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"Do you think Jack was right, then?"
I shrugged. "I don't think I want to get married. Not ever. So no, he wasn't right in that way. But as far as waiting untilI found someone I actually liked and then wanted to be with them? Yeah. Sure. Being with Imrel was a mistake. I know that."
Bolivar chuckled deeply. "It only took you one time to realize that. Good for you. I was in love with him for nearly two hundred years before I realized that being with him was the biggest mistake of my very long life."
I'd known that they were together, but not that Bolivar had loved him. That was a whole different thing to me. "Because he cheated?"
"Yes. In a way. Dragons like treasure and virgins. My treasures are the collections my assistants bring me. Imrel's treasure is the experience of the virgins he's with, namely, my assistants. You weren't the first. Not even close. But you will be last. I'll be dead soon. And human. And then Imrel will never again have a reason to contact me."
He put my phone in front of my face so that I could see the text message that he'd written on my phone.Jack, I'm sorry that I'm an idiot. Wait for someone you love. Even if he ends up breaking your heart in the end, wait until you're in love.
I read the text, and even though I agreed with what he'd written, I had no idea why he wanted me to send that text to Jack.
"Can I send this?" he asked.
"Sure. But it won't change anything between us."
Bolivar slipped off my butt and stood beside me. "I don't expect it to either. But it may change something for him. Not everything is about you, Wesley. I'm going to the beach. Relax for the rest of the day."
He was gone then, and I sent the text.
By early February Bolivar was apparently tired of having me around. I hadn't heard from Jack again, not that I'd really expected to, but one early morning Bolivar came into my room with a globe and woke me up by bouncing it into my head.
"What the hell?" I grumbled at him. I sat up and glared, and then I sighed because he was already walking out of my room.
"Pick a place, anywhere really, and I'll send you there. You’re bored, and it's bothering me."
Well, I had been bored of just watching movies and going down to the beach with him, but I hadn't thought he noticed. "And what if I just want to go home? Maybe go to college or something?" I called out to him without getting out of bed.
"Then I'll book you a flight that leaves this afternoon!" he yelled back.
I guessed that settled it, then. I got out of bed and pulled my lounge pants up a little bit as I ambled into the living room to join him. He lay reading a book on the couch. The dragon was always barefoot, despite how cold it was outside. "You really don't want me here, huh?" I wasn't upset about it. It wasn't like I did anything for him that he couldn’t do for himself. I was pretty sure I was just in his way.
He put the book aside and made room for me to sit with him. He had his shirt off too, and I expected to see some of the blue scales that I'd seen before on his back, but there was nothing more than the faintest hint of blue to his skin. "You're a good guy, Wesley, although you're wasted here with me. You aren't learning anything, and if I'm being honest, I haven't needed an assistant in nearly a century. We dragons don't have wars anymore, and if I really needed to work something out with Imrel, then I could just email him. We aren't in the dark ages anymore and we haven't been for a long time. I'm not ready to release you just yet, but I don't need you here, either. You seem miserable and I don't want to do that to you."
I wasn't miserable, though. Not really, anyway. But I was bored. I could take his offer. I could go home, get a job, go to college. Something. He was dying, though. Turning into ahuman or whatever. I didn’t understand how it was going to happen, only that it was happening. "What if…What if we went somewhere together? Your territory is the entire eastern US, right? So there's got to be somewhere we could go together."
He smirked, but I thought he might have been interested. "Do you think I'm bored too?"
I was quick to shake my head. I didn't want him getting mad at me because I assumed something of him, but I realized then that I would have to assume to be able to answer his question. "No, but I think you might be lonely."
Bolivar raised his eyebrows, and then he simply shrugged. "Maybe I am sometimes. There's a private resort for gay men in the Keys. We'd have to change planes, but it's not a bad day of travel, if you're interested. We could go for a few weeks, get out of the snow and the cold, and you could work on your tan. You might possibly even meet someone worth not being bored with."
"You could meet someone, too," I reminded him.
He slipped off the couch, making sure to rub my hair as he did. "I don't really meet people, Wesley. I'm a dragon, and until I die I'm going to keep growing younger. Then I'll start aging as a human would. Someday soon you'll look at me and think I'm a teenager. Or maybe that I'm going off to college for the first time. While someone like you would understand those changes, most humans would have no idea how to even begin to understand what a dragon is. To them, we're myths and legends. There's a reason Imrel only connects with assistants. In all the human world, you're the only ones who actually know what we are. No, I won't be going there to meet anyone. I'll look plenty though, and I'm sure I'll enjoy the view. You, on the other hand, you should find someone worth getting lost in for a few weeks. Have some fun and enjoy yourself while we're there. I'll make the arrangements while you go pack."
He left me then, and I realized just how lonely he truly was with only me for company.
We got to the airport about ten that night for our flight out of Maine at just after midnight. I was tired, having not been able to sleep at all because I was too excited for a real vacation, but he looked just fine. I only packed one suitcase, mostly full of clothes, and he only had a big beach bag that was white and blue and had an anchor on it. No computers, no books, no nothing as far as I could tell. Maybe he really was just going to go look at all the guys. I didn't know how he'd be able to look without wanting to talk to any of them, or better yet touch them.
He surprised me with first class seats. I'd never had seats that good on a plane before. I wasn't squished between two other people and I got a soda while everyone else was boarding too. Bolivar got two blankets and a pillow, even though the flight was only a few hours. He had the window seat, I was on the aisle, and he had his eyes closed before we even started to taxi away from the airport.
"Are you asleep?" I asked him once we were in the air. I couldn't understand how he would be already. I couldn't ever sleep while I was on a plane.
"No," he mumbled. "But I'm trying to be."
How he could even want to sleep was beyond me. I was too excited to even close my eyes for a moment. I'd never been to the Keys, never been snorkeling, never been to a gay resort. It sounded like so much fun, and I didn't have to do anything or pay for any part of it thanks to him.
