I shove it down with my hands and try to think of something else. I change the topic, again.
“So, you’re a…?”
“A Grouch,” he instantly says back to me. “For the longest time, I didn’t remember my name. It wasdiscardedalong with my corporeal body when I passed over.”
My stomach rumbles, making him laugh. And my hard-on still hasn’t gone down. My eyes flick over to a nearby cupboard. Good, I have an idea. “I haven’t eaten all day. Do you mind if I make something?”
“Go right ahead.”
I head to the cupboard, grab a pack of instant noodles, and head to the office’s kitchen. I leave these at work for shifts where I am stuck behind cleaning and don’t make it back to myapartment in time for proper dinner. Being away from him also helps my cock go down to a softer semi.
Using the filtered hot water faucet, I stir the cup with more force than necessary, and some of the boiling broth spills over the lip. I shake my hand as the burning liquid drops on me and head back to him, where he awaits, slightly happy to see me return.
“So, how exactly does this deal work?” I ask as I swirl some noodles on my fork and take in a mouthful.
His gaze falls to his lap. “Simple. We know your trigger. Now we shut it down. You’ll stop getting hot over trash, and I—”
He looks up, and he finally meets my gaze, and something in his smirk wavers for just a second. “I stop being what I am.”
I pause, fork mid-air. “You stop being a Grouch?”
He shrugs way too casually, as if he didn’t just wish to stop existing. “Maybe?” he says simply. “I have never really done this before, only heard about it from others who…” he pauses, his eyes glistening. “I don’t see anymore… Either way, I get to help someone out in dire need, and I also get to step out of the bin for more than a few hours at a time.”
Oh, so it doesn’t cause him to stop existing. He just gains freedom. “Is that something you want?”
He tilts his head and answers in a way that completely stumps me. “Wouldyouwant to live for an eternity defined by what everyone else threw away?”
He leans forward, and I bump my noodle cup, gasping slightly as boiling water pours over my thumb again.
“Ah!” It stings, and I pull back, but The Grouch pulls my hand toward him in a way I can’t even fathom. He is translucent and see-through but also not. Like a poltergeist, but not as annoying.
He blows on it, and that cools it down almost instantly. “So, enough about me, let’s go back toyou.”
“I’d rather we didn’t” I turn away from him, but he pulls me back by the chin with his finger. Surprisingly, my dick doesn’t twitch, and for a moment I think I may have been cured, but then my curse activates, and it flexes in my pants once again. I do my best to ignore it.
“Come on. You can trust me. What was the first memory you have of the curse being triggered?”
I groan, which only makes him grin at me. You’d think that a man who dwells in a bin would have rotten teeth, but his were pure white.
“I don’t know if I can say it… it’s so embarrassing.” I say. He gives me a look that urges me on. “OK, fine… it was a sandwich.” And my cheeks flush bright red.
He perks up. “What kind?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes!” He is way too eager to know more. “I need to know what type of trash your type is. We’re building a profile here.”
I bury my face in my hands.
“You are so fucking cute when you are embarrassed, do you know that?”
Thank fuck I had already felt embarrassed, because now he will never know my cheeks are blushing because he called me cute. And notjustcute,but fuckingcute.
I look up and peer between my fingers. “It was a turkey and cranberry baguette.”
Without a beat, he whistles. “Great choice!”
In this moment, I want the floor to open and swallow me whole, but something compels me to continue. Like I’m possessed to tell him more.
