Something Like Summer (25 page)

“
Idiot!” Jace’s voice said
through a hand on the receiver. “Sorry, this is Jace,” he said in a
much clearer tone.

“
Hey, it’s Ben. Look, did
I call at a bad time?”

“
Ben! Hey! No, not a bad
time at all. That was just my sister. She enjoys destroying my
social life.”

“
I know what you mean,”
Ben said sympathetically. “I have one of those, too.”

“
Yeah, they’re a pain. She
was just leaving anyway,” he added pointedly. “Hold on.”

Ben listened to a hurried
goodbye between the siblings, wondering what in the world he was
going to say when Jace was free again. How about that flight? Did
everything go okay with handing out the peanuts? Any trouble with
the overhead bins? Usually he met guys at a bar where he was able
to converse in person. Over the phone it felt much more
awkward.

“
So, what did Santa bring
you for Christmas?” Jace asked suddenly.

“
What?” Ben
laughed.

“
For Christmas. What did
you get?”

“
Uh, actually I haven’t
even opened my presents yet. I’ve been with my friend almost the
whole time since landing. My parents are probably dying to see me,
actually.”

“
They’ll have to wait,”
Jace said. “Do you want to meet tonight?”

“
It’s almost
midnight!”

“
Is it already?” He
sounded genuinely puzzled. “You see what flying so much does to
you? I have no concept of time anymore.”

“
Tomorrow would be good,”
Ben suggested.

“
Can you ice skate?” Jace
asked.

“
No.”

“
Excellent! Why don’t we
meet at the Galleria Ice Rink? Do you know where that
is?”

“
Of course,” Ben answered,
his head spinning. This was all going too fast!

“
Next to the skate rental
booth. Around dinner time?”

Ben didn’t answer right
away.

“
I’m not a serial killer
or anything,” Jace said, noticing Ben’s hesitance. “It’s just that
I would prefer to stare into those lovely brown eyes of yours when
we talk.”

“
My eyes are green,” Ben
lied, trying to throw him for a loop.

“
No, they aren’t. I’ll
prove it to you tomorrow. Seven o’clock?”

“
Yeah, all right,” Ben
said, smiling into the receiver. “Central time zone. Don’t
forget.”

“
I won’t, promise. Go see
your parents tomorrow!”

“
All right, all right!”
Ben mocked irritation. “Geez. You’d think we were married
already.”

“
Now who’s rushing things?
Goodnight, Ben.”

“
Goodnight.”

__________

Chapter 17

Houston’s Galleria might be
one of the largest malls in America, but the three million square
feet could have easily fit inside the pit in Ben’s stomach. The
amount of butterflies there contended with those of his first day
in kindergarten. Dates never made him nervous, but usually Ben
would meet a guy at a bar or on campus, where conversation would
flow naturally until they reached some level of comfort. Instead
there had been a brief and groggy flight, from which remained only
a fuzzy impression of a handsome flight attendant. Hopefully his
memory didn’t cheat, because his evening was now committed to this
mystery date.

The mall’s layout was
fairly typical— rows of stores on each floor separated by an empty
gap that allowed a shopper to see the floors above or below. Ben
peered over one of the railings to the lowest floor, which was an
ice rink. People of all ages glided by below, as comfortable in
their ice skates as in shoes. This wasn’t going to work.

There was no sign of Jace,
but then they were supposed to meet by the skate rentals. Gathering
his courage, Ben pushed his way through the swarms of people. Two
days after Christmas meant the mall was a nightmare of
after-holiday sales and gift returns. Once the elevator that Ben
squeezed into dinged open, he spotted Jace immediately.

Ben’s date was handsome,
which did little to dispel his anxiety. Jace was dressed sharply in
a black, knee-length, winter jacket, the sort a classy New Yorker
might wear. This was tempered with a casual pair of jeans and a
well-worn pair of tennis shoes. His hair was styled to perfection,
which made Ben wish for a mirror to check his own, but Jace had
already seen him.

They greeted each other
clumsily, unsure whether to shake hands or hug. Waiting in line for
their skates was awkward, Jace trying to make small talk and Ben
trying to find a part of himself that wasn’t feeling bashful. Now
Ben was eager to get out on the rink, just so they would have an
activity to distract themselves with.

“
Are you any good at
this?” Ben asked as they were pulling on their ice
skates.

“
Oh, I do all right.” Jace
finished tying his laces and looked to Ben’s. “Wait. You missed a
rung and the tongue is stuffed in. Here.”

Like a father helping his
child, he stooped, untied Ben’s skates, and then laced them up
correctly. When finished, he smiled and offered his hand. Ben
accepted it and hobbled with him to the edge of the
rink.

“
I really can’t ice skate
at all,” he said. “I did once when I was eight, and all I remember
is falling on my ass until I finally gave up.”

“
You didn’t have me
then.”

Jace’s eyes twinkled as he
led Ben out onto the ice. Ben started slow, keeping a
white-knuckled grip on Jace’s elbow. Less than a minute later his
legs were slipping out from under him. Jace caught the back of his
jacket before he could fall and allowed Ben to steady himself on
the wall of the rink.

“
You have to move your
legs like this,” Jace explained, showing him the odd diagonal
movement needed to propel forward.

Over the next twenty
minutes, Jace patiently coached him. Ben began to get the hang of
it. The ice skates weren’t so different from his old Rollerblades,
really. Another twenty minutes later and he was really enjoying
himself. He still wasn’t confident enough to let go of Jace, but
then he didn’t want to. Ben released his death grip on Jace’s elbow
and took his hand instead. He noticed that while Jace was slender,
there was a lot more muscle than it appeared. His hands weren’t
boney and cold. They were strong and warm.

“
This is nice,” Ben said
as they made their way around, hand in hand. “Anywhere else and
people would be staring at us, but here we have a reason to hold on
to each other.”

Jace smiled at him. “I have
to admit that was part of the plan,” he confessed, “but I don’t
need a pretense to hold another guy’s hand in public. Let people
stare if they want.”

“
Where were you when I was
in high school?” Ben sighed.

“
I was wondering that
myself. You look much younger now that you aren’t suffering through
a late flight.”

“
Oh.” Ben wasn’t sure if
this was good or bad. “I just turned twenty. You?”

Jace exhaled dramatically.
“A little bit older than that.”

“
Thirty?” Ben asked in
shock.

“
Hey!” Jace let go of Ben
to express how offended he was. Ben’s arms pinwheeled for a second
before Jace came back to stabilize him with an arm around his
waist. “I’m only twenty-six!”

“
Well, you were the one
acting dramatic about it,” Ben teased. “What do you like better
anyway? Younger or older?”

“
Doesn’t matter. It’s the
personality that counts. Mind if I do a couple of rounds on my
own?”

“
Sure.”

Jace parked Ben somewhere
safe before gliding away. He moved gracefully, navigating
skillfully past slower skaters and travelling in sweeping arcs. Ben
watched him, admiring his skill while taking the chance to check
out Jace’s body. His frame was tall and his shoulders broad, but it
was hard to tell more with the thick winter clothing. More than
Ben’s curiosity was becoming aroused.

Ben struck out bravely on
his own, determined to do at least one round under his own power.
Jace nodding approvingly as he swept by, showing off by skating
backwards for a few strokes. When they met back at the entrance to
the rink, their stomachs grumbled in unison. Carpooling in Jace’s
practical silver coupe, they drove to a seafood place not far
away.

“
My legs are really
starting to hurt,” Ben winced as they sat down at the
table.

“
Wait until tomorrow,”
Jace informed him. “You’ll be walking bowlegged all
day.”

“
Because of the skating
you mean?”

“
Of course,” Jace replied
innocently.

Their order was taken by a
disgruntled waitress who rightly felt it was much too soon to be
returning to work after Christmas. They sipped their drinks when
she brought them, making eyes at each other and often smiling
without reason.

“
So I take it you’re still
in college?” Jace asked.

“
Yeah, up at Columbia
College in Chicago.”

“
How do you like
it?”

Ben shrugged. “It’s all
right.”

“
I couldn’t wait to get
out,” Jace said. “The only good thing about college was having four
extra years to figure out what I wanted to do.”

“
I didn’t know flight
attendants went to college,” Ben said, considering too late how it
might sound, but Jace didn’t appear offended.

“
It’s not a requirement.
It’s just that-- Well, what do you want to be when you grow up?
What’s your major?”

“
I have no idea,” Ben
chuckled. “It changes on a daily basis.”

“
There you go. Paying
tuition is just an expensive way of buying time.”

“
So I take it you didn’t
always want to be a stewardess?” Ben taunted.

Jace smiled. “I originally
wanted to be a nurse.”

“
That’s cool. What changed
your mind?”

“
I started to doubt that
I’d be able to handle the job emotionally. In the long term it
either depresses you or you become numb. I didn’t like the idea of
either happening.”

“
Hm.” Ben eyed the plates
of the other diners, impatient for his own to arrive. “Can I ask
you a very direct question without you getting mad at
me?”

Jace cocked an eyebrow.
“Sure.”

“
How come flight
attendants always act so pissy?”

“
Was I so terrible to
you?” Jace laughed. “No, I know what you mean. The reason we act a
little, uh, irritable sometimes is because people misunderstand our
job. Everyone thinks that we’re the waiters and waitresses of the
sky, when we’re not.”

“
You’re not?”

“
Not at all. Our primary
duty is to ensure the well-being of the passengers. There are a
number of safety checks and procedures that we are responsible for,
and I don’t just mean the emergency demonstration that everyone
ignores. Ensuring the health and safety of every passenger is a
flight attendant’s primary function. It’s much more than just food
service, and there are a great number of unsung heroes who have
saved lives because of the skills required for the
position.”

“
Wow.” Ben had to respect
Jace’s passion for his job. “I didn’t know that.”

“
The first-ever stewardess
was a nurse,” Jace continued. “Ellen Church. Before her there were
only stewards, and they really were just errand boys. Ellen Church
realized that a nurse had a number of skills useful in an
emergency, and the rest is history. Reading her story is what made
me want to be a flight attendant. That, and the travel.”

Plates appeared on the
table, barely noticed through the conversation. Jace spoke more
about his job and the long miles involved before asking about Ben’s
life and discussing the different possible options for his future.
Ben had never dated someone as old as Jace, and he was finding the
stability of his life comforting. Guys around his own age were just
as confused as he was about the future. Jace had figured out what
to do with his life, something Ben admired greatly.

They talked for hours, even
after the food had disappeared, until Ben announced that he had to
make his way home. Jace paid, citing that it was a crime to expect
a college student to afford anything, and drove Ben back to his
parents’ car. They stood beside the vehicle, making small talk as
they both wondered how the goodbye would work.

“
This is no place for a
first kiss,” Jace said, gesturing to the grey landscape of the
parking lot. “You could come home with me, meet the
cat.”

“
Not on the first date,”
Ben smiled.

“
Nothing has to happen,”
Jace said easily.

“
Trust me,” Ben grinned,
“if I get you somewhere private, something
will
happen.”

“
Well, well! I guess that
means I get to see you again?”

“
How about Thursday?” Ben
offered. Sooner would have been fine, but he felt it best to play a
little hard to get.