Page 103 of Playing By Ear

“God, Perry, no. I told you, what you do is amazing. I admire and respect it, and it made me so fucking horny I could still pop any second. But I don’t want to be your superfan. I just want to be your boyfriend.” He clasped Perry’s hand. “And your producer.”

“So you still want to produce my sessions?”

“Aye, it was fun. And my fifteen-percent cut is over a hundred quid.”

“Not after the camming site takes its portion, remember. Also, I won’t get paid until the end of next month.” Were they really talking about money right now? So crass.

“That’s fine.” Jamie began a gentle massage of Perry’s aching forearm, the one he’d wanked with. “I think we’ve got a good thing going. Two good things. Let’s not mess them up by mixing them up.”

“Okay.” Perry had always worked best with rules and boundaries. “That feels lovely, by the way.”

“Your wrist probably feels like mine after a long day of busking.”

“Mmmm.” He made a mental note to give Jamie a massage next time he came over after work.

“I’m thinking maybe we should give sex a miss the night before your shows. To make sure you’re, you know, up for it?”

Perry’s face heated at the mention of tonight’s struggles. He and Jamie had had a bit of a marathon session in bed the previous night. “That might be best. Sorry.”

“Nae bother.” Jamie’s thumbs found a tight spot near Perry’s elbow that made him moan. “I’ll be better at football training session if I can walk a straight line.”

Perry changed the subject. “Did you save the chat?”

“Copied and pasted it into a document, like you asked.”

“I want to hear the comments.” He stood and motioned for Jamie to get out of the desk chair.

“Right now? Aren’t you tired?”

“More wired than tired.” Perry took Jamie’s place in the seat and picked up his headset. “I play them back fast, so it’ll only take a few minutes. Help yourself to a drink or a snack if you like.”

He activated the screen reader. The first few minutes of conversation had taken place before he’d appeared. He fast-forwarded through the chitchat.

Face face face face face face face!

Whoa

Perry sat back to listen.

Somehow better looking than I imagined

Heart emoji, heart emoji, fire emoji, fire emoji

Jamie had said the response was universally positive, but Perry didn’t trust him to be frank if it meant hurting his feelings.

Omg

BLIND?

Exploding-head emoji

Perry noticed he was biting his nails, and slid his hand under his opposite elbow to stop himself.

And here I was feeling sorry for myself giving up burgers bc high cholesterol

Someone always got it worse innit

Perry tapped his heel rapidly against the floor. It was so hard to make sighted people understand his struggles without turning their empathy (which was always welcome) into sympathy (which, ugh).