“Yeah?” I shake the vision from my head and refocus on dinner.
“Are plates okay, or do we need bowls, too?” He holds up one of each in his hands.
“Plates are fine.” He nods and moves around me as he grabs utensils and napkins from the drawers. He’s at ease in my kitchen, grabbing things he needs without asking where anything is or if he can get something. It’s comfortable and easy to imagine doing this every night as we make dinner and share stories about the day.
The clatter of a plate against the counter pulls me from my thoughts. I plate the food and move the food over to the counter. Istillhaven’t gotten the kitchen table cleaned off. At this rate, it won’t happen until next year. “This looks great! What is it?”
I laugh. “It’s Thai red curry. It’s a new recipe, so I hope it turned out okay.”
“Well, if it didn’t, we always have Chinese as plan b.”
We eat in silence for a few minutes. Colt nods his approval before making a slew of nearly pornographic sounds as he digs into the food. No takeout required. However, if he keeps making those noises, I’d need a few minutes alone before we get to the movie. I shift in my seat a little bit and try not to imagine what he’d sound like with my mouth around his cock. I take a long drink of my beer and focus on anything else—work I need to get done next week, yard work to prepare for the spring, and making sure my tux still fits. Those do the trick to at least get my dick under control for the moment.
“So, how’s Cardinal Falls treating you? Make any new friends?”Or find a date?I still couldn’t bring myself to come out and ask him about his date.
“I have a bunch of work friends now. I’m unsure if they’ll ever be people I see outside the office, but they help make the day go by faster.”
“That’s good. I’m lucky I still have the guys from college. I swear if they moved away, I’d be screwed. It’s so much harder to make friends later in life.”
“I know. I even tried one of those dating apps.” I stop chewing and turn toward him. “Just to meet some people.”
“And how was it?” My heart is pounding so hard I swear he must be able to hear it.
“Eh. It was fine, but we didn’t have a connection.” He takes a long drink of his beer. “It’s nice to meet some people. My sister’s been nagging me about being more social, so it gave me something to tell her.”
“Well, maybe the next one.” Am I a terrible person if I hope the next one doesn’t work out?
“Yeah, maybe.”
We finish our food with small talk about each of our offices. I stand up and reach for Colt’s plate when we both finish. He snatches it away and gets out of his chair. “You cooked, so I’ll clean up.”
I don’t fight him. I clean as I go, so there isn’t much to do besides putting the dishes we used into the dishwasher. I sit and enjoy the view. He hums to himself and moves about the kitchen, putting things away. I bite my lip when he bends to put things in the dishwasher. That muscular ass is what wet dreams are made of.
“Movie time?” He closes the dishwasher and turns toward me with a mischievous grin.
“Why do I feel like this is some sort of setup?” I like him picking the movies. Cooking is easy, but trying to pick a film from the never-ending list on streaming makes my skin itch. He’d think I gave in too quickly if I didn’t give him a hard time.
“You said I could pick.” I nod. “I want to continue our walk down memory lane with more movies from our childhood.” Something tells me that isn’t the whole story, but I shake my head and lead the way to the living room.
COLT
“Don’t laugh,but we’re watching the original—and best—Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesmovie.” Nathan barks out a laugh from his spot on the couch as I flip through the images on the screen to find the movie.
“You know they’ve made several new versions since the nineties?”
I click my tongue at him. “This is the original and best.”
“I’ll have to trust you on that one.”
“No guessing. I’m about to prove it to you.” I stop on the cover of the movie and click play.
“Wouldn’t we need to watch all of them to compare and make a final decision?” Nathan would want firm rating criteria and spreadsheets. If it meant regular movie nights, I was on board.
“Hey, if you want to stay up all night watching and ranking movies, I’m more than happy to make that happen.”
“How about we start with this one and see how it goes.” The opening credits appear on the screen, making us more comfortable. The air changes as we relax and sink into the nostalgia. We watched this movie dozens of times together as kids. We’d been obsessed with theNinja Turtles, though my family disapproved of the violence, even in cartoons.Fortunately, his house was much easier, and I could stay current on pop culture while hanging out there.
“You know, my new couch is pretty nice, but there’s nothing better than one already well-worn,” I say during a lull in the movie. I shift a little closer to him, pulling my legs up and letting them curl under me.
