Page 7 of Storm Bound
“AmIa fan? Lol. What a question. How could I not be? It’s the gayest cheesefest ever, and my tiny, gay self gobbled it all up when I was growing up,” he said.
“You watched it back in the nineties? Weren’t you a little young for it? How old are you?”
Charlie brushed my arm with his hand with smug eyes and a smirk.
“Again, with the smooth questions, Mr. Adam. Yes, I was young when it was on, but my dad was too busy to monitor my TV time and my Yaya is, like, the coolest grandma ever, so…”
“Hey, I’m not judging. I was a teen when the show came out, and it helped me through some difficult times. Namely, the elephant in the room,” I said.
He looked around us in shock. “There’s an elephant in the room?”
“I meant—”
“I know what you meant. Relax. I’m just kidding. I’m... the same. Just seeing a gay couple on the TV helped me... come to terms with myself, but that show is very special for me... for another reason.”
He looked out into the snow as if he were contemplating something for a few moments, and I could see the sadness in his eyes.
“That show was my anchor when I lost my mom. When I missed her or didn’t know what to do with myself, I’d just… I’d just watch an episode and completely forget the pain inside, even if just for an hour,” he said.
I expected some kind of sad story, but I didn’t expect him to come out with his trauma to a complete stranger.
He might be a stranger to me and I to him, but sitting next to him, talking about random crap, kidding around, flirting like no one’s business felt like I was with a best friend. With someone I was comfortable with.
And what was best, we were bonding over an old fantasy show that I was obsessed with. Not that I was going to let him in on that just yet. If he hung out with me long enough, he’d find out. I didn’t need to freak the guy out from the get-go.
“I’m so sorry about your mom,” I said.
Charlie looked back at me and bit his lip.
“Thanks.”
He stared at me for a moment, then another, and I was tempted, really tempted, to lean forward, put my lips on his, and take him in my arms.
“Anyway, let’s not linger on the sad stuff. So you said you were a teen when the show came out, so I take it you’re… let’s see.” He looked me up and down, humming to himself. “Thirty-four? Thirty-five?”
“I wish. I’m thirty-seven,” I said.
Charlie laughed. “Relax, tiger. It’s not that big a difference. Besides, age’s just a number, anyway. Take me, for example. I’m twenty-nine, but I feel like a sixty-year-old.”
“Do you crap yourself and forget things?” I chuckled.
“More than I care to admit,” he said, and I laughed again.
Speaking to him was easy. And he was incredibly funny. Like, my kind of funny. Sarcastic to the core. And he was adorable as much as he was funny.
He made me feel important. An equal.
Thirty-seven years on this planet, and I’d met the perfect guy on a bus in Michigan. What were the chances?
When we got to Washington, it was almost eleven at night and cold, but we stayed together since we were boarding the same bus for New Harlow in two hours.
As soon as we were off the bus, Charlie glanced around the station.
“I think I see a Wendy’s open,” he said. “Are you hungry?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe.” I looked in the direction he was and saw the sign of the fast-food chain. “Since we’ve got time to kill, what would you say to finding a restaurant?”
Charlie turned to me and smiled. “What do you have in mind?”
