Rediscovery (6 page)

“
Would
you like to come out to my place this weekend?” Lee asked as he and Michael chatted on the phone on Wednesday night. They had spent all of Sunday together as well, although they hadn’t, somewhat to Michael’s surprise, ended up in bed. Instead they’d finished their movie marathon, played basketball, and caught up on the work Michael needed to do in his yard. Michael had tried to argue that was hardly a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon, but Lee had made it fun, laughing and teasing and tackling Michael at random intervals for light, playful kisses that could easily have turned more passionate and yet didn’t.

Since then, they’d talked on the phone every night but hadn’t managed to see each other again.

“For the whole weekend?” Michael asked hopefully.

“I hope so,” Lee teased. “I spent all of last weekend at your house.”

“I’ll pack a bag,” Michael said, smiling at the simple thought of another weekend with Lee. “Anything in particular I should bring?”

“Comfortable clothes,” Lee said. “I wasn’t planning on anything fancy. I thought we’d meet somewhere for dinner on Friday and then you could follow me home. I live out of town a bit, and it’s sometimes hard for people to find it.”

“So where do you want to meet?”

“There’s a new sushi place I’ve been wanting to try,” Lee said. “Feeling adventurous?”

Michael hesitated for a moment, not entirely sure how he felt about sushi, but Lee hadn’t led him wrong yet. “Sure, I’ll give it a try. I’ve never had sushi before.”

“If it’s good, there’s nothing to compare,” Lee said. “If it isn’t good, it’s pretty much awful. If it isn’t good, we’ll try somewhere else, and I’ll take you to Miyako’s for good sushi another time.”

Lee gave Michael the address, which he noted in his phone so he wouldn’t lose it. They talked for awhile longer before it got late enough that Michael had to hang up so he could go to work the next day.

On Friday
, Michael arrived at the restaurant early, but he’d been afraid he wouldn’t be able to get home from work and to the restaurant on time, so he’d taken his bag with him that morning. That had put him at the restaurant a good thirty minutes before he was supposed to meet Lee. He took a seat at the bar and ordered a beer to sip while he waited. His stomach was tied up in knots, despite his internal lectures to the contrary, but it seemed even their two dates had not completely eased his nerves about Lee’s profession. Other than that first impression, nothing Lee had said or done had given Michael any reason to worry about Lee’s inclinations. Hell, Lee had given in completely to Michael last weekend on the couch, lying beneath him, not passively, but without any attempt to take control of their interactions. It seemed almost too good to be true.

Michael decided that was what was bothering him, even more than the leatherwork Lee did. He couldn’t be this wonderful all the time, could he? There had to be some quirk, some flaw to make him human rather than the ideal Michael had built up in his mind. He shook his head at himself. This train of thought would bring him nothing but more nerves and a headache.

“You’re early.”

Michael jumped, unprepared to hear Lee’s voice already. “So are you,” he said, glancing at his watch.

“I thought I’d check out the place before you got here so we could go somewhere else if it didn’t look good,” Lee explained.

“I didn’t want to be late,” Michael replied, “so I came here straight from work. I haven’t even changed clothes.”

“I noticed,” Lee said with an admiring glance at Michael’s dress shirt and slacks. “You look good dressed up.”

“They don’t make us wear ties unless we have a meeting with a client,” Michael said, “but they do expect one step up from business casual.”

“That makes sense for an advertising agency,” Lee said. “You never know when a new client will come in unannounced, and if you were all sitting around in shorts and T-shirts, it wouldn’t make a very good first impression. Shall we get a table?”

Michael nodded and paid his tab at the bar.

The hostess seated them immediately.

“You’ll have to tell me what to order,” Michael said, “because I have no idea what’s good.”

“Why don’t I order a combo platter and you can taste a little of everything?” Lee proposed. “There’s very little I don’t like, so you can have what you want and I’ll eat the rest. And if you don’t like any of it, they have tempura and other things you might be more familiar with.”

“I’d like to try the sushi,” Michael said. “I have friends who get it all the time, but I’ve never had anyone to introduce me to it, and it doesn’t seem like something to jump into without a guide.”

“But jumping into things is so much fun,” Lee grinned. “Where would we be if you hadn’t taken that leap and asked me to share your table at the con?”

“That was different,” Michael said. “It was a table in a hotel restaurant. There wasn’t any risk.”

Lee raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know. Given what you told me about your ex and what you thought you knew about me at the time, it could have been a huge risk.”

“You weren’t wearing leather then. You aren’t nearly as intimidating in jeans.”

Lee laughed. “Intimidating?”

“Probably not to anyone else,” Michael agreed, “but everything about you in full leather set my nerves on edge. If it hadn’t been for the kids, I wouldn’t have taken even the risk I did.”

“Maybe coming to my house isn’t such a good idea after all,” Lee said slowly.

“Why not?” Disappointment filled Michael at having the invitation rescinded.

“Because I have a lot of leather at my place,” Lee said. “The workshop is out back, and sometimes I bring stuff in the house to work on while I’m cooking or watching TV at night or whatever. You aren’t going to be comfortable there.”

“As long as you aren’t trying to use anything on me, I’ll be fine,” Michael insisted. He couldn’t let this be an issue if they had any hope of having a relationship. He couldn’t very well demand Lee change jobs because Michael had a bad memory of a leather bar from college.

“I’m vanilla through and through,” Lee reminded him, “but that’s not going to help if the stuff is lying around.”

Michael shrugged. “I’d really like to see your house. If it’s too much, we can take things back out to your workshop. I’ll get past this. Please?”

“All right, but tell me if it gets to be a problem,” Lee insisted. “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“I’ll tell you,” Michael promised as the waiter came to take their order. Michael let Lee order for both of them and breathed a sigh of relief when Lee changed the subject after the waiter had left, asking instead about Michael’s week and his new account at work.

The platter of sushi, when it arrived, was both colorful and copious, making Michael glad they were sharing it rather than each ordering something different. Lee picked up his chopsticks with obvious ease and started pointing out the various kinds of sushi. After only a moment, Michael shook his head. “Information overload. How about I decide which one looks good and ask you what it is?”

“We can do it that way,” Lee agreed. “This is wasabi. It’s pretty spicy. I mix it in with soy sauce and dip my sushi in it, but you may want to stick with the soy sauce the first time out, particularly since I don’t know how much wasabi the chef put on the sushi to begin with.”

Michael poured some soy sauce into the dish but didn’t add any wasabi. Picking up his own chopsticks with somewhat less flair, he pointed to one of the pieces of sushi. “That’s obviously shrimp.”

“Yes,” Lee said. “It’s cooked, so it’s a good start for someone who isn’t sure how they feel about the uncooked stuff.”

Michael picked it up precariously, dipped it in the soy sauce, and ate it, the flavor exploding over his tongue. When he’d managed to swallow, his eyes watering slightly, he said, “I think the chef was generous with the wasabi.”

“Eat some of the ginger,” Lee suggested. “It helps break the oil in the spices. Or I could order some sake for you.”

“No, it’s fine,” Michael said, blinking away the moisture. “It’s delicious. I just wasn’t expecting quite that much heat.”

The next bite was easier, and the rest of the meal passed in easy conversation.

When they’d finished eating, Michael followed Lee out 290, past Cypress Fairbanks and into the country. They turned off the highway and onto little country roads that made Michael glad he wasn’t trying to find the place on his own. Finally they pulled into a long driveway and up to a country farmhouse. “This is beautiful,” Michael said, getting out of his car and looking around at the house.

“My great-grandparents built it,” Lee said. “The barn is my workshop now, but other than that, and a few modernizations in the plumbing, it looks pretty much the way it did when it was new. Come inside. I’ll give you the nickel tour.”

Michael followed Lee across the wide, wraparound porch and into the house. The inside was exactly what the outside proclaimed: a turn-of-the-century farmhouse, with all the rustic charm of such houses. He could see the little touches Lee had added: new windows, a fresh coat of paint, refinished floors, but much of it could have been original.

Lee led Michael through the ground floor and into a small bedroom. “I didn’t want to presume, so I put clean sheets on the bed down here for you. I want to spend the weekend together, but that doesn’t mean you have to spend it in my bed.”

“Thank you,” Michael said, setting his bag down next to the foot of the bed. “I appreciate having the choice.”

“You always have a choice,” Lee assured him, putting his arms around Michael’s waist. Michael leaned into the embrace, resting his head against Lee’s shoulder.

“This is nice,” he said after a moment, “standing together this way. No pressure, no demands. Just being together.”

“There’s definitely something to be said for being together,” Lee agreed. “Do you want to see the upstairs too? There are two more bedrooms and my office.”

“It’s a big house.”

“My great-grandparents had a big family,” Lee replied. “Or I can show you the workshop if you want.”

“Tomorrow,” Michael declared. “Tonight, I want to sit with you on the couch and enjoy being in your house instead of my condo.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Lee said, leading Michael back out into the living room. “It’s too warm for a fire, although the fireplace does work if we want to build one this winter. Do you want to watch a movie? Or we could play cards?”

“We watched a movie last weekend,” Michael said. “Do you have
Risk
?”

“No, but I have
Senet
,” Lee grinned. “It’s an Egyptian game, supposedly the oldest board game in the world.”

“I’ll give it a try,” Michael said with a laugh. “We met at a gaming convention. You know I’m up for all sorts of games.”