After the shower he then had to decide what to wear. He hadn’t had this much trouble since his senior prom, and his forays out to the living room where Ethan nursed a soda as he watched a documentary about meerkats, were getting more erratic.
“You’re sure about the red.”
“Yes, Jared, I’m sure about the red.”
“But the blue—”
“If you ask me one more time for my opinion I will be forced to lock you out of your bedroom so you can’t spend any more time in the closet.” Ethan chuckled. “See what I did there?”
“Ha freaking ha, asshole.”
“I’m the asshole? It’s not me who keeps interrupting me and my weekly Discovery catchup. Anyway,” he lifted his laptop, “I have work, so can you be quieter with your whole diva breakdown?”
Jared sighed heavily and padded back to his open closet, eyeing the complete destruction of his once organized room—books and study material, and clothes strewn across the floor. At least he hadn’t touched his rent-a-boyfriend clothes. These were fancy tuxes and suits that Bryant & Waites supplied him with, and the latest one had arrived yesterday, all ready for the next booking, which would refill his waning pot of cash.
As long as I don’t lose my shit and mess it up.
He did one last turn in front of the full-length mirror. Nice jeans that showed off his ass, check. Clean scarlet T-shirt without a single crease, check. Clean-shaven with no cuts, nicks, or missed bits. Check, check and check.
Jacket on, he grabbed his wallet, noogied Ethan on his way past, only just escaping as his roommate tried to catch him to get him back, and then he slipped on his coat at the door, pocketed his keys and thought about what he might have forgotten.
“It’s on the counter,” Ethan called.
“What?”
“The wine you were just about to forget, idiot!”
Jared rolled his eyes at himself. He got the wine and did one more run through. Tonight was a big night in more ways than one. He wanted to get to know Nate and Luka, and much like the meerkats on the television right now, he was desperate to learn about the family dynamics. Luka clearly adored his dad, enough to think of hiring him a friend. Luka was smart, funny, sweet, and just the right mix of naive and super smart, which Jared loved in his nieces and nephews. Jared’s siblings called him a big kid, and maybe they were right because he really felt a connection to Luka. Then there was Nate. Big, strong, sexy, vulnerable, dark-eyed Nate with the weight of the world on his shoulders, and his cautious smile.
Tonight Jared wanted to see a smile with no worries lurking in the shadows, to see Nate with his defenses lowered.
He also hoped he’d get to spend some time with Nate on his own, a glass of wine, good food, maybe even a kiss.
Kissing Nate was his current obsession and the first thing that slipped into his mind in between writing essays and reading notes.
“You forgot the ice cream,” Ethan added when Jared opened the front door.
Fuck my life.
The chocolate ice cream bought especially for Luka because he’d loved it at the restaurant. Jared had gone out of his way, made a trip to Van Leeuwen’s just to get the best he could, and had a tub of it in the small freezer. He took out the ice cream, pushed it into his backpack and that was it, nothing else to delay him, so job done—he called out a thank-you to Ethan then headed downstairs, hailing a cab. The journey wasn’t long, but it gave him a chance to calm down from the whole what-he-should-wear debacle, and by the time the cab stopped outside the apartment block they lived in, he was just leveled out at excited.
He pressed the button to get buzzed in, a disembodied voice telling him to come right up, and he headed up to the third floor, the door already open and Luka waiting for him, a wide grin on his face.
“Dad burned the ’sagna, but it was okay,” Luka announced, and held out his hand palm up, some coins sitting there. “For tonight,” he added under his breath.
“I didn’t burn it,” Nate called from somewhere inside. “It’s crispy! And let him in Luka.”
Jared didn’t want the coins, but Luka thrust them at him and almost dropped them as he did.
“Luka, you don’t need to—”
“Jared! Hey.” Nate appeared behind his son, and Jared smoothly pocketed the coins. Nate was a sight for sore eyes, dark jeans, a grey sweater with a lighter thread in it, his hair still damp, and a dishtowel over his shoulder.
“Hi.” Jared didn’t know what else to say or do, because all he could think was how had he forgotten every detail of Nate so badly to now be struck dumb. Was he supposed to shake Nate’s hand, or hug him, or maybe push him against the nearest wall and kiss the life out of him? Scratch that, the last thing was not on the agenda.
“Come in. Luka, let Jared in.”
Jared shrugged off his backpack and out of his coat, adding it to the ones on the hooks inside the small entry hall. Right next to the coats was a corkboard, and it had a load of notes posted
