Bolivar

by Caitlin Ricci

  “Sure. But it won’t change anything between us.”

  Bolivar slipped off my butt and stood beside me. “I don’t expect it to either. But it may change something for him. Not everything is about you, Wesley. I’m going to the beach. Relax for the rest of the day.”

  He was gone then, and I sent the text.

  By early February Bolivar was apparently tired of having me around. I hadn’t heard from Jack again, not that I’d really expected to, but one early morning Bolivar came into my room with a globe and woke me up by bouncing it into my head.

  “What the hell?” I grumbled at him. I sat up and glared, and then I sighed because he was already walking out of my room.

  “Pick a place, anywhere really, and I’ll send you there. You’re bored, and it’s bothering me.”

  Well, I had been bored of just watching movies and going down to the beach with him, but I hadn’t thought he noticed. “And what if I just want to go home? Maybe go to college or something?” I called out to him without getting out of bed.

  “Then I’ll book you a flight that leaves this afternoon!” he yelled back.

  I guessed that settled it, then. I got out of bed and pulled my lounge pants up a little bit as I ambled into the living room to join him. He lay reading a book on the couch. The dragon was always barefoot, despite how cold it was outside. “You really don’t want me here, huh?” I wasn’t upset about it. It wasn’t like I did anything for him that he couldn’t do for himself. I was pretty sure I was just in his way.

  He put the book aside and made room for me to sit with him. He had his shirt off too, and I expected to see some of the blue scales that I’d seen before on his back, but there was nothing more than the faintest hint of blue to his skin. “You’re a good guy, Wesley, although you’re wasted here with me. You aren’t learning anything, and if I’m being honest, I haven’t needed an assistant in nearly a century. We dragons don’t have wars anymore, and if I really needed to work something out with Imrel, then I could just email him. We aren’t in the dark ages anymore and we haven’t been for a long time. I’m not ready to release you just yet, but I don’t need you here, either. You seem miserable and I don’t want to do that to you.”

  I wasn’t miserable, though. Not really, anyway. But I was bored. I could take his offer. I could go home, get a job, go to college. Something. He was dying, though. Turning into a human or whatever. I didn’t understand how it was going to happen, only that it was happening. “What if... What if we went somewhere together? Your territory is the entire US, right? So there’s got to be somewhere we could go together.”

  He smirked, but I thought he might have been interested. “Do you think I’m bored too?”

  I was quick to shake my head. I didn’t want him getting mad at me because I assumed something of him, but I realized then that I would have to assume to be able to answer his question. “No, but I think you might be lonely.”

  Bolivar raised his eyebrows, and then he simply shrugged. “Maybe I am sometimes. There’s a private resort for gay men in the Keys. We’d have to change planes, but it’s not a bad day of travel, if you’re interested. We could go for a few weeks, get out of the snow and the cold, and you could work on your tan. You might possibly even meet someone worth not being bored with.”

  “You could meet someone, too,” I reminded him.

  He slipped off the couch, making sure to rub my hair as he did. “I don’t really meet people, Wesley. I’m a dragon, and until I die I’m going to keep growing younger. Then I’ll start aging as a human would. Someday soon you’ll look at me and think I’m a teenager. Or maybe that I’m going off to college for the first time. While someone like you would understand those changes, most humans would have no idea how to even begin to understand what a dragon is. To them, we’re myths and legends. There’s a reason Imrel only connects with assistants. In all the human world, you’re the only ones who actually know what we are. No, I won’t be going there to meet anyone. I’ll look plenty though, and I’m sure I’ll enjoy the view. You, on the other hand, you should find someone worth getting lost with for a few weeks. Have some fun and enjoy yourself while we’re there. I’ll make the arrangements while you go pack.”

  He left me then, and I realized just how lonely he truly was with only me for company.

  We got to the airport about ten that night for our flight out of Maine at just after midnight. I was tired, having not been able to sleep at all because I was too excited for a real vacation, but he looked just fine. I only packed one suitcase, mostly full of clothes, and he only had a big beach bag that was white and blue and had an anchor on it. No computers, no books, no nothing as far as I could tell. Maybe he really was just going to go look at all the guys. I didn’t know how he’d be able to look without wanting to talk to any of them, or better yet touch them.

  He surprised me with first class seats. I’d never had seats that good on a plane before. I wasn’t squished between two other people and I got a soda while everyone else was boarding too. Bolivar got two blankets and a pillow, even though the flight was only a few hours. He had the window seat, I was on the aisle, and he had his eyes closed before we even started to taxi away from the airport.

  “Are you asleep?” I asked him once we were in the air. I couldn’t understand how he would be already. I couldn’t ever sleep while I was on a plane.

  “No,” he mumbled. “But I’m trying to be.”

  How he could even want to sleep was beyond me. I was too excited to even close my eyes for a moment. I’d never been to the Keys, never been snorkeling, never been to a gay resort. It sounded like so much fun, and I didn’t have to do anything or pay for any part of it thanks to him.

  “Thanks for thinking of this, and for taking me along,” I said.

  He opened his eyes and peeked out at me. “You’re welcome, now let me sleep. I don’t like flying in planes. I wish I was still two hundred and able to actually turn into what I am. Then you could just ride me and I would fly us down there myself and we wouldn’t have to be in this crowded metal bird.”

  I smirked and wanted to say more, but I let him sleep. He was out completely within minutes and I got another soda.

  By the time we landed, I’d had four sodas and I’d tried to get some rum to go with them, but since I wasn’t yet twenty-one they wouldn’t give me any. Bolivar woke up as the plane was starting to deboard. We had only forty-five minutes to get to our next flight, but the monitors said that the other gate was only two down from where we were, so I wasn’t worried about it at all.

  “Do you want anything?” I asked him as I stretched my arms over my head.

  He still looked a bit groggy, but he shrugged and followed me along, although silently, as I went to the cookie stand that was close to our next gate. I was in a great mood, and having two chocolate chip cookies and a latte only added to it.

  We’d barely sat down at our gate when he took one of the cookies from me and pulled off a third of it for himself.

  “Hey!” I grumbled, giving him a glare. I didn’t really mean it though. I could have just bought another if I really wanted to.

  Bolivar shrugged. “You used my credit card.”

  “Huh.” I hadn’t even realized that I had. I was so used to using it for groceries and things over the past few months of living with him that pulling it out had become almost a habit when I went to pay for something. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. Did you bring any protection? That store over there with the magazines has a couple boxes of condoms if you need to get them now.”

  He raised his hand to point to the display and I turned away as my cheeks heated up. “They’re right over there,” he said as if I’d missed where he was pointing.

  “I know,” I grumbled. “I’m fine. Really.” And I didn’t really want to talk about sex with him. I’d had more than enough of that after my experience with Imrel. It wasn’t as if Bolivar had been mean about it or anything, but he and
I weren’t like that. In some ways he was my boss. In a lot of ways, actually. And I didn’t want to talk to my boss about my sex life.

  “Okay. If you’re sure.”

  “I’m very sure.” I just wanted to stop talking to him about it. Thankfully he dropped it, and we were soon on the next flight. It would be only a little over an hour, and then we would need to take a taxi down to the Keys. I couldn’t wait to get out there with the warm air and the sun and no snowy cold Maine for a few weeks.

  We had separate rooms, but they were right next to each other and joined by a door. I hesitated at mine. It wasn’t that I wasn’t ready to go down and meet people and change into my swim trunks for a while, but I wanted his permission almost. He was paying for this vacation and I thought he would be in charge of it.

  “Bolivar?” I asked him before he could finish opening his door.

  He stopped and looked me over. “Yes?”

  “Did you want to make a plan for dinner or anything?”

  He smiled at me and reached over to ruffle my hair. “You’re surrounded by beautiful men all looking to meet people and have a good time. Go enjoy yourself. Find a dinner date. Eat caviar off someone’s perfect butt. If you find yourself alone tonight text me and I’ll have dinner with you, but don’t assume that you won’t be hit on the second you walk downstairs.”

  He closed the door on me and I was back to blushing. He spoke so casually, and even though I wasn’t a virgin anymore, I was nowhere near his level of comfortableness. Since I was going to be left to do my own thing I went into my room and changed into my trunks. I took my flip flops, which I’d never gotten to wear in Maine since it was always so cold, and headed downstairs to the beach.

  The sun was warm and the sand was, too, though the water was cooler than I had expected it to be. Still, it beat the freezing waters in Maine hands down. I sat under the shade of an empty umbrella and lay back, smiling to myself as I started to warm up. I was still energized from the sodas I’d had on the plane, and I absolutely wanted to do more than just lie on the beach for a week, but this was a good start.

  Just as Bolivar had predicted, it didn’t take more than a few minutes before someone sat next to me, sharing my shade even though there were a bunch of empty umbrellas.

  “Hey,” he said.

  I looked over at him. He was probably in his forties. He had some gray hairs and some wrinkles around his eyes. He was good looking, but a bit old for me. I tried to stay within five years. Or, I had up until Imrel. I wasn’t going to be with a dragon ever again, though, so that didn’t count anymore. “Hi.”

  He waved at one of the people walking around with brightly colored cocktails and grabbed two. Then he handed me one.

  “I’m underage.” That didn’t mean that I wouldn’t be drinking it, though.

  “I’m not.” He clinked his glass against mine before taking a sip. “I’m Adam. And you are?”

  “Wesley.” Despite that he was a lot older than me, I didn’t really have anything against Adam. And it was nice to have some real attention for once, not to feel I was a bother like Bolivar treated me, or that I was just there to add to Imrel’s collection of virgin experiences. Adam smiled at me and it seemed like his smile was just for me right then, and that was nice. Almost like I was lying on a beach next to an older version of Jack.

  “So, Wesley, what is it that you do?”

  I sipped my drink. It was strong, and really sweet, but I licked my lips like I enjoyed the taste of it anyway. “I’m a personal assistant to a family friend.” It was a cover I’d thought up a long time ago if anyone ever bothered to ask me that question, though no one but Adam ever had. “He’s here with me, actually, though he’s probably back in the hotel reading or something.”

  “Do you two have a room together?”

  It was a bit early to be asking about my sleeping arrangements, but maybe not in a gay resort. “No, I have my own room.”

  “That’s really good.” He sipped his drink and kept smiling at me.

  I drank mine as well. It was growing on me and I was finding that I didn’t totally hate it. He put his hand on my ankle, and maybe I could have ignored it, or thought he’d just done it accidently, but it was impossible to keep faith in that idea when his other hand brushed my thigh as he went to push my loose swim trunks down my thighs. I knew what he wanted and I couldn’t be naive anymore. I knew he wanted me as soon as he’d asked about my room.

  I just didn’t know what I wanted, though. Did I want to have sex with him? Did I want to know what a completely human guy would be like? I hadn’t told him to stop touching me, so maybe that meant I wanted to kiss him. Either way, he had his hand in my shorts and his mouth on mine within a few minutes and I was still lying there on the beach, trying to figure out what I wanted.

  Someone cleared their throat above us. Adam didn’t move away from me and they did it again. “I’d like my assistant back, if you don’t mind.”

  I froze at the cold tone of Bolivar’s voice. He sounded pissed. I pushed on Adam’s chest and he moved enough for me to see Bolivar past him. “Hi,” I squeaked out.

  He raised his eyebrows at me and I was quick to scramble away from Adam and get to my feet. I couldn’t have moved faster if Bolivar had physically grabbed me and pulled me up beside him. “Sorry,” I mumbled. I didn’t know what I was apologizing for, not yet anyway, but I was sure I needed to be apologizing for something.

  Adam didn’t know that Bolivar was a dragon. He couldn’t. He didn’t know that making him angry would be a big mistake. So when he got to his feet and tucked his hand into mine, I didn’t doubt that Bolivar would say something to him.

  “Hey, I’m Adam,” he introduced himself.

  Bolivar pursed his lips. “I see. And you’re into twinks then, are you? Because you think he’s dumb and cute and alone? An easy target, then?”

  Adam dropped my hand quickly. “You’re crazy.”

  Bolivar waved him away and Adam was quick to go. I sighed as I watched him leave, but I had Bolivar there, still looking angry, and I needed to deal with him before I did anything else. “I didn’t need you to jump in and save me.”

  “He was kissing you and you weren’t touching him back. If you’d wanted to be kissing him, then you would have had your hands on him, not clawing at the chair. If you want to go after him and complain about your psycho boss, then you’re welcome to. You might even be able to catch up to him before he finds the next guy he wants to try to get into bed. But I think you know I’m right, don’t you, Wesley?”

  I hated how easily I blushed around him. And how he was right all the time. “Yeah. Fine.” I sighed. “I wish it wasn’t so hard to meet guys. Like seriously. It shouldn’t be hard to find a nice guy who wants me and isn’t a jerk about it.”

  Bolivar took my arm in his, and I noticed, for the first time really, that he was wearing a super tight and completely revealing suit that was little more than just sexy white underwear. I’d only noticed this because of all the guys staring at him as he walked me from the beach into the hotel lobby.

  “It is hard, I will give you that. But you’re also looking in all the wrong places. Jack was sweet, but not the one for you. Adam could have been fun, but are you looking for a hookup, or for something more substantial? And don’t get me started on Imrel. He’s better left unmentioned around me.” There were robes in the lobby and he grabbed us each one. I put mine on, but he only laid his over his arm. “Decide what you want, and there will be guys lining up to be with you in whatever capacity you want. Now, come on, I want you to meet some people that are important to me. They’re who I play Mahjong with online. Be nice, and you should try to make a good impression.”

  I had no idea what Mahjong was, but he led me into a small conference area where men in their eighties, all in robes as well, were sitting around tables with a bunch of colorful tiles on them. Bolivar dropped his towel and robe off on the back of a chair and grabbed himself some cucumber
water. “Gentlemen,” he greeted them, “this is my assistant, Wesley.”

  They waved to us but kept putting tiles together as if we weren’t important at all. Bolivar pulled me to a nearby table and chairs and I got comfortable. He crossed one leg over the other and looked positively royal as he looked over at the other men while they played their games.

  “It’s been a long time, Bolivar. Wesley, I’m Landon. I’m one of your dragon’s oldest friends.” He didn’t stand, didn’t offer me his hand, and he didn’t even look at me as I sat there with my eyebrows shooting up and my chin hanging down.

  “They’re—”

  Bolivar nodded. “Yes, these four men are other dragons. Landon is the dragon of the South, Faenir takes care of the West, if Imrel were here he would be the North, Ormr protects the Atlantic, Veles has the Pacific, and I’m East of the Mississippi up to Canada, where Imrel takes over, as you know. Now, remember what I told you about being nice. And get more water for everyone while I play a game.”

  I was quick to obey him, but I couldn’t stop staring. I’d never thought I would be in a room with five dragons, especially not a basic hotel room like this. I’d imagined a gathering of dragons to be this grand thing with torches everywhere and a big stone table. Maybe a human sacrifice or something. But these were just old men playing a game with little tile pieces and completely ignoring me while I brought them fresh water. When I was done I went back to my chair and sat, watching them, looking for any telltale signs of who, and what, they were. But there was none. Maybe it was hidden under their robes. Every so often when Bolivar moved, I saw the barest hint of a blue sheen on his back. Maybe they had scales hiding under their robes like Bolivar had when I’d first met him.

  “Can I ask a question?” I asked Bolivar.

  He glanced at me, then nodded before moving some of the tiles around. “You can do whatever you want, as long as you don’t make anyone here want to kill you. I like you, Wesley. I’d prefer that you don’t die on me right now.”