Page 69 of Say It Again

What a liar. What a cheap and backbiting liar. There was nothing worse than men like this. A couple of hours ago, he’d been stumbling over his words, praising Aaron’s looks, begging just to touch him. Now that their time together had dwindled to an end, suddenly it was an insane amount of money that he just didn’t have. “That’s not my problem.”

“I don’t know what you want me to do. I’m telling you, I. Don’t. Have. It,” the guy said, punctuating his words with claps. “Please just take what I do have and leave.”

“It doesn’t work like that.”

“Fine.” The guy arched an indignant eyebrow. “Do I need to call security?”

Aaron’s laugh was loud. “Uh-huh, and what’ll you tell them?”

“That you won’t leave!”

“That the escort you hired wants the money you agreed to pay him? You tell them that. Or tell the cops. Whatever.”

The guy’s cheeks ruddled in an angry pink as he crossed his arms and pouted. He mumbled under his breath, “Maybe I’d pay it if it’d been worth it.”

Aaron tossed his gaze at the ceiling and plopped onto the bed. He didn’t have time to squat in a hotel room, waiting for this guy to grow some dignity, but he’d be dammed if he moved another inch without his money. He rechecked his phone, his stomach churning a bit at the time. He shot Daniel a quick I’ll be there soon! “The price is the price.”

“Get out.” The guy thrust a finger toward the door. “Now.”

Aaron propped himself on his elbow and smiled. “Hand me the remote, won’t you?”

“GOOD AFTERNOON, this message is for a Mr. Daniel Greene. Hi, my name is Bill Oren with Missouri Loan Express. I’m sorry to inform you we were unable to approve your small business loan application. Give me a call back with any questions you might have.”

Daniel sucked his lip as he punched his phone into his pocket. It was like the studio was slipping through his fingers. Maybe he’d been naïve to think he was capable of buying it, let alone running it.

His phone pinged with another text from Aaron:

I’m sorry I’m running late, sweetheart! So excited to see you!

Well, if ever there was a reason to smile. The state of his finances and overall life might have been a flaming trash pile, but at least his love life was sensational. And by sensational, it was sen-fucking-sational.

Aaron had gone out of his way to make sure of it. It was giggly park walks, and scooping Daniel up between classes, taking him back to his apartment for fancy espresso drinks made with love and quickies over the kitchen counter, made with lots of noise. It was browsing shops on the Loop where Aaron bought him little gifts: bags of gummy candy, a new scarf, and a dangly silver earring shaped like a ballet slipper that twinkled in the light.

They’d avoided speaking about the Thing, and Aaron artfully directed their conversations if it ever got too close. He also made sure to be very available on a whim as if to say, Look, dating me is so normal. Isn’t dating me normal? No. And yes. It might have been the most normally abnormal thing he’d ever done, and so far, his anxiety had taken a back seat to allow it.

“Where’s your fancy boyfriend?” Olivia asked, stepping from the back room, hauling on a pair of knee-high black boots. “Isn’t he supposed to be here? The concert’s already started.”

“He’s running late, but he’ll be—” Daniel had started to stuff his phone in his pocket when it dinged again. “Oh, wait.”

You guys go ahead and walk down! I’ll meet you there soon! Promise!

They’d had this night planned for a week. It didn’t feel like Aaron to miss an opportunity to meet Olivia and do something so quaint and Midwestern, like attending an outdoor concert on the Arch’s riverbank. He was all about quaint and Midwestern.

Is everything okay?

Of course!! Can’t wait to see you!!

So many exclamation points. About four too many for a text from Aaron to seem like everything was okay. Daniel’s stomach twisted, but he ignored it, because his anxiety was doing the back-seat thing and sitting in the back seat was good for his anxiety.

Twenty minutes later, he and Olivia arrived at the Arch’s riverbank, where families with little ones huddled around brightly lit funnel cake booths, and cackling men, punished red by the sun, guzzled beer under a white tent. They pushed their way toward the stage, settling on a place to stand next to a pod of glow-stick-jewelry people, who he tried to telepathically message to offer him a bracelet.

After a half an hour or so, he texted Aaron:

Still coming?

To which Aaron responded:

Absolutely!!

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