Looking for Adventure

by Valentina Heart

  “What? What? I’m up! I’m up!” Rick lifted his sheet-imprinted face while I jumped around like an idiot on one foot.

  “What’s wrong with you?” he asked stupidly.

  He really was a little slow sometimes. Always stoned or drinking, never really thinking about anything. But as a person, he was a nice guy. If he remembered he needed to do something, he would do it for you.

  “I woke you because I’m moving. You need to find another roommate,” I said as I tentatively tried out my ankle.

  “Where are you going? Looking for another guy is such a pain, man!”

  “Well, why don’t you find a girl then?” I asked in all seriousness, actually interested in that answer.

  “Shut your trap! Just saying that will drag one on my back. Women are impossible! They take over the whole space, then bitch about the mess. I will not be a slave in my own home!”

  I had to laugh at that. For me, it wouldn’t have been a problem. I liked it when things were clean, but Rick was a slob. Before he finds a roommate, there will be all kinds of creatures living around him. It was quite a shock when I first saw the place, but the rent was cheap. It just took a little elbow grease to get the place clean. Like I said, he really wasn’t a bad guy.

  “I can see where that might be a problem for you,” I just mumbled.

  “When are you leaving?”

  “Tomorrow morning.”

  “Man! That’s just cruel! What about some kind of a notice or something? By the time I put in another ad, the place will be a mess again,” he complained as he got out of bed for a glass of water.

  “You could put an ad in at one of those colleges not far away. Just write something down and pin it on their advertising boards. Someone will call you in a day or two.”

  “Yeah, I could do that…but those college prunes always bitch about noise or smoking… Hell, it beats women. Could you write something for me? You are leaving so suddenly, after all.” He looked at me under his eyelashes all pleadinglike. As if I hadn’t been living with him for the better part of the year and couldn’t read his intentions.

  “Yeah, I’ll write you something,” I said, not really minding.

  “Thanks, pal, you really are something. Hey, how come you’ve never brought a girl around?” He sprawled on his bed again.

  “Rick, I’m gay!” I said for the fourth time since I’d moved in, exasperated.

  “Oh, I didn’t know that.”

  It was impossible not to roll my eyes at those words.

  “Okay, how about a man then?”

  “I haven’t had anyone for a while now, but even if I did, I sure wouldn’t have brought him here. It’s a guaranteed way to lose a date,” I said as I slowly packed my stuff.

  “How do you mean?” Rick looked at me, puzzled. He really didn’t have a clue.

  “It’s always a pigsty around here, and we have, like, one-and-a-half rooms, with you always occupying that half. Would you bring a girl here?”

  “Yeah, you have a point. I don’t bring them here either. If they wanna fuck, we do it on a bench somewhere or they take me to their place. Nothing lasts more than one fuck anyway.”

  There was nothing for me to do but stare at that. I’d lived with him for months now, but surprisingly, we had never talked much. I had no idea about his fucking habits.

  “Anyway, I have to pack my clothes and stuff by tomorrow. I also got a new job and a place to stay. It sure beats this dump, I tell you.”

  “Hey! Don’t be like that; I’m still in the room!”

  “You’re right; I’m sorry.”

  Shifting through my things ended up with me leaving at least half of it to Rick. I always traveled light, and moving a lot made it difficult to always unpack and repack a whole apartment’s worth of belongings. He was passive through the whole ordeal, not really caring what I took and what I left behind. Nothing made too much of a difference to him in his life. I found myself imagining the sight I represented that way, moving around, dividing what to take, what to leave. It must have been like an extremely dull TV channel.

  That night my dreams were for the first time haunted by a certain dark-haired man. His hot touches and dirty whispered words held me on edge until I came with a loud moan against the sheets in the early morning. There was something to be said about the privacy of one’s room. I hated mornings in shared accommodations.

  “Rick, I’m going now. Been nice knowing you, man.” We shook hands as we said our good-byes.

  I closed the door behind me, my big backpack hanging on my back, the little one hiding my front, and the bike slowly rolling next to me. All my belongings were on me once again as I headed into a new adventure.

  It took some time to reach Jonathan’s apartment, the load already heavy on my back. I rang the bell at the entrance to the building, expecting him to come down right away or to buzz me in, but even after a few more tries, nothing happened. So I buzzed the lady next door.

  “Yes?” a sharp voice answered.

  “I’m so sorry to bother you this early, but I was supposed to start working for Mr. Morgan this morning, and he’s not answering his door. I’m actually kind of worried for him. Could you maybe buzz me in?” Just as I said it, I realized it was true. I was worried. Jonathan didn’t look like a man who would forget a business appointment.

  She buzzed me in, and I climbed the steps to his floor, where a middle-aged woman greeted me, already dressed in a business suit, her hair perfectly arranged.

  “I’ll just ring his bell if that’s all right with you?” I asked her, already seeing in her posture that I was a bother.

  She motioned with her hand, her facial lines never softening. When even after three tries there was still no answer, a hard knot started to form in my belly. It felt like something was wrong.

  The lady was already tapping her foot on the hard tiles, but I still asked, “Do you maybe have a phone I can use? I don’t own a cell phone, and this isn’t like Mr. Morgan.” She was about to say something when we both heard glass breaking on the other side of the door.

  I forgot about her, instantly trying to open the hardwood door. “Jonathan? Jonathan, are you all right?” There was no answer on the other side, but the lady appeared next to me.

  “Let me try. We have each other’s spare key in case something happens.” She opened the two locks, and both of us rushed inside.

  Jonathan was in his bed, the covers below his knees, revealing his muscular, hairy legs. His big hands were gripping his head as he moaned.

  “I’m going to call an ambulance,” the woman said behind me.

  “Just wait a minute,” I said, turning my attention to Jonathan again. “What’s wrong, Jonathan; can you speak?” I put my palm on his shoulder, noticing for the first time a broken glass on the floor next to the bed.

  “Fine… Headache… No ambulance.” He somehow managed to utter the words.

  “He just has a headache, a bad one, so it would seem,” I said as Jonathan chuckled through a groan of pain. “You don’t have to call an ambulance. I’ll look after him,” I told the lady, who lifted her nose in the air and marched out of the room. I hated that attitude. A lot of people had it these days, where even helping your neighbor seemed to be too much trouble.

  “Thank you!” I yelled after her despite the attitude, which made Jonathan groan even louder.

  “I’m sorry… What can I do for you? A pill?” I whispered, trying not to upset him.

  “Water…” he managed.

  I stood right away, feeling the weight of the forgotten backpacks on me. I took them off, leaning them against the wall, and rushed into the kitchen for a glass of water.

  When I got back, I carefully lifted Jonathan’s head onto my shoulder, painfully aware of his gorgeous frame and the softness of his dark hair. I took two pills from the nightstand and pushed them into his mouth and brought the glass of water against his lips right after. He swallowed slowly, a frowning line marring his wide forehead. He was gorgeous even when i
n pain, even when sweat covered his skin.

  I gently laid his head on the bed again, trying not to stir him too much. “You still want to travel today?” I asked, seriously doubting his capability for such a stunt.

  “Give me two hours. I’ll be fine,” he said with his eyes closed and his lips barely moving.

  I stood up and went first to the window to close the shades and then headed in search of his keys. Two hours meant we were missing the ferry, but the lady renting the house would still be waiting there. I found the keys next to the door and went to the office, where I left Jonathan a note regarding my whereabouts.

  My bike was still in front of his apartment door, so I took it back down, climbed on it in a flash, and headed to the harbor. It wasn’t very close, but the bike allowed me to avoid all the morning traffic.

  During the whole ride, I felt my ankle throbbing, but my main concern was that blazing headache of Jonathan’s. Such a thing didn’t seem normal. Maybe he suffered from chronic migraines…

  I was early to the meeting point, but so was Mrs. Carney. My bike stopped right next to her, and I extended my hand.

  “Hello, I’m Nino. We talked on the phone last night.”

  “Oh, my dear boy, I never expected you to be so handsome,” she exclaimed.

  I certainly didn’t expect you to be so direct.

  “Here are the keys, and I hope you have a great time in our little piece of heaven. The house is perfect, but my husband and I are just too old to spend our time so isolated. If there is any trouble, you just call us. And that amount of money was simply absurd. You shouldn’t have paid us that much!”

  I was at a loss for words, since I had no idea how much money Jonathan had given them. “Well, we have no idea how long we will be staying. It’s never bad to cover everything up front,” I said.

  “I have to run now, my dear, but if anything is wrong, remember to call.” She took my hand once more before leaving me there.

  I flexed my ankle a few times, trying to ease the pain a bit before I headed back to Jonathan’s place. It felt as if it took me double the time to get back, but in reality, it was only ten minutes longer. My leg was killing me, and I barely managed to lift the bike to Jonathan’s floor.

  He was still in bed when I limped my way there, but the frowning lines had eased some, and I took that as a good sign. As for me, I limped my ass to the kitchen, where I wrapped some ice in a cloth and put it around my swollen ankle. I should have just rested it another day and it would have been as good as new. But no, I can never do things the easy way.

  I grabbed juice from the fridge, sat down, and propped my leg on a chair, and leaned my head against the wall behind me. There was nothing else to do but wait, so I closed my eyes and must have dozed off.

  The next thing I was aware of was hearing dragging footsteps somewhere in the apartment, so I took the now wet cloth off my leg and headed toward the noise. What I found was Jonathan approaching me, his eyes half-closed. He was wearing just a plain T-shirt, which he had been sleeping in earlier, with black shorts hugging his package. I looked up before he could catch me staring.

  “You feel any better?” I asked him, causing him to stop in place. His eyes opened slowly.

  “What are you doing here?” a voice that sounded suspiciously like a hangover asked.

  I stopped in my tracks, subconsciously expecting an ugly scene from my past to replay, but then I remembered his headache.

  “We were supposed to leave this morning, but you couldn’t get out of bed, remember?” I looked at him expectantly.

  “Ahh…I had another headache. I’m sorry. I usually meet all my appointments.” He groaned and grabbed his head again.

  “So are you any better?” I tried again.

  “Don’t worry, it’s bearable right now. It will go down a bit more, I think. I just need some coffee. It might be better than tea.” He passed by me on his way toward the kitchen.

  “Are those headaches frequent?”

  His back stiffened at the question before he opened the fridge and took out the milk.

  “They are nothing to worry about. Do you want some coffee?” He changed the subject, and I didn’t know him well enough to pry.

  “Yeah, sure,” I simply said, getting back into my chair.

  “I guess we missed the ferry?”

  “Yes, but there’s another one in little more than an hour. We can catch that one if you want.” I’d checked the schedule while at the harbor, just to be on the safe side.

  “Good. If the coffee clears my head, we can go. I want to be able to get us there safely,” he said, busy with his back toward me.

  “Are you packed?”

  “Yes, I took everything to the car last night. It seemed like an unnecessary thing to leave for the morning.”

  I would have been surprised to hear anything less, really.

  Soon he served us the coffee, looking at me, all disheveled and sexy.

  “Did you have any problems with work or your apartment?” he asked, bringing the mug to his lips.

  “No, I always arrange it so that I can leave when the mood strikes me. I don’t like to be tied down,” I confessed, not even sure what compelled me to say that.

  “Ah, so this is something you do often?” Those gorgeous eyes pierced me.

  “If you mean the moving, then yes, but if you mean leaving town with strangers, then it’s a definite no.” I curved my lips into a smile.

  “Well, that’s good to hear. We don’t want anything dangerous to happen to you.” I would have taken it as a threat from anybody else, but from his lips, it sounded like sweet seduction.

  “So what do you plan on doing when we get to the island?” I continued the conversation.

  “First I’m going to help you get the things from the car to the house, and then I’m going to go out on that terrace and spread out in one of those deck chairs. I think you’re going to have to drag me back inside come nightfall.” He stared at me challengingly over the rim of his cup.

  “Man, that sounds like a plan…” I said, loving the idea but realistically knowing I would be bored after half an hour max.

  “Okay, on your feet. We’ve got an island to get to!” He stood, taking both our cups to the sink and rinsing them. “The cleaning service will take care of the rest,” he added before leaving for the bedroom.

  I followed him, standing in front of his bedroom door until he was done, my mind imagining all sorts of naked combinations while I waited for him to get ready. I needed to get into that room; my hormones were all but salivating for the naked guy I envisioned on the other side while my head was on a more practical level, wanting to get the things I left there. Still, I stood in place, leaning against the wall until he came back, blinding me with the combination of jeans and a white T-shirt. I swallowed hard, looking at every delineated line of muscle without holding anything back before I realized I was outing myself for a bit of ogling.

  “Never seen you in something so plain,” I somehow managed to say.

  He looked down at himself, almost in amazement. “I almost never wear anything like this. I have just a few combinations in case a client demands casual dress, which they almost never do.” He rolled his eyes and headed toward the door.

  “I’ll be just a second. I have to get my bags from your room.” I hurried inside, not waiting for his answer, and loaded my body with my baggage.

  By the time I reached the front door, he already had my bike in hand and was waiting to lock the door behind me.

  “How can someone of your importance just leave everything behind and take a vacation?” I asked later as we were speeding toward the harbor.

  “Why do you think I’m someone important?” He glanced my way, his palms on the steering wheel.

  “Oh come on, the suit, the ‘I’m so important’ attitude. You have corporate oozing from your every pore,” I said, not really thinking about offending him.

  His laugh was loud, deafening, but such a refreshing thing to he
ar. Certainly the last thing I would’ve expected.

  “I guess you are right. I probably ooze corporate even in jeans. It’s all I’ve ever been. But to answer the question, I told my partner I’m taking some vacation time, and he said to have fun.” His face had transformed into hard lines at his last words, but I decided to ignore it. I was too busy thinking about how there wasn’t anything corporate in his jeans-hugging ass.

  “You look pretty good in jeans, if you don’t mind me saying. Hope there won’t be any place for suits on your vacation.” I laughed happily, praying my words weren’t seen through and that my attraction was still behind firmly locked doors.

  “Thank you. I think that’s my first compliment in years,” he said quietly, looking at the busy road.

  I felt sorry for him, but simultaneously I was glad to be the one to compliment him. He really was a very fine man, and my attraction reached beyond the physical.

  “So what did you do before the delivery job?” he asked me, not even glancing in my direction this time.

  “I worked for an insurance company, calling clients all day long. And before that I sold ice cream.” I smiled at him contentedly, especially when he looked at me, searching for any sign that I was joking.

  “You’re serious? You were selling ice cream?” he asked, surprise evident in his voice, before turning his gaze back to the road.

  “Sure. It wasn’t for very long, but I did it. I’d also been driving that little sightseeing train that cruises the city for a while. But the kids’ screaming drove me crazy,” I confessed, enjoying the emotions crossing his hard but softening face.

  “Wow, you really are something. I could never do all those things,” he said slowly.

  “I bet you could. When you need the money, there isn’t much you wouldn’t do. But for me, I tend to choose things that I find fun or jobs I haven’t tried before. The latter one was starting to become a challenge, though.”

  “So how many jobs have you had?”

  “Shit, there’s too many to count. I don’t like staying in one place for too long; I told you that already. And jobs just come and go. There’s always something to do, especially during the tourist season. In winters, I try keeping just one steady job, because it’s a drag to search for something new when the choice is limited.” Which was true. In winters, there was only so much you could choose from, and most of it sucked. So when I found something decent, I stuck with it until the summer.