Page 42 of Tell Me Lies: Manlove Edition

“I need to take a shower.” I shoot up to act on the impulse.

“Sure.” Laur flounders. “Uh, should I stay?”

He’s desperate to leave. But I don’t want to be alone.

So you’ll take advantage of this poor bastard? He doesn’t even like you. He wouldn’t be here if he didn’t like me. You’re right. He likes fucking you.

“Jeremy? Do you want me to leave?”

I want to feel normal, I want him to be mean. I don’t have the mental capacity to deal with this nice version.

“You don’t have to stay and you don’t have to leave.”

“Can’t say I love that ambiguity.”

“Well, that’s what I got for you right now.” I went into the bathroom.

“How about after your shower, we watch one of your films?”

I smirk at the idea, pulling off my stuck-on clothes. “I only have kids’ films.”

A man who’d been blown-up and had his legs nearly demolished, probably did not appreciate Disney and Dreamworks.

“Great. I’m a huge fan of Studio G.”

No fan of Studio Ghibli would call it that. “What’s your favorite?”

His voice is farther away as he investigates the stack. “Um … Pony-o.”

I laugh out loud, wondering if he got it wrong on purpose, melted either way by his lie. I step into the shower. I stay in there until the water is nearly cold then wrap up in my towel and not my dirty shorts.

He has Ponyo cued up and a bowl of popcorn in his lap.

Maybe he likes you after all.

****

I jolt awake when his leg spasms.

I remember when the popcorn was done, I took advantage of his compassion to inflict intimacy on him and cuddled up with my head in his lap.

Now he massages his thigh and knee and grits his teeth against the pain. “Sorry.”

The whole room is dark. The nightclub pounds only faintly below, a sure sign it was past two in the morning. I might have stayed sleeping on his lap all night. And he might have let me.

He flexes his legs gingerly, stretching the hamstrings and ankles. But he smiles at me. “Wanna lie down for a bit?”

“Are you going to leave?”

“I mean … I ought to. Work in the morning. But I’ll come by tomorrow, maybe.”

“I’d like that.”

He stands when I do and crumples as his knee buckles. Then takes the popcorn bowl to the sink.

“I can do that.”

“I’ll leave it in the sink. You go to sleep.”

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