Page 102 of The Bartender Special

They pulled together as wetness spread through the space between them.

Jack kept stroking slowly, breathing ragged.

When he was sure they were done, Jack still didn’t move.

Benny’s breathing slowly calmed.

It wasn’t until he heard it even out that Jack pulled back a little to look the man full in the face.

Benny’s lips were swollen. His eyelids were drooping.

It was cute.

He was cute.

Jack grinned.

“I’ll tell you what, sweet cheeks. If I had a blog, that would have made it in.”

EIGHTEEN

Benny was re-running the numbers on how fast he could buy a plane ticket, pack up his life, and disappear into the unknown icy tundra.

Again.

This time, he wasn’t on the floor of a classroom in turmoil over his blog.

This time he was staring at his reflection, wearing a bikini top that was, for whatever reason, covered in feathers.

The man reflected behind him had on a much more tolerable outfit.

And a badly-concealed smile.

“It’s not that bad,” Ethan tried.

“It’s not that good either,” Benny returned.

His outfit looked like it had been built from discount lingerie, rolled in glue and wayward floor glitter, and then topped with the stray feather.

“I just don’t see what the vision was for this one,” he continued. “This is supposed to be a mermaid thing, right? Shouldn’t it be—I don’t know—more fish-like?”

The top was mermaid, the bottoms were merman.

At least that’s what the packages had said.

Looking down at the pseudo tights, which were awkwardly snug at the groin but somehow not the legs, he wasn’t sure why either outfit piece had been created. Never mind the two costumes combined for maximum humor.

Ethan tilted his head to the side and looked Benny up and down. Then he moved his eyepatch to his other eye and did it again.

“Maybe you could pretend to be a merman who fought a pirate? You know, one of those with the parrots on their shoulder.”

“So I killed his bird and decided to wear it?”

Ethan liked the idea.

“Donning thy enemy's loyal pet's feathers as a reminder to him and the rest of his dirty scoundrels to leave you alone? I don’t know. Thematically it kind of works.”

Benny opened his mouth to argue but realized there was really no point to it.