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Dammit, he was right. As I fished out my wallet, I apologized for being a downer. “I don’t want you to think I’m not happy for you and Sebastian. You two are perfect together.”
“Thanks. Eventually, you’ll find somebody.”
He meant well, but it wasn’t like I was looking to settle down. There were too many superheroes with bulging muscles I had yet to see naked. I smiled as we tossed money down on the table.
Try as he might, I couldn’t imagine one man being my everything.
2
There wasno point in trying to be tidy. The clothes came off the moment I shut the door. It was long past my bedtime, and all I wanted was a shower and to curl up in bed. To think, I had considered taking one of the heroes up on their offer for a wild time. Thankfully, my better judgment overrode my cock. Falling asleep in the middle of sex left the wrong impression.
I paused in the living room. I needed to answer the toughest question of the evening. To the right, a doorway to the bedroom, or left, one leading to the shower. There might as well have been a black hole originating from my bed, determined to draw me into its gravity. It was sheer stubbornness that pushed me to the bathroom.
“You’ll thank me when you don’t wake up smelling like vodka.”
I had spent the better part of a decade making a name for myself at the Alley. Being the best bartender at the club meant they asked for me by name. I might pour a mean cocktail, but it was the personality that kept them coming back. It didn’t hurt that I was catering to the superhero elite of Vanguard City.
What I hadn’t known was that superheroes were a bit more open-minded than most. It started with a bit of shameless flirting. Apparently, being adored came with the cape, and they ate it up. I noticed the tip jar gain momentum, so I continued to push boundaries. Flirting turned to innuendo, and more than one hero made it abundantly clear that they were interested.
I spin the handle to the shower. While it reached scalding temperatures, I did a quick inspection of my beard. The usual stubble had gotten longer than I cared for, but I was too tired to break out the trimmers. The only items on my itinerary were shower and then bed.
I stepped into the shower, turning so the pulsating stream could pound away at the space between my shoulders. With one long sigh, the tension eased through my shoulders. I had my choice of bedrooms for this evening, but once in a while, the only one that mattered was mine. Sometimes you need to shower alone. I know, the revelation shocked me too.
My cock jumped at the thought of showering with another man. That’s how my reputation went from being the best bartender at Midnight Alley to being the resident “hero chaser.” It all started with Trident, one of the most well-known heroes in all of Vanguard. I thought it was a joke that he slipped me his number, but when I got off work and texted him, he was just finishing up a combat situation against the Lizard King. He wanted to celebrate a victory and when he sent a photo in only his briefs, I knew there’d be no going back.
I lathered up, washing off the grime. Not so different from the way he had done it. The only difference was that Trident could control water, and he had skillfully directed the stream around my body. I like to think I’m plenty creative in the bedroom, but nothing prepared me for a supernatural romp. Once the soap washed away, he repositioned the water until he cascaded toward my groin, splitting just before touching my cock. Trident had my attention before he used the water to tease.
Daydreaming in the shower led my cock into wanting attention. The last coffee was already wearing off, and I could have leaned against the glass wall and closed my eyes.
“Sorry, buddy.” Yes, it was perfectly acceptable to talk to your penis. I’d fight anybody who argued. “Maybe tomorrow. Wouldn’t want to fall asleep on you.”
The bathroom grew silent as I shut off the water. Toweling off, I tossed it on the sink and wandered into the living room. The couch called to me, begging me to rest my head. It was tempting, but my back would hate me when I woke up in the afternoon. No, I needed to pass out in my bed before the sun rose.
As I passed through the living room, I pulled the cord on the shades, leaving my apartment in darkness. The one downside to sleeping through the morning was that the sun refused to cut me a break.
“Stupid sun,” I grumbled.
In the bedroom, I collapsed onto the bed, my face sinking into the pillow. It’d only be a minute before I was out cold. I reached out to the empty side of the bed, hunting. My head shot up when I couldn’t find my furry companion.
“Where’d you go?”
Scooting across the bed, I reached for the floor, fishing around. My fingers grazed the soft fur of my bedtime buddy. I grabbed the arm of my stuffed bear and pulled him onto the bed.
“Mi amado.”
I wrapped my arm around the gray stuffed animal, clinging to him as if he were a real burly bear. Unlike the many men who temporarily occupied the empty pillows next to mine, I never had to worry about Amado vanishing in the morning.
Nuzzling my face into the back of his head, I closed my eyes. His fur tickled my nose, and for a moment, I thought I might sneeze. Before I could brush the fuzz away…
3
A cool breezewhipped through the Ward, making for a pleasant sunset. There were many parts of my day when I stopped and had to soak in the beauty. But watching as the sun turn shades of orange, its fading rays covering the brownstone buildings, was always my favorite. I slowed my walk, admiring the many people on the sidewalk pausing to soak in the beauty.
It was weird working the night shift. As the rest of the world settled in, preparing to wind down, I had barely started. I wouldn’t call myself a night owl, often fighting to keep my eyes open by the end of the night. But it did always leave me out of time with the rest of the world. My dinner was Griffin’s breakfast. My bedtime served as Bernard’s lunch break. While they crawled into their beds, I was busy slinging drinks.
We occupied a different world. The barracks, the waitresses, we’d collect at late night diners and meet with the hotel staff, the sex workers, and more than a few drug dealers. We were the exhausted people who shuffled through the day, failing to be children of the day. I got older, and it seemed everybody else in the industry stayed the same age. Somewhere along the line, I outgrew the perpetual parties.
Then I became a bartender at the Alley. I wasn’t interested in meeting up with coworkers after we closed shop. Unlike any job before, I was captivated by the superheroes that walked through the doors, each one acting like they were a champion. There weren’t many who saved the world on the daily, but even rescuing a cat from a tree had them puffing out their chests like they prevented a mass extinction event.
