by Lina Langley
“I mean, I guess in the drug dealing world, ten thousand isn’t—”
“I’m not a drug dealer in the slightest, Dallas. My family has money, okay? I’m—kind of trying to get away from them for a bit.”
Dallas narrowed his eyes. “Why?”
“Because all of my life,” Simon started. “There had been certain expectations of me. I’m expected to do things a certain way, and if I don’t, my peo—my family gets mad.”
“They’re strict?”
“They have reason to be,” Simon said, shrugging. “But I just finished my post-grad and I don’t want to go home yet.”
“So this is like your Rumspringa?”
Simon chuckled. “Except I’m not supposed to be doing it.”
“What are you supposed to be doing?”
“I don’t know. Getting married?”
“To a woman?”
“Ideally.”
Dallas narrowed his eyes. “Do you even like women?”
“I like beautiful people. Gender is irrelevant.”
Dallas smiled. “Your parents disagree.”
Simon moved his head from side to side in an uncertain gesture. “They think I can do what I want, they just want me to be discreet about it.”
“Is being at The Butterfly Inn being discreet?”
“More than you know. They don’t really care about my relationships, to be honest, they just want me to be serious with someone.”
“Anyone?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
Dallas licked his lips, setting his gaze on Simon’s eyes. “And Bastian?”
“Oh, right. He texted me earlier. I didn’t hook up with him.”
Dallas didn’t challenge him, but he didn’t look away either. He knew that it wasn’t his place to be angry at Simon if he had hooked up with someone else, they barely knew each other, but he couldn’t help but feel slightly territorial toward him, which he knew was ridiculous.
Simon rolled his eyes. “I didn’t. I told you, I’m not a slut.”
“I don’t care. It’s not like we’re in a relationship, a monogamous one at that.”
“I know, I just—I don’t want you to get the wrong idea of me.”
Dallas raised his eyebrows.
“Everyone thinks I’m a player, but I’m not. I mean, I used to be, but…”
Dallas stared at him, trying not to look as amused as he was. “I don’t know if this makes things better or worse, but honestly, Simon. I’ve never even heard of you.”
“Good.”
Dallas smiled. “I’m sure it is.”
“This guy, much bigger than he is, was all over him. Bastian didn’t seem to be into it, so I went to the dance floor and danced with him.”
“Right.”
“But the guy, well, he wasn’t happy about it. He got angry. He didn’t… initiate a fight, not exactly, but he kept pushing me with his body, and when that didn’t work, he moved so that he was grinding Bastian.”
“Gross.”
“I know. It was a shame, because I think if he had been less pushy, Bastian might have been into him.”
Dallas smirked.
Simon chuckled quietly. “I don’t get that bad. Right?”
Dallas shrugged. “Don’t know. Never been out with you.”
“Gotta fix that.”
Dallas licked his lips. “Yeah,” he said. “Maybe.”
“When the man wouldn’t leave Bastian alone, even though we were making conversation, I punched him.”
Dallas laughed. “You punched him? You could have gotten a bouncer.”
“Yes, that occurs to me now.”
“He didn’t punch you back?”
“He tried,” Simon replied. “There were a lot of people on the dance floor. The bouncer escorted us out, then Bastian told me that he wanted to get back in, so we tried. Someone sold us their wig for like, ten dollars. Or maybe it was a hundred.”
“Same difference.”
“Are you making fun of me?”
“Can you hear yourself?”
“That’s fair.”
“I know.”
“You’re almost done with your ice cream.”
Dallas smiled. “This is as done with my ice cream as I’m going to be. A minute on the lips…”
“Shush. You’re gorgeous.”
Dallas raised his eyebrows. “Does that line work?”
“Not a line.”
“Cute, Simon.”
“Let’s go on a real date.”
Dallas cocked his head. “Why?”
“So that we can see if we like each other.”
“Aren’t you leaving at the end of the week?”
“That just means we should get to it quickly, doesn’t it?” Simon said and smiled at him. His brown eyes were glimmering. Dallas knew that he should say no, regardless of what Simon had said, he still struck him as sketchy.
But even with all that, Dallas had genuinely enjoyed himself on a date in what felt like a very long time. Going out with Simon might have been a bad idea, but he was only there for a week, after all.
Dallas did like him. He thought, maybe, he didn’t know him that well. But that was dates were for.
“What do you say?”
Dallas shook his head and sighed. “You’re a convincing man.”
“Was that a yes?”
“One date.”
“One date’s all I need.”
Dallas chuckled. “Are you trying to talk me out of it?”
“Never,” Simon said. “Tomorrow?”
“Sure. Tomorrow,” Dallas replied, looking away from him. From the corner of his eye, he could see Simon smiling at him.
CHAPTER FIVE
They spoke about other things on the drive back to the inn. Simon was a well-informed and articulate man and Dallas found himself receiving an education about the news with depth that he had never understood before.
Simon turned out to be slightly brilliant, knowing how the news were interconnected in ways that Dallas had never even thought they would be.
He wanted to ask Simon exactly what he had studied, but it never came up, and Dallas already felt a little bit uncomfortable after he had asked Simon all of those questions. Even though they were alone in the car, it felt like a less intimate setting. Dallas wasn't sure why.
Maybe it was because it felt less like a date, or maybe it was because they were driving back to reality, going away from the beach and away from the sun-kissed tourists. Not that San Leandre was reality, but it was reality for Dallas, where he lived, where he worked.
He wondered what reality for Simon looked like.
He knew that he was hiding, though he wasn’t sure what he was hiding from. With all that money, Dallas didn’t feel particularly sympathetic to him. Or at least he didn’t want to feel sympathetic to him, but for some reason, he still did. He liked Simon, despite himself, despite the fact that Simon still struck him as sketchy and a little strange. Sketchy, a little strange, and very, very cute.
Perfect for a week-long affair.
He didn’t need anything else. Dallas wasn’t interested in a relationship, he had too much going on for a relationship. The hotel still needed to be taken care of.
He still had customers to attract, because it didn't matter that he had finally taken care of the taxes, there was a litany of things that he still needed to address if he wanted to keep The Butterfly Inn, most of them related to day-to-day operations.
Simon would go back to his life and Dallas would go back to his own life. They would probably never see each other again after Simon left and he went back to that European country that he wouldn't tell Dallas about.
Dallas didn’t know anything about his life. He just wanted to be around him, and he knew he was being foolish with his desires. But he couldn't help himself, because it had been a long time since he had spent an afternoon with a guy that he genuinely, truly liked.
Maybe it had even been before his father had gotten sick. Certainly
before he had died.
It wasn’t that Dallas wasn’t good at relationships, it was just that he didn’t feel like he had enough time for them.
He told himself that he was okay with being single. Men around him, friends that he had made ever since he had come out, were starting to settle down, but it wasn't like straight couples where they all settled down in their twenties.
Dallas told himself that he could wait, he was still young.
He didn't know where he would be in two or three years, at least not romantically. Physically, he expected that he would still be in charge of The Butterfly Inn, manning the front desk.
One part of Dallas found it hard to allow himself to think about what the future held, at least in terms of relationships.
He was somewhere transitory, where most people came and then they left after they had gone to school or they were there because they had come to the city with their families.
His friends, the ones in the community, they had all paired up with each other pretty quickly. A bunch had expressed interest in him, but Dallas hadn’t been in a place where he felt comfortable enough to be with any of them.
Plus, they were his friends.
He didn’t want to ruin their friendship.
Now, years later, some of them were in open relationships, but Dallas wasn't interested in that. Unfortunately, that meant that he was left out of a lot of social functions, functions that felt like they were mostly for couples.
It didn't matter how many times his friends Kevin and Jonah had invited him to go to a play, because regardless of how well-intentioned they had been, Dallas still felt out of place, especially when he was surrounded by more than one adorable queer couple.
Most of the time, he didn't resent it that much. But now that somebody who he thought might be a good candidate to be his partner turned out to be extremely sketchy and would also be leaving within the week, it all made him a little sad.
He didn’t think there was a lot of potential for a long-term relationship there, not really, because it didn't matter how good looking Simon was, relationships couldn't be based on looks. Dallas had learned that lesson, over and over again.
But there was something so magnetic about Simon. He wanted to be around him, even though he had tried to turn him down.
He didn't think that he was going to ever say yes to a date, but his feelings had softened the moment that he had seen Simon outside of Paradis wearing that platinum wig, and when he had explained who Bastian was, any reservation that he might have had stopped being important.
Casual sex was okay, Dallas was used to it. What he wasn't used to was someone like Simon, walking into his life and taking up so much space, both in his head and in the world.
The money had done Dallas a world of good, but he still couldn’t help but wonder where it came from, and he hoped that he would crack the mystery during their upcoming date.
Even if he didn't end up hooking up with Simon, which he hoped would happen—he was gorgeous, movie star gorgeous, and Dallas wanted a piece of that, as shallow as that was--he did want to know who Simon was exactly.
It might be a little irresponsible for Dallas to go on a date with someone who had just given him $10,000 a few days ago, but he didn't think that he would get this chance again, and he was looking forward to spending some time with Simon regardless of what his reservations might be.
Whether it was because he would get to crack the mystery or because they would hook up, Dallas couldn’t exactly be sure. Probably equal parts both.
More like forty/sixty, maybe.
He needed to get all of this out of his head. He went upstairs to his room after he said his goodbyes to Simon, being as polite as possible, giving him a close hug that he hoped wouldn't mean as much as a kiss, but that still lingered far too long.
Simon smelled better during the day, like expensive cologne and crisp clothes washed in fragrance-free soap. He also smelled a bit like ice cream and new car, and while the smell wasn’t overwhelming by any means, Dallas still found it overpowering.
He practically raced up the stairs.
He didn’t want Simon to see the wreck that he had made of him.
He locked the door behind him the moment that he slammed it, grabbed his phone, and navigated to his favorite porn site.
If he was going to do this, he was going to do it right.
He would make sure to take care of himself before they went on a date so that his judgment wouldn’t be clouded by how horny he found himself when he was around Simon.
That seemed like the sensible thing to do.
***
Dallas slept relatively okay that night. Compared to the rest of the nights since Simon had been there, he slept like a baby. That wasn’t much, because he’d slept like shit since Simon had gotten to the inn, but he woke up feeling refreshed and ready to start the day.
He stretched, silenced the alarm that was coming in about fifteen minutes and looked around the room. It was early in the morning, so the light was streaming through the slits of the blinds even though he hadn’t opened them yet.
He could hear birds outside, cars and buses, people talking and walking. One of the things that he didn't like so much about living at the inn was that he could always hear the people downstairs, because he was only about three floors up. Everyone else who lived on the boardwalk usually lived up a height, in a penthouse, and even they would sometimes complain about noise.
Dallas didn’t feel sorry for them.
When someone bought an apartment on the San Leandre boardwalk, they knew what they were getting into though.
He felt like he wasn't as responsible as they were because he hadn't been the one to buy the inn, but he could have moved. Simon wasn't kidding, he would have gotten a shit ton of money if he had decided to take any developer’s offer and let them buy out the inn.
The inn wasn’t valuable—not at all, he didn’t think, except for the fact that it was quirky when compared to the rest of the high rises surrounding the inn. The land it was on, he was sure that was extremely expensive.
He had never seen that many zeroes behind a five or a seven before, and he had been so tempted. He could start his own restaurant—his own chain of restaurants—and help fund a vaccine for something that should have had a vaccine a long time ago.
He had discussed it with his therapists, mentioned it offhandedly to friends, bitched about it in his blog.
Everyone that knew him assumed that he was filthy rich because of where the inn was located, but he wasn’t rolling in it or anything. He did okay for himself, he didn’t have enough money that he would never have to think about it again, like most people seemed to think.
Dallas hadn't been lying when he told Simon that he had gotten some offers, but he wasn’t lying either when he told him that he didn't want to be a bad son.
He wanted to keep his father's memory alive and the best way that he knew how to do that was to continue his business, which had been his father’s passion and his life when he was healthy.
Dallas thought that his father intended to retire and live his last days at the inn, and in a way, Dallas guessed that had happened. Just not in the way that his father had wanted it to.
He went downstairs to start breakfast service, glancing at Simon's door as he did. He wondered if Simon would come out and they would talk before service, but he doubted it. Still, just the idea that he would get to see Simon later on during the day made him happy.
He was in a good mood today, which meant that he would probably spend a bit more time with prepping. That also meant that people would be getting a treat when it came to breakfast. Stuffed egg and cheese croissants with avocado slices, fluffy biscuits and cream pastry, along with a blueberry coffee cake. He was in the mood for breakfast cake that morning.
He usually waited until all the guests were gone and then he had breakfast, subsiding only on coffee before service, and waiting until they were done cleaning the dining room before he had breakfast.<
br />
He normally had enough left for himself, and the staff obviously got to eat breakfast for free, but he would take his upstairs and eat it in his room, unless he thought that the staff felt up to socializing, and then he would stay down at the dining room and eat with them.
Shandra was already in the dining room, moving chairs down from the tables, something that rarely happened.
She was only there early sometimes because the buses were a little bit strange in terms of scheduling and she preferred to arrive early rather than later. It also had something to do with dropping off her son at school, though she had never been specific about it and Dallas had never asked.
As far as he was concerned, as long as Shandra did her job, it was none of his damn business.
He appreciated her for how hard-working she was and for how she would get there early rather than later.
He smiled warmly at her as he greeted her. “Hey, Shandra. How are you?”
“Fine, boss, and you?”
Dallas’ smile turned into a grin as he remembered the day before. “Yep. Everything is great. How’s Cliff?”
“He’s good. Honor roll.”
“Wonderful. Takes after his mom, I see.”
“Hopefully. We'll have to wait and see. Do you know what's going on across the street?”
“No, I haven't even peeked outside. What's going on?”
“I'm not sure. I'm just glad I came to work early today, which was totally a coincidence, because the hotel across the street is all cordoned off.”
“The Diamond is closed?”
“Yup,” Shandra said, nodding. “And there are some police cars outside, and I've seen people in black kind of roaming, I guess.”
“Shit. This early?”
“Yeah. There's something going on, because they're not letting anyone go inside.”
Dallas tutted. “I mean, crime at the Diamond is hardly a surprise, but this early?”
“Hah, well, I don't doubt it. But like you said, this is the kind of place where if crime happens is at night, not early in the morning. So I'm not really sure what's going on. That's why I was asking you.”
“Right. Well, I don’t know. How weird. You’d think they’d have enough money not to get investigated.”