“Elijah…” Grayson’s body went tense as he said it.
Elijah tied the condom off and put it in the trash. It was time to get out of his own head and focus on making Grayson feel good. “Come on. Cum for me.”
Grayson kept stroking himself. He knew he was close. He was almost there. But as soon as Elijah had pulled out, that blissful feeling wasn’t as prominent.
Elijah took a step forward, moving Grayson’s hand away. Grayson exhaled hard.
“Turn around.”
Grayson did as he was told and it wasn’t even another second before his eyes were rolling back. Elijah pushed him back onto the desk and started blowing him like he’d never been blown before.
It was just what he needed.
Grayson came with Elijah’s name on his lips and his hands laced in the dark hair. He wanted to fall back and collapse – he wanted to bask for a good ten minutes, but after kissing the tip of his cock, Elijah had pulled away.
All of it was great – while it lasted.
“I’m going to be late,” Elijah said, reaching down to pull up his jeans.
Grayson began to get dressed as well. The awkward was finally starting to set in. There hadn’t really been any awkward between them before now.
Elijah hurried to button up his shirt as he watched Grayson stepping into his pants. He wanted to say something. Anything, really. But he didn’t talk with the others afterwards. He wasn’t going to now, either.
This short-lived arrangement was officially over.
After he left this office, Elijah was going to go back to being himself. That was the only person he could be, and he was good at it.
Grayson tucked his shirt in and began to fix his tie. “Thanks for the lunch again.”
“Yeah,” Elijah smiled as he replied. “Don’t mention it.”
More awkwardness.
Elijah went over to the sofa to get the bowtie and then placed it on Grayson’s desk. “I hope everything works out with The Pretty Ladies.”
Grayson laughed. “The Pretty Committee. But thank you. I do, too.” He shook his head as he caught a glimpse of his hair in the reflection of his phone, combing it back. “I’ll still be around if you ever need anything. If you ever change your mind about this.” He gestured around and forced a smile.
Though Elijah didn’t really see any of this being a reality for him, he did take what Grayson said to heart. “Alright. Later.”
Grayson nodded. “Later, Elijah.”
They looked at one another for a moment before Elijah finally broke the eye contact and walked away.
There was a lot that Grayson wanted to say. I was wrong. Maybe we can keep doing this, was one of those things, but he didn’t bother. He knew he was right. They weren’t being careful at the pace they were going. Someone had to be smart. But, he let Elijah leave without saying a word.
They would each go back to life as they knew it. Life as Grayson Paul and Elijah Dawson, but separate.
Elijah closed the door behind himself, and he was gone.
Chapter 10
Hanging out with Oscar and Eleanor at the Park Avenue diner was just what Grayson needed after his day. His Thursday had been packed with stress from work, and the confusion that came along with a spontaneous hookup from a guy Grayson felt was displaying strange behavior. Being around his friends and the expected ridiculousness that came along with it was just what the doctor ordered. Not Dr. Bryce, though. A normal doctor.
Grayson wasn’t surprised at the amount of food Oscar ordered since he let it be known that he was paying. As they sat and talked, he caught the two up on the fun he had with Elijah the night before. Eleanor seemed really upset about the whole Bryce situation and Grayson let her know it wasn’t that big of a deal. He just wouldn’t ever date someone she recommended ever again in life, but the two of them were fine.
He went into detail about the blind date and the reasons why he found it to be so horrible. Bryce was probably a decent guy, and there may’ve been someone out there who loved his need to be in control, but it wasn’t Grayson. Oscar laughed at the story about Elijah ‘breaking up’ with Grayson to help him get out of the date – “That’s fucking hilarious,” he said – and Eleanor especially loved the story Grayson told on the way home about him and Elijah sitting together at the piano in Washington Square Park, because it was “romantic,” but neither of the pair wanted to hear Grayson out when he said they called it quits that afternoon.
Grayson had to protect himself from Elijah. The guy was charming, handsome, and he knew just the spot on Grayson’s neck to kiss that would make his eyes roll back. Every. Time. Elijah probably knew how to make every guy he set his eyes on feel that way, and after all that Grayson had been through with Stephen – after how he walked away from it feeling like less of a man – he wasn’t going to ignore all of these blatant warning signs and knowingly enter any type of relationship just to set himself up for the same pain. It would be stupid.
“He showed up at my job today. Eleanor, I’m sure you’re aware,” Grayson said. After all, she did see Elijah and tell him just what Grayson would like to have for lunch. “He brought a bite to eat and somewhere down the line I found myself bent over my desk overlooking Midtown. I loved every second of it and he wanted more, but…” Grayson trailed off, tossing a popcorn into the air and missing it as it hit him on the nose. “I think we both realized what we did was fun, but it was best to walk away. It’s over.”
“Wait… What do you mean it’s over?” Eleanor asked. “The two of you just started this whole… whatever it is you were doing –”
“They were banging,” Oscar filled in for her.
Eleanor nodded; the confusion still on her face. “You just started banging, what? Twenty-four hours ago? It obviously wasn’t a one-night stand if you did it again today. Why did you break it off?”
Grayson didn’t want to talk about this at all. They’d been talking about it all night, and this may’ve sounded stupid, but he was a little bummed over the whole thing. It was a Thursday night in early December, he was alone on the sofa with a bowl of kettle popcorn while his best friends cuddled up on the love seats, and the guy he’d let fuck him in his office earlier was more than likely out with another guy right now while he sat on his ass and thought about him.
This was precisely why Grayson said they’d better call it quits. Walking away from what they barely had hurt a lot less than walking away from a potential relationship. People wrote songs about being heartbroken all the time, and Grayson hated that he could identify with what they were feeling. He didn’t need a new sad song to relate to, but the probability of him having one if he got involved any deeper with Elijah was high. And Elijah agreed to call it quits because he knew that was true. Either that, or Elijah wasn’t as invested as he thought. Whatever the reason was, it didn’t matter. It was over.
“Can we talk about anything else? We discussed this whole Elijah thing at the diner and on the way back here. Besides, I’m sure he isn’t thinking about me right now so why should I press this any further?”
Eleanor sighed. “Well for one, the guy came into the shop earlier and asked me how you liked your coffee so that he could take you one for lunch. I found that incredibly endearing for a guy you claim doesn’t do relationships.”
“I only claim it because he claimed it first,” Grayson said.
Oscar shook his head.
Grayson looked away from the couple and back to the TV. Shonda Rhimes’ television programming should be the only thing he was worried about tonight.
“He wanted the two of us to start some sort of friends with benefits-esque relationship. Now when has that ever worked?”
Oscar shook his head. “It doesn’t work.”
Eleanor looked at him. “Oscar…”
“What?” Oscar asked, reaching over her for the chips. “Before I met you, I was pretty much an Elijah, just not as bad. I didn’t have rules about doing it again or any of that, but there was next to no interest in
settling down with one person. And at one point, I did have a friend with benefits.”
Grayson thought for a moment. “The Monica chick, right?”
Oscar nodded. “Monica. What we had worked for a while. That was until she wanted to get serious. I didn’t, which is why I understand where my boy is coming from.”
“Thank you,” Grayson said quickly. He took another bite of the popcorn and watched the screen. “She would drink the milk out of the carton, too. I’m happy that didn’t work out.”
Eleanor laughed.
“But,” Oscar continued.
Grayson sighed. Here comes the ‘but’.
“I don’t know him at all, but something is telling me you two would work well together. Maybe you can hang out with him once a week or something instead of cutting it off completely. Think about it. Why walk away entirely from a good lay? I’d make the agreement up front and stick to it.” Oscar took another bite and shrugged. “It’s casual, and neither of you will have to worry about developing feelings if you don’t see each other on a constant basis.”
Eleanor shook her head. “I think you should just give him a chance as a boyfriend.”
Grayson smiled. These two were consistent if nothing else. “Neither of us want that, though.”
“Neither of you think you do,” she answered. “I think the idea is worth entertaining.”
A commercial for a horror movie came on as Oscar wrapped his arm around Eleanor. Oscar really didn’t want to push anything between Grayson and another guy if his friend wasn’t feeling it anymore, but he had a feeling that Grayson and Elijah weren’t done. He wished he’d gotten to meet this dude and see what they were like together.
Something told him that it could work – the way that Grayson spoke about Elijah reminded Oscar of how his best friend spoke about music itself. That was saying something. If the two of them stopped being stubborn, it would work. Maybe Oscar was being hopeful, but at least he was hoping for something that would make Grayson happy in the long run.
“When I met Oscar, I knew he was a playboy. I heard the rumors and I’d seen it for myself,” Eleanor said. “But I gave it a chance after he proved he was determined to make it work. Something is telling me that Elijah would want to try. It might be the whole ‘buying a guy lunch the following day’ thing, but I don’t know. I think he’s a lot more interested than he let on.”
Grayson was getting that feeling as well, and that was why he didn’t bother letting anything continue. He knew that he liked Elijah, or at least the idea of him. It had been quite some time since a guy made him feel this way. But Elijah’s interest would probably last all of two weeks, and then what?
“The next time we text; we’ll talk about it.” Grayson had no intention of reaching out to Elijah, but they didn’t need to know that. “I’m telling you guys, he’s probably with someone right now. He’s a player. That’s what players do.”
“Players change,” Oscar said. He smiled at Eleanor and she kissed his cheek.
Grayson rolled his eyes. Here we go again. They were disgusting.
“Here… what was this kid’s name? Elijah what?”
Grayson slouched back on the couch after putting the bowl of popcorn down. He took a deep breath, not so sure that he should answer the question. “His name is Elijah Dawson. Why are you asking?”
“Elijah Dawson,” Oscar replied, feeling around and eventually pulling his cell phone out from beneath him. Eleanor looked down at what he was doing as he unlocked his phone and went to the Facebook app. “Let’s do a quick search.”
It wasn’t hard to find his profile after typing in the name. The top match of several was an Elijah Dawson from New York, NY. He had wild black hair standing high on his head, freckles dotting his cheeks, a guitar in his lap, some very colorful art on his arm, a smirk on his lips, and a heavyset guy behind him in a University of Georgia shirt who was holding a beer.
To be frank, it was the last guy Oscar would think his best friend would go for. This guy was smoking hot in the way that your favorite rock star was – he was the type of guy that girls all over the country would hang on their walls and post #ManCrushMondays about. He was the type of guy who looked like he was trouble, but you still wanted to be friends with him because there was a chance you’d get the chicks he rejected, or at least you’d get to hang out in the VIP section with him. Grayson’s ex, Stephen, was the opposite. He was a sweet-faced, blond-haired guy who always wore sweater vests and wouldn’t dare put a drop of ink on his body. That was the type of guy Grayson considered boyfriend material.. Oscar called them boring.
But “boyfriend material” left him for the guy he grew up with – the guy he’d been secretly seeing behind Grayson’s back. One shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.
Oscar minimized Elijah’s photo and started to scroll through the profile. “This has to be him.”
Eleanor nodded. “That’s him. He’s pretty attractive.”
Oscar couldn’t argue with her there. Elijah was wearing a lip ring in one of his shirtless photos and as he read the comments, he could see where his friend’s concerns came in. There was nothing but thirsty guys leaving responses, asking for Elijah to call them back, telling him he was hot. It was a mess.
“It says he works at Lehman & Associates as a clerk and is an entertainer at Amo Pasta restaurant. He’s obviously making ends meet.”
Grayson rolled his eyes away from them and tried to focus on the television. “You guys don’t need to be this creepy. Let him live.”
“I’m curious,” Oscar continued. He licked his lips and smiled at his girlfriend. “Do you think I should send him a friend request? Maybe tell him my best friend is an idiot and that he can’t stop thinking about him –”
“I swear to god if you do that –”
“He’s not going to do that,” Eleanor cut in quickly. She laughed at the two of them as she turned to face Oscar, kissing him on his forehead. “You are going to behave, and we are going to creep on him without him knowing that we’re doing it.”
Oscar smiled. “I love the way you think.”
Grayson shook his head. “I don’t understand people today. Everyone is snooping and being just plain weird.”
The eye roll that came from Oscar was equal parts sassy and dramatic. “Oh please, Sonny. Like you’ve never looked anyone up before.”
“I haven’t,” he answered. And it was true. You dig deep enough, you’ll find something you wish you hadn’t. He was fine being a non-creepy person who was left in the dark. Ignorance is bliss.
“Well we will scroll through his profile and keep everything we find to ourselves,” Eleanor told him.
Grayson had taken to ignoring the couple at this point. He had tons of practice.
“Even if he posted a status about being at home alone tonight with a pint of Ben and Jerry’s,” she continued.
Oscar smirked as he read the status update, dramatically clearing his throat for good measure. “It’s one of those nights when you sit in bed with rocky road ice cream and watch old Christmas movies on Hallmark. Feeling: Blah.” He looked across the room at his friend and watched Grayson for a reaction. “Interesting.”
Grayson tried his hardest not to do so much as flinch. He knew that if he did, his friends would think that he had more interest than he was letting on. If they saw him react, this topic would be exhausted even further. Besides, that status update wasn’t a big deal. Elijah probably needed a break after last night and that afternoon. The texting and the kissing and the flirting – he probably needed a night to himself to unwind.
“You know what else is interesting? Tonight’s episode of Scandal,” he said. “But you two are stalking a guy I fucked instead of watching it.”
“A guy you fucked who’s at home alone right now waiting for a text,” Eleanor said, her voice trailing off into a bit of a song.
“He isn’t.”
“Okay. Relax,” Oscar laughed as he continued. “Enough about that. Let’s go easy on t
he poor fellow. Tell us about work.”
A subject change. Wee! Grayson would gladly tell them about work.
Work ended off a lot better than it had begun that day. Grayson’s father actually backed him up on the song for the girls, and X-Phile felt like a dumbass when he was ordered to change the record around to suit the girls’ voices. If it were up to Grayson, he’d just produce the songs on his own, but he respected X-Phile for his musicality and was willing to hear what else he had in store.
They’d recorded the three songs they were scheduled to and X-Phile was going to do all the mixing necessary for everything to be complete. At least one was a hit, the others would at least make it onto the album. Grayson felt better once he was able to give input and not be belittled, and everyone worked together to get the job done.
“The Pretty Committee are about five songs from having a complete EP. We’re going to release their first single next week and shoot a video for it. It’ll be debuted at our Holiday Party. I expect you two to be there.”
Oscar made an obvious face. Free booze and a place he could take his lady and get his dance on? Of course. “Uh, duh.”
“Of course we’ll be there.” Eleanor smiled.
“From there we’re doing promotion and hopefully selling some fucking records once it’s released. I need my father to give me the chance to bring in my own talent to work with. I have a huge road ahead of me with these girls, but they have their heads in the game. I think I can do it.”
His friends nodded. “You can do it and you will. I already told you you’re the real deal, man.” Oscar tossed the pillow at him and Grayson smiled as he caught it.
“You know what…” he looked down at the pillow and smiled. That was it! Grayson was supposed to be responsible for promoting The Pretty Committee so that he could finally work with his own artists, right? He was going to find out a way to do both. “I just got an idea. I need to find a place to make this work though…”
Eleanor looked over at him and smiled. “Hey! Share with the class.”
“I won’t jinx it. And I don’t want to tell you just in case you invite Bryce.”
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