You May Have Met Him Read online

  With a sigh, he turned back to Elliot, who stood stock still in the middle of his living room as if he was afraid to move too fast. Theo stepped forward to him, and he took his hand still gripping the keys.

  “Let’s relax for a bit,” Theo said. He pried the keys from Elliot’s fingers, the warmth of the keys from his hand still in the metal. He put them on the corner of the coffee table. “Take your jacket off, and we’ll have a seat on the sofa. That sound good?”

  When Elliot smiled a little, Theo reached up to him and helped him to shrug out of his suit jacket, and he put it over the back of an armchair. Little rings of sweat had formed at Elliot’s armpits that left dark circles on his dress shirt.

  He moved Elliot to sit down on the sofa, and Theo sat down next to him. The space between them was quiet and thick, and then Elliot’s eyes widened. “Oh God,” he said. It caused Theo to jump, and Elliot stood up again. “I should offer you something. A drink. Um, I think I have some soda. I can make tea. Or maybe some water.”

  Theo reached up and took Elliot’s hand again. “I’m good. Unless you need something.”

  Elliot swallowed hard. “I could really use some water.”

  “Okay.” Theo stood up with him. “That sounds good.” He followed Elliot to the kitchen, which was open to the living room, divided only by a breakfast bar with a white quartz countertop and an island with the sink. Like the living room, it was sparsely decorated. Tasteful and clean. Kitchen gadgets were on the counter. A mixer and a toaster, a one-cup coffee maker. The counters gleamed.

  Elliot pulled down two glasses from the cabinet and filled them with ice from the dispenser on the refrigerator door. When he did, he glanced back over at Theo, almost as if checking to make sure he was doing it right. After filling the first glass, he guzzled a long drink from it, the ice tinkling, then he refilled. Then he put water into the second glass and carried it over to Theo. “Just in case,” he said.

  “Thanks.” Theo smiled, and he took a drink of his water.

  “Do I, um…” Elliot looked around his kitchen as if searching for something. “Do we need anything for this?”

  Theo laughed. “Like what were you thinking?” The laugh, he thought, should have lightened the mood a bit, but it only made Elliot appear more worried as he stared at Theo like he’d committed some terrible wrong.

  “I’m sorry,” Elliot said. He turned away. “I’m sorry.”

  “I’m not making fun of you,” Theo said. He put his glass on the counter. “I only thought it was funny.” He reached out and put a hand on Elliot’s face.

  Elliot froze, the weight of his tension rooting him in place. “I-I’ve never done this before.”

  “We’ve covered that already on the way over here from the bar.” Theo was speaking softly to him like he might speak to an animal caught in a corner.

  “No, I mean,” Elliot swallowed. He looked to the floor. “You know, sex.”

  Theo’s eyebrows lifted in mock surprise. This he already knew too, but he couldn’t let on to Elliot that he knew. And it was painfully obvious anyway. Just when Theo thought he was gaining ground and Elliot was opening up, something would happen to force him to shut down again. Was this going to be as easy as he thought? Theo had never considered that Elliot might be too freaked out by everything to actually let him get it on with him.

  “Elliot, hon. You just need to relax.” He moved his hands to Elliot’s shoulders and gave them a gentle massage. “Just take it easy. We don’t have to rush into anything until you’re ready. We’ll go nice and slow.” Theo stood close to Elliot. He caught the clean scent of soap, this time mixed with a tinge of his stress sweat, a little bit of acrid bite beneath the bathed and pure odor that Theo had to admit he found kind of sexy.

  Elliot held the glass of water between them, and Theo took the glass out of his hand and put it on the counter next to his. He embraced Elliot and enfolded him in his arms.

  “There,” Theo said. He pushed his face into Elliot’s neck and nuzzled his cheek next to his ear. “Is this so bad?”

  A heartbeat thudded against Theo’s chest. Elliot’s hands were still at his side. His breath was short and ragged against Theo’s neck.

  When Theo pushed his cock up against Elliot’s, he felt a stiff pushback there. At least there was that. Nerves couldn't keep down a natural physiological response.

  “This is good, right?” Theo whispered. He pushed again, and Elliot shuddered. “Do you want me to keep going?”

  “Yes,” came Elliot’s hoarse whisper.

  Theo grinned, and he reached his hands down to cup Elliot’s ass. Elliot gasped. Theo lifted him up, moved to an empty part of the counter and sat Elliot on it. Then Theo stepped back and unbuttoned the first few buttons of his shirt. As he did, he watched Elliot’s flushed face, saw the bulge in Elliot’s pants as his cock tried to push its way out. But it was too soon for that. Instead, Theo opened his shirt and pulled it off, then tossed it to the side.

  “You like this?” Theo ran a hand over his solid abs and down to the front of his jeans.

  Elliot’s mouth was slack, but he nodded.

  Theo bit his bottom lip. “You want to see a little more?”

  Elliot seemed to have lost all ability to form words, so he nodded again.

  Theo worked his belt loose. He took a moment to kick off his shoes and he used a hand on Elliot’s knee to steady himself as he pulled off his socks. He undid the front of his pants, and he pulled down the zipper. He made sure to wear sexy underwear tonight, the type that showed everything and still kept something of himself hidden. They were underwear that made the bulge of his cock all the more pronounced, kept in place by a thick waistband and a tiny triangle of fabric and nothing else. He let his jeans drop to the floor and then kicked those to the side too.

  “Come here,” Theo said.

  Elliot didn’t move, so Theo moved in toward Elliot, and he took his hand.

  “This is your first time,” Theo said.

  Elliot tried to respond like he wanted to defend himself, his mouth opening and closing, but Theo put a finger up on his lips.

  “It’s okay,” Theo said. “Everybody’s got to start somewhere.” He took Elliot’s hand and placed it on his chest. “So let’s make it special for you. I’m yours tonight. My body is your body.” He guided Elliot’s hand to the nipple, and he used Elliot’s finger to trace the circle of it. “Let’s just have some fun, deal?”

  Elliot was beyond responding. He watched what his hand was doing, how Theo guided his hand over his chest. “This is what you want, right? Maybe you’ve watched some porn. You’ve looked at guys on the street and wondered what they might look like naked.” Theo took Elliot’s other hand in his and guided it to his chest. “This is your chance to feel everything you ever dreamed of feeling.”

  When Theo let go of Elliot’s hands, they remained on his chest and circling his nipples with the pad of his thumb. Theo placed his own hands on Elliot’s waist. He didn’t move them, not too quickly. He worried that it might scare him. But, like Elliot, he was hard too, his cock pushing against the scant fabric of his underwear. It was something primal. Elliot was fearful and Theo dominant—it spoke to an instinctual part of his brain and taunted his libido. But Theo wanted to take his time. He was there to make this fun for Elliot.

  So I can get paid, he reminded himself. Getting paid is what this is all about.

  Theo looked up at Elliot still sitting on the counter. Elliot’s face was pale. He had a thin sheen of sweat on his forehead. “So what do you want to do?” Theo asked him.

  “Everything,” Elliot managed in a husky whisper.

  Theo slid his hands up Elliot’s sides, and he worked at the sides of his shirt to pull it free from the waistband of his pants. “Good,” he whispered.

  Elliot gulped like he was trying to work down a hard knot of spit caught in his throat. Time stretched and slowed between them.

  Then Elliot leaned over to kitchen sink to vomit.

  Ch
apter Six

  Elliot

  Elliot kept his head down in the sink. He jumped down off the counter when the second wave of heaving began, and he let loose another bout that sent the odor of beer and bile throughout the kitchen. He was vaguely aware of Theo standing behind him, rubbing his back, Theo’s naked torso and revealing underwear visible in his field of view as he leaned over the sink with his forehead resting on his forearm.

  Theo cleared his throat. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” Elliot said. He reached up and turned on the water to clean out the throw-up. Lucky for him, he puked into the side with the garbage disposal.

  “Are you sure?” Theo said.

  “Yes,” he answered a little too quickly, perhaps too sharp. He didn’t stand up. He splashed some of the water onto his face. Hunched over, he didn’t have to meet Theo’s eyes, to see the judgment he was sure had to be written on Theo’s beautiful face. This wasn’t throwing up due to being drunk. He’d only had one drink at the bar. This was his nerves. It wasn’t the first time he got so nervous that he puked. Speeches in college and even his own high school graduation when he was supposed to stand at a podium in front of hundreds of people and talk about good things for the bright futures of he and his classmates. He got so sick they had to skip his speech and move on to the next. Why should tonight be any different than those times?

  But right now the timing sucked even worse. The mood was dead. This was something that, he was sure, only came once in a lifetime, which turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy for a night that was never meant to be.

  “I understand if you don’t want to stay,” Elliot said.

  “What?” Theo’s face moved into view as he leaned closer to the counter. His hands were on his knees as he bent over to peer at Elliot. “I’m not going anywhere.” He appeared to consider it, however. “I mean, unless you want me to.”

  “No,” Elliot said, quickly.

  “Okay,” he said with a nod. “That’s settled. I’m not leaving.”

  Elliot looked over at Theo, and he stood up. He had to catch his breath. A man who looked like Theo was standing so close to him and wearing next to nothing.

  “Do you want me to get dressed?” Theo asked.

  Elliot let his gaze travel down the length of Theo’s body, head to toe. He crossed his arms. “Would it be weird if I said no?” At least throwing up had the incongruous effect of calming his nerves to a degree.

  Theo laughed. He gave Elliot a little push on the shoulder. “No. It’s cool.”

  “Unless you want to get dressed.”

  “I told you. It’s fine. I’m here.” Theo held his hands out to his sides, his palms up as if to present himself. “I’m already naked. I like being naked.”

  Again, Elliot took another long visual trip down the length of Theo’s body. He did appear comfortable, more comfortable than Elliot ever felt about his own body. Theo wore his body well, easy in his own skin. He didn’t seem to have that need to hide himself like Elliot. Elliot was one who covered up even when he was alone and naked after a shower. Immediately, even still damp, he often pulled on a shirt that stuck to his skin, and he pulled on underwear beneath his towel. But Theo struck him as a man who paraded around his home free and open, stark and nude—and proud. He was someone who could fit in anywhere, a man always in control. And that probably had a lot to do with why, even after letting his nerves take over enough to make him sick, Elliot was reluctant to tell him to go.

  After a moment of quiet, Elliot pulled a paper towel down from the dispenser, and he ran it beneath the cool water of the faucet. He wiped his face. “It’s my nerves,” Elliot said. “Sometimes they get the better of me.” He took a drink from his water glass and swished it around in his mouth, and he spit into the sink to wash out the sour taste of his vomit.

  “Do you want to freshen up? Maybe brush your teeth?”

  “Does my breath stink?” Elliot covered his mouth with his fingers.

  “No. I wasn’t saying that.” Theo touched Elliot’s arm. “I just, well, after I puke, I usually feel the need to brush my teeth.”

  Elliot nodded. “Yeah, I could do that.” He pushed off from the counter. “Get comfortable, if you want.” But Elliot took in Theo’s near nudity again. “Or...yeah.”

  “Take care of yourself.” Theo gave Elliot a playful push. “I’ll be in the living room.”

  He left Theo and went into the bathroom to splash more water onto his face. He also brushed his teeth. In the mirror, he looked pale, more than normal. Probably from being sick. His eyes looked a little bloodshot too, and they itched, probably due to his allergies.

  Another wave of disbelief, and Elliot braced himself with his hands on the bathroom counter. What made a guy like Theo choose him?

  In his bedroom, he changed out of his work clothes. When he pulled out the usual clothes he wore in the evening, a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt, he held them in his hands for a long time, standing in front of his dresser. Out in the living room was a man wearing only a hint of underwear, and here he was about to get dressed in the clothes he usually laid around in on a lazy Sunday. Was that weird?

  Everything about this night was weird. He looked down at himself, his thin chest compared to Theo’s, his waist that required him to sometimes cinch his belt tighter on pants that were already near the bottom of male waist-size selections, and his flaccid cock inside tighty-whitey briefs. This was what he offered a man like Theo.

  Yes, everything about tonight was weird. And he didn’t think he could be any more inadequate.

  In the end, he chose a pair of soft denim blue jeans and a t-shirt, the logo of a video game he was once a fan of way back during college. He wore thick, white socks on his feet.

  Down the short hallway in his apartment, he saw Theo’s bare feet propped up on his coffee table—even his feet were sexy—and they were attached to legs that Elliot was certain took years in a gym to sculpt. The bulge of Theo’s crotch was hidden by that oh-so-small triangle of fabric. His abs were foothills leading up to the cut mountains of his chest muscles. Theo’s beautiful face turned to him standing in the doorway.

  “You changed,” he said. “You feel better?”

  “Much,” Elliot lied. Inside, his heart still pounded. His cock inside his jeans was no longer as soft as before. He took quick and furtive steps to make his way to an armchair and sat down.

  “No,” Theo said.

  Elliot froze.

  Theo patted the couch next to him. “Sit here.”

  After consideration, Elliot finally moved over to the couch and sat down next to Theo. He was close to him, close enough for Theo’s heat to radiate out to his bare forearm, but he was careful not to actually touch him.

  The television was on. A baseball game.

  “Do you play?” Elliot asked. Theo looked the type to have played a lot of sports in his lifetime.

  “Yeah. I did. In high school.”

  “You don’t still?”

  “No. Now I just watch it like everybody else.” Theo moved his arm to stretch out along the back side of the couch, his arm behind Elliot. “How about you?” Theo asked. He turned to Elliot so that Elliot could see the oval of his finely sculpted face. “Did you play anything in high school?”

  “Do I look like I played any kind of sport in my life?” Elliot had never, to his memory, ever sat down to watch sports, either on television or in person. Sports was never something that he took a lot of interest in. He didn't even care for sports computer games.

  A hand touched Elliot’s shoulder. He tried not to tense, but it came involuntarily.

  “You could have,” Theo said. “You have the body of a runner. A track star. Thin and wiry.”

  “That’s just a lack of proper nutrition,” Elliot said.

  Theo chuckled.

  “The only thing I ever played was video games,” Elliot added.

  “Oh, that’s cool,” Theo said. Elliot could feel Theo’s thumb tracing along the ridge of his sh
oulder. “Like console games?

  “PC mostly. I’m a huge Beasts of War player,” Elliot said.

  “Oh, that MMO?”

  Elliot’s brow furrowed. “You know what an MMO is?”

  “A massively multiplayer online game. Of course I know what an MMO is.”

  “Wow.” A smile spread on Elliot’s lips. He even shifted on the couch so that he was facing Theo more, his knee lifted onto the cushion so that he was touching Theo’s bare leg. Only a little, but it was a big step to Elliot. “Have you played before?”

  “Not that game, but I have played plenty of games.”

  Elliot stared at Theo.

  “That surprises you?” Theo said with a lift of his eyebrow.

  “You don’t seem like somebody with a gaming habit.”

  Theo smiled. “What is it you think I do in my spare time?”

  “I don’t know. Lift a bunch of heavy weight? Run places? Play sports?”

  “That’s not all that I do, Elliot.”

  With a shrug, Elliot said, “I don’t know. I just thought,” he referred to Theo’s stretched out and powerfully sculpted body, “that this would take a lot of upkeep, you know?”

  “It takes some. I mean, I do go to the gym. I run almost every day, and I watch what I eat most of the time. That’s really all it is.”

  Elliot snickered. “Oh, that’s all it is, huh?”

  “Well, and genetics.”

  “You must be descended from Vikings.”

  It was Theo’s turn to laugh. “Oh, is that so? I should club you and take you to bed?”

  “That’s cave men,” Elliot said.

  “Is there a difference?” Theo squinted with an odd smile on his lips. Elliot couldn’t help but stare at him until Theo put his big hand on the top of Elliot’s head and ruffled his hair. “I’m only kidding,” he said with a laugh.

  Silence stretched between them, Theo moved his hand to the side of Elliot’s head and his fingers curled in his hair. They stared at one another until Elliot’s heartbeat, he was sure, could be heard over the announcer of the baseball game and the filtered-in sound of the crowd cheering for whatever team was playing. (The Cubs, maybe?) Elliot sat with his hands folded in his lap. There was a clear need to cover himself and the growing stiffness that he knew would be clearly visible even through blue jeans.