Page 25 of Alpha & Omega

Icouldask him, but it also made me increasingly nervous. I finally found my person, and it felt like he was backing off. At least we still talked, and our date was still planned.

Despite my nerves, I shot him a quick text, keeping it light, and hoped he didn’t call off tonight for our second date.

Me: Ready for our hot date tonight?

He sent me a laughing emoji.

Kingston: Sure am. Looking forward to it. I’m tied up, but I’ll shoot

you a message on where to meet up.

Me: Sounds good.

My tightly wound body finally relaxed, and I smiled, relieved. I wanted to ask why my business bothered him. It could be nothing. Maybe he had other things on his mind, which had nothing to do with me at all. I didn’t have to internalize every damn reaction, but it wasn’t easy being so out ofpractice.

I checked my email to see that the credit report on Alpha’s Rejects had arrived, which would give me a sense of its performance. If Kingston had done well the past couple of years, then I would, too—or so I hoped. We didn’t quite have the same type of business, but it would help me get some idea of projected growth or loss and to prepare accordingly.

Alpha’s Rejects had been open since early 2022. The documents wouldn’t tell me his exact financials, but it showed he had a loan on the bar. The bar did quite well for a while, catering to everyone, being LGBTQ+ positive, and providing great live music. At the start, he hadn’t been in default on any payments.

While the business still did relatively well, it started to flounder late last year. Kingston had been late on rent and loan payments several times. He wasn’t delinquent, but being late wasn’t good either. It didn’t help that rent and his insurance had gone up in cost at the start of this year. His profits weren’t bad at all, so I didn’t understand where the money went. Surely, it wasn’t only rent and insurance increases, right? The increases had been fairly substantial because everything in the country had gone up, but still, I was curious about the lateness of his bills. Kingston didn’t seem the type to make late payments because he simply forgot. He appeared to have his shit together.

Then that little fantasy of a joint venture hit me. It could help him by expanding both of our businesses. We could turn it into something special. God, I was gettingwayahead of myself. We barely knew each other. He’d have no reason to trust me.

But would it hurt to talk about it? If he wasn’t interested, then no skin off my back or his, right? A business venture was just that. We could be adults and put aside personal interests, right?

You don’t know that. You barely know Kingston, I reminded myself.

I locked up that idea, telling myself to forget about it, and got ready for my run. If I wanted to keep dating Kingston, who was sexually voracious, I needed to stay in shape, so I headed to my room and tossed on a pair of shorts, a gym shirt, socks, and my running shoes.

Outside my door, I locked it, put in my earbuds, and cranked up The Beastie Boys, which was my favorite band to run to. A quick jog and a few blocks led me to the waterfront harbor. The run was about five miles along the PatapscoRiver. Instead of heading toward the popular Harbor Place, I ran in the other direction, keeping my pace to the beat of ‘Sabotage.’

I quickly grew hot and sweaty, but I had an amazing view of the marina, and even better, I lived close by.

After about two miles, I turned around and headed back, not wanting to exhaust myself for my date tonight.

As soon as I walked through my front door, panting, my phone buzzed. I unlocked the screen to find a message from Kingston. For some reason, my stomach dipped with thoughts of him calling off the date, but his message made me smile instead. God, I really needed to stop acting like an adolescent.

Kingston: Now that you know we’re neighbors, swing by Alpha’s,

but go through the alley. There’s a door that leads up to my

place.

Me: Are you planning to do naughty things to me?

Kingston: Absolutely.

He followed it up with a trail of smiling devil emojis, making me laugh. Any residual worries or doubts I had completely vanished. That was just me being an idiot and way out of touch with dating. I needed to fucking stop it.

WhileIworriedaboutHarley essentially being my business competitor, we had too much in common, and he was too hot and sweet to brush off. Even after only one date, I wanted to get to know him more and to have something meaningful. Yet, at the same time, I built up my walls a bit, afraid to get too close in case something happened between us, especially with our businesses. If I kept losing money and he kept making more at my expense, changes would have to be made. Things would grow increasingly weird and awkward for me if that wereto happen.

Harley was arriving soon, so I quickly spritzed on some cologne, took a quick look around my apartment, making sure I had everything picked up, and headed into the kitchen to warm up the dinner I’d made earlier.

I looked down at myself to make sure my clothes were fine. It wasn’t like I had anything fancy, so I wore a dark blue short-sleeved button-up with white pinstripes, which I opened to a white T-shirt, and paired with black jeans. It would have to do, but I knew the blue would bring out my eyes.

When I removed the tinfoil from the top of the casserole dish, I was engulfed in self-doubt. Harley was a chef. What was I thinking by cooking for him? God, he would probably hate it. My initial plan had been to make dinner, so he didn’t have to since he cooked for a living.

I’d made chicken Alfredo with broccoli earlier, having it ready by the time he arrived. I mean,Iliked it, but that didn’t mean others would.

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