NaNoWriMo Day 3

[nwhiker]

7708 / 50000

Whee!



Dessert was a tart with raspberries and a thin layer of filling that tasted like almonds and that Chris said was called frangipane. They had ice wine, sweet and perfumed, as they sat in the half darkness of Chris's living room.

"Music?"

"Sure."

"Preferences?"

"Whatever you want..." He closed his eyes, wondering if what he wanted to happen would. Was he the one who should make a move? Would Chris? Should he?

Classical, "Mozart," said Chris softly as he sat back down, closer, Aidan noticed, than he had been before. He swallowed. He knew they were coming to a decision point of some sort. He thought, though he wasn't sure, that Chris might be planning on take the initiative. Should he... what? Make it clear that he wasn't interested, even though he was, but he shouldn't be? He took another sip of wine. His hands were shaking, and his mouth was dry.

Chris leaned over and took his wine glass away and set it on the side table. He didn't say anything but put his hand on Aidan's thigh, his intent clear. He didn't move, neither did, and they just sat there for a while, Aidan had no idea how long, Chris's hand was warm and heavy, and Aidan tried to think about what he should do next. Clearly it was up to him, and he wrestled with it. "Twenty-six, twenty-six, twenty-six..." He was too old for this, too old for Chris. Eight years older. Eight years was... a long time.

And yet. And yet kidding himself by pretending that he didn't want whatever was happening to happen.

It had been far too long since he'd flirted, far too long since he'd dated, since he'd kissed another guy. He liked Chris, he'd liked him from pretty much the first moments they'd spent together, why not?

Twenty-six.

Twenty-six, but when Chris leaned over to kiss him, it didn't matter.

What mattered was the taste of wine in Chris's mouth, and the warmth of his lips. What mattered was his arms, strong and sure of themselves, firmly around Aidan. What mattered was his tongue licking Aidan's lips, prodding gently until Aidan opened his mouth, and then what mattered was the wonderful, rough sweetness of tongues undulating.

They pulled away from each other slightly, and Aidan thrilled at Chris's smile, both sweet and sensual, and as they leaned towards each other again, he heard him murmur "Aidan..."

The doorbell, followed almost immediately by loud knocking was most unwelcome.

They moved away from each other, and Chris shook his head as if to clear it. "What the hell?" he groaned.

The noise from the door did not abate, so he got up slowly. He turned back towards Aidan and spoke softly. "I'm sorry," he said.

Aidan nodded, and leaned over to turn on the lamp on the end table. Chris flipped on the hallway lights before opening the door.

As Chris moved aside and his visitor stepped into the hallway, Aidan felt his heart sink. He knew him. He stood up, and second later, the other two were in the living room.

"Hey, Chris, did you want to go out for a beer? You know the new place, down by Frankie's? They're having a jazz ensemble tonight, I thought you, me, and Malia could go... Oh hey! Mister Waters!" He walked over to Aidan, his hand outstretched.

"Mister Bates," Aidan replied, shaking hands with the other man. He felt sick.

"Wow, awesome to see you, Sir! You know Chris, huh? Me and Malia, you know, Malia Green? I know she took Senior biology and also bioethics with you, huh? Well, Malia and I live next door... Heh, you wanna come with us? Chris?"

Twenty-six. And his friends were former students of Aidan's. Twenty-six. Aidan shook his head, ignoring the regret that ate at him. "No, I can't, I need to get home and get to bed," he said, faking a yawn. "Chris, dinner was great, thank you so much..."

"Don't go, Mister W! Let me get Malia, I know she'd love to see you, and really, it'd be fun, we could hang...."

"I'll have to catch Malia some other time," he said, quickly. Kyle was bad enough, he didn't want to see Malia too. "Again, Chris, thanks. The food was spectacular and I enjoyed our walk." He quickly reached out to touch Chris's shoulder, as if to say sorry, as if to trying to convey his regret that, well, he wasn't sure. His regret. He left quickly, having not, he knew, given Chris the time to say anything.

====
"I think you should call him," said Jennifer.

He grunted, continuing to count.

"Seriously. Just call him. Or something."

He heaved the barbell to its resting space. "Niff! You're supposed to be spotting me, and you know, harassing me while I lift..."

"I'm not harassing you. I'm just saying that I think you should call him."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Why ever not? Move over. My turn."

They exchanged places. Jennifer could bench press more than he could. He sighed, and took his position as spotter.

"Look, he's too young for me, it's not going to happen, and I want to know how you found out about, well, anything."

"You mean that you went to dinner at his place?"

"Niff! Who told you?"

"You just did!" she said, adjusting her position on the bench.

"You didn't even know that we'd seen each other?"

"Actually, I did. Tim saw you walking on the trail with him and mentioned it to me. He didn't know who Chris was, but he described him pretty well."

"Why am I not surprised?" Tim was a deputy sheriff. People, and observing them, were his stock in trade.

"He was going to say hi, but he said you two looked like you were having a good time, so he didn't. Since it was early evening, I figured you'd have had dinner."

"His place?"

"Ha!" she said. "You mentioned he lived in the condos near yours, and since you were on the trail, I just figured."

"God, you slay me."

"Big sister, little brother," she said, sitting up. "I'm done, come on, let's have a cup of coffee. Now seriously, why don't you call him?"

They sat at her kitchen table with coffee. He added milk to his, she took hers black.

"Look, I had dinner with him, but he's too young for me, so that's that."

"How old is he? I figured at least mid twenties."

"Twenty-six."

"Which is not too young for you. What are you talking about?"

"Eight years younger than me is too young, Niff."

"Don't be stupid, Aidan. It is not. Especially since he must have asked you to dinner, right?"

He shrugged.

"So he did... Look are you going to make me drag every bit of this out of you, or just tell me what happened?"

He sighed. Jennifer, like both of their parents, had a gift with people. They either talked, or she made them talk. He filled her in.

"Aidan, he invited you, he obviously wanted to hang out with you, he made the effort to find you at school. I don't see why you're being so difficult."

"If he wanted to see me again, he could have called."

"Don't be ridiculous. You probably gave out so many 'I gotta get out of here' vibes when you saw that student of yours, he'd be much too afraid. What were you doing when you were interrupted?"

"Niff!"

"Still dressed?"

"Yes. Jesus, do you have any tact?"

"None whatsover, especially where you are concerned. Gary is gone, Aidan, it's over. You need to..."

"Leave Gary out of this! This has nothing to do with Gary."

"That's the problem, isn't it? Everything has everything to do with Gary." She put their mugs in the dishwasher, her back to him. "Look, Aidan, give me his number, I'll give him a call, and invite him to Second Sunday supper. It's informal, there are enough people there that he won't feel like it's a date or..."

"No. Niff, please!"

Second Sunday Supper was a tradition their parents had started when Michael went to university on the other side of the state and wasn't often home, and when he was, had often spent most of his time with friends. Second Sunday Supper, on the second Sunday of the month, was a time that they all tried their best to make, and friends were always welcome. When their parents had moved to Arizona, Jennifer and Aidan had informally taken over, splitting hosting duties, and Michael usually managed to come up from Oregon every other month or so. Their aunt Milena always came, and the one of her daughters who still lived in the area. Jennifer's friend Zara, Tim's brother, and Aidan's best friend from high school, Mark, were often there as well.

"Fine. Not this month. But I'm inviting him next month if you don't."

He sighed. "Fine. Whatever. I'll call him and invite him to go for a bike ride next weekend, and he'll refuse, and that'll be that."

=====
To his surprise (though not Jennifer's when he told her) Chris accepted immediately. They met at Marymoor Park early on Saturday morning. By some unspoken agreement, neither mentioned their previous encounter.

It made Aidan happy to realise that they were pretty well matched as far as bike riding went. They rode into Seattle, and had lunch at a small pizza place near the Burke-Gilman Trail, then biked back to the Eastside. As they passed the Redhook Brewery, Aidan stopped and suggested they not go for a beer, and Chris laughed. Back in Redmond, they went for coffee, and just sat and talked, and then biked over to a Thai place and had dinner.

"I've got a game tomorrow," said Chris.

Aidan nodded. "And I have got to get some yard work done." He sighed.

"Monday evening? We could, oh, I don't know, go for a run or a bike ride, then have dinner and..."

"Can't. Faculty potluck," said Aidan. "I'm free Tuesday."

"I'm out of town through Friday," said Chris. "Work trip to LA."

"Next Saturday, then?"

"If possible. That's Labor Day weekend? Did you have plans?"

"Not really. School starts on Tuesday, of course, so it's the calm before the storm for me. Niff and Tim are out of town, so I was planning on sitting on my ass in the yard for three days. With a book." He smiled. "You're welcome to join me."

"That sounds spectacular. Do you game?"

"As in?"

"As in Wii or xBox or the like?"

Aidan shook his head. "Not often, and not very well. I don't own a gaming system, I'm ashamed to admit."

"How about I bring over my Wii?"

"Sounds like a plan."

There was, perhaps, a moment or two of awkwardness when they said goodnight, neither knowing exactly where they stood, but it passed quickly, and Aidan biked home secure in the knowledge that they'd had a good day together, and that, he hoped, the next weekend would be fun.

=====
"So you're spending the weekend together! That's great!" said Jennifer, He'd told her, because it was useless trying to hide it from her.

"Not quite spending the weekend, I mean..."

"Aidan. You seem to like him, you know you think there is some chemistry between you. If it happens... don't fight it, ok?"

"Fight what?"

"Attraction. Making out. Maybe even sex."

He shrugged. "He's too young--"

"Stop that. No he isn't. And he obviously doesn't think he is either."

"He hangs out with people who were my students. That makes him too young."

"Yeah, well he seems to want to hang out with you. That makes him perfect."

He shook his head, but dropped it. He wished he felt more better about it. He did like to Chris. A lot. He enjoyed spending time with him, and was looking forward to the weekend. Still, he was concerned about where this was going, if anywhere. The age difference was daunting.

Friday he cleaned up. He was living in his parents house. They hadn't wanted to sell it when they moved to Phoenix, just in case they didn't take to the heat of Arizona, and he'd been more than happy to move out of his condo. He hated the place. He supposed he should sell it while the market was up, but he had good tenants for the time being and it didn't seem like a pressing issue. So he'd moved back into the house he'd grown up in, back into his old room. It sometimes seemed to him like he should have moved on, beyond his boyhood room and furniture, but for now it felt safe, and was convinient for him and his parents. They'd suggested he move into the master bedroom, which was on the ground flood, with a deck leading out to the garden, but he'd declined. That would have felt wrong. Plus he didn't want to bother buying new furniture.

When he was done with the cleaning, he went shopping. He wasn't a cook, to say the least, and he hoped Chris would be ok with simple pick up stuff, or take out. He bought ice cream and wine, and everything he needed to bake chocolate chip cookies, and plenty of fruit.

As he was loading his purchases into the car, he found himself smiling. He'd have looked forward to this "downtime" weekend no matter what. Knowing he was going to be sharing at least part of it with Chris made him anticipate it even more.