Spencer to flinch. Cole took it out and answered without taking his eyes off the man in front of him. He spoke quietly into the receiver. “Anytime you call this number, this is the voice you’re going to hear. Not a secretary, not a driver, not my security… only me. No matter where I am, when I see this number, I’m going to answer. Whether I’m in a board meeting or thirty-five thousand feet in the air, I will answer your call, Spencer Underwood. Don’t you worry about that.”
“It’s been an amazing night, Cole. Thank you.” A bit of light left Spencer’s eyes as he continued. “If I don’t see you again, just know that this night was different from all the others.”
Cole didn’t want to go, but he knew if he didn’t get his legs moving now, then he was going to end up begging and perhaps coercing Spencer into doing something he wasn’t ready to do. To admit to himself that he didn’t hate this time of year, that he wasn’t tired of Christmas. He was just tired of being alone… anytime. He wrapped his arms around Spencer’s lean frame and held him tight. Merry Christmas, my beautiful grinch. He slowly pulled away, their cheeks grazing and stubble scraping erotically against each other. One more kiss, his mind screamed, but his body knew it would only make it that much harder to turn away. Instead he placed a delicate, lingering kiss in the center of Spencer’s forehead.
“I’ll be waiting,” Cole whispered and spun and got into the back seat of the car. Axel closed the door, and Cole refused to turn and watch Spencer watching him leave.
Seven
Spencer
Spencer was buried under his duvet, a down comforter, and two pillows, yet he still couldn’t drown out the sound of his neighbor’s kid shrieking each time he opened a goddamn gift.
What the fuck? How many toys did you get the little, spoiled brat? Jesus. Spencer pressed the pillow against his ear and squeezed his eyes closed, trying not to remember a time when he used to holler out in joy when he got his yearly comic. Sometimes he wouldn’t even finish opening the other gifts before he’d run to his room, flop down on his bed, and immediately start reading the epic continuation of Spencer’s World of Unimaginable Tales. Spencer felt the pain hit his chest first, then his stomach, before he folded in on himself. Moisture filled his eyes and immediately threatened to overflow. Fuck. Don’t do this. Spencer reached over and grabbed his earbuds and the bottle of melatonin he’d already had waiting for him on his nightstand, predicting this was going to happen. He turned up his nineties dance station on Pandora, popped two dissolvable tablets in his mouth, and pulled the covers back over his head, ready to sleep this day away.
He woke again an hour and half later needing to piss and his ear canals aching from how far the buds had been shoved inside them. Spencer threw his legs over the edge of the bed and sat up with his forehead resting in his palms and the covers pooled between his thighs. He glanced at his cell phone and quickly regretted it. Shit. It was only eleven in the damn morning. Christmas wasn’t near as close to being over as he needed it to be.
He lived in a three-story building that contained six apartments, two on each floor. Unfortunately, Spencer was smack-dab in the middle, and he was getting merrily assaulted from every side. It appeared that his inconsiderate-ass neighbors above him were allowing their kid to test out all of his new toys indoors, one of them sounding like a goddamn electric scooter. It sounded like the neighbors across from him had received their entire family at once as the piercing beats of James Brown’s A Soulful Christmas and rambunctious laughter filtered out into the hall and beneath his front door. Spencer gritted his teeth as he slammed his bathroom door shut.
He finished his business, took another long, hot shower because he had nothing else to do, then returned to bed. He had no appetite, no desire to do anything but get under the covers. It was pathetic and sad, but no matter how hard he’d tried, he felt that Christmas had died when his parents did. He had tried a few times to visit with close friends’ families, but it’d been difficult to see others with loved ones, when he knew he was