in good shape. He went to the gym regularly. He ran. He lifted weights. Well, it turned out working in a wildlife rescue center was a whole different animal, and no amount of jogging on the treadmill had prepared Alex for the sheer exhaustion that came hand in hand with being on his feet all day, running around, trying to finish Carl’s tasks as quickly as the asshole set them.
Alex looked at the tower of feed buckets next to him. Five more and he’d be done for the day. Tomorrow would be his day off, and even though he liked the idea of a day off in theory, he also had to admit that he had no idea what to do with himself.
Alex scrubbed the last feed bucket clean and placed it upside down on the wooden table that had been built just for that purpose. He threw the scrubbing brush into the bucket of cleaning supplies and stretched himself. Fucking finally. He was done for the day, and twenty-four merciful hours of freedom stretched out before him. Maybe tomorrow he’d actually do something with the privilege of free time instead of lying in his bed, his laptop propped on his stomach, watching movies because that seemed to be the only thing he had any energy left for.
He started to put the buckets away when somebody cleared his throat behind him. Alex turned around, only to find Noah standing there. He was shuffling from one foot to the other before he met Alex’s gaze.
Once their eyes locked, Alex could have sworn he felt Noah’s lips on his again. Like a phantom pain for a kiss. He almost snorted at the ridiculousness of the thought.
“Hi,” Noah said. “I see you survived the week.”
Alex raised his brows. “Should I have not?”
He was going to play it cool. He was not going to show Noah how much that one fucking kiss had affected him, even though he still continued to think about it and imagine it every chance he got.
“I saw Carl’s list of chores for you,” Noah explained. “It seemed lengthier than usual.”
Alex shrugged. “I managed. I’m like a weed, hard to get rid of,” he joked, and to his relief, Noah relaxed a little as he chuckled. Noah was wearing shorts and a T-shirt so old that the fabric had worn thin. It was only the middle of June, but already Noah’s skin had taken on a golden hue. He looked good. Better than good. Fucking magnificent.
And Alex really shouldn’t have been staring and appreciating. Noah had made it clear that he was not interested.
“You don’t look very weed-like to me,” Noah said as he took a seat on the well cover. He handed Alex a bottle of water. Alex took a quick peek around to see if he could spot Carl anywhere—he didn’t care about Carl’s opinion, but he wasn’t idiotic enough to willingly risk tacking on another twenty tasks to his to-do list—and took a seat next to Noah. Alex stretched out his legs and leaned back on his elbows. The sun was getting lower and lower, bathing everything in a golden light. Crickets had started their nightly concert already.
“Stick around, I might surprise you,” Alex said in reply to Noah’s earlier comment.
They sat quietly for a while, and when usually Alex hated it, right then, he didn’t feel the need to fill the silence with small talk. To his surprise, he was content just… being. He wasn’t sure if that had ever happened before.
Eventually, Noah started speaking. “I found out what you did.”
“What I did?”
“You know, the big crime that got you sent down here.”
“Ah.”
Noah looked down at his feet, but the corners of his lips were twitching. “So you peed on a police cruiser.”
Alex groaned. “In my defense, I was really drunk.”
“I’ve gotta tell you, Carl made it sound like you were a hardened street thug who was going to either rob us of all our possessions or straight up murder us.”
“That was my original plan, but by the time I’m done with work, I can hardly move a muscle, let alone wield an axe to kill somebody.”
“An axe?”
“It’s my weapon of choice.”
Noah laughed again, but he was still tense, sitting stiffly next to Alex like he was afraid Alex would jump him any moment now. Alex felt disappointed. As illogical as it was, he kind of missed the Noah from last week. The one from before the Kiss of Doom, who’d joked and talked to Alex.