Mandarin Orange: Sweet and Sour (12 page)

So, in effect, I really should thank Mom for making sure even the things I did for fun had a purpose. I’d probably be one of those ‘useless’ kids, otherwise. Even at twenty-four.

He unlocked the front door, frowning slightly when Goobs pushed past him and made a beeline right up the stairs. Then he realized Goober was growling, nearly silently, and that made Kelly cautious. Even more so when Goober stopped on the landing in front of Riley’s apartment door, still growling but not bumping the door with his head or even jumping up to rest his paws against the wood the way he usually did when Riley was inside.
Oh, crap. Please, don’t let there be a robber or anything. It’s broad daylight, for God’s sake! Who breaks into an apartment in the middle of the day?

Well, if there really was someone inside -- and Kelly didn’t doubt Goober’s senses even a little -- then he wasn’t letting Goobs go first. Anyone stupid enough to break in during the day might think it was a good idea to shoot a dog, and Goober was a good pup but not smart enough to dodge a bullet or even recognize a gun as dangerous. “Stay,” Kelly whispered, even as he tried the knob and slowly pushed the door open when it proved to be unlocked. “Stay,” he murmured again.

Goober, in all his brilliance, completely ignored Kelly’s words and shoved through the opening before Kelly could grab his collar. “Goober!” he shouted, following close behind. “Goobs, watch it!”

His heart raced while Goober flung himself at the strange man on the couch and Kelly heard glass breaking, even while the intruder yelped. “Jesus! Ack! Get off of me, Goober!” And just like that, Kelly’s dangerous, growling beast became a wriggling, panting, yipping marshmallow. Seconds later, Kelly rounded the couch and saw Jeremy trying to push Goobs away, his face twisted into what looked like disgust at the strings of drool hanging from Goober’s mouth, and amusement at the way the dog was suddenly trying to lick him. The amusement won because Jeremy laughed. “Ugggh, get him off me, Kelly! I’m about to drown in his spit!”

Relief flooded Kelly and put a smile on his face, but instead of helping, he leaned against the arm of the couch and shrugged. “That’s what you get for breaking into Riley’s apartment. Death by slobber.” He smirked as Jeremy tried shoving Goobs away again. “I’d offer you a drink, but I think you’ve got enough liquid to handle already.”

“Ugggh. That dog needs a dentist in the worst way,” Jeremy said a minute or so later, when Goobs was finally a little bit calmer. “And for the record, I didn’t break in. Riley gave me a key ages ago. For emergencies. I decided sitting out in the heat waiting for him to get home qualified. So, where is he?”

Kelly shrugged again and pushed away from the couch before turning toward the kitchen. “He said something about hitting the gym. I think he was planning to head to work right after, though, so I doubt he’ll be home any time soon.” He stopped and looked over his shoulder. “You want that drink, now that Goober’s not French kissing you anymore?”

“Sure,” Jeremy said, but there was a strange look on his face that Kelly couldn’t decipher. “Beer, if you’ve got it. But of course you do. Riley
always
has beer.”

“True.” Kelly stepped into the kitchen and grabbed a couple beers from the icebox, then rejoined Jeremy in the living room. He sat down at the opposite end of the couch from Riley’s friend and handed over one of the bottles. Whatever look Jeremy had worn mere moments earlier was gone, and Kelly shrugged it off. It wasn’t as though he knew Jeremy well, after all, so maybe it was just one of the guy’s usual expressions. “I thought Riley said you have school during the day.”

It wasn’t exactly a question, but Jeremy obviously took it as one.

“My last class was cancelled. Professor Perkins apparently got food poisoning from something in the faculty dining room. At least, I’m guessing that’s where he got it. A couple other professors got sick, too, judging from the gossip on campus. Anyway, I thought I’d swing by and see if Riley wanted to do something, since I suddenly had a couple hours free. But I guess not.” That weird expression was back, all of a sudden. “So, the gym, then work? Really?”

“That’s what he said,” Kelly agreed, opening his own beer and taking a slow swallow. Now that Jeremy had questioned it, Kelly was starting to wonder. “Maybe he meant he was going to come back before work, though, because he wasn’t wearing his work uniform and he definitely didn’t take it with him.” Riley hadn’t taken more than his gym bag, now that Kelly was thinking about it, which meant... what?

That he’s a habitual liar. Duh. He lied about his uncle, he lied about going to work before he finally told me he’d taken sick leave, and now he’s lying about working tonight. Why the hell would he do that? It doesn’t make any sense! Unless he didn’t lie and I just assumed what he meant. He never really said he wasn’t coming back here. He just implied that he wouldn’t see me, but I said I was going to an
early
movie, so... Yeah.

“I probably just misunderstood,” Kelly added, feeling better for having thought it through. “I’d only just gotten up, and God knows I’m not at my best before coffee.”

“Cool,” Jeremy said, sipping his beer. “I guess I won’t be hanging out with Riley, then. So what are you up to?”

Kelly grinned. “Not much for the next little while, but I’m meeting someone for a movie later. Maybe dinner, too, depending on whether Leonard’s too tired, after as late as I kept him up last night.” Because Leonard had answered when Kelly called earlier, and while the man had admitted to being a little on the worn out side, he’d insisted that they keep their movie date. Leonard had been hesitant about promising more than that, but that was fine. Kelly was more than capable of getting himself dinner and didn’t want to keep Leonard out long if the guy was anything like as exhausted as he’d sounded.

A smile lit up Jeremy’s face, taking him from the high end of average-looking right through to stunning. It was an unexpected transformation, because while Kelly had seen Jeremy smile before, they hadn’t been smiles like
that
. He couldn’t define the difference, but there definitely was one.

“You have a date? No, make that a
second
date? God, why didn’t I know this? Riley usually tells me all about that sort of thing!” Jeremy was nearly bouncing at the end of the couch, Kelly noticed. It was kind of cute, in a dorky sort of way. “So who’s this Leonard and how do you know him?”

Kelly rolled his eyes, and even though he knew he should feel like Jeremy was invading his privacy, he just didn’t. It was kind of cool that the guy wanted to know, actually. Unfortunately, “It’s not a date. Or not the way you mean it.” Jeremy pouted and Kelly laughed. “I’m serious. Leonard’s not my type, and even if he were, I couldn’t date him. It turns out he works for me.”

He found himself telling Jeremy everything he’d already told Riley about meeting Leonard the night before and how Leonard worked at the school. “So even if I were butt-crazy hot for Leonard, I couldn’t date him. It would be totally unprofessional. If things went badly, it would screw with the business, you know? Plus, I kind of get the impression Riley doesn’t like him much. I think they know each other or something. And since I’m going to be living downstairs and Riley’s the first friend I made here, I don’t think it’s worth pissing him off by messing around with someone I’m not interested in anyway.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, because...” The rundown of Riley’s strange moodiness didn’t take long, but by the time Kelly finished talking, Jeremy had that same weird look on his face again for about a minute before it disappeared under simple curiosity. “Like I said,” Kelly finished, “I think they know each other, and I’m sure it’s just Riley being protective or something, but Leonard really
isn’t
my type, so it’s cool. I’m fine with having another friend, you know? I’m not looking for a boyfriend, anyway.”

“Huh. Okay. Interesting.” Jeremy’s eyes were dancing just a bit. “So you’re going to a movie. With this Leonard. I can’t believe I didn’t notice you dancing with him when we were at the same club! Of course, I was kind of distracted.”

Kelly laughed at Jeremy’s smirk, then took another swallow of beer. “I’ll bet. I mean, I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but Troy? I can see how he might be distracting. He’s gorgeous!” Kelly frowned at himself. “Um, he really is, but I wasn’t looking-looking, you know? I was just looking. In the normal way. He’s not really my... um, you know what? Never mind. Erase that and replace it with ‘I’m sure you were distracted because your boyfriend was there with you,’ okay?” God, he was such a doofus. Once again, Kelly wondered whether Goober should have been
his
name, rather than the dog’s.

One light-brown brow arched and Jeremy offered a little half grin that Kelly was relieved to see. “So Troy’s not your type either, hmmm?” Jeremy said, sounding playful. “I guess that leaves out James, Randy, and Pauly, too. So you don’t like your guys lean. Definitely interesting.”

Kelly groaned. “It’s not interesting. It’s not funny. It’s not strange or weird or anything else, okay? I just have a type. That’s all. Unfortunately, the type of guys I’m attracted to usually want to be all in charge or think there’s one set of rules for them and another for me, so it hasn’t gone well. I don’t honestly expect that to change, so can we talk about something less depressing, please?”

He drained the rest of his beer in one long draught while he debated asking Jeremy to leave. He couldn’t, though. It was Riley’s apartment, and Jeremy was Riley’s friend. Kelly was only staying there for one more night, assuming his new furniture arrived on time the next day. And if he wanted to keep a friendship going with Riley, which Kelly did, kicking Riley’s best friend out probably wouldn’t help.

Jeremy shrugged, but he was still smiling. “Just tell me you don’t have a secret Santa Claus fetish or something, man. Because I know a lot of different single guys, but none of them are that old.”

“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with an old bear,” Kelly answered, lightening up a bit once he realized Jeremy had been questioning him with an eye to fixing him up. “Nothing wrong with a young bear, either. But no, that’s not the type I mean. Look, it’s not that I don’t appreciate the offer, but I’ve been in town less than two weeks, and I’m nowhere near being ready to settle down.”

Or just settle, and that’s what it would be. So I’m not looking for anything deep or serious. Things were fine with Bob until we tried that whole ‘serious’ thing. Until then, I wouldn’t have cared that he had a wife and kid. Hell, I could have worked with it if I’d known ahead of time.

That was a lie, though. Kelly had never been the kind of man to insist that everyone be in monogamous relationships and paired off two by two. There was something to be said for just screwing around, and Kelly had done plenty of that himself. But when two people decided to be exclusive, they should mean it, as far as he was concerned. And if they couldn’t maintain that degree of exclusivity, then they needed to have the balls -- guts, nerve, whatever -- to
say so
, and to not even suggest it if they were already involved with someone else.

“Fine,” Jeremy said, and it took Kelly a moment to remember what the man was responding to. “But remember, Kelly. Between all of us, we know a lot of men. Most of them are gay, some of them are single, and a few of the single ones want more than just a hot night or two. Luckily for you, almost all of them come to the Margarita Mondays Troy and I host, so whatever you’re looking for, you can probably find someone to suit the bill there. That’s a standing invitation, by the way.” Jeremy grinned. “We can always use some new blood, and a young, hot martial artist who’s not only single but also isn’t opposed to staying that way? You’ll never lack for a date again.”

Kelly laughed at the apparent about-face. “I already don’t lack for a date, remember? Leonard, movie, later tonight? Oh, hey! You and Troy could come, if you wanted. Or no. Never mind. If Riley and Leonard have issues, and they must or Riley wouldn’t have been all growly before, then I don’t want to put you guys in a weird spot.” He really didn’t. It would suck if he created tension between Jeremy and Riley.

“Hmmm?” Jeremy’s brow arched again. “Oh, no, don’t worry. No weirdness. Troy and I would love to come along. We didn’t have plans for tonight, anyway. Besides, with Riley working and your friend presumably tired from being out late last night, we can keep you company after this Leonard of yours wanders off to sleep.”

Jeremy grinned and Kelly laughed. “Okay, fine. You’ve got yourself a deal.” Kelly looked at the empty beer bottle in his own hand, then stood. “I’m going to have another. Care to join me?”

Jeremy smirked again. “Bring it on.”

***

By the time they’d finished dinner at the private, members-only club Peter frequented, where Riley’s casual dress was noticed but not remarked upon, Riley was only sure of two things, as far as Dex was concerned. First, that Riley still didn’t trust the guy, and second, that there was way more going on between Dex and Peter than Riley would likely ever understand. Okay, Riley was sure of three things, because Peter for damned sure seemed to be trying to make Dex happy.

The things Riley still
didn’t
know numbered way more than just three, though. Like... he didn’t have a single fucking clue about how to move things along with Kelly, or even if he wanted to. He was fascinated by the younger guy; Riley couldn’t even begin to deny that much, but he still wasn’t sure if it was something serious or just a weird attraction that would pass. If it was a passing thing, then fuck if he wanted to do the deed with a dude just for the experience of it, or even try the things that might lead to the deed. But if it was something more, well, Riley didn’t have a single fucking clue whether Kelly shared that interest. Fuck, Riley didn’t even know if Kelly thought he was hot, did he? One kiss in the fucking kitchen wasn’t exactly declarative, as far as Riley was concerned.

“I really think you should just ask him,” Peter said, a variation on the theme that had peppered their whole meal. “You did say he was the one who initiated the kiss, so he’s probably not shy about sex in general, which I have to say surprises me, considering Douglas and Lily tend to be a little bit... reserved, at least in public.”