Page 16 of As the Years Pass
I nod, but it has me uneasy. Adam isn’t one to let people walk all over him, yet, I feel that’s what’s happening here. Maybe I’m just being judgmental because I’m protective of him. Though he can stick up for himself, I’ve always been bigger and scarier and felt the need to protect him.
“So you came to hang out,” I say, though what I really wanted to say wasyou came to see me.
It’s wishful thinking. I’m just a familiar face in an unfamiliar area. I could say the same for him, but that would be watering it down.
Adam is everything. My everything. My sun, my stars, my moon. The gravity that has held me to this earth from the first day I saw him.
“Yes,” he says, his eyes dipping to my shirt. He raises a brow. “Bar Daddy, huh?”
I chuckle, feeling my cheeks heat. “Yeah, I think it’s part of my initiation.”
“No, it’s just because you’re our bar daddy, you hunk!” Nathanial calls out, the nosy bastard. They all break into laughter, and Adam laughs too, his eyes shining.
“What can I get you?” I ask.
He hops onto the stool. “I’m getting the royal treatment, huh?”
“Always,” I say, the word coming out huskier than I intended.
“Jack and Coke, please.”
I make him a drink and take his money when he pays, punching it into the tablet stationed on the counter that acts as our register. The first thing I did was invest in an upgraded payment system, and I have had zero complaints. Pete said it was “nifty” which I’ll take as a good thing.
“Am I keeping you from work?” Adam asks.
“Of course not,” I say, leaning on the counter. “So, how was California?”
He shrugs, idly mixing his drink with the small red straw.
“Same as always. It’s all business when I’m there.”
“You plan on doing this forever?”
“No,” he says with a firm shake of his head. He brings the glass to his lips, sipping from it instead of the straw, and I can’t help but wonder if that was intentional. If wrapping his lips around the straw would be too much of a reminder of when he wrapped them around my cock. Or maybe he doesn’t think about those things anymore. It was a long time ago, and it’s possible he forgot all about it—about us.
“My contract is up at the end of the year,” he adds.
“Then what?”
“Then… I figure out what to do next.”
“You don’t have a plan?”
“It’s complicated, Emmet.” He sighs.
“Okay,” I say, holding my hands up. “Just trying to make conversation.”
“No, I know. It’s okay. It’s just a sore subject.”
“Hey, it’s fine,” I say. “We can talk about something else.”
He nods, then a small smile forms on his lips. “How are your parents?”
My face drops, a knot forming in my stomach..
“No…” he begins, and says nothing further.
“That’s also complicated,” I manage to say.
