the corn in by the time I came out. 'It's not too late, is it?'
He gestured at the clock. 'We kind of got carried away
with the game. Sorry.'
He shot me a sincere and slightly abashed grin. I wanted to
He shot me a sincere and slightly abashed grin. I wanted to
pet him. I wanted to sit extraclose and whisper naughty
words into his ear to make him blush. I wanted, I realized
only a bit uneasily, to see him on his knees again.
'No. It's fine. Anyway, I'm in the mood for a movie.'
'Great! Thanks for bringing the popcorn.' Eric hopped
over the back of the couch in a fluid motion and headed
into the kitchen. 'What can I get you to drink? Soda?
Beer?'
'Soda's fine.' I watched him pul the bag from the micro
wave and empty it into the bowl and grab two cans of
Coke from the fridge.
'Coke okay?'
I'd never been with a man so solicitous. 'Sure. Yes.'
'A glass? Ice? I could slice up a lemon for you.'
I broke down and laughed. 'I could just drink it from the
can.'
'If that's what you like.' Eric smiled after a minute, cans held high. 'Saves me washing the glasses.'
held high. 'Saves me washing the glasses.'
He brought the drinks and popcorn but waited until I sat
before he did, too. I thought of Austin, who'd have been
yeling from his place on the couch, feet up, to bring him a
beer. This was a nice change, no doubt about it, even if it
did leave me feeling more than a little off balance.
'Be right back.' Eric hopped up and disappeared into the
bathroom.
I took the chance to look around. He had framed photos
on the end table and on the brick-and-board bookshelves
that looked as if he'd made them himself but that probably
came from Ikea. He was in a lot of the pictures, his arm
slung around the shoulders of his companions. He'd done a
lot of traveling it looked like from the backgrounds of his
colection. I spotted the blue oceans of the Caribbean,
Hawai's lush greenery. In one he wore the whites of a
cruise-ship crewmember and was sitting at the captain's
table. Ship's doc, maybe.
It didn't look as if he had a girlfriend. Or a boyfriend.
None of the people in the pictures were standing close
enough or giving him goo-goo eyes. Eric was a puzzle, no
question. But at least I could be fairly sure he was single.
'Ready?' If my perusal of his pictures annoyed him, he
didn't show it.
I sat on the couch again, popcorn bowl balanced on my
knees. 'Sure.'
There's nothing potentialy embarrassing about
