get munchies.”

Rick grabbed the tickets. “
European Death Knot
? What the hell is that?”

Ian shrugged. “Dunno. We’ll find out, won’t we? C’mon.”

The man was nuts and if this movie was utter shit, he’d make sure Ian made it up to him forever.

R
ICK
sagged against Ian, still giggling as they walked out of the theater. Ian badly wanted to put an arm around Rick, show everyone they were on a date, but he didn’t dare. Rick had relaxed around him, but if he moved too fast or took too many liberties outside of the “becoming friends” bucket, he suspected Rick would pull back into his shell.

Ian snorted. To the average onlooker, Rick was never in a shell. He was out there and proud. But Ian had seen glimpses of the inner Rick, the real person beneath the mask he showed the world, and that was the Rick Ian wanted to know.

“That was hilarious. Fucking awful, but also hilarious,” Rick wheezed.

“Yeah, I have to admit with a title like
European Death Knot
, I was expected a kidnapping or maybe something exploding.”

Rick loosed another chuckle. “Me too. I can only assume the success of that movie where the guy gnawed off his own arm made the makers of this assume any rock-climbing movie would have equal success.”

When they exited the building, the night was dark and clear with an unexpected bite in the air. Rick stayed close, their body heat increasing the temperature in the few millimeters between them.

“Didn’t he cut his arm off?”

“Gnaw, cut… to-
may
-to, to-
mah
-to.”

Ian laughed. He really enjoyed Rick when the man wasn’t worried about what he said or how he presented himself. Sarcastic, happy Rick was a man he wanted to spend all his time with.

“Still, when they started throwing out terms like Alpine Cock Ring, edging, daisy chain, and tea bagging, I thought someone had accidentally loaded up a gay porn,” Ian said.

“I know, right? If there was any such thing as a gay agenda, that’s an example of it right there.”

“Really?”

“Darling, of course some diabolical gay man came up with those terms. Nothing like having a bunch of unsuspecting straights talking about tea bagging and cock rings in everyday conversation. Whoever invented those terms probably literally died laughing.”

“Maybe we should take up rock climbing.” Ian had thought about doing so even before he knew half the terms sounded like being in the middle of a gay porn flick, but never bothered looking into it. If the whole thing was so amusing to Rick, it might be fun. With that trim little body, there was no doubt Rick was fit enough.

Rick jabbed him in the arm. “Really? You want me to go out and risk life and limb while I’m trying not to wet myself laughing? That’s just mean, darling.”

If Ian thought for one minute Rick had reserved the name darling for him alone, he might have liked it. As it was, he wondered if it was yet another way for Rick to keep people from getting too close by not individualizing them. But it was early days yet. He didn’t think he believed in love at first sight, but the first sight of Rick had changed him in some fundamental way and anything he could do to get closer to Rick, he’d do, even if it meant being one of a million of Rick’s darlings. For now.

“I’d never want to be mean to you.” The temptation to add the word darling on to the end of his sentence was strong, but Ian knew he couldn’t say it with the same flair as Rick. It would come out either mocking or bitter, neither of which would endear him to Rick. “So rock climbing is out. How about coffee in the meantime? We can discuss another hobby to take up.”

Rick yanked his phone out of a pocket and checked the time. “It’s a little late, isn’t it? I mean, we both have work in the morning.”

Like a kid pleading for five more minutes, Ian wasn’t ready for the night to end. “If you were at a club, would it be too late? You wouldn’t be heading home yet, would you?”

There was no mistaking the leer on Rick’s face. If Rick were at a club right now, he’d probably be getting blown in the bathroom. Ian twisted his hips away from Rick as he unlocked the car door so his immediate reaction wasn’t visible. He’d promised friends first, and that meant no relieving his hard-on. Not with Rick, not yet.

“That’s what I thought. We’ve got plenty of time for coffee.”

“I suppose. Although I don’t go clubbing midweek so much anymore.”

Ian sighed. “Me neither.” All too often, even getting laid wasn’t enough to energize him to get dressed up and go out during the week, especially if he had early meetings the next day. Rick, though, energized him like he was a teenager again.

Rick echoed his sigh. “And caffeine this late keeps me from falling asleep.”

“Me too.” It hadn’t always, but as the years passed, things changed. “But I bet we can get something decaf.”

“Okay, we can do that.”

He had to try. “Or we could go back to my place. Have a drink there.”

Shit, shit, shit. Big mistake. In a heartbeat, Rick’s relaxed attitude dissipated, and he frowned at Ian like he was a sexual predator.

“Hey, it was only a suggestion. Nothing more, I swear.” Right. He’d already figured out that Rick’s place was off-limits. Clearly, Ian’s was as well. Good to know. He put his most innocent expression on, hoping Rick would accept the truth. Because the suggestion really had been nothing more than convenience. He was committed to laying a foundation first, because that was the only way they were going to be able to go forward and trust each other.

Rick relented and Ian let out a relieved breath. “We’ll go out for a coffee only, or whatever the late-night equivalent is.”

“Good.”

A head of dark shaggy hair caught his eye, and Ian craned to take a look.

“What?” Rick looked in the same direction too, but the guy Ian had seen slipped away.

“Nothing. Just thought I saw a friend from work, that guy Leon I told you about. I was going to say hi, but maybe I was imagining it.”

“Seeing things, are you? Maybe you need sleep more than coffee.” Rick winked at him, but he wasn’t taking that suggestion. No way.

“Let’s go. There’s a decent café the next block over. We can keep our parking spaces here and walk over.”

The whole way to the café, Ian’s fingers twitched from the desire to grab Rick’s hand and walk down the street as though they were a couple.

Chapter 5

R
ICK
wasn’t sure how it happened, but over the past few weeks, he and Ian had fallen into almost a pattern. Tuesday nights were drinks at some funky bar or dinner at some trendy place Ian had read or heard about. For some of the more popular places, it could be weeks before a reservation was available on the weekends, but Tuesdays were much easier. Thursday had become movie night. Saturday afternoon and evening had become a wild-card day.

In addition, he’d also had some terrible luck. Aside from the dead squirrel, he’d had three flat tires, his car keyed, a minor garbage fire, some unpleasant surprises in his mailbox, and a bag of burning shit that scorched the outside of the basement window he’d fortunately fixed, otherwise he had no doubt it would have ended up on his basement floor. He hoped ignoring it was the right tactic to take. Ian wanted him to go to the police or even tell Kurt about it, but Rick was convinced the kid or kids would get bored eventually. Unless, of course, he caught the little fucker at it. That would be a different story. Right now it was mostly harmless stuff, and none of it able to deflate his good mood. Spending time with Ian was the most fun he’d had in a long time.

They’d visited places in and around Toronto that Rick had never been to or had only been to on school trips. Fort York, Casa Loma, the CN Tower, Toronto Island. The Festival of Beer hadn’t been edifying, but they’d had a lot of fun. It wasn’t only sightseeing places either. They’d gone mini golfing and glow-in-the-dark bowling. Not once had they run out of things to talk about. Rick had even shared a few stories of his childhood. Simple ones, with no real baggage attached, but he generally didn’t speak of his childhood at all.

He still saw Jon and the others on Friday nights, but he hadn’t mentioned—not even to Kurt—that he’d been seeing Ian. All of them had assumed he and Ian burned out their attraction after two nights in the sack. Thing was, every “friendship date” they had only fanned Rick’s flames, and he’d started dreaming about sex. Sex with Ian. Lots and lots of sex with Ian.

Under normal circumstances, he’d already have been trying to find someone to add to his fuck-buddy roster. But he had no desire to go looking because he was waiting for Ian to realize they were good enough friends to move on to the “benefits” stage of their… friendship.

But it had been a long time since he’d been celibate for seven weeks. Nevertheless, he was enjoying his time with Ian too much. Every “friendship” night gave Rick a raging hard-on despite the fact that they didn’t do more than brush arms, hands, or hips “accidentally,” but he couldn’t quite bring himself to ask Ian when they were going to have sex again. There was a deep-seated fear that sleeping with Ian would turn him into a keeper, and the thought of never seeing Ian again gave Rick a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

However, he had realized that each of their “dates” thus far had been planned—very well—by Ian. It was about time Rick stepped up, and the pleasure in Ian’s voice when he’d called to invite him out for a Wednesday night let him know he’d done the right thing. Especially since Ian would be unavailable on Saturday because of his sister’s birthday party.