Cabin Nights

by John, Ashley

  “I’ll let you find your friends,” he smiled tightly with a courteous nod, “thanks for the ride, Ben.”

  Cal outstretched a hand, which Ben gladly accepted one last time. There was dryness to his fingers that suggested a manual job, only leading Ben to think about how perfect the body would be under those heavy clothes. When Ben realised that he was thinking about Cal’s body while still holding his hand, he quickly let go.

  “See you around,” Ben mumbled.

  Cal smiled, turned on his heels leaving Ben to breathe slightly as he watched him vanish into the crowd. He hoped Cal would look back over his shoulder but he didn’t. Instead, he admired the scenery around him and he looked so at home in a place so different from where he was from.

  “What took you so long?” Jonny appeared, his skis hooked under his arms, “Where are your skis, man?”

  Ben looked down at his feet and he realised that Cal, the most gorgeous and charismatic man he had ever spent ten minutes with, had just walked off into the crowd with both of his very expensive and underused skis.

  Ben knew it was a bad idea letting Jonny pick out his clothes. Looking at his reflection in the long mirror concealed within the wardrobe, he looked incredibly undressed to be heading to the Après Ski Bar. Everybody else would probably still be in their ski gear, but not Ben and Jonny. No, Ben was wearing a pair of Jonny’s tightest jeans and one of his tightest shirts.

  “These don’t bloody fit,” he called to Jonny, who was in the bathroom, “I’m changing.”

  “Do you want to get lucky tonight or not?”

  Ben wanted to reply ‘not’, but he kept his mouth shut. With a toothbrush in his mouth, Jonny appeared in the mirror behind him in nothing more than a pair of his smallest white underwear. His body was a picture of heaven but Ben knew how many hours he had spent in the gym to acquire it. Ben on the other hand, wasn’t opposed to being a little softer around the middle.

  “You look hot,” he slapped Ben on the arse, “don’t you fucking change!”

  Jonny left Ben to mess with the top button of the shirt. He couldn’t decide having it open or closed. Neither looked right. He didn’t know why he was so bothered. It wasn’t like he was going to sleep with the girl. He felt sorry for her. She was going to have to spend the night with a guy who was wearing tight clothes and who clearly didn’t want to, in Jonny’s words, ‘give her a good seeing to’.

  The longer Ben looked in the mirror, the more he found that he didn’t hate the clothes so much. The combination of the tight white shirt and tight black jeans gave his body a certain sculpt that he wasn’t used to. As long as he didn’t try to sit down, he knew he should be fine.

  They left the sweltering heat of the cabin in their fur-lined parka jackets and headed into the night toward the Après Ski Bar. The strength of Jonny’s intoxicating aftershave cut through the bitter air and Ben could practically taste it. He was glad he had forgotten to put any on because Jonny was wearing enough for the both of them.

  They escaped the frosty night and ducked into the bustling bar. A healthy, crackling fire roared in the fireplace, instantly warming Ben’s skin. Shrugging off his jacket, he handed it over to the young female cloakroom attendant. Ben watched her reaction to see if she gave his clothes a strange look, but she didn’t. Instead, the young woman gave him a short smile, making Ben wonder if he didn’t look as ridiculous as he thought.

  “Hot toddy and Fireball shots?”

  “Sure,” Ben was too nervous to object.

  Jonny ordered the drinks and they sat on two empty stools next to a stone pillar in the centre of the room. The soft crackle of the fire and the chatter of the packed bar calmed Ben as he sipped his hot toddy. It tasted like whiskey and cinnamon and to Ben’s surprise, he didn’t hate it, so he took another long sip. It warmed his bones and he tried to let the alcohol calm his mind.

  “Let’s make a toast. To you losing your V card!” Jonny clinked their Fireball shots together, “May tonight be the first of many.”

  Not wanting to disappoint, Ben tossed back the shot. It burned every inch of the way down to his stomach. Back at the Student Union Bar in Oxford, Jonny’s favourite shots were Fireballs, so he was always forcing them on Ben. Drinking them regularly didn’t mean he had gotten used to the lava pit it created in his stomach.

  “What’s her name?”

  “How should I know?” Jonny shrugged, “I didn’t ask.”

  “Great.”

  “Relax, Bro. It’ll give you something to talk about. Do you know when people say that you should ‘be yourself’ on dates?”

  Ben nodded, unsure of where his friend was taking things.

  “Well,” Jonny sipped his hot toddy and sucked the air in through his teeth, “don’t be yourself. Being you has put a huge virgin-shaped wall in between you and every piece of tail I’ve tried to line you up with.”

  “Who should I be like? You?”

  “Exactly!” Jonny patted him heartily on the cheek, “That’s exactly who you need to be more like.”

  Ben wasn’t so convinced. The eyes of the many women sitting in the bar were fixed on Jonny, even if Jonny wasn’t doing anything to intentionally attract their attention. Ben had always theorised that Jonny gave off a pheromone and he was sure women could pick up on it. Ben, on the other hand, didn’t give off that pheromone. In fact, he probably gave off the antidote to that pheromone, making him repel those same women. He was glad of it. He knew if he were attracting women, his life would be even more complicated. Remembering that he was waiting to go on a blind date with a woman, he realised his life wasn’t exactly plain sailing as it was.

  “She’s here,” Jonny slapped his hands together, rubbing them like a cat that was about to eat a defenceless mouse.

  Before daring to turn around, Ben took a long and deep breath. By the door, he recognised the girl Jonny had talked to on the slopes. She pulled down the fur-lined hood of her pink parka with flecks of snow in the fluff. She shook out her white blonde hair, straightened out her shirt and handed her coat over to the cloakroom attendant. Ben could feel her nerves as she checked her face and hair in the screen of her phone.

  Knowing he couldn’t put off looking at his date, Ben let his attention float to the person behind her. The hood came down and a flash of brown hair caught Ben’s attention, but it wasn’t long and flowing, it was short and slicked back and running down onto their face.

  His heart stopped, his lungs tightened and Ben was sure the Fireball was about to repeat on him.

  Cal.

  Ben watched Cal as he shrugged off his jacket, to reveal a red and black checked shirt and similar tight jeans to Ben’s. Cal’s thighs were muscled and toned but he pulled them off in such a way that made Ben feel that Jonny might be onto something. Cal handed the coat over to the girl in the cloakroom and whispered something to Jonny’s date. Ben didn’t know why the American was there, but he was so happy to see him again.

  The date noticed Jonny and flashed him a smile before heading over. Ben couldn’t take his eyes away from Cal. He watched to see what Cal was going to do next. Perhaps the girl’s friend couldn’t make it and it was just a coincidence that Cal was with her? Any second, he would see Cal veer off and go to the real people he was there for, but he didn’t. Following in her footsteps, his hands deep in his tight pockets, he noticed Ben. Cal’s shadowy brows creased up and his lips curled into a confused smile.

  “What the -,” Jonny muttered under his breath.

  “Sorry we’re late,” the girl smiled, pulling up two stools next to the pillar, “Cal took his damn time picking out a shirt.”

  Ben noted her similar American accent but she looked too different from Cal to be blood-related. He felt like he should say something to relieve the stress but he wasn’t the one who had created the situation. Had Jonny even bothered to ask the sex of the girl’s friend? Sometimes, Ben wondered if Jonny thought everybody was on the same sex wavelength as he was. The girl was wearing an oversized grey vest top wi
th a bespectacled giraffe on the front, a pair of well fitting high waist jeans and Converse pumps. She wasn’t dressed in a way that said ‘I’m going to the Après Ski Bar to have sex’, unlike Jonny and Ben.

  “When you said a friend, I thought you meant a girl,” Jonny looked perplexed, “no offense.”

  “None taken,” hearing Cal’s deep and soothing voice sent familiar warmth shivering around Ben, “I’d shave off my beard for you, but we’re pretty attached.”

  Ben laughed, a small snort escaping. Cal’s smooth cheeks lifted right under his eyes, the smile spreading even further. It was so endearing and infectious and it made Ben not feel so embarrassed for exposing his pig laugh, much like he had felt earlier that day on the slopes.

  “Sorry, mate,” Jonny slapped Ben on the shoulder as he stood, “looks like we’ll just have to try again tomorrow night.”

  Jonny took the girl, who Ben learned was called Louise, to the bar to get another round of drinks. Cal eased himself into Jonny’s vacant seat, sitting directly across from Ben. He folded his muscled arms across his thick chest. The cuffs of his lumberjack shirt peeled back, to reveal an ink filled wrist. It didn’t take much effort for Ben’s imagination to wonder how far up his arm those tattoos went. Reaching out for the remainder of his not-so-hot hot toddy, he decided it would be better to hide his embarrassed face behind the glass.

  “I get the feeling you were expecting somebody else,” Cal’s smile didn’t falter.

  “Something like that. Don’t worry. It’s Jonny, my friend, he thought you were going to be a girl.”

  “And you?” Cal’s eyes squinted ever so slightly, his dark lashes covering the whites in the low visibility.

  “I’m relieved. Jonny is hell bent on setting me up every chance he gets.”

  “Girlfriend in England?”

  “No. God, no.”

  “Boyfriend?”

  “No.”

  “Cool,” Cal nodded, glancing to Louise and Jonny at the bar, “he’s a charmer.”

  “Girls are like snakes around him. He just needs to fiddle with his flute and – oh, God – that sounded less dirty in my head!”

  Cal tossed his head back and laughed, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down through the thick hair on his neck.

  “I love the British sense of humour. It’s so naughty.”

  The way his American tongue wrapped around the word ‘naughty’, making it sound like ‘naughdy’, made Ben’s blood race. Everything about the man in front of him was irresistible. Ben felt like a child with a schoolyard crush and even though he was secretly thrilled that he had the chance to have Cal in front of him again, he felt like everything he said came across as lame compared to Cal.

  “I love your old British shows,” Cal continued, “Faulty Towers, Black Adder, Dad’s Army – they’re so funny.”

  “They show those in the States?”

  “Reruns when I was a kid. My mom used to record them on the VCR and I’d watch them after school. It always made me feel so grown up.”

  Jonny and Louise returned with a tray of drinks, already seeming to be the best of friends. Ben noticed the sly daggers that Jonny sent in Cal’s direction for stealing his chair, but he didn’t tell him to move. Jonny normally felt like the biggest and best looking man in the room but even he couldn’t deny Cal’s Godlike qualities.

  “Jonny was just telling me you were a virgin,” Louise tucked her long blonde curly tresses behind her ears, the casual tone of her voice making Ben choke.

  “I – well – I,” Ben mumbled, unable to look any of them in the eye, “it’s a work in progress.”

  “I think it’s sweet,” Louise smiled, “unusual, like a unicorn.”

  “A unicorn?” Jonny snorted, “Aren’t they a bit – gay?”

  “What’s wrong with gay?” Louise snapped instantly, “There’s nothing wrong with liking cock, ain’t that right Cal?”

  “I’ll drink to that,” he winked at his friend, raising his mulled wine in the air.

  Ben choked on the mulled wine again, this time looking straight at Cal. He was gay and Ben hadn’t noticed? Ben had always thought he had been quite good at spotting other gay guys, but the thick beard, tattoos and casual dress had created a smoke screen. He reminded himself that Jonny hadn’t guessed about him being gay, and they were best friends, so he knew it wasn’t that simple anymore.

  Cal’s hazel eyes glittered in the firelight that bathed his slightly tanned skin. There was a slight smirk on his lips, forcing Ben to look away. He couldn’t be sure but he felt like Cal already had him figured out.

  “I was a virgin until I was twenty-two,” Cal offered.

  Ben felt like Cal was trying his best to relieve his embarrassment but when he heard Louise mutter “Liar!” under her breath, he felt even more awkward. Somebody like Cal probably had guys and girls lining up for him in high school.

  “Can we talk about something else?” Ben tried to laugh it off, “How do you two know each other?”

  “From back home,” Louise answered, “I was over in Belgium working in a hotel and I heard Cal was here so I couldn’t resist a free vacation, even if he didn’t let me crash on his couch, ain’t that right, Cal?”

  “My generator is on the fritz again. No hot water and no lights, you would have been freezing,” he shrugged.

  Even though he was looking at Louise when he said this, Ben could sense that his true gaze was trained on him, even if only out of the corner of his eyes.

  A group of students who looked like they were on a school trip left the bar, freeing up the huge leather Chesterfield directly facing the mammoth fireplace. Cal and Louise wasted no time jumping in, seeming more than familiar with the way things worked. To his surprise, they sat next to each other in the middle, leaving the only free spaces on either side of them. Jonny naturally crammed up next to Louise, meaning Ben had to sit next to Cal, not that he was complaining. He sunk into the leather, feeling the stitches of the clothes straining. He attempted to position himself in a way that he didn’t look like he was trying too hard, but it was impossible. Cal sat with such a casual elegance, his thick thighs spread slightly and his hands resting in the space between.

  The heat from the fire was almost suffocating but it was a nice feeling, considering what was waiting for them outside. They all talked casually about skiing and where they were from, Cal and Ben’s interactions were limited, despite the sides of their arses pressing together. When their glasses were emptied, Cal called over the guy from behind the bar by name and ordered four more mulled wines and eight Fireball shots. Being a student, Ben was used to drinking, but the constant breathing in from fear of bursting out of his clothes was making the alcohol float to his head faster than it would normally. After they toasted and tossed back the Fireball shots, one after the other, Ben was sure the fire started blurring and dancing to the sound of the distant French jazz music as it floated through the crackling speakers.

  “When we’re finished here, we can head back to my cabin,” Jonny seemed to have forgotten all about Ben’s ‘virginity’ and he genuinely seemed to be enjoying the company, even laughing at Cal’s jokes, “my parents have a timeshare here and they always have December.”

  Jonny was like a peacock and he could never resist showing off. It seemed to impress Louise but Cal’s expression didn’t falter. When the group conversation died out, Louise and Jonny turned to each other, their voices lowering. When they did, Cal turned his body slightly and extended his arm along the back of the brown Chesterfield. He had rolled his sleeves up and the tattoos filled every inch of his left arm but Ben was too drunk to figure out what any of them were. The hairs on Cal’s arms tickled Ben’s neck but he didn’t move, instead leaning into them a little more than he may have done if Cal hadn’t insisted on those two extra Fireball shots.

  “Tell me,” Cal’s voice was barely above a husky whisper, “tell me about England.”

  “What do you want to know?” Ben gripped the hot mulled wine between
his legs, relaxing into the feeling of Cal’s arm.

  “Tell me about where you live.”

  “I live in Oxford. It’s a beautiful city. I’m originally from Manchester, which is up North, but I won a scholarship after Sixth Form. They don’t hand them out to guys like me often so I grabbed it and moved. I’m studying English Literature. The buildings there, they are so old. Everything has a spire and is made from sand coloured stone. You should see it in the summer when the trees are green and the flowers are in bloom. There’s no place like it. It’s probably raining there now.”

  “I’d love to visit.”

  Ben didn’t know if Cal meant visit him in Oxford or just visit Oxford in general. He sipped his mulled wine, dismissing the former.

  “What about you? Where’s home for you?”

  “Home is wherever I am and right now, home is here.”

  “What about back home? Don’t you have any family?” Ben remembered the mention of a ‘mom’, but had he spoken about her in the past tense, as though she was a mere memory?

  Jonny stood up, announcing that he was going for a ‘slash’ and within seconds, Louise did the same. The sofa was considerably emptier but Cal didn’t move over, instead acting like Louise was still pushing up against him. He seemed to use their departures as an excuse to change subject.

  “Do you think they’re -,”

  “If I know Jonny and I do, most likely,” he laughed.

  “Louise will eat him alive,” he winked, “I’ve known her for years and she’s a sweet girl but she has sex like a man.”

  Hearing the word ‘sex’ leave Cal’s lips was a turn on in itself. He shifted in his seat, the jeans suddenly feeling tighter in his groin. Cal seemed to take that as a hint to move because he put a couple of inches between them so that they were no longer making contact. Cal used this extra space to cross his left leg over his knee, making the muscles in his legs solid. Ben’s drunken mind was wondering what it would feel like to run his tongue up them.