“That was fun,” he whispered. “We should do it again sometime.” He couldn’t keep the smile of his face and my cheeks were already starting to hurt where I could hardly contain myself.
“Hmm, sounds like a good idea to me,” I said. “What are you up to today?”
His eyes widened.
“Fuck, no, I didn’t mean that,” I stammered, my cheeks suddenly on fire. “I just meant, if you weren’t too busy today, maybe you could come over and see my place. We could have some food, get to know each other a little better.”
“We sort of skipped that part and jumped straight to the sexy part, huh?” he said.
“Yeah,” I cleared my throat. “Sorry about that.”
He shook his head. “Don’t you dare apologize for anything that just happened,” he said, taking a breath. “That was more than I could have ever hoped for. I’ve never had anything quite like that before.”
I smiled. “Likewise.”
He kissed me again, a little harder this time, his tongue finding its way into my mouth. My cock started to twitch in response. Jesus Christ. Kisses like this for the rest of my life? That I could definitely buy into.
He pulled away and looked up into my eyes, his amber colored eyes glowing a little. “I’m going to get myself cleaned up,” he said. “I’m a bit sweaty and, well, you know. Then I’ll come over, is that all right?”
“Sure,” I said. “How do you like your eggs?” I asked.
“Oh gosh, Slater, let’s not start with a cliché,” he smirked. “You don’t have to make a fuss, really.”
“Tell me what you want to eat,” I said. “It’s not a bother, honestly. I’m a pretty good cook, you know.”
He laughed. “Good, because I’m awful.” He thought for a moment. “How are you with pancakes?”
“Better than I am with eggs,” I replied. “I’ll make us some pancakes and see you when you come over.”
He kissed me lightly again and hurried off in what I assumed was the direction of the bedroom. “I’ll be quick, I promise!”
“These are amazing,” Niko said, sitting back after devouring a stack of my pancakes. They were pretty good, I had to admit, but I’d had to google a recipe to make sure I was doing them right. I wanted to impress him, and something told me he wasn’t eating too well. I know I wasn’t when I was his age. I shook the thought from my head, trying to ignore the cavernous age gap that separated us. “And your apartment is gorgeous.”
I snorted. “It’s exactly the same as yours!”
“It is not!” he replied. “It’s all grown-up looking. I mean, your furniture matches, you have art hanging on the walls, it’s great.”
“Well, I hate to disappoint you, but the furniture was my Dad’s before he died and the artwork is mine,” I said. “So I’m not completely rolling in it, I just know how to make things look nice.”
“So you’re an artist,” he nodded. “That explains all the paint then.”
He got up from his chair and walked over to the painting that was hanging near the patio doors. He looked at it closely, then stepped back to admire it, like he was some kind of art expert. Maybe he was, there was so much I didn’t know about him.
“This is really incredible, Slater,” he said. “So beautiful. What do you use as inspiration?”
“Music, mostly,” I said. “Stuff from before you were born, the eighties is my current influence.”
He nodded sagely. “You can see that in the neons,” he said. “Those bright colors are straight from that era, aren’t they?”
I nodded. “You’ve got a good eye.”
“I’ve spent a lot of time looking at art,” he replied. “Back in Howling Hills I used to go to galleries all the time. I knew the people who owned them so they got me in for free and they’d talk me around everything that was being exhibited. It was really fascinating stuff.”
“Proper artists,” I said, taking a breath. “That must have been quite something.”
He scoffed. “Half of it was trash compared to this,” he said. “You have anymore?”
“Oh tons,” I said. “I’m not exactly Banksy, I’m not selling my paintings for millions of dollars or anything. Not everybody wants a piece of Slater Ewen.”
“Well, I would love to see them,” he said. “And I’d love a piece of Slater Ewen, everyone should. These are great. You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself.”
He was a sweet guy. He really was. I knew I wasn’t a bad artist, but I wasn’t exactly a commercial success, selling out galleries and making a huge living off my art. Not that it was ever something I’d wanted to do. I just wanted to make art people liked. And here Niko was liking my art. It was nice. It set a warm glow off in my chest.
“I could introduce you to some people if you want,” he said. “It wouldn’t be a problem. I mean, they’d be kissing my ass until the end of time if the rest of your work is as good as this.”
“You don’t have to do me any favors, Niko, really.”
“I want to,” he said. “Look, you’re obviously really talented. Why the hell would you want to hide it all away in an apartment in Furbitten Falls when you could be selling out shows in Howling Hills.” He smiled and walked over to me, planting a soft kiss on my lips. I could get used to little kisses like that, little moments of affection to lift my soul. “Now where are the rest of those paintings?” he asked. “You can’t just leave a guy hanging like that, I’ve got to see them.”
I took him into my studio and showed him around, letting him go through the bigger canvases I had leaning up against the walls and look at the smaller paintings I had done on paper that were hanging around, some framed, some just kept in plastic to keep them nice. He marveled at practically every one, a comment about why he loved it accompanied with how amazed he was that I could do all this. It was nice. It was an ego massage I didn’t even know I’d needed.
“I don’t care if you’re being modest or whatever, I’m telling my friends back in Howling Hills about you,” he said. “They’re going to lose their minds. Honestly, they’re going to love you, just you wait.”
“You’ll have to tell me all about it,” I said. “I’ve never been that good at getting my stuff out there, so you’ll have to show me the ropes.”
“Show you the ropes?” he said “I’ll do more than show you the ropes, Slater, I’m going to make you a star. It’s going to be all glamor and parties for you. The only way is up.”
“Gosh, parties, not altogether sure I’m built for that anymore.”
A silence pushed its way between us, Niko turning his gaze away from me to look at more of my paintings, sketches I hadn’t sold, things that weren’t quite finished, that didn’t have a pawprint of approval from Fishstick just yet. There it was. I hadn’t expected it to come up so soon, but there was only so long we could ignore the gap between us. The air in the room had shifted, a tension between us that neither one of us seemed all that keen on pushing through. It hadn’t even been a couple of hours and things had already become awkward.
Come on, Slater. Be a fucking grown up.
“Do you think it’s weird that there’s an age gap?” I asked, biting the bullet, pushing my way through the tension like it was treacle. “I’m 39 years old, how old are you?”
“Twenty-two.”
“Fuck.”
“Don’t be like that.”
“What?” I said. “That’s fucking gigantic, don’t you think? I mean, I could literally be your dad.” He opened his mouth to speak but quickly closed it again. “How does it make you feel though, Niko?” I asked. “I mean, I’m older than you, I’m not speeding around life right now. I’ve done that life.”
“I was attracted to you the second I saw you,” he said, plainly, stopping flicking through paintings to look me right in the eyes. “I didn’t realize it straight away, I just couldn’t get enough of you so I thought the best way to get your attention was to keep pushing you and pushing you.”
“I thought you were a total p
rick.”
“I was, really,” he said. “I still am, sort of, so maybe give me a bit of a free pass until I get it to go away. But I think the universe sending you my way is its way of saying ‘Hey, Niko, maybe stop being such an asshole and slow down’.” He smiled. “I’ve been running at a million miles a minute for a while and, honestly, I’m pretty tired. I think the universe wants me to stop being such a wreck.”
“Well, if you happen to get out of line, I’ll happily bust your ass about it,” I snarked. “How does that sound?”
He chuckled. “It sounds like a deal to me.”
He carried on flicking through my paintings, finding his way to my old sketchbooks that I immediately tried to wrestle off him but to no avail. He was enjoying seeing this side of me, seeing the bits that I didn’t show on the outside. It was nice. He got to know me so much simply by looking at my artwork. I still had a lot I needed to know about him too.
I wondered what would happen if people found out about us. Chasen and Jarrett would be supportive, in their way, they’d probably rip me to pieces about the age difference but there was nothing I could do about that. The thing I was most worried about was what would happen if the owner of the building found out. It was spelled out right in the lease that you can’t have a relationship with someone else living in the building, in case it causes a problem. But there wouldn’t be any problems, right? We were fated. This was going to be fine. It had to be.
8
Niko
There was something a little bit perfect about having a mate who only lived next door to you. It meant that we could have adult sleepovers but also that we had our own spaces to chill out, our own spaces to be our own people. I lost track of the amount of times I apologized for being so fucking loud all the time with my music and, as a response to that, Slater bought me a pair of noise cancelling headphones so if I wanted to go over to my place and play, I could be as loud as I wanted without disturbing him or his work.
A day or so after Slater and I hooked up I had a night at Club Rumblefish booked. Despite the fact I wasn’t feeling too hot (a stomach bug most likely) I got myself down there because I wasn’t about to let Nyle down. I wasn’t that kind of guy and, frankly, I could do with the cash. Furbitten Falls might have been cheaper than Howling Hills but I still had to pay rent.
I got to the club at around 8 p.m., parking my car around back and heading straight inside. The club lights were already on, pulsing and spinning around despite the fact the place was empty but with no music playing. It hurt my eyes, made me stumble my way across the floor to the DJ booth. I felt like I needed sunglasses or something, it was all too bright, all of it turning my stomach and making me feel rough as hell.
“You all right, man?” Nyle asked as I got myself to the DJ booth to set up. “You look a little green. And I’ve barely heard from you all week, what the hell has been going on? You’ve gone totally AWOL.”
“I’ve been busy,” I grunted. “I’m fine though, honest. Think I’ve caught a stomach bug, so maybe don’t get to close, I don’t really want to pass this shit around.”
Nyle eyed me carefully. “Should you even be here?”
“I’ll be fine Nyle,” I said a little harder this time. “Just let me do my thing okay? I’m not about to let you down.”
He left me to it, but kept an annoyingly close watch on me when I started my first set at 10 p.m.. I tried not to let it show in my body that the loud, loud, loud music, the pounding of the bass and the flashing strobes and lasers made me feel all the worse. I drank some water, I took deep breaths, I tried to steady myself by holding on to the DJ booth for dear life but nothing seemed to be working. No one else in the club really noticed, they just danced away, but I knew that Nyle could tell something was up. Heck, even I knew this was something more than a regular stomach bug.
My first set finished at 11 p.m., the next guy came on to take over for the next hour before I would start up again at midnight. I stumbled from the DJ booth and out through to a thankfully empty VIP area. Club Rumblefish almost always sold out their VIP areas but thankfully this one was empty.. They weret luxe, gorgeous and comfy sofas, mood lighting, a basically sound proof room and bottle service. It was the perfect getaway when you needed a break. This seemed like the perfect place for me to hide out, even for just a few minutes.
I took a seat on one of the sofas and took a few deep breaths, calming myself down. My stomach gurgled, my head spun, I couldn’t catch my breath and I didn’t want to go back out there in an hour and put myself through all of that again.
I took my phone out of my pocket and searched for Slater’s number.
“Hello?” he answered pretty quickly. There was a lot of noise around him so he had to raise his voice. “Everything okay?”
“Sure, yeah, I-uh-“
“Hang on,” he interrupted. “I’m just going to step outside so I can hear you.” There was a sound of rustling and, far away, I could hear him apologizing as he slipped past people. “There we go,” he was much clearer now. “Is everything okay? I wasn’t expecting to hear from you tonight.”
“Yeah, sorry to call,” I said. “Is it a bad time?”
“I’m out with my brothers,” he replied. “They’re currently ripping into me for how excited I got because my phone rang They think I’m a dork.”
“That’s because you are a dork,” I said. “But you’re a loveable dork so it doesn’t matter.”
“Loveable, eh?” he said. “Well, well, well, I’ll take that. Now what’s up? You wouldn’t be calling me for no reason, is everything alright at the club?”
“I’m actually feeling pretty sick and-“
“Still?” he said. “You said you were feeling better last night, what happened?” He sounded so concerned, and even his words seemed to lift me a little, like they were his arms wrapping around me and keeping me safe.
“I was, but being at the club with all the lights and everything,” I could feel tears springing to my eyes, hear the hitch in my voice. I didn’t want to start crying about this but here I was getting myself all upset because I didn’t feel well. Weird. “It just sort of came back and got worse so now I’m sat out in a VIP room.”
“Can you head home?”
“I don’t really trust myself to drive right now,” I said. “I’m feeling pretty lightheaded. I’m going to finish the set and maybe get a cab and-“
“You’re not getting a cab home by yourself if you’re feeling sick,” he growled. “I’m not having it.” He took a moment; I could practically hear the cogs turning over in his head. “Look, I’m out with my brothers tonight and some of their friends, what if we came down to Rumblefish to get you before I head home. I’m not drinking tonight, so no cabs or anything, how does that sound?”
“You don’t have to do that-“
“I know I don’t,” he said. “But I want to. I need to know you’re okay, I won’t be able to enjoy tonight if I know you’re out there all sick and stuff, then trying to drive home or get a cab. I just want to know you’re alright.”
“God, I wish I hadn’t called,” I sniffed. “I feel so stupid. Now I’m ruining your night-“
“You’re not ruining my night,” he said softly. “I’m glad you called. Never think that you can’t call me if something’s going on. I’m here for you, Niko, okay?”
I took a deep, shuddering breath. “Okay,” I said. “I should probably go and finish my set now. You’ll text me when you get here?”
“Tell Nyle you’re not feeling well, Niko, please?” he said. “Just come and meet me outside. Don’t push yourself too hard, you’ll only make it worse.”
I sighed. “Okay, I’ll talk to him.”
“Good,” he said. “I’ll text you when I get there.”
He hung up the phone and I leaned forward, taking a few more deep breaths to steady myself. What the hell was wrong with me? It couldn’t have been something that I’d eaten because Slater had ate the same as me over the past few days and he wa
sn’t sick. Maybe I was just coming down with something, though I’d never really had a sickness like this before so I wasn’t exactly sure what to think.
My thoughts stopped in an instant, my brain suddenly put two and two together and coming up with what could almost be four. Could I be pregnant?
Surely not. It wouldn’t make sense to be pregnant; we’d only done it once. Though he had knotted me and bonded with me, could that have meant I’d gotten pregnant? And would I even know this fast? It all seemed so sudden.
But this was like no other sickness I’d had before. What the fuck? Was I going to have a baby? No. I was just sick; I had to be just sick, that was all it was. I was so light-headed, so unwell, that I was just losing my head about all of this. I needed to calm down.
The door to the VIP room opened and Nyle’s face appeared. He looked down at me and took off his sunglasses. Why the fuck he was wearing them in a nightclub was beyond me. He looked like a total douche.
“You’re going home,” he said flatly. “No arguments, no nothing, I’ve already asked Jerry to take us all the way to closing and he said it was fine. Get yourself home okay? You look like hell.”
“I’m sorry, Niko,” I said.
“Don’t apologize, kid,” he said. “You’re never sick. You’re the most reliable DJ I’ve ever had, I think you’ve earned having a stomach bug.” He walked into the room and wrapped his arms around me. He smelled of cigarette smoke and alcohol, but I didn’t really care. I was enjoying the embrace. Nyle and I never hugged. “Now get yourself out of here before you knock out the rest of my staff,” he smirked. “You okay to get home? Do you want me to call you a cab?”
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