“But it felt so good when you just did it,” Cory said, reaching down to caress Gage’s ass with his fingertips. “Did it taste good to you? I’m just curious.”
“I could sweeten my coffee with it.”
“So it’s not me. It’s not that I taste bad.”
“No,” Gage said. “You tasted wonderful. Your boyfriend just isn’t into come and there’s nothing wrong with that. Some guys aren’t. You can’t blame him. Frankly, I’m not fond of cilantro. The slightest hint of it makes me gag.”
“But you liked my come.”
“I loved it.”
“I like that,” Cory said.
“What we just did was have sex, Cory,” Gage said. “It wasn’t love. Don’t get the two mixed up.” He stood up and started walking back to the closet. “You’d better go back to work now. I am kind of tired and I think I want to take a short nap before Jase comes home.”
Cory stood up and adjusted his short pants. “I think what we just did should remain between us,” he said. “There’s no need for Jase or my boyfriend to find out. And, from now on, I think we should stop playing the teasing game. I was always afraid it would get out of hand and we’d cross a line, and that’s exactly what happened this afternoon. I’m just glad I didn’t fuck you.”
Gage turned and smiled at him. He was starting to feel uncomfortable being naked in the room with Cory and that wasn’t like Gage. “I agree, Cory. We keep this to ourselves, and we stop playing the teasing game. From now on, we’re just good friends.” Although he knew nothing about the teasing game Cory and Luis played, he figured it had to be a good thing to put an end to it once and for all. It sounded rather sordid and twisted, in Gage’s opinion. He’d have to remember to tell Luis about this next week when he checked in on him on Monday.
Cory crossed to the door and said, “Thanks for talking to me. I think I’m going to give my boyfriend a call tonight and talk things over. You’re right about the swallowing thing. It’s not the most important thing in the world. I’ve been hard on him lately. But after what you just said, I think I’ve been too hard on him. He was there when I needed him the most, after Darius ran me over, and I haven’t been there for him at all.” He smiled and tilted his head. “I have to thank you, Luis.”
Gage pretending to be Luis waved his arm and smiled. “Don’t worry about it. I enjoyed myself. You have a nice dick.”
Cory laughed. “I’m not talking about the blow job.”
“Oh.” He could have been.
“I’m thanking you for talking to me like you just did,” he said. “To be honest, I didn’t think you had it in you to be so wise. You’re a sweet guy and all, and I know you’d never hurt anyone on purpose. But I didn’t know you were so smart, too.”
Gage smiled. He’d always thought reading more books might have helped Luis. He wished he could tell this guy the truth now more than ever. His stomach turned; he hated lying to people. But he nodded and said, “I’ll see you later. And good luck with your boyfriend tonight. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you both.”
Before Cory left, he stopped and said, “I’m curious about one thing.”
“What?”
“Do people ever acquire a taste for swallowing? Is it possible for them to start out hating it and learn to like it?”
Gage shrugged and said, “I honestly don’t know. I supposed it could happen with practice. Although I can’t imagine ever liking cilantro. Tell your boyfriend to start slowly and see what happens.”
“I’m going now,” Cory said. “Thanks again for everything.”
When he was gone, Gage went into the bathroom and turned on the hot water in the shower. He hadn’t expected his first afternoon at Cider Mill Farm to turn into a scene from a porn film and a sex therapy session at the same time. But at least Cory hadn’t noticed anything unusual about him. And, from what Gage had just heard, Cory knew more about Luis than most people. The only problem now was trying to pull off the charade with Jase and Hunter.
Chapter Eleven
After the shower, Gage soon realized the things he’d packed in New York had been a complete waste of time. After Cory left and Gage went into the closet to find something more comfortable to wear, he noticed Luis had duplicates of his entire New York wardrobe at Cider Mill Farm. Even the way the closet as organized looked identical to the New York closet, with casual clothes on the right and more formal things on the left.
He found a shelf where Luis kept shorts, sweatpants, sweatshirts, and T-shirts. He pulled down a pair of black sweatpants and a white T-shirt and put them on. But even they didn’t feel comfortable because they didn’t belong to him. He wished he’d brought along at least one article of clothing of his own. His favorite navy sweatpants with the threadbare knees would have calmed his nerves. Jase probably wouldn’t have noticed the difference and Gage would have been able to relax in at least one familiar article of clothing. The biggest problem with wearing Luis’s clothing was that everything smelled like Luis, an aroma that reminded Gage of sweet boiled corn and scented hair product.
In one of the dressers, Gage found white athletic socks. He put them on and crossed to the bed to take a nap. After he’d given Cory that spectacular blow job, he’d brushed his teeth and splashed cold water on his face, hoping his swollen lips would go down before Jase and Hunter arrived. He’d worked so hard to get the handyman off his lips were now puffed up, giving him a trout face like one of those preposterous celebrities who had had too many injections to get fuller lips. He wasn’t sure what time Jase was arriving, just that it was sometime late that afternoon. He was hoping a short nap would bring down the swelling so it wouldn’t look as if he’d just blown the handyman.
An hour later, he woke from a deep sleep to the sound of intense pounding. He’d been dreaming about driving Luis’s Cadillac, in vivid color. He’d parked it somewhere in New York and couldn’t remember where he’d left it. In the dream, he was walking the streets aimlessly trying to find the car. When the loud pounding racket woke him up, he was on the verge of remembering where he’d parked the car. Now he’d never know.
He sat up fast and rubbed his eyes. The pounding grew more intense, to the point where he could almost feel it in his chest. It was louder than anything he’d ever heard before, so he jumped out of bed, grabbed a pair of running shoes he’d seen in Luis’s closet and put them on fast. Then he ran down the back staircase and through the kitchen, following the loud noise as it passed over the house. The noise led him to the back door and he stepped outside. He looked left, then right, and saw nothing. But when he looked straight ahead, down past the barn, he saw a huge helicopter slowly descending on to a flat patch of green meadow.