Page 65 of Wants and Needs
I’ve been damn near surrounded by queer men for more than a decade—more if you count my years in boarding school—and my cock hasn’t even twitched in their presence.
After I stayed quiet in spite of his incessant begging for details, Sebas started monologuing about his journey as a young gay kid.
It’s been an hour and I’m still not any closer to figuring out what the sculpture is supposed to be, which is strange for Sebas—the medium is his style, but nothing else matches his usual results.
“You’ve told me plenty,” I mutter drily.
“And you still haven’t told me what Liam wrote back,” he snaps.
I look back just so he doesn’t miss my eye roll. “You haven’t told me what this is.” I gesture to the metal shape that could be anything from a giraffe to a futuristic car. “And Liam hasn’t replied,” I state more quietly.
I’m hoping he’s just taking some time to process like me, but the worry that he’s going to ghost me and forget about me is very real.
“He’ll answer. He’s a good person, and he’s probably just reeling and trying to figure out how to absorb what happened,” Sebas tells me, sounding alarmingly rational. “And this is my blob.”
“Blob?” I demand, stepping back so we’re shoulder to shoulder. I’m not going to focus on the other thing.
“Yes, I had a bunch of leftovers and I just started welding them together wherever I felt like it, and this is the end result.”
“It’s beautiful in its own way,” I admit. “And it’ll definitely get people talking, but if you want to sell it then you need to assign it some type of meaning.”
“The meaning is happiness, dummy,” he drawls and slaps at my shoulder. “I made this to make myself happy while Dani was fussy last week and wouldn’t fall asleep unless she could see me, so I brought her up to my studio, put her in her playpen, and just got to work. She was as fascinated as me,” he adds proudly, then promptly deflates. “Until the sleep won over and she practically fell on her face.”
I look at the... blob again, and seeing it with that in mind, I notice the detailed welding with new eyes.
“Then the name is blob of happiness?” I ask, not angry at the prospect.
“No!” Sebas shouts and stomps his foot like he’s trying to teach Dani. “The name is peaceful happiness, thank you very much.”
I think about it while staring some more, then nod. “I guess that’s just as well. Let’s price it and get another stand from the back.”
After that, our workday becomes a lot more efficient, and we even get some good foot traffic at noon. When Sebas says goodbye to the group of five women, one of whom purchased a painting of a beautiful meadow in bloom, I’m surprised when the door opens again less than a minute later.
Then I’m not.
“What do you want?” I growl at Dirk.
“Why so hostile?” he asks with his evil smirk. “Did my presence make things difficult for you?”
It did and it didn’t.
It made me respect Liam more for how he stood up for himself, and it brought us closer, but I hate the way this arsehole hurt him and used him for years.
He used love against Liam, and that’s unforgivable in my eyes.
His attitude doesn’t help in any way.
“The stupid act suits you,” I tell him more calmly. “But you’re not welcome here, so why don’t you run along and go back to your irrelevant life?” I flick my fingers at the door.
Just like last night, his face begins to flush an unattractive dark red.
“You’re no one,” he snaps at me. “You don’t have the authority to say I’m not welcome here.”
“Oh, he does,” Sebas says from behind me, and I wonder briefly if it’s wrong to enjoy how much anticipation there is in his eyes. He’s been dealing with people throwing themselves at Adam for eight years now, and he’s never been afraid to cut a bitch. “But I’m the owner if that makes you feel better, and I can confirm that you, grave robber, are not welcome here.”
Dirk’s mouth drops open at Sebas, and I can’t hold the snicker in.
“What?” he hisses at me then. “You’ve been talking about me to your boss?” He tries to pull off a pitying look, but he’s not that great an actor.
