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I didn’t pace. Except I was pacing now and couldn’t get ahold of myself. All because I asked Corbin and Val to come over and what? Touch me? Had I really told Corbin to do that? Jesus, it was like I’d never had sex before. Not that it was a bad thing. Val was a virgin. I wasn’t but it felt like it was brand new with them. I was sure it had everything to do with the people I desired being men.
I heard Corbin’s truck rumbling up the driveway and come to a stop. I resisted looking out the window. I had the curtains open, letting the remaining light in before the sun set. Their voices carried as they got closer to the door. The windows in the living room were open too. I could hear them clear as day.
“I can’t believe you’re still on this,” Val said.
“The cops could have helped. We could contact them.” The cops? What the hell happened?
“I told you. No cops. I’m not fucking dealing with them. Besides, we don’t know what really took place.”
“You’re the one who said they hit the gas. Also, they ran the light.”
“We weren’t hurt.”
“We could have been. They could have hit us.” That was enough of this.
I swung the door open, anger and fear warring for the dominant spot within me. “What the hell happened?”
“How much did you hear?” Val asked.
I pointed to the open windows neither of them had noticed. “All of it.”
Corbin sighed. “Can we at least come in?”
Stepping out of the way, I held the door open until they were inside and closed it behind them. They both stood in my living room as if they were waiting for me to kick them out like I did on the back patio. I wouldn’t do that. There was a shift inside me, this new part of me that opened up. I wanted them in here, in my private space. Maybe purging my past was enough to allow me to welcome someone new in.
“Would you like something to drink? I have dinner in the oven.” Making them dinner was the least I could do since I was certain I’d be a nervous wreck at some point tonight.
“I’m good,” Val said.
“Me too,” Corbin added.
I pointed to the gray suede couch. “Sit then and spill.”
They both took a seat on the bigger of the two couches while I parked my ass on the wooden coffee table in front of them. If I sat between them, I wouldn’t be able to see their faces easily.
Corbin looked to Val, who recounted what happened when Corbin went to PJS to surprise Val with lunch. He told me how a car sped toward them, through a red light, and had Val not been paying attention, they would have been hit. Of course, I brought up calling the police because they did have cameras all over the city and could easily pull the footage, but Val refused, which led to a story about his uncle.
Holy shit why was everyone’s families so fucked up? I hated that Val didn’t have a good life growing up just like I hated it for JJ. At least their paths crossed, and they could become a family of their own.
“Jesus,” I muttered. If I had been there, I would have called the cops immediately, but Corbin wasn’t used to shit happening to him. I wasn’t either but knew damn well I would have gotten back on the sidewalk with the phone pressed to my ear.
“Can we let it drop?” Val asked. “Nothing else happened since then. I even walked to the park at lunch today, for the hell of it.”
“You could have been hurt,” I immediately said.
“I wasn’t. No one gunned for me. I went to the park, walked around, and left.”
The oven timer went off. While I hated letting this go, I wasn’t there, and Val was adamant about not doing anything about it. Well, he wanted Greer to hack into a government system. I agreed with JJ that it was a hard pass. If Val wanted to see the footage, he’d have to go about it the right way, which he refused to do.
The roast was cooked to perfection when I pulled it out of the oven. There were red potatoes, green beans, onions, and other vegetables in the big dish with the beef. While that was resting a bit, I took out the mixed green salad from the fridge, which I already tossed with a dressing I made. I didn’t usually make so much food, but I had more than myself to feed tonight.
When I was putting everything together to go into the oven earlier, I found myself smiling, liking the idea of feeding others. It could have been the others part, but I knew it was the fact that it was Val and Corbin who would be eating what I’d prepared.
I dished three plates with beef, vegetables, and a bit of salad and took it to my small table. I didn’t have a formal dining room. I didn’t want one when I had the house built. Instead, I had one big room for the kitchen and dining area.
I liked the rustic feel, and it reflected in my home. The kitchen had wood cabinets with a dark stain on them that let the natural grain of the wood bleed through. The counters were an ivory-colored stone to offset the wood, so it wasn’t too dark in here. Because I had the cabinets custom-built, they were able to make a table out of the same wood. The six wooden chairs around the round table had cream cushions bringing a bit of light to it as well.
With everything on the table including silverware, drinks, and napkins, we sat down. The smile I still wasn’t used to wearing formed when I watched them dig in. Val moaned, making me wonder if he made that sound when he came. It wasn’t what I should have been thinking about at the table, but I couldn’t help it. I had a feeling Corbin was in the same boat I was in because his eyes were glued to Val.
