Page 58 of Triple Pucked
Not enough.
Blythe used to say that about me: I was greedy.
Yet I know how valuable life is, having come close to losing it. I want to experience food, thrills, sex…every sensation.
I need to feel that Eden’s sacrifices for me meant something.
D’Angelo sighs. “We’ll talk about it properly, before we try it. I’ll give you time to think about it and process. For now, I have something special for this date. I don’t want you clambering around on the roof, injuring your ankle falling down ladders and probably, breaking your neck. But I know that you need a safe space of your own to stargaze. So, I had this room installed just for you. After tonight, the rule is that no one can enter without your permission.”
I listen hard to the creak of a door being pushed open. Then D’Angelo pulls me after him into a new room.
I smile, as my toes curl into a thick, warm rug.
No one has offered me a room of my own before, which no one else can enter unless I say so.
It will be somewhere that I can finally feel safe.
“Stay with me.” D’Angelo is the center of my universe now. His voice winds around my mind and soul. I feel him in my heart, pumping through my blood. “In a moment, I’m going to take off the blindfold. The lights are off. Your eyes should only take a short moment to adjust. You can talk again.”
I still reply, “Yes, Sir.”
I enjoy the way that he holds me closer because of it, brushing his lips against my ear.
“You’re being such a good boy for me.” D’Angelo gently pushes me away with a final squeeze of my neck in encouragement.
Anticipation rushes through me.
D’Angelo removes the blindfold.
For a moment, it’s overwhelming to be able to see again.
I almost stumble, squinting.
Then I gasp. “You built me an observatory.”
I spin on the spot.
Joy rushes through me.
Dazed, I stare around at a room out of my dreams.
D’Angelo has gifted me the stars.
The room is small and bare. A set of wooden cabinets stand on the far side. The roof is low, glass, and domed.
It’s a clear night, and the stars and moon are pinpoint sharp all around me.
I have never seen them through a domed roof like this.
They’re spectacular.
I tip back my head, feeling infinitely safe in how their infinite largeness makes me feel small.
Everything is put into perspective the moment that you stare at suns that have lived and died before your entire planet was even born.
I choke up as I rush to my gleaming bronze telescope, which I struggled to buy with my first salary here in America. I run myhand across the cold telescope mount. It’s been angled through a slit in the roof.
It hits me like a punch to the gut.
