Page 55 of Resonance
After dinner, Dan gave me a spare key and showed me to the bedroom, which he said used to be his and Aiden’s bedroom until Dan graduated high school and moved out. With one shoulder resting against the doorframe, he watched as I found a corner where I could shove my laundry basket. I’d stuffed it full of clean clothes and some notebooks and shoes. A few pairs had been on the floor of my apartment and gotten ruined by the burst pipe and soaked carpet that had greeted me when I’d opened the door last night. Because I absolutely needed one more thing on my plate right now.
Aside from my guitar, I’d tried to pack as lightly as possible since I didn’t want to junk up Dan’s place. Though, looking around, I shouldn’t have worried too much. There was a double window with some sheer curtains, a pair of nightstands with a ceramic lamp and an old clock radio that didn’t appear to be working. Bed made, and piles of plastic crates shoved against one wall, filled with records, cassette tapes, and other random odds and ends. I glanced at Dan, and something in my expression made him cross his arms defensively.
“I’m not a packrat.”
“You’re probably a few more years from unlocking that achievement.” I was teasing, because it wasn’t all that bad, and I could tell from the glint in his eyes that he knew it. I looked around again, noting the chenille bedspread the could’ve been new or could’ve been twenty years old. The nightstandsdidlook more current, and above them were some block letter prints that were probably from one of the letterpress outfits around town.
“Hatch Show Print?” I asked, thumbing toward them.
“Nah, got them off some dude selling them downtown one night. Years ago when I was hammered.”
“Huh. This is really nice.” It was cozy and homey with a vague but alluring sense of history that was hard to explain. Some people’s houses just felt like frames around their lives while Dan’s felt… lived-in.
“Your obvious surprise has me a little curious about how you thought I lived.”
“I don’t know. I guess maybe I was expecting, like… spare. Or else, really rugged, like bears on the wall. Moose. Mooses? Moose,” I finally decided.
“An entire bear?” He sounded amused.
“I feel like you wouldn’t do anything half-assed. A head wouldn’t do, nope, you’d have the whole thing.”
“Then you’ll be happy with the den.”
I blinked. “Is there a bear or moose in there? Bearskin rug? Moose on the wall? Antlers of some woodland creature? Bison tusk?”
“No.” Dan chuckled. “I just meant it’s more rustic. And bison don’t have tusks.”
“Oh.” I let disappointment seep into my voice, which he smiled at.
“Bet you’re just itching for me to go away so you can snoop through everything.”
“You think you’re that interesting, huh?”
“No. Like I said earlier, I just think you’re the blindly curious type.”
I twitched my nose at him, which coaxed a curve to his mouth that I couldn’t stop looking at. He wasn’t wrong, though. Snooping through Dan’s stuff was a close second to pulling him onto the bed and ripping his clothes off. I was already reconsidering the wisdom of jumping at his offer because damn, in close proximity he was… potent.
I’d been really good at distracting myself in the shop with other tasks over the past few weeks, but right now certain parts of Dan’s body were major hot spots. I kept having to remind myself to move my gaze around and not let it get stuck on his eyes or his mouth or…oh Jesus… the way the slight jut of his hip molded the worn-soft denim of his jeans to his pelvis, highlighting the shape of his cock in detailed relief.
I swallowed the saliva that flooded my mouth in confused anticipation. What the hell were we talking about? Oh right. Curiosity. I’d twitched my nose at him, and he was still looking at me. I hoped only seconds and not minutes had elapsed. “I’m taking that as permission to sniff around, then,” I said, and tacked on a “meow.”
Dan huffed out a breath and eased off the doorjamb with a wry half-smile. “All right, well, sleep well.”
“Wait, that’s it?”
“You expecting a slumber party or something? We ate dinner, I showed you your room, it’s…” He glanced at his watch. “9:30. What’s left to do?”
“I dunno. Go catch a show or something? Watch a movie on Netflix? Chill?”
His eyes narrowed. “Netflix and chill?”
Oh fuck me. “I didn’t mean like that. I meant literally watch Netflix and, like, hang out. I’m not expecting… I don’t want to, like, rehash anything we’ve… I mean that’sdefinitelynot a good idea now that I’m staying with you, so…” I squeezed my eyes shut briefly, lost in my own jumble, and when I opened them, Dan’s lips were pursed like he was trying to figure out whether he should interject and with what.
With no desire to get stuck in a conversation that could only make the week and a half until he left for the tour incredibly awkward, I swallowed and barreled ahead. “I meant popcorn, some stupid drama. Or better yet, a cheesy horror movie that will scare the bejesus out of me so badly that I’ll forget the current sad state of my life snooping through my boss’s childhood room while my apartment molders under two inches of water. Also, I think Netflix and chill is probably past its prime. It’s like, four years old.”
“So what’s the new catchphrase, then?”
“I don’t know. I don’t keep abreast of the latest trends in innuendo because I’d never say that to someone.”