Page 17 of For the Cameras
“I’m always available for that.”
“Or I could teach you how to paint,” he said. “Other than sex, I’m not good at much, besides art and talking.”
“Right. Two of the things I’m worst at.”
Chase shook his head. “I pride myself on being able to teachanyonehow to paint. I could teach you.”
“No chance,” I said. “I could barely paint in kindergarten, and I definitely can’t now.”
“I could have you painting a beautiful sunset in under an hour,” he said, a glint in his eyes. “Promise.”
“You like to paint as much as you like working with cameras?”
“If it’s art, I like it,” Chase said. “As you can see from my ridiculous hair, I have a bit of a love affair with color.”
“Your hair isn’t ridiculous at all,” I said. “I love it. The light blue streak with the blond is so unique and cool.”
He looked at me from under his lashes, and the pleased look on his face felt like a little reward for me.
“I always assume guys like you would hate my hair,” he admitted. “I used to dye it every color of the rainbow and put tons of glitter in it when I went out to clubs, but now I’ve settled on the blue. I love it.”
“Why would you think guys like me would hate it?” I asked. “And what doesguys like memean, anyway? Should I be offended?”
He laughed. “Not offended. It’s a compliment,” he said. “I guess I meant… smart guys. Really successful guys. Guys who look like they could be from an ad in a business magazine and would never touch a bottle of hair dye. Guys who seem like they’d be really fucking good at trivia.”
I settled back on my seat, nodding. “I hope I don’t disappoint you once the trivia starts.”
“Not possible,” he told me, sipping on his orangey-pink drink. “How did you end up deciding to come here tonight?”
“I looked up the Jade Brewery website when you told me about it the other day,” I told him. “I like trivia nights, but I have to admit I didn’t realize it was group trivia only.”
Chase waved a hand through the air. “There are no hard-and-fast rules here. On the last trivia night, there was an old woman here on her own. Hell, I think there was also a teenage boy trivia prodigy on his own team, too. He looked like he was about fourteen, but he got second place.”
“I’m trying to do more things that I wouldn’t normally do,” I finally admitted. “This definitely falls under that category. Guess I’ll have my work cut out for me tonight.”
“Guess you will,” Chase said. He took another drink, and my eyes naturally gravitated toward his lips again.
Fuck, I was hopeless when I was attracted to a guy.
Even the way he took a drink filled me with some primal urge, like I couldn’t help imagining the straw was my cock between his lips.
It was difficult enough to chat with people when Iwasn’timagining what they’d look like sucking me off.
“Good evening everybody,” the trivia organizer called out, a woman with grey hair and a big, easy smile standing on the little wooden dance floor with a microphone. She went on to read out the rules for the night and explain how each round would be scored.
Instantly I felt myself relax. Games tended to have rules, like numbers, and anytime I had a chance to play games socially, it made everything easier.
The TV screens along the back wall of the brewery pulled up the first trivia question:which building was the first skyscraper ever built?
“I know this,” I said.
“Good, because I sure don’t,” Chase said. “The Empire State Building?”
“No,” I said, thinking through what I knew. “It’s in Chicago, no question. Some sort of insurance building…HomeInsurance Building, I think?”
Chase held up his hands. “I trust you with my life on this one, Adam. If you think it’s that building, let’s go with it.”
I grabbed the sheet of paper, writing down the answer to question one.