Page 17 of Say It Again
“Yes, I’ll make you that. That seems fitting for you.”
“Why’s that?” Aaron leaned over the counter and watched Daniel pour what were definitely not the ingredients for an extra dry martini into a cocktail shaker. “Why’s it seem fitting?”
“Fancy man with the flashy car.” Daniel shrugged and added some random lime juice as if he’d learned nothing. “With the flashy job.”
God, there was a topic that could die before it was born. It wasn’t that he wouldn’t be willing to talk about it eventually, but it wasn’t the only interesting thing about him. It didn’t define who he was, like guys wanted to act like it did. He’d watch their eyes sparkle in curiosity as he answered the same questions over and over, driving one of two outcomes: They’d run for the hills. Or they’d urgently want to screw him.
Either way, he was left with the same ending. Adding one more number to his body count had lost its charm a long time ago.
“I wouldn’t call it flashy.”
“Your car?” Daniel asked, adding a little hip bump to his cocktail shaking. “Or your job?”
“Oh, I know my car’s flashy.” He grinned as Daniel twirled around, shimmying the shaker like a maraca. “But I don’t love talking about my job. Unless there’s something you’re dying to know, I’d rather not talk about it, if that’s okay?”
Daniel stopped shaking to shoot him a curious look. “Is it that stressful?”
“No,” he answered without thinking about it. Then he lent it some consideration and corrected, “I guess it can be. Depends on the client.” Then he lent it even further consideration and settled on “Honestly, I think I might hate it. But I’m stuck.”
“Hate it?” Daniel pouted his bottom lip. “Oh no. Why?”
“Err—no.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Yes. I don’t know. I’d rather not spend our time talking about it.”
“Sure. Well, how about this? If you could do anything on the planet, what would you do?”
He didn’t need to think about it. “Interior design.”
Daniel’s face lit up. “Shut the French whore!”
“That’s not an expression.”
“Oh, I bet you’d be incredible at that. Yes, Aaron. Yes. You should go for it. You should one hundred and twelve percent go for it. You already have the look. Now you just need the… wallpaper? What do interior designers need to, uh, design interiors?”
He chuckled. “A degree.”
“Then you’ll get that. Easy peasy. Here, we’ll toast to celebrate.” Daniel plucked two port wine glasses from the wine rack because “Oh look, how cute” and poured whatever he’d made into them. It looked similar to a margarita, minus the vodka and the peach schnapps and whatever else he’d splashed in on a whim. “Cheers. To having dreams.”
Aaron couldn’t help but grin. Grin and melt. It was naïve to assume it’d be “easy peasy” with the years it’d take to get established and the massive hit to his savings account, but he’d have a tough time arguing with this kid, who did exactly what he loved for a living. “Cheers.”
Daniel sipped the drink. “Oh God,” he mumbled as he spat it back into the glass.
“That good?”
“Mm-hmm, so good, but hand me yours. The recipe might need some tweaking.”
Aaron gladly handed the glass over. “You are adorable.”
“Oh, just adorable?” Daniel asked, dumping the drinks in the sink.
“Dazzling.”
Daniel winked as he grabbed his gin fizz. “There we go.”
“Did you have fun?”
“So much fun.” Daniel grinned as he shrugged one delicate shoulder. “How would you like to come back to my place, mister? Keep the fun going.”
And there it was. He couldn’t help his smile from fading a bit. Did he want to go back to his place and keep the fun going? Of course he did. He wasn’t a lunatic. He’d have Daniel’s tight little body trembling in seconds, and he’d keep it trembling until some shaky, broken version of his voice begged for mercy.