“To the bathroom,” Luis said. “Now, leave me alone.”
Jase grabbed his arms. “I’m not leaving you alone.” His voice was strong and confident.
“I’ve fallen in love with you and I have a few important things to tell you.”
“I’m busy,” Luis said. “If I’m going to move to Vancouver, I have to know what it’s like there.”
Jase closed his eyes and shook his head fast. “Why are you moving to Vancouver?
You’re insane.”
“I am not insane,” Luis said. “Now let go of me. I’m moving to Vancouver with Melvin Ashland. I met him at my cocktail party with my friend Michael. You probably met him that night. He’s one of the wealthiest men in Vancouver, he’s eighty years old, and he just adores me.
He says, ‘Luis, you make me feel young and peppy again,’ and I adore him just as much. He’s very sweet and very cute. He wants me to move there, live with him, and be his partner. I’m going.”
“You’re out of your mind,” Jase said. “Are you listening to yourself? You don’t have to live your life this way anymore.”
Luis smiled. “I know that’s what they all say about me. I’m crazy, I’m flighty, I’m not very stable. But they don’t know me well enough to form an opinion about me. I don’t let them get to know me that well. I only let them know what I want them to know.”
Jase held him tighter. “I’m not like everyone else, and I thought you knew that. I happen to know you very well, and I happen to be in love with you. And there are a few things about me you should know.”
When Luis didn’t reply, Jase’s expression softened. He released Luis’s arms and said, “Hold on. I’m starting to get it now. Maybe I’m not different from the rest of them. Of course.
How could I have been so stupid? I thought you might be in love with me, but I’m just another old guy to have fun with. That’s what I am…just another diversion.” He lifted his arm and smacked his forehead with the heal of his hand. “I’m just like all the others. I’m nothing more to you than Derrick, and Melvin, and the rest of the guys you entertain and escort around town.”
Luis stared down at his shoes. His eyebrows furrowed and the corners of his lips turned down.
Jase took a step forward. “If that’s all I am to you, there’s something I guess I should give you. I’m just sorry I didn’t leave it on the nightstand for you this morning.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a stack of cash that had been folded in half. He wasn’t sure how much there was, but he figured there had to be at least five hundred dollars. He placed the money in Luis’s palm and said, “I want you to have this.”
“What’s this for?” Luis asked.
“Five hundred dollars for last night,” he said. “You’ve made at least that much for giving Derrick a used pair of your socks. You worked hard for it last night.” Then he turned his back fast, shoved his hands into his pockets, and left Luis standing next to the bathroom door with a stack of cash in his hand and eyes that resembled wet headlights.
Chapter Fourteen
Jase went back to his apartment and kept a low profile for the next few days. For the first few, he couldn’t eat or sleep. He read, he worked on his new invention, and he took long walks in the early mornings and in the late evenings. He wasn’t ready to go back to his real life yet and he needed time to get over Luis. He didn’t call Sherman to tell him what had happened with Luis either. Jase wanted to keep Sherman at a distance. Though he wasn’t sure about whether or not Sherman gloat and say, “I told you so,” Jase didn’t want to take any chances. The last thing he wanted to hear was that he’d made a classic mistake by falling in love with a hapless little bar queen. And he wasn’t about to go running back to Sherman for consolation. Sherman would have seen how devastated Jase had been after Luis had rejected him and he would have moved in for the kill.
The last thing Jase was interested in was meeting anyone else. He was still in love with Luis, in spite of the way Luis had treated him. After he’d calmed down and he’d thought about what had happened with a clear head, he started to feel sorry for Luis. He was young; he was making a huge mistake he’d regret. But more than that, Jase wondered if it would have made a difference if he’d told Luis the truth about who he was. Ultimately, he decided it wouldn’t have mattered. Because if he’d told Luis he was a billionaire and that he could buy and sell Melvin from Vancouver twenty times over and Luis agreed to stop seeing Melvin, Jase would always wonder whether or not Luis was with him for money or because he truly loved him.
Later that week, while Jase was taking his trash out, he ran into Luis and Melvin. It was a little after two in the morning and Jase had just finished making plans for a brief trip to Alaska.
Luis and Melvin were on their way into Luis’s apartment. Luis looked radiant, but poor old Melvin was having a hard time catching his breath after climbing up all five flights. They must have gone to a formal party because they were both wearing white dinner jackets and Luis had large diamonds in both ear lobes. Luis’s voice was light and animated. Jase took a deep breath and smiled. He said hello to Luis and nodded at Melvin. When Luis saw Jase, he lifted his head, said hello, and smiled as if they’d never even argued.
But Luis didn’t bother to introduce Jase to Melvin, and Jase didn’t wait around to meet him. Jase continued walking to the staircase so he could take his small container of trash to the basement. When he reached the steps, he heard Luis laugh and shut his apartment door. But a few seconds later, halfway down the steps, Jase heard Luis moan out loud, then loud crashes and bangs come from Luis’s apartment. Jase stopped walking and turned to Luis’s door. When he heard the sound of glass breaking, he dropped his trash on the steps and ran back to Luis’s apartment to see what was wrong.
He didn’t bother to knock. When he entered, poor old Melvin was standing near the door wringing his fingers and shaking his bald head. Luis was in the bedroom by then, pulling pictures down from the wall and knocking furniture upside down.
“What happened?” Jase asked.
Melvin frowned and spread out his arms. “I don’t know. He just went crazy.”
Jase ran to the bedroom and found Luis trying to yank a large mirror off the wall. His face was red and his eyes were filled with tears. There were clothes strewn all over the room, half-filled bottles of cologne stippled the floor, and the dresser had been pulled away from the wall and knocked over face first. Luis had ripped pillows open and there were goose feathers from one end of the room to the other. When the mirror he was tugging broke from the wall, Jase pulled him out of the way and held him as tightly as he could. The mirror fell with a loud thump and small shards flew in all directions.