Page 8 of Can't Stop Now

Jacob noticed a huge shift in Will as he talked about this guy. Will always seemed so upbeat and energetic, but one mention of this mysterious ex and he was deflated.

“Sounds familiar,” Jacob said sympathetically, trying to change the subject. “My last girlfriend Carrie dumped me after about two months.”

“Jeez, why would anybody wanna dumpyou?” Will said, immediately biting his bottom lip and following it up with a “sorry, sorry - I just meant to say that I don’t get that. You’re headed for a great job, you’re athletic, you know how to cook… I’d think you were a catch if I were this girl.”

“I guess she didn’t,” Jacob said. Truthfully, he was still a little hurt by the breakup. “I mean it makes sense that we’d break up, since I’m moving to San Diego. I also did kind of… phone it in to the relationship near the end, but it was just because I could feel it fizzling out. But I don’t know. I think I’m just unlucky in love,” Jacob said.

“That makes two of us,” Will said, taking his phone and snapping a photo of the eggs and bacon.

Jacob felt weird opening up to Will about Carrie. He had always avoided the topic with his friends, but Will really was so easy to talk to. Jacob somehow knew that he wouldn’t judge him. He realized that he’d been talking about himself, but hadn’t asked Will anything.

“So, you do art and stuff,” Jacob said, knowing he sounded like an idiot.Art and stuff?he thought, aware of his lack of conversational skills.

Will laughed. “Yep! Lots of art and stuff. Portraits mainly, but I’ve also done a little sculpture. Mostly figures,” he said.

Jacob glanced over at Will perched on the counter near him. His eyes were alight again, his lips curved into a smile. The sadness of the conversation about his ex was long gone.Success!Jacob thought. He was genuinely glad to see Will happy.

“Figures, cool! …That means people, right? I gotta admit I know nothing about art,” Jacob said, grinning.

“That’s fine, it’s endearing. But yes, figures, the human form. When I’m drawing or painting I usually work from nudes, actually,” Will said.

“Gotcha. ‘Draw me like your French girls’ type stuff,” Jacob said.

“Well, yes, but I tend to prefer Frenchguysinstead of girls,” Will grinned, “the male form is a lot more beautiful than most people give it credit for.”

Damn it, Jacob thought, as Will began to make him internally squirm again. It was bad enough that he’d had that weird dream, but here Will was talking about nude male bodies before breakfast!

“Cool,” he managed to say, pretending to be completely involved in making the scrambled eggs.

Will smiled, hopping off the kitchen counter. “I’ll show you some of my drawings sometime,” he said, heading over to the kitchen table and sitting down again, crossing his legs. Jacob immediately felt uncomfortable again.

Jacob liked Will, a lot. The problem was just wondering howmuchhe liked Will, and how quickly he was becoming fond of him. He’d never felt anything like it before. Jacob felt like he wanted to go take another shower again – this time a cold one.

Six

Will

Later in the afternoon, Will joined Jacob to take a walk to the hardware store a few blocks away. Jacob needed to finally buy some boxes to pack up his remaining stuff for the road trip. The day was bright and beautiful, another break from the previous week’s blistering heat. Will kicked a rock down the street, and a few paces later Jacob kicked it, making it fly at least ten yards further.

“Show off,” Will said, lightly hitting Jacob’s shoulder with the back of his hand.

This just seemed to egg him on more. Jacob proceeded to jog over to the rock, wind up, and kick it even further. Will watched it slam into a tree down the road.

“Okay, okay, you can kick that rock far, but I sure as hell could paint it better than you could!” Will laughed.

“Thought you only painted pictures of nude guys?” Jacob teased, raising his eyebrows at Will.

Now it was Will’s turn to raise his eyebrows. “Wow! That’s bold, coming from the guy who blushed at the mere mention of myartisticnudes earlier today!” Will said playfully.

“Oh come on, I didn’t blush. I’m not as bashful as you think I am. Have you ever spent time in a locker room? I see so-called ‘figures’ all the time,” Jacob said.

Will was surprised. Jacob had been stoic and cagey about his thoughts the past few days, but he seemed happy and free this afternoon. Maybe he was just happy about his upcoming road trip.

Will watched Jacob’s brown eyes open wide and he joked around, his long eyelashes only making it harder for Will not to stare.Okay, fine, Will said to himself,you can crush on this guy a little for the next couple days. And after that, you never have to worry about Hot Straight Jacob again.

They got to the hardware store and picked up a few boxes. They carried them home, Jacob taking four and Will only carrying two. They got back to the apartment, plopped the boxes down, and looked around, daunted by the task of beginning to pack.

“…You know what could make packing awhole lotmore fun?” Jacob asked.

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