Page 8 of Let Leaves Lay Where They Fall

“Sounds good!” Jamie realizes he is starving, having not eaten all day… well, food anyway. Naughty little pig. “I’m going to clean up real quick. Those trails are so dirty.” He smirks.

“Mhm, they are.” Andrew stops mid chop to side eye Jamie with a wink and air kiss.

Jamie flushes red and giggles as he turns down the hall “You stop it!” He scurries to the bathroom. Standing in front of the mirror he turns the water on and slips the orange sweater over his head. A yellow leaf falls to the floor. He looks down to see a glazed milky stain on his thigh, realizing that’s what tripped Andrew’s eye while scanning his outfit. He’ll just call it soap that didn’t rinse thoroughly away, if it comes up. There was no mistaking it for what it is though.

Washing his hands and face then moving across the hall to his bedroom. He strips off his soiled jeans and pulls on a pair of plaid print flannel sleep pants before joining Andrew back in the kitchen.

A bottle of Pinot is now open and breathing on the counter. He gathers two glasses from the cupboard and pours for them both.

Andrew organizes two dishes with restaurant quality flair. They each carry their own plate and wine glass to the living area. Jamie plops down deep in an armchair, crosses his ankles and holds his plate to his chest just below his chin. Wine on the side table. He eats his meal with fury like it’s Friday night dinner rush and he has a five-minute break between serving demanding tables asking for refills or more silverware.

Andrew sits on the edge of the sofa. His plate and wine on the coffee table between his knees. Slow and meticulous cuts of each ingredient stacked on his fork. He slides the food off the utensil with his upper lip so the little bounties and their carefully crafted flavor profiles hit his tongue at once. Then a sip of wine between each bite to finish before the next goes in. Two vastly different animals, but they love each other like a little family after these three years sharing a home.

While some popular singing competition pauses for a commercial break on television. Both men pick up their mobile phones and start scrolling their social accounts for updates.

Jamie can’t stop thinking about Dave. His beautiful hazel eyes, soft mauve lips, and delicious cock. He wants to know more about him. What’s he like? They barely spoke words before turning into ravenous beasts. So, he pulls up Gaydr and taps on their conversation to do a bit of nosey.

The little profile photo is just a gray spot where that furry belly should be and the username now reads No Profile Available. Jamie blurts. “Fucking asshole!” Setting his wine glass down too hard. Realizing he’s been blocked.

Andrew is wide eyed as if he’s about to melt into a puddle.

“No—no, not you Andrew.” Jamie excuses the outburst. “Some guy I met today. He blocked me.”

“He’s not worth your time then darling.” Andrew turns back to his phone, but his eyes remain on Jamie, who’s furious, confused and about to dissolve all at once. “You are too good for anyone who can’t see that the very second they meet you.”

Jamie sets his phone face down on the coffee table and collapses back in his chair with arms crossed and the gloss of welled tears in his eyes. “Thank you, Andrew.”

The two sit together under the glow of the tv screen. Not really watching the show but exchanging silent comfort.

Chapter 5

Mabel

Nathan rolls away from blue and red flashing lights violating the window and ending his sleep. The neighborhood is cheap for a reason. It reminds him of the Vegas strip back home for a moment.

“Hey girl.” He speaks softly, wrapping an arm across Mabel’s lumpy body. She’s in her favorite position, laid out on her back. Legs sprawled and floppy jowls falling up over her eyes like a built in sleep mask. He rubs her belly while she grunts gratification.

The clock on the nightstand glows, 2:58. Seventeen minutes before it’s time to rise and start the day. He savors every second next to the snoring furnace of a grumpy cuddle buddy.

Before the time turns over, he taps the silencer so Mabel can keep sleeping. Rolls back, pushing away the covers. He rises off the bed. Both hands rub his furry belly before reaching overhead, stretching from tips of his fingers to toes. He pushes thick curls back off his face and reaches inside baggy gray sweat-shorts to rub itchy balls. The cold is really starting to creep in now. Summer has left the building. His nipples could scratch glass.

Nathan steps across the studio toward the coffee machine. Bare feet slapping against hardwood planks painted high gloss royal blue. The studio felt very bohemian, which reminded him of Bertie. A reason the listing caught his eye when he was looking for a short-term rental.

She’s been gone since he was 17. Cancer had taken her and devastated him. He’d done a special memorial in honor of her deathiversary last year, which is coming up again. A little note with updates of his life and some pressed wildflowers in a bottle tossed into the Pacific Ocean.

Bertie was the nurse who first held him and calmed his cries after his birth mother abandoned the newborn at the hospital. It was the nurse’s last shift before retirement. She took him in as a foster because the court felt she wasn’t an appropriate age to adopt a baby but was suitable as a temporary guardian.

Bertie was a Wá-šiw (Washoe) First Nations descendant. Raised on a reservation until meeting her husband Bill, a white man. Nathan was named in honor of her deceased son. Nathanial Porter Campbell. She’d lost both the child and her husband in a car accident years earlier. He had a great life with Bertie. She’d been his inspiration for getting into Nursing as a vocation.

While the coffee trickles into his mug, Nathen pulls on an orange hoodie, yellow knit beanie and white running shoes with black stripes along the sides. He stands at the lone picture window overlooking the street below and sips the bitter brew until it’s gone. He’d run out of cream and needed to get more.

“Hey Mabel” he whispers, lifting a jowl flap to speak into her ear. “It’s time to go for a walk.” She perks up. Rolls off the bed and stretches her old doughy body.

The two make their way down the narrow staircase and stroll along the sidewalk. He often lets her walk free from her leash in the early morning hours, by his side. That’s where she loves to be. There haven’t been other people out at this hour yet, but he keeps a hand ready to grab her collar just in case. She can be a bit reactionary to strangers at times. Though, a gushing softie around children. She adores them.

The pair love their early morning walks together. Down five blocks, take a left, forward through a cemetery and then loop back until they come around the opposite way than they’d left. That’s the map they started on their first day in town and have kept up since. Queen Mabel likes a routine and Nathan lives to please her majesty. They’re each other’s ride or die.

When they get back, the two race up the stairs. Mabel’s big paws flop like swimming flippers and her jiggly skin swinging side to side while Nathan pretends to lag. “I’m gonna win!” He pokes.

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