Page 36 of King of Liars

We headed down the street, finishing our beers as we approached the apartment building where I was leasing.

“Funny,” Boss said as we headed through the hall, toward my one-bedroom unit.

“What’s funny?”

“All of King’s knights except me have plenty of money.”

“Well, One is the rich kid, and Hole is a stripper who’ll get an extra couple hundred for blowing a guy on the job. I was lucky enough to get a scholarship because of my impressive SAT scores, which means I can spend my money so that I don’t have to live with four other guys.”

“Hey, only three roomies, thank you very much. And they’re all cool. We stay out of each other’s hair.”

We reached the door, and I keyed in the code and ushered him into my place.

I flicked on the light, and he stopped abruptly. “Oh, wow.”

“What?” I asked, glancing around. I’d picked up before I left, so my place looked nice, I thought. Did he have a problem with the design?

“It’s definitely cleaner than I thought it’d be,” Boss said.

“What? You thought I was messy? Really? After going to town on my ass, you didn’t realize I was a fairly hygienic guy?” I winked, and he laughed.

“Okay, well, in that at least I knew you were hygienic, but I didn’t figure you’d have fucking artwork in your place.”

He was referring to a three-panel bull photograph that hung behind my sofa.

“And accessories and shit. Jesus, I have fucking posters. You are never seeing my place. Like ever.”

I laughed. “Even if I ask nicely?”

Boss spun around to me. “Okay, maybe if you ask really nicely.”

The smile plastered across his face…damn, it was one of the things about him that got me all riled up.

“Here, I’ll grab us some cold ones.” I took his bottle and discarded our beers in my recycling bin before heading to the fridge.

“Jesus, and he recycles. Who the hell is this Two?”

“You don’t have to call me that when it’s just us.” I grabbed the drinks, popping the lids off before passing one to him. “You can call me Ryan. No rules against that.”

“I like that name,” he said, which made me eye him peculiarly.

“What? I’ve heard some other guys who’ve approached you at parties call you that. I was kind of hoping I’d get to call you that at some point.” He winced, as though he’d just thought about what he’d said. “Sounds a little weird, doesn’t it?”

“Depends. Are you going to let me call you Aiden?”

“Yeah, totally.”

“Well, good, ’cause I’ve been dying to call you that too.”

“Really?” he asked.

“Yeah, you surprised?”

“Kinda.”

We stood there, staring at each other.

Nothing awkward about it. If anything, he felt like an old friend, like we’d known each other long before that moment.