By next morning, Rico had slept on and off, jerked off a bunch of times, and woke up pretty sure he had done a dumb thing the day before. He was supposed to work at the house again today, but it was going to be seriously weird to go over there after he planted that kiss on Mitch.
First he was putting in some time at the café. He was manning the counter, and who should he see coming through the door but the troublemaker herself. Lara was there bright and early along with Noreen, whose eyes were hooded like she was still half asleep. That woman needed coffee stat.
As they came up to the counter, Lara grinned at Rico wickedly. "I'm here to make my report," Lara said as she leaned on the counter.
"I'm here to get coffee," Noreen grumbled. "You know how I like it."
Rico did. "Strong, black and in the biggest cup we got."
While he poured her a cup, Noreen asked Lara for details from her visit to the house. First off, she wanted to know, "Was Mitch illegally good-looking like Rico said he was?"
"And how," Lara told her. "That man defines hunk. As for my verdict." She paused for effect then announced her findings. "I declare him bi."
"How did you score that?" Noreen wanted to know.
Lara pointed at herself and what she had going on. "He looked, he appreciated what I had on offer, but he couldn't keep his eyes off Rico. Every minute his gaze would wander over to check out his young apprentice."
"I'm not his apprentice," Rico told her.
"Aha," Lara said. Dismissing his quibbling, she turned to a more appreciative audience, and spoke to Noreen. "When Rico wiped his face on his t-shirt sleeve, Mitch looked like he wanted to lick every drop of sweat off him."
"He did not," Rico said, but, inwardly, he grinned and his stomach fluttered.
"He did. It was so dirty," she said. "Everything going on over there is like that. I watched them work for a bit, and I felt like I needed to stick some dollar bills down their pants. All sweaty, their t-shirts sticking to them..."
Rico had to interrupt her before things got X rated. "It's not a palace of porn. It's a rundown, old house that we're fixing up. You were using your imagination pretty generously there," Rico told her and that made her conclusion about Mitch suspect as well.
"Just charge her admission next time," Noreen said, but Lara wasn't giving up on her version of things.
"Tell the truth. You two are at it day and night, aren't you?" she asked.
Rico groaned as he wished that was true. "Like I wouldn't be bragging about that if we were," he said.
"Maybe you're being discreet or something," Lara said.
"Discreet? I don't even know the meaning of that word," Rico said, but he didn't tell her that he did his own test.
It wasn't long after Lara and Noreen left when Rico saw the café doors open and his heart nearly stopped. As Mitch and Sammy came in, Rico gaped at them. Just the sight of Mitch hit him so hard. His unexpected arrival had Rico feeling about ten different emotions all at once.
It seemed incredible to him that he had gone as far as to kiss that man, but that kiss did happen. Whatever the consequences might be, there was no going back now. He just had to shake it off, regroup, not crave more kisses, deeper kisses and everything that came after.
Watching Mitch and Sammy come up to the counter, Rico tried to steel himself but he didn't know for what. Sammy was smiling, but Mitch was unreadable.
"Good morning, Rico," Sammy said to him.
Rico cleared his throat before he greeted them, "Good morning. Are you guys here for breakfast?"
"We already ate. We're meeting your grandmother," Mitch said then he looked around the place but didn't see her.
"Oh, OK. I'm sure she'll be here soon," Rico said while trying not to stare at Mitch's profile.
"You don't know about this?" Mitch said. "We're going to Ashbury. Your grandmother wants to choose stuff for the house—blinds, countertops. There's a long list."
"So do you have anything for me to do at the house or maybe Grandma wants me working here," Rico said since she hadn't mentioned anything to him. Typical.
"No. Your grandmother said you would be coming with us," Mitch said and frowned at him slightly.
"Oh. And are you OK with that?" Rico had to ask.
