relieved to not see any signs of infection. I knew I should reach for the wound cream and dress his foot, but it was like my mind and body had separated and my body was doing whatever the hell it felt like. My fingers traced a line up the inside of his foot until I was able to close them around his ankle. Lex was tense but quiet. When I looked up again, I saw him watching me.
Though I knew he technically wasn't really watching me.
His skin was warm and soft. My fingers were just centimeters from where the body hair on his leg started. I itched to touch it but knew I had no excuse to. As it was, I was being a bit too free with my examination of his foot. "This one looks good," I somehow grated out. I had to be careful with where I placed Lex's foot on my lap because my cock was hardening at an all-too-alarming rate.
I worked quickly to bandage his foot and then I was checking the other. There were only tiny cuts on his other foot but I still liberally covered them with cream and bandaged them. When there was no excuse to hang on to Lex's foot any longer, I eased it back onto the floor. "They both look good. Everything is healing really well."
"Thank you," Lex said, his voice sounding rough. I waited for him to say anything else, something that would give me an excuse to linger, but there was nothing.
"Lex, please, if I did something…"
"You didn't, Gideon. I just… I just have a lot on my mind."
I wanted to ask him if he wanted to talk about it, but I realized that if he had, he would've done so already. "Okay, I guess I'll go. Unless you need something else?"
Lex just shook his head. He actually looked disappointed. But that didn't make any sense because he seemed eager for me to leave. It was on the tip of my tongue to ask him what the hell was going on when he said, "Thanks for the ride. Bye, Gideon."
Not “See you later, Gideon.” Not “I'll call you, Gideon.”
Bye, Gideon.
It was a dismissal, pure and simple.
I told myself it was a good thing as I made the drive back to my house. If being friends with Lex was anything like the roller coaster of emotions that it had been today, no thanks. I thought back to the panic attack he’d had outside the store. It had been heartbreaking to watch him fall apart like he had. I couldn't even imagine what he was going through when it came to the highs and lows of his condition. The smallest things would've been successes, but then just as easily, the simplest of tasks could be complete failures for him.
By the time I was pulling into my driveway, I was beyond frustrated. At Lex and at myself. He'd given me every reason to just dismiss him from my thoughts, but nothing I did accomplished that. I had no fucking clue how to get him out of my mind.
I got out of the truck and slammed the door shut. As I walked to the house, I called for Brewer, but the dog didn't appear at my side like he normally did. I looked over my shoulder and saw that he was still sitting in the bed of the truck. He was staring in the direction we’d just come from.
"Brewer!" I called, but the husky mix only turned his head for a moment to look at me, and then he was staring at the driveway again. He whined a few times and then he started howling.
"Brewer!" I yelled. My dog completely ignored me and continued with his sad calls. I tried one more time to get Brewer's attention but gave up when the animal refused to even acknowledge me. It was yet another rejection and I was full up on being rejected.
"Fine!" I snapped before heading to the house. Brewer's incessant howling followed me inside. I yanked off my coat and ended up throwing it in the direction of the wall where I usually hung it. I busied myself with looking through my cabinets to figure out what I wanted to make for dinner. Thankfully, Brewer's mournful howls came to an end after about five minutes. I settled on making some spaghetti. I had just gotten the water boiling for the pasta when my phone rang.
"What?" I bit out as I put the