Obviously.
“At least once,” he said, because it was the truth. He and Holden had plans for another round and he would see Holden whenever he went to Ink and Ember, but he didn’t think any of that meant anything. Whatever was happening between them was just sex, or if it wasn’t, it needed to be.
“When?”
“Tonight.” Bryce rested his elbows on the counter and looked down at the dragon his brother had been sketching. “What about you? Are you seeing anyone?”
Merrick sniffed and flipped the cover on his sketchbook closed. “No.”
It was the shortest answer his brother had ever given him about anything.
Bryce turned and leaned against the counter, sipping his coffee without looking directly at Merrick. “Tell me more about that.”
“There’s nothing to tell.”
“You always have something to say.”
Merrick cleared his throat and turned around, leaning against the edge of the counter and mirroring Bryce’s pose. The two of them held their coffee the same way and stared out the window over the sink. Bryce thought about Holden, and he had no idea what—or who—Merrick was thinking about.
“How was your flight?” Merrick asked instead.
A deflection.
“Short, but it was fine. Had some ginger ale and some of that over-dry trail mix. Flirted with a flight attendant.”
“Was she pretty?”
Bryce smiled, thinking about the slender twink.
“He was.”
“Have you ever met a person you didn’t want to take to bed?”
The question was more an accusation, and Merrick’s tone was biting.
“You,” he answered. “And please don’t pretend like you care about what I do behind closed doors.”
“You don’t even always close the doors.”
“You weren’t supposed to be home until eight!”
His brother snorted a laugh in the back of his throat, shaking his head.
Bryce had struggled trying to get the right kind of attention growing up. Merrick had always been such a personality, in and out of their house, it was as if Bryce was born with shoes to fill. There was no corner of his life where he wasn’t compared to his older brother. And he loved Merrick, he really did, but he didn’t want to be like him and that was a hard pill for everyone around them to swallow.
Merrick was good at art, better than good, obviously. Bryce still drew oval-shaped suns in the corners of the page. Merrick had always been a good student, straight A’s in everything, where Bryce had to work for C’s. Merrick’s gift for conversation had made him the center of attention while Bryce’s struggle to be heard over the chatter of his brother made him a troublemaker…a distraction. But when the two of them were alone together, Bryce saw a mirror of himself and he didn’t understand why everything that came so readily to Merrick had been so difficult for him.
It was one of the big reasons he’d wanted to leave home. Bryce was desperate to be somewhere people could know him as himself, not as Merrick’s brother. So, of course, the first thing he did was go find himself a man who knew him as the latter. Even if he did have plans to see Holden again, the next time needed to be the last time. Bryce hadn’t moved to LA to stay in his brother’s shadow, and he certainly didn’t want to start out there.
“So, what’s your plan then?” Merrick asked. “You can stay here as long as you need. Until you can get a job and get some money saved.”
“I have money saved.”
“Things are different here.”
“I’m not a child,” he snapped. “I know LA is expensive. I know it’s a hard city.”
Merrick exhaled, blowing the breath into his coffee before taking a drink. “What do you think you want to do?”
