Page 15 of A Real Good Lie

“McMillian, C, please come see the counter attendant. McMillian, C, to the counter,” a muffled female voice called out over the loudspeaker.

“What’s that?” Sebastian asked.

“You’d know if you were here.” Callahan stood up and grabbed his bag, increasingly annoyed with Sebastian.

“I told you, Dad made me come up early to deal with logistics. I’ll be waiting for you and your paramour with open arms once you get into town, though.” Sebastian said.

“They just called me on the speaker,” he told his friend, approaching the counter. “Be quiet for a minute. Yes, I’m Callahan McMillian.”

He smiled at the tired looking attendant, who aggressively typed away at her keyboard for a minute before looking up at him.

“Right, Mr. McMillian. First off, let me say thank you for your years of patronage and your establishment as a diamond…”

He stopped listening, used to the spiel where everyone who worked for the airline kissed his ass for the hundreds of thousands of dollars he dropped a year on travel. He didn’t particularly like traveling, but it was part of the job. Yet another thing he hadn’t asked for and didn’t want.

“Is your companion here yet?” she asked.

“My what?”

She looked back down at her screen. “There’s a second ticket on your order for a Mr. Jace Dare. Has he arrived?”

“No.”

“We’re able to upgrade him to first class so you can sit together.” She smiled and printed out an updated boarding pass, sliding it across the counter to him.

“Oh.” He swallowed, taking the flimsy piece of paper.

“If there’s anything else you’ll need, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

“Right.” Callahan took the boarding pass and crumpled it in his hand, stepping away from the counter.

“This is good!” Sebastian said in his ear. “Now you’ll have the whole flight to come up with a cover story.”

“How am I supposed to give him the boarding pass?” he snapped. “I don’t even know what he looks like.”

“Yeah, sorry I couldn’t get you a picture.” Sebastian didn’tsoundsorry, and he added, “This is why you should have called him any time in the last fourteen days.”

“And he’s really not on social media?” Callahan asked, not for the first time. He’d been trying to get a picture of the man out of Sebastian since he’d brought up the idea in the first place, but Sebastian hadn’t given him an inch.

“He says no.”

“Everyone is on social media.” Callahan walked back to the chairs and sat down, glaring at the plane waiting for him outside. He was desperate for a Bloody Mary and he would have boarded early if they’d let him. Anything to get his hands on something to calm his nerves.

“Not him.”

“You’re not being helpful, so I’m going to go,” he said.

“That’s the Callahan I love. Always practical.”

“I hate you.” He tapped the side of his ear bud and disconnected the call. Music immediately filled the silence, picking up on the song he’d been listening to before Sebastian had called to harass him.

The past two weeks had been rough, partially because he was worried about having a pretend boyfriend, and a little bit because he was more nervous than he wanted to admit about seeing Rhys again, and a lot because he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the man who’d kissed him at Lion.

Without thought, Callahan brushed his fingers across his lower lip, his cock twitching in the confines of his underwear. He’d jacked off no less than twelve times, but probably more than twenty in the past two weeks, which might have been a new record for him. He’d done it in bed, in the shower, once in the living room while he looked out the window and wondered where Jay lived and what he was doing in that exact moment as Callahan came all over the glass.

He’d gotten creative once, shoving his fleshlight between his mattress and box spring and getting down on his knees to fuck it like he was really sinking into a tight, warm asshole, but all of his orgasms had been lackluster in comparison to the memory of that kiss.

At first, he’d been mad when he opened his eyes and found Jay gone, but he’d been the one who said he wouldn’t leave with the man. He was the one who’d said only one kiss.