You May Have Met Him

by Sebastian Carter

  And now he’d done that. He enjoyed spending time with Theo. That was the thing. He genuinely liked Theo. He wanted to believe that Theo felt the same way.

  Before long, Elliot drifted to sleep again, comforted in the warmth of Theo’s naked body pressed up against his.

  When he woke again, Theo was no longer in the bed. The sound of the shower running drifted in from the bathroom, and briefly, Elliot thought about stepping into that shower behind Theo, conserve water, eke out one more moment of sex before Theo inevitably left the apartment.

  Would that be it? Would he hear from Theo again?

  God, he hoped so.

  Was that weird? Probably. But he almost didn’t care.

  Instead of getting into the shower, though, he went into the kitchen. Still naked, and he didn’t care. Maybe there was another aspect to what had happened last night. A night of hot sex, and he didn’t care that he was parading around his apartment naked. He never walked naked in his apartment, but this morning, he didn’t care. He wore his skin proud this morning. A new morning. He liked that he woke up this morning a different man.

  He decided to make coffee. Coffee was one thing he did keep well stocked in his apartment. He chose a single-cup pod of coffee, and he brewed himself a cup. Did Theo drink coffee? He pulled down a second cup just in case, and it struck him with a giggle that this was another new dilemma he faced. Morning matters with the guy he slept with. There were roommates in his history. He had them in college, but he had, of course, never slept with any of them. His past roommates weren’t even guys he wanted to sleep with. They were slovenly and gross, not that Elliot ever believed himself in a position to be all that picky. Not to mention, he wasn’t exactly out in college. Brianna knew, but that knowledge ended with her.

  So, having this question in mind, tending to the needs of another, of someone he spent the night with and had mind-blowing sex with, was one more thing new and exciting.

  His cup finished brewing, and he doctored it up the way he liked. He started to put away the coffee creamer, but then he stopped. Should he put a little out in case Theo wanted some? Should there be a little bowl of sugar? Maybe some artificial sweetener if he was an artificial sweetener type of guy? What was the protocol? What should he do?

  Maybe he should call Brianna. She would know.

  He was overthinking this. By a lot. He decided to leave it to chance.

  But that made him nervous too.

  Should he make breakfast?

  As if he even had the stuff to make breakfast. When was the last time he bought eggs at the grocery store? Would he have to buy eggs now? Once, there were bagels in the pantry, but, even if they were still there, they were probably old and very likely moldy.

  Somewhere a cell phone chirped. His phone? He looked around the apartment and into the living room where, on the coffee table, he saw the screen of a phone lit up. He padded over to it, and he glanced down. Without thinking, he picked up the phone, and he slid it open. There was no code lock, which was strange. And it was open to a set of text messages that ne never remembered sending...

  It wasn’t his phone. They had the same phone.

  Theo’s phone. With a text message on it. Immediately he put the phone back on the coffee table.

  He crossed his arms. The screen still lit. Guilt tugged at him as he caught himself turning his eyes down toward the screen. Messages that weren’t meant for him, but that he was still compelled to read.

  The screen was open to messages from Brianna. Her name was in the title bar, so he sat down on the sofa, and he picked up Theo’s phone again.

  I want all the details!

  The most recent message said.

  Was Elliot happy? Tell me you earned every penny of this money! :P

  Money? What did that mean?

  He put the phone back on the table, and he stared at it for a while longer until the screen went dark again.

  What did that mean? He was happy, sure, and it made sense Brianna would want to know about that. She was there after all. She saw them leave together. And there was no mystery about what had happened last night between them as it all began right there at the bar with her sitting at the same table.

  But money?

  He folded his arms into his lap as he sat on the couch, almost as if he hugged himself. An odd weight formed in his stomach.

  Dammit. He grabbed Theo’s phone off the table, and he slid it open. The screen was still open to Theo’s text messages from Brianna. God, Elliot felt like an asshole for doing this. He knew it. But the sight of his name over and over made him flip through the messages, the back-and-forth between Theo and Brianna that took place even a day before their meeting in the bar last night.

  When Elliot finished reading, the guilt was gone, replaced. He got up and went back into the kitchen.

  Theo came in. Elliot didn’t hear him, so when he heard his voice murmur behind him, he jumped.

  “Sorry,” Theo said with a smile. He wore only a towel, his skin glistening and slightly red after his shower. “I hope you don’t mind that I took a shower. I didn’t want to wake you.”

  “No, no. It’s fine,” Elliot said. He picked up his coffee and took a sip, because he didn’t know what else to do with his hands. The coffee cup trembled in his hand.

  Theo crossed his arms, and he fixed Elliot with an appraising look. “I like this look you have going on.” He moved closer to Elliot, and Elliot wanted to move away, but he was already standing at the counter.

  Theo’s hands caressed his skin. Elliot refused to put his coffee cup down as he looked up into Theo’s eyes, and he saw there the first glimmer that Theo understood something was wrong.

  He took in a breath to speak, but then he stopped. Theo studied him. “Your phone,” Elliot began. “You had a message.”

  “Oh,” Theo said. His shoulders lost a little tension. He glanced around the apartment, and he took notice of his phone over on the coffee table. “Yeah, I’ll get to it.” Theo’s hand was on Elliot’s naked hip and sliding up his side.

  Elliot still liked his touch. He took another sip of his coffee, and he turned out of Theo’s space and stepped out of reach. “Did you want some coffee?”

  “Sure. That’d be nice.” Theo took a step toward him, and Elliot stepped back.

  Elliot set his own cup aside, and when he turned around to make the coffee, Theo closed the space between them. His hands moved to Elliot’s stomach. The warm dampness of Theo’s freshly showered body pressed up against him. “You okay this morning?” Theo asked close to his ear.

  Elliot bowed his head, and he put his hands on the counter. “Theo, what did it mean about money?”

  “Huh?”

  “You really should put a lock screen on your phone. I thought it was mine. We have the same phone, remember?” He spoke fast, and he had to consciously tell himself to slow down. He sighed and put a hand to his mouth. “That message...,” he started. He pulled away from Theo, and he crossed his arms. “I mean, you really need to lock your phone down so someone can’t mistakenly pick it up and read your messages. As an IT professional, it’s important for me to pass on this piece of security information.” He was babbling, and he couldn’t look at Theo in that moment.

  “Okay,” Theo said. He reached out and put his hands on Elliot’s shoulders, but Elliot stepped away again.

  “I read those messages, Theo.” He swallowed hard. His body trembled. “I wasn’t snooping. They were open already.” God, was he about to cry? Tears gathered in his eyes, and he felt stupid for crying. “This was all a setup, wasn’t it?” he said.

  Theo didn’t say anything. He remained where he was, but he stood silent. “Um…” he said finally. Then Theo swallowed, the Adam’s apple in his throat working up and down. He moved to the other side of the kitchen to lean against the kitchen island. “I can explain—”

  Elliot squinted as he shot a hard look at Theo. “Explain? Please do.”

  Theo took a deep breath. “I saw Brianna a fe
w days ago. You know, we’ve been friends forever. Since high school, but you knew that.”

  Elliot shifted. He waited for Theo to continue.

  “I told her about Reid and about how I needed money to get a new place.”

  Elliot didn’t hide his confusion. He still wasn’t sure what this had to do with him and why… then Elliot’s brow furrowed as the connections started into place.

  Theo ran his hand through his still-wet hair. “She said she had this guy—you—at work who was going through some stuff too. She talked about how you had a hard time meeting people.”

  Elliot took a breath, and he let it go. “What are you saying, Theo?” He needed to hear it.

  Theo looked to Elliot with wide eyes, scared eyes, and Elliot couldn’t decide if it was remorse or regret at being caught. “It was Brianna’s idea,” he said. “She’s the one who asked me.”

  “What did she ask you?”

  “I thought it was crazy at first too. I said no, but she pushed the issue.”

  “What did she ask you, Theo?”

  “She asked me if I wanted to earn some quick money by taking you out and showing you a good time.”

  Elliot closed his mouth and swallowed. He frowned. It was what he suspected, but that didn’t make it any easier to hear. “So she hired you.”

  Theo nodded.

  “She hired you to have sex with me.” A tear fell down his face. The realization of his words hit in in the pit of his naked stomach. He was naked, but he now he was more than that. Bare and laid open, as if someone had hollowed him out. That’s how it was. Then he scowled. “That guy at the diner last night. He was right. You are a prostitute.”

  “It’s not like that,” Theo said. He pushed off from the counter.

  “Isn’t it?”

  Theo reached for him, and Elliot pulled away.

  “I’m sorry,” Theo said. “It’s different than that. Elliot, please.”

  “How? How is it different?” Elliot’s voice echoed in the space of the kitchen. “Isn’t that the very definition of prostitution?”

  Theo’s mouth opened then closed. He crossed his arms in a mirror of Elliot standing a few feet away from him. He appeared drawn in on himself, smaller than he had at any other time since Elliot met him. “I’ve never done that before,” Theo said. His voice sounded small.

  “Oh, okay. That makes it all better then.” Sarcasm. The sound of it dropped from Elliot’s mouth to drip between them. Somehow, he managed it through the tears he couldn’t stop from spilling down his face. “I was your first foray into the world of paid sex. Thank you for that distinction. I can’t wait to tell my friends how my first time having sex with a guy was with someone who was paid to do it.”

  “Elliot, please—” Theo reached for him again, but Elliot flinched away.

  “God dammit, Theo! Stop!” He hit the counter, and he immediately regretted it. It hurt his hand. He cradled it then as he spoke.

  Theo stopped. He didn’t come any further.

  “I woke up feeling good about last night,” Elliot said. “I woke up feeling changed, more confident I think.” He searched for the words. He shook his head. “I thought this was something new.”

  “It is.” Theo’s voice came out at a higher octave. “I mean, you can feel good about last night.”

  Elliot pressed his lips together into a scowl. “Can I? I paid for sex.” He didn’t pay. It was Brianna. But that didn’t matter right then. “God, that makes me even worse than I was when this whole thing started.”

  “No, it doesn’t.”

  “Yes, it does!” Elliot wiped at the tears still burning at the corners of his eyes. “It makes me pitiful. I can’t even meet a guy on my own. Someone who I thought was my friend paid a guy to sleep with me. That’s what this is. Don’t you see? Did you really think this would go over well?”

  “You weren’t supposed to find out.”

  “Oh. Well, thanks. That makes it so much better.” Elliot turned away from Theo, and he walked down the hallway and into his bedroom.

  Theo followed behind him. When Elliot made it to his bedroom, he swung the door closed, but Theo caught it before it closed all the way.

  “I didn’t expect last night to go like it did,” Theo said.

  Elliot shook his head. “Just go.”

  “I mean it. I thought I was doing Brianna a favor before this whole thing happened.”

  “I said GO!”

  “I never expected you to be somebody I really like.”

  That caused a pause as Elliot stared hard at Theo. Tears were in Theo’s eyes too, and his lip trembled.

  “Elliot,” Theo said. His voice was small, defeated. “Please.”

  But Elliot shook his head. “Get. The. Fuck. Out.”

  Theo stood for a moment. He shifted his weight and then nodded. He stepped into the room, causing Elliot to take a step backward, but then he realized Theo was only going for his socks still on the floor of Elliot’s bedroom.

  Elliot turned then, turned away from Theo, and he sat down on the bed. He heard Theo moving through his apartment, getting dressed.

  Then, a few minutes after, he heard from the living room, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I never wanted it to turn out like this.”

  Elliot said nothing in return. He simply sat on the edge of his bed. And, after Theo closed the door to the apartment, he bowed his head into his hands, and he cried.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Theo

  Theo got the call a few hours after leaving Elliot’s apartment. He was standing in the middle of the bedroom that he once shared with Reid, and he was tossing his shit by the handfuls into a moving box. Right now he was going through the shirts he had, tossing aside those that he associated most with Reid, and keeping only the ones that meant nothing, that were devoid of feeling. He didn’t care about sorting it.

  Packing was a kind of respite. Packing and looking at all his stuff, busying his brain with figuring out what to keep and what to toss kept his mind off Elliot and the look on his face when Theo left his apartment this morning.

  That look was hard for him to forget. Every time it flashed into his mind, it hurt his heart a little more. Earlier, he threw a coffee cup into a box and heard it break as he tried to push that expression out of his mind. He didn’t even care that it had broken. So he focused on the task at hand. He only wanted to get it all boxed up and ready to move out. Everything was changing for him, and he needed to get it over with, rip it off like a sticky Band-Aid on a hairy arm—a flash of pain then over.

  When his phone rang, he glanced at it. Brianna.

  He continued to pack, and he let the phone ring, followed soon after by the ding to signal a message left. He didn’t bother to pick it up to listen to the message. Brianna was the one who got him into this mess. It was her idea that caused all this. She was the reason he felt like an insignificant douche right now. Insignificant and worthless and cheap. He hated this, and worse, he was powerless to do anything to change it.

  At the moment, Brianna was the last person he wanted to talk to.

  The one he wanted to talk to was Elliot, but Elliot didn’t want to talk to him. And why would he? Elliot was right. Elliot had every right to react like he did. As that thought entered his mind, he realized he had a t-shirt he’d had since high school wadded up in his hands, wringing it like a dishrag. He tossed the shirt in a box to move.

  God, the tears. It wasn’t the first time that day that the memory of the tears sliding down Elliot’s face made him almost want to cry too, or to hit something, or both. He was the cause for Elliot’s tears, and that made him feel the worst.

  Elliot experienced something with him. Something good. But, for that stretch of midnight hours, Theo experienced something good too. For the first time in a long time, a little spark of his old self began to wake. A giddy feeling, excitement, the way he was the night he met Reid before he figured out who Reid really was. He thought he’d long since forgotten how to feel that way, but Elliot r
eminded him.

  Then it all came crashing down. In the space of a moment, gone.

  There was a knock at the door. Theo stepped over a stack of his books and made his way down the hallway and into the living room. The living room had its own share of little bombs that had gone off as Theo rifled through books and magazines and just the general crap that he and Reid had gathered over the course of their rocky relationship. He’d gotten his stuff out, and he’d decided not to bother cleaning up the stuff that belonged to Reid. Reid made a mess of his life, so why shouldn’t Reid have to do some of the grunt work of cleaning up after he was gone?

  He peered out through the peephole.

  Brianna.

  Fuck.

  He leaned against the door, and he debated whether or not to even open it.

  She knocked. “Theo, I know you’re in there. I saw you peep the hole.” She pounded on the door again.

  With a sigh, he finally undid the top lock and twisted open the doorknob. “What?” he said when he saw her. She was dressed casually with her hair pulled back into a blond ponytail.

  She tilted her head. “Is that any way to greet me?” She was kind of playing. Theo could read it in her voice. She pushed past him and came into the apartment. Theo really had no choice but to let her in, so he gave her the sweeping arm gesture for entry, and then he closed the door. When he turned around, she had already thrown down her purse. She looked around the living room and then turned back to him. “So what the fuck happened, dude?”

  “Is that any way to greet me?” He crossed his arms.

  She put her hands on top of her head as if she was holding it all in place. “Stop it.”

  “What the fuck do you think happened?” Theo said.

  “You got caught,” she said.

  “Because of you! Dammit, Brianna.”

  She stood like stunned. “But—”

  “You’re the one who let him know.”