Page 10 of Play Hard

Chapter 3

Liam had just finished showeringbefore his Thursday night shift at the pub when he got a surprise text from Robert:

Coming over. Exciting proposition for you.

Liam’s heart leapt, until he looked at the clock. Hope it’s a quickie, he replied. Away for work in 20 mins.

By the time Liam had dressed, Robert was at his door, kit bag in hand.

“Were you at the gym?” Liam asked after he’d let his boyfriend in and kissed him hello.

“Sorry?” Robert looked at his bag. “Oh. No. Not today.”

“I assumed, since Thursdays you usually work out at—”

“I’ve had an idea.” Robert set down the bag in the center of Liam’s living room floor.

“You’re always having ideas,” Liam said as he went to tidy up the couch so he could offer a place to sit. “What’s it this time, and will I understand it without a computing science degree?”

“It’s not for work. It’s for you and me.”

“Oh.” Liam straightened up, a stack of takeaway napkins in one hand and a pair of used chopsticks in the other.

Robert took a step closer. “I know you’re worried I’m becoming a no-fun workaholic, and I think maybe you’re right. Even if you’re wrong, that’s how you feel, and I need to respect and acknowledge your point of view.”

Liam wrinkled his nose. “Sounds like a line out of couples counseling. What’s going on, Rabbie?”

“I propose a series of games.” Robert rubbed his lips—out of excitement or nerves, Liam couldn’t tell. “We come up with challenges for each other, with corresponding rewards. Each challenge gets harder, and the rewards get bigger.”

“Harder and bigger—I like the sound of that. So how do we know who wins at the end? Is there a point system?”

“We’re not competing for points. We’re not competing at all. It’s purely for fun. As to when it ends, we can figure that out later. What do you think?”

“I think I like where your head is,” Liam said. “But I need an example before I commit.”

“Okay.” Robert unzipped his kit bag and pulled out a rolled-up piece of A1-size blank poster board, along with a pair of scissors and a glue stick. He arranged the items on the glass coffee table as he spoke. “Remember at school when they’d have us make collages by cutting out photos from magazines and all? Like, what we wanted to be when we grew up, or what we did on summer holiday?”

Liam grunted. “I hated them.” Being the opposite of artistic, he’d always ended up clipping out words instead of pictures.

“I know. I remember the time you pasted together the sentence, ‘When I grow up, I want to not make fucking collages.’”

“In all different typefaces, like a wee ransom note.” Liam smirked. “That stunt got me sent to the headmaster.”

“That stunt made me want to be your friend. Mind, it was the next day I went up to you at the swing park and said—”

“‘Let’s be mates!’ I remember.” Liam had never thought to wonder why Robert had invited himself into his life with such bluntness. To his six-year-old self, it had seemed the most natural thing in the world. He pointed a chopstick at the poster board. “So what am I to do with that now?”

“You’ve got twenty-four hours to illustrate—with pictures cut from wherever—one thing you want from me.”

Liam’s mouth popped open. “Like a sex thing?”

“Not necessarily, but aye, knowing you, I expect it’ll be a sex thing.”

“All right, then.” He picked up the bright-yellow glue stick, his mind already spinning with possibilities. “So what’s my reward?”

“For this challenge, it’s me giving you what you want.”

Liam fluttered his lashes. “But you always give me what I want.”

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