Ducky handed Dallas his suit coat, dress shirt, and silk tie as Greer went to the curb to hail a cab. Ducky pulled the T-shirt over his head, quickly changing sides.
“Come on. I got a cab,” Greer said from the curb then dropped his hand, turning back to Ducky with shocked outrage. “Ducky! What are you doing?”
That question blanketed so many possible topics, and Ducky didn’t care to answer any of them. He’d gotten a good dose of sophisticated clothing, which in his opinion bordered on torture. The clothes were too claustrophobic for him. He needed a style that fit somewhere in the middle because the thought of wearing these clothes all the time sent a shiver down his spine. He went for the cab, pulling the T-shirt down his body.
“I believe I’m the celebrity so that makes you my entourage, not my mentor.” Ducky barely got the joke out before sliding into the backseat of the cab. Greer’s mouth dropped open, rendering him speechless, causing Ducky and Dallas both to laugh hilariously. Greer was never at a loss for words.
Chad could feel the deep etch of the frown on his face. They were still in the middle of the live stream. His reaction to Ducky and the award show or, maybe better said, the lack of a reaction was being witnessed by the millions of people tuned in, but he doubted anyone paid attention to him with such a hottie like Ducky on the screen.
He needed to gather himself. Get a hold of all these resurfacing desires he thought he’d processed and dealt with years ago. The only way to get that time was by leaving the room, taking a few minutes to himself. Yet, his ass remained planted in the seat, his gaze riveted to the small screen, held utterly captivated by the Twitch commentary and replay clips of Ducky and the newSonic the Hedgehogmovie trailer.
The shock of Ducky’s transformation slowly morphed into fascination. Ducky was the most authentic person he had ever known. The friend who grounded Chad the most. Who made him feel normal and whole and was now grinning on a stage in front of millions of people as if he owned that audience. Ducky lit up the stage with his presence and stood in such a way that he exuded confidence, as if he did these kinds of things all the time.
Did he not know Ducky at all?
Chad raced through his memories, replaying the nervousness in Ducky’s voice when he spoke about the upcoming show. He never hinted at any of these changes in his appearance. Chad tucked his hands in his cargo shorts, hoping to make extra room to hide his rigid hard-on. He let himself get lost in what he was seeing. Ducky was gorgeous. Truly handsome. He suspected there was muscle growth under the tight-fitting suit.
Yeah, apparently, he hadn’t reconciled any of the longing he’d had for Ducky all these years. Now there was a new version for Chad to lose his shit over. Not a better model, just another side to Ducky’s enormous depth.
As the commentary came to an end, and Ducky disappeared from the screen, the message board zipped up the side in lightning speed. Chad didn’t engage. He needed to take an emotional step back. He rose from his seat and shoved the chair underneath the table, trying to keep the obvious reaction in his shorts unseen. “I’m going to the bathroom.”
“Yeah, I got this.” Kai’s hand came out, slapping Chad’s. “Our boy gave us a curve. He was extra tho.”
“Like fire,” Chad responded, sounding lame, and pointed to the message boards. “He’s calling to do a remote with us soon. I’ll be back.”
Like the coward he’d become, Chad ignored Tristan completely, giving him his back as he started out of the room. Tristan wasn’t to be put off. He followed Chad out into the hall. Several members of the production team littered the hallway. Wires ran from outlets all the way down the long walkway, causing Chad to focus on where he stepped to keep from tripping and falling.
“Hey,” Tristan called out, which only caused Chad to hurry his steps. It wasn’t inconceivable that Tristan could have spoken to anyone else in the hall, but he tried his best to ignore him. “Give me a minute, son.”
Son.Chad rolled his eyes and kept going. No way they were having this conversation for everyone in Wilder to hear.
“You’re the only one who gets away with ignoring the CEO of our company,” Landry, Tristan’s number two man said, chuckling at Chad as he walked past. “Apparently, he’s gotta pee real bad, Tristan.”
“Give me a minute, Landry,” Tristan replied, not to be distracted.
His serious tone caused Chad to stop in the middle of pushing open the bathroom door, his shoulders tightening. He lowered his head and kept going to look under the stalls, making sure they were completely alone. He had seconds to form his thoughts and a strategy.
He could say he’d never had a reaction like that before, but Tristan would call him on his bullshit.
The door swung open, and Chad twisted around, startled as if he hadn’t expected Tristan to be there. The Ducky-induced arousal faded. Not only faded, but his balls shrunk until they may have been reabsorbed into his body. Tristan came directly to him, forcing Chad to hold his ground when all he wanted to do was retreat.
His stepfather gripped his shoulders with the same amount of sweet-but-firm hold as before and said, “You have nothing to worry about with me. You can say, do, or be whoever you are and it’s good with me. You have to know that.”
Of course Chad knew but it didn’t stop a deeply held exhale from escaping his lungs. Chad rolled his eyes and gently slipped from the hold. He scrubbed his hands down his face.
He was having an existential crisis with every part of his pathetic life. He had the hots for one of his best friends, a friend, mind you, who had only ever talked about women. For some reason, he didn’t want to play golf anymore. It had been his journey for the last many years. He’d fought his family to even finish college. He lived, ate, breathed golf, and now he just didn’t want to do it.
Jesus. He was losing his fucking mind.
Instead of letting the crazy out for Tristan to see, Chad scraped his fingers through his hair and said the exact opposite of what he felt. “You don’t think I can handle the pros. I get it, Tristan. You don’t have to explain anything else.” Chad swung around, going to the sink to splash cold water on his face.
He needed to get into some counseling.
No, he needed a lobotomy.
All he seemed to want in the world was to have Ducky standing here with him, holding his hand, helping him navigate these changes.
No, that wasn’t true. He wanted Ducky in that stall, pumping his cock in and out of Chad’s mouth.
