Page 16 of Something Like Summer
Oppressive humidity forcedthem to crank up the air conditioning in Tim’s house. Even the darkand shadowy den was affected by the thick heat outdoors as a stormof massive proportions gathered. Ben spent the morning cleaning uparound the house and wrestling with the controls of the laundrymachine. As fun as it was being domestic, he was glad to be donewith the chores and to spend some time with the person in his care.Unfortunately, the pain killers had once again put Tim tosleep.
Ben wandered the house,absorbing the details and decorations that hinted at Tim’s life. Onthe nightstand in the master bedroom, he found a photo of agrey-haired, stern-faced man with an impressive physique. Next tohim smiled a slight and beautiful Hispanic woman, the source ofTim’s dark hair and tan skin. After considering them for a numberof minutes, Ben set the photo back down next to the rosary beadsthat lay there.
As Ben continued to explorehe found a number of crucifixes hanging on the wall, as well as asmall collection of Bibles in the living room. Possibly thereligious items were no more than decorations to Tim’s mother. Bencould remember one client of his own mother who had a thing forrustic crosses despite not being religious, but it was much morelikely that Tim’s parents were Catholic. Ben couldn’t helpwondering what they would think of him when they met, if they everdid.
There were two types ofreligious people in the world, in Ben’s experience. The first werethose who let their heart lead them, who chose what fit with theirworld view while disregarding what didn’t. Ben’s parents were likethis. They rarely went to church and held a rather idealistic andloving vision of God that didn’t mesh with the Old Testament’sportrayal.
Then there were those whotook every piece of Scripture literally. Such peopleunquestioningly followed every rule and obeyed every command oftheir spiritual leaders, no matter how nonsensical and outdatedthese conventions might be. These mindless extremists tended tomake life difficult for everyone else. Ben certainly hoped thatTim’s parents didn’t fit into this category.
As for Ben, he tended notto believe in any sort of god or devil. Except when he sang. Thatwas the only time the veil between reality and the impossiblemelted for him. Singing revealed to him a million worlds made up ofcolors the physical eye could never see, realms populated withcountless spirits and energies of all kinds. God was there too, abenevolent being of as many faces as there were religions on theearth. Oh, yes, when he sang such things were possible, but thesecond he stopped it all faded away, forgotten until the next timehe took up his voice again.
A snort followed by a gruntcalled his attention back to the present. There was a shufflingfollowed by the sound of a Coke can opening. Tim was finallyawake.
“Oh, man, I slept deep,”he said as Ben entered the room. His hair was sticking up in alldirections and was so adorable that it took all of Ben’s willpowernot to reach out and muss it up further. “The house looks nice.Thanks.”
“No problem. You can repayme by staying awake. I was going out of my mind withboredom.”
“Sorry.” Tim grinned. “Itook too many of those pills. You should try them. They make youfeel great.”
“I might take you up onthat,” Ben said, remembering the mellow buzz that had followed histonsils being removed.
Tim yawned like a lion inthe Savanna heat. “I feel grody. Would you mind running a bath forme?”
“Bored,” Ben remindedhim.
“Oh. Once I’m in the tubyou can come in and keep me company,” Tim offered.
Surely Tim was aware of howerotic such a situation would be for Ben. Was he offering more thanit sounded like or was he just being playfully flirtatious withoutany real intentions? Regardless, Ben rose to run the bath withoutrevealing any enthusiasm. If Tim thought he could easily arouseBen’s appetite... Well, he could, but Ben wasn’t going to give himthe satisfaction of knowing it.
Once the tub was full ofsteaming water and bubbles, he waited outside the door while Timclimbed in. It took much longer than it would for an uninjuredperson, but once he was settled he called for Ben. The showercurtain was half-closed, obscuring from view everything from thewaist down. It hardly mattered. Tim’s impressive upper body wasenough to evoke an unquenchable lust in Ben.
Ben sat on the toilet, forlack of a better place, directly across from the bathtub. Asidefrom being the only seat available, it allowed him a more revealingangle. There would have been nothing left to his imagination if notfor Tim’s injured leg. The cast was propped on the side of the tubso that it wouldn’t get wet. The unfortunate side effect of thiswas an obscured view.
“I’m guessing this isn’thow you usually spend your weekends?” Tim asked.
“You mean watchingstraight guys take baths?” Ben replied innocently enough. “Oh,you’d be surprised. It’s a fairly common occurrence.”
Tim’s laughter echoed inthe small tiled room. “Well, what do you do besidesthat?”
Ben shrugged. “Hang outwith Allison Cross. She’s my best friend.”
“And what do you usuallydo together?”
“Shop, mostly. Hit themovies sometimes or just drive around. What about you?”
“Me and my friends? Samestuff you do, I guess. We don’t shop, but we drive around and tryto find somewhere to hang out. There’s been a couple of goodparties this year, too.”
Ben didn’t know anythingabout that. He was rarely invited to any parties. Such things werethe mysterious domain of the popular kids. He had almost forgottenthe crowd Tim ran with. How the nice person in front of him couldbe cronies with the biggest assholes in school was hard tocomprehend.
“Haven’t been on any datesyet?” Ben asked, even though he knew otherwise.
“Yeah, that too,” Tim saidwithout any great enthusiasm. “Shit. I still haven’t called Kristasince this happened. She’s going to be pissed.”
“Who’s that?”
“My girlfriend. KristaNorman. Maybe you know her?”
“I think so,” Ben saidevenly as an image of an anorexic witch sprung to mind. “Wow, andyou haven’t called her for a week?”
