Page 25 of Overexposed

My partners lying on top of me was something I had always liked. It wasn’t anywhere near as… satisfying? Calming? Comforting? As this was. Through the ebbing pain of the bite, I moaned, my breath twisting the steam from the shower into lazy eddies.

Auris’s release hit me against the stomach, a streak of warmth under the already warming water. He kissed me, steadied me, rinsed the mess away, and finally turned the water off.

I only got coherent again when I looked up at the bedroom ceiling, wrapped in a bathrobe with a towel twisted around my damp hair.

“That was really nice,” I said to Auris, who was bent over me and in the process of fitting a Band-Aid over my neck.

“It was?” he asked, sounding uncertain.

“It was. I want to do that again.”

“Not for a while, and only if you can show me that you can get up and feed yourself.”

I groaned. “I am perfectly capable of feeding myself. But you have to kiss me first.”

“Is that so?” Auris asked, the corners of his lips quirking upward. He was smoothing out the Band-Aid, a self-soothing gesture on his part more than necessity.

“Oh, yes. It’s a rule. After shower sex, you need to do everything I say.”

Auris chuckled. “Sweet Ethan, what did I tell you about being bad?”

“That I’m really good at it?”

He lifted his fingers away from my neck finally. “I love you, my sweet,” he said, and then we kissed some more. It is quite possible that we spent another half hour or so in bed.

Chapter Seven

Eva was a Gen Z artistic type with short hair dyed platinum blonde and featuring blue and green highlights. She liked wearing overalls and had an impressive tattoo sleeve along with a nose piercing that was hidden by her surgical mask. She ran the vacuum across the living room carpet as if said carpet had personally offended her.

“Oh, boy,” I mumbled and let Auris take the lead.

When Eva saw him, she turned off the vacuum. I could always tell when she smiled, because it reached her eyes. The laugh lines had taken a day off today.

“Good morning,” she said. “Your guest is in the kitchen. I made buckwheat waffles with spicy pear jam and cream. I’ll go make fresh for you.”

I loved her accent. Eva wasn’t as intent on getting Auris to “put a ring on it” as Gloria had been, but she was fun to talk to, she knew the best places to go to in Prague -- once they’d all reopened. She’d told me, in no uncertain terms, that I needed to take my lazy behind and my camera to Letna Park. She’d actually made a list of all the Brutalist architecture to photograph on my way. She was specific that I needed to end my trip at the seventy-five-foot metronome in Letna Park, or maybe at the beer garden. She’d said that was really up to me, but her tone of voice had strongly implied a high opinion of the beer garden, or at least the drinking of beer. I did not like that Charlie had pissed her off so hard.

“That would be lovely, but I can --” I said, but she shook her head.

“No, no. I make. You say you like waffles. I make specially for you.”

“That is very considerate, Eva, thank you,” Auris said, and we followed her to the kitchen.

Charlie was sitting in the chair at the kitchen table that was the exact one Auris preferred when he was on his laptop in the mornings, but unlike Auris, he was staring out the window behind him.

Charlie almost jumped out of his seat when we came into the kitchen, and that neatly took the wind out of my sails. In front of him sat a coffee mug that was a good four parts milk, one part coffee.

For Eva’s benefit, I said, “Excited to be going home, Charlie?”

He looked at me like I’d insulted him. His eyes fogged over in that way that happens sometimes when you get so angry and upset you tear up. He didn’t say anything at all. Eva said something in Czech, and Auris ignored all of it and poured me a cup of coffee, handed it to me, and sat at the table next to Charlie.

I wondered whether I should sit with them or move to the living room, but if Charlie had gotten tested earlier, it was probably fine. The only thing I was likely to catch was a bad case of evil eye.

Breakfast was an uncomfortable affair. I figured out that the spices in the spicy pear jam were just cardamom, nutmeg, and cinnamon, but at that point, Eva was done with making waffles for me, and I had a plate in front of me, meaning she got to leave the kitchen and return to angry vacuuming.

Auris seemed fine with the loaded silence. Charlie was good at glaring, but he didn’t dare look Auris in the eye.

I did try small talk and asked whether he’d ever been in Prague before (“No.”), whether he liked it so far (“Sure.”), and how he’d slept (“Fine.”) I gave up after that and secretly wished we’d stayed in bed longer.

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