Christmas Tales - Brandon Witt Page 0,34
Why couldn’t I lie to him? “You should come try it sometime.”
Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Shut the fuck up! As if a guy like him would ever spend his time with a bunch of role-playing geeks. And imagine if he did show up? I’d be even more distracted than with a bunch of kids screaming for Christmas toys in the background.
One of the clerks called over from the register, saving me. “Brian, buddy. We closed five minutes ago. You and your friend wanna check out?”
“Oh.” I looked from James to the salesclerk. “Oh, he’s not my… I mean… we are just….” Shit. “Sure. Be right there.”
James laughed again. “You’re cute when you’re flustered.”
I dropped the traditional vampire in my left hand. He made a loud crash on the wooden floor. The bastard. “I, ah… what?”
Another laugh and he leaned closer. “I’ll go pay for these, and you decide which one you’re getting. I’ll wait for you outside.” Without another word, he walked toward the register.
I watched him, dumbfounded. By everything. I was cute? He was going to wait for me? For what?
I stared at him until he finished paying and left the store. The clerk looked back over at me. “You okay, Brian?”
“Yeah. Yes.” I looked over at… Pete…. Goodness, I barely remembered his name. “Be right there.” I bent down to pick up the traitorous vampire and put him back. The more conceptual vampire, the one who hadn’t made a spectacle of me, would go home to star on YouTube.
I paid. Though I had no idea if I was charged the correct amount or not. All I could think about was who stood waiting for me outside the doors.
With Pete following so he could lock the door behind me, I stepped out into the cold night air and turned to find James off to the right, leaning against the wall, smiling. “Hey. Got your vampire?”
“Yeah. I did.” Was I supposed to know what to say next? Hopefully not.
James straightened and walked over to me, then stopped within arm’s length. “Sorry if I’m being too forward, but it’s getting late and it’s kinda cold. And considering where you work, I doubt there’s much reason to play coy. I’ve been thinking about you.”
“You have?” Part of me toyed with being offended at the where I work comment, though I couldn’t quite figure how he meant it. However, the “I’ve been thinking about you” seemed a bit more important.
“I have. I’d like to come over to your place, if that’d be okay with you.”
“You wanna come over? To my place?”
He reached out and gripped my forearm and made the fuzzy meaning clear. Unbelievable but clear. “Yeah, your place.”
Christmas miracle! I shuddered at the thought, shocked such words would ever enter my brain. I dared to meet his eyes, and reality came crashing back in. He’d been shopping for his grandkids. He was a grandfather. Which meant there had to be a grandmother. Or… maybe another grandfather?
“Uhm, what about the grandma?”
His brows knitted. “Excuse me?”
Why couldn’t I just go with it? Plenty of married men—married straight men—came into the bathhouse. Whatever. But you never really knew. I couldn’t pretend I didn’t know about James’s grandkids.
“Well, you said you had grandkids. Doesn’t that mean you have a grandmother… er, I mean wife? Don’t you have a wife?”
The confusion left his expression, and he chuckled again. “Oh. That. I’ve not had a wife for about twenty years. I do have an ex-wife. Wonderful woman. My daughter and her family are over at my ex’s house this evening. Which means we could go to my house, but there’s always a chance my daughter might come back home for something.”
“Oh, she doesn’t know about you being gay?”
“She knows.” He squeezed my forearm again. “However, I really don’t want her walking in on anything I plan on doing to you.”
“Things you’re planning on….” His meaning sliced into me, and I stiffened. “Oh. Doing to me.”
“Yeah. Would that be okay? If I did… stuff to you?”
I nodded. Hell yeah. He could do anything he wanted to me. Including making me believe this really might be a Christmas miracle.
“Good.” His smile grew heated. “So, your place okay?”
* * *
James drove his own car and followed me to my apartment. The feelings of Christmas miracles and lust melted away the second I pulled onto Broadway and headed home.
This didn’t happen. Well, sure, hookups happened. But not like this. I’d stay awhile after my shift at the