Guys on Top 02 - Guys on the Side (15 page)

Angelo stepped into the foyer, his eyes darting around as Corey closed the door. “Is this you?” He pointed at the door to his left.

“No, that’s Doug. I’m upstairs.”

Angelo looked up the stairs and nodded. “Neighbors huh? That how you two met?”

“Yeah.” Corey made his way upstairs, waving for Angelo to follow. “It’s a long story.”

“Oh yeah? How so?”

They stepped into Corey’s apartment, and he closed the door. “You do not want to know. You want something to drink?”

Shaking his head, Angelo looked around the apartment. “No, I’m fine. Nice place.”

“Thank you.”

“It’s not what I expected.”

“You had expectations about how my apartment would look?”

“I just expected something less subdued. It’s very calm in here, serene.”

“Well, I need serenity, this is where I work. And what do you mean less subdued? You thought my home would be chaotic?”

Angelo chuckled, moving to Corey’s shelves and examining the books there. “I don’t know. Maybe. So you do your massage stuff right here?”

“No, in a room down the hall. You want to see?”

“Sure.” Angelo turned from the bookshelf. “I mean, if you don’t mind.”

So damn polite
. No, that wasn’t the right word.
Cautious
. Like he was afraid of offending somehow. Corey supposed this was due to his remorse over coming here to harass him last week. Now Angelo seemed overly concerned about invading Corey’s boundaries. “I don’t mind,” Corey said. “Follow me.”

Angelo glanced at the kitchen, then followed Corey down the hall, staying a respectable distance behind him. Since Corey had been waiting for his client to arrive, the room was all set up, lights dimmed, candles lit, New Age music playing softly.

“Oh wow.” Angelo stepped into the room, turning in a circle, then walking over and placing a hand on the massage table, which was dressed in fresh bedding. “This is cool.”

“Thanks. People seem to like it.”

“Uncle Len certainly did. I met with him this week. He couldn’t stop talking about you.”

“How is he?” Corey asked. “You can sit on that if you want,” he said when Angelo pushed down on the table with his palms.

“You sure?” Angelo looked up. “I don’t want to break it or something.”

Corey laughed. “It’s completely sturdy, I promise. It’s held people heavier than you.”

Angelo hopped up on the table, dangling his legs over the edge, and grinned at Corey. “I kind of feel like I’m at the doctor’s office about to get a checkup.”

“Please.” Corey pulled a chair over and sat across from him. “This room is way nicer than any doctor’s office.”

Angelo’s grin slid away. “Oh, I know. I didn’t mean to say...I mean this is a nice room.”

“Will you relax?” Corey said. “You’re so jittery. You sure you don’t want that massage?”

Letting out a nervous laugh, Angelo shook his head. “No. Thank you. Not really my thing.” He looked at Corey quickly. “I mean, no offense.”

“None taken, I guess. But come on. It’s not your thing? Who doesn’t like to get a massage?”

“No, massages are great. I just don’t think...don’t think it’s a good idea right now.”

“You mean you don’t want a massage from
me
.”

Angelo rolled his eyes. “You’re interrogating again, Corey.”

Corey laughed. “I’m sorry, jeez. I’m not trying to make you uncomfortable, it’s just what I do. You seem so tense, my natural response is to want to work that out for you. But forget the massage. Tell me what happened with Leonard, and that charming cousin of yours.”

Angelo let out a breath, looking relieved. “Okay, yeah. Well, as annoyed as Len is with Tommy, he’s also desperate to make peace with his kids. So he agreed to go to the consultation with that friend of mine, the therapist I told you about. He didn’t hate it, but he sure bitched a lot that he’d have to give up his sessions with you.”

“So Leonard won’t be coming to me for massage anymore.”

Angelo shook his head. “It was a kind of compromise. To make Tommy happy.”

“Tommy
really
doesn’t trust me, does he?”

“It’s all been a lot to take in for Tommy. All of the...changes his father’s gone through. Don’t take it personally.”

“I’m not,” Corey said.

Angelo chuckled. “Right. Anyway, Len agreed to go back and see the therapist again. He was defensive at first, like we were trying to suggest he was crazy or something. But after the consult, I guess he decided it wouldn’t be so bad to have someone to talk to about his stress.”

“I’m very glad to hear that.”

“How are you doing?”

“Me?” Corey shrugged. “I’m fine.”

Angelo held his gaze. “You sure?”

“Um...yes. Why do you ask?”

“I don’t know. You seem different.”

Corey huffed. “You’ve only met me once.”

“Twice, actually,” Angelo said. “If you count the day I came here with Tommy.”

“Okay, twice. What do you think is different about me?”

Chewing his lower lip, Angelo studied Corey. “You’re sad.”

Stunned, Corey stiffened.

“I’m sorry,” Angelo said. He shook his head, looking down. “That was inappropriate, I shouldn’t have said that. Hard to turn off the job sometimes.”

“Well, you’re right. I am sad. But how did you know that, Angelo?”

Angelo avoided his eyes. “I’m pretty good at sensing people’s emotions.” He twirled his hand over his chest. “What they’ve got going on inside. I didn’t mean to pry into your personal life.”

Corey stood. With hands on his hips, he slowly approached Angelo. “I’m not
acting
sad, Angelo. And like I said, we’ve only just met. So how do you
sense
people’s emotions?”

Angelo met Corey’s eyes. His brow furrowed. “I feel them.”

Corey nodded slowly. “Me too.”

“I know. I mean, you said something about it the other day. But I still wasn’t sure if you were a kook or full of shit.”

“How does it work for you?”

Angelo let out a short laugh. He lifted his arms, then dropped them. “I don’t know. I just kind of absorb it while people are talking to me. Like I can feel a fragment of how they feel, and then I can tell if our session is going good or bad, if I should shift directions, you now?”

“Oh. Oh great.” Corey turned away.
Alternate Universe Corey
. Fucking Jairo. “Like I said on Monday, we have more in common than you think. Do people tell you you’re nuts?”

“No,” Angelo said. “Because I don’t tell anyone about it.”

Corey laughed and sat down in the chair again. “Ah. Not telling anyone. I probably should have thought of that years ago. Silly me.”

“How does yours work?”

“Through touch,” Corey said. “Though sometimes, if someone’s energy is
really
turbulent, I get a blast of it without touching them. Like when Doug first moved in downstairs. He’d gone through this horrible betrayal, lost all his money, and his bad energy was just fucking
everywhere
.”

“So Doug knows what you can do?”

“Doug is in denial, so even though he agreed to let me do a session on him, which I
might
add improved his energy exponentially, he scoffs at it, doesn’t want to talk about it. That’s fine. I don’t care. I was kind of doing it for my own reasons anyway.”

Angelo kept his eyes pinned to Corey. “Uncle Len said you could do that. I wanted to believe him. And I want to believe
you
.”

Moments passed in silence while Corey stared at Angelo. He felt that odd, crackling energy between them again, the way he had at the sports bar earlier in the week. “Well. This conversation went down a rabbit hole I didn’t expect.”

“I’m sorry,” Angelo said. “Did I overstep? I’m sorry.”

“Are you like this with everyone?” Corey asked. “Always timidly tip-toeing and apologizing?”

A hard laugh left Angelo, and he shook his head. “Ah, no. In fact my friends find me a little too bold at times. I can be an obnoxious wiseass, I guess. Thing is, I deal with other people’s pain and problems all day at my job, so when I’m off work I like to have a good time. You know, blow off steam. Go out for drinks with my friends, trail riding on my mountain bike in the rain.”

“I hope not at the same time.”

“No.” Angelo laughed. “The drinking and mountain biking are two separate activities.”

“Okay. I hate to be accused of interrogation again, but why are you so timid with
me
then?”

Angelo shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know exactly. It’s like something in your...I hate to use the word energy, that’s your thing.”

“It’s all right, I don’t have a copyright on it.”

“Well,
something
about you sets me off kilter. I just haven’t figured out what it is.”

Corey widened his eyes. “Wow. Okay. Well, you let me know when you do. It’s nice to meet a fellow nutcase, at any rate.”

“So you don’t feel anything from me? No...energy of any kind?”

“Not really. I can tell you’re kind of nervous around me but those are just visual cues. If you’ve got any shit bundled up inside, it’s well-shielded I guess.”

Angelo crossed his arms over his chest, a quizzical expression on his handsome face. “Do you want to touch me?”

Corey roared with laughter.

“Oh, God.” Angelo winced, hands going to his head. “That came out so wrong.”

“I don’t know, Angelo,” Corey said, still chuckling. “Do you want me to touch you?”

Angelo blushed. “I might be a little curious to see what you’d find. If anything. But I’m being selfish, I mean, you just told me you’re sad.”

“Relax, Angelo. I can be sad and do my job. And I’m dealing with it, I’m not suicidal or anything, so don’t worry about it.”

“Why are you sad? Never mind, I’m—”

“
Don’t
say you’re sorry.”

Angelo bit his knuckle, grinning. “Shit. I did it again.”

“You did. I’m sad because I split with my boyfriend earlier this week, okay?”

“Oh. I’m...sorry.”

“Thank you.” Corey stood. “I’ll leave the room so you can get undressed.”

Angelo’s jaw dropped. “What?”

“Do you want a massage or not?”

Angelo visibly swallowed. “I don’t know. Will it work if you only do my back?”

Corey shrugged. “You paid for a full body massage,
Eileen
.”

“I know. I just think I’d rather you stick to my back.”

“Afraid you’ll catch the gay if I do your front?”

Angelo turned crimson, and Corey instantly felt bad.

“I’m kidding. Your back is fine. Just lie on your front and drape the blanket over below your waist. I’ll come back in ten minutes.”

Still red-faced, Angelo nodded, avoiding Corey’s eyes. “All right. Good.”

Corey left the room and went to the kitchen, washing his hands in the sink. “Good Christ,” he muttered. The vengeful gods of promiscuity must be fucking with him again, he decided
.
‘
Here you go, Corey! Have a gorgeous half-naked straight guy who calls you disarming and blushes when you’re around. We
dare
you to resist!’

“I’m a professional,” he whispered as he dried his hands. “I can handle it.”

****

Angelo stripped his shirt off and set it on the nearby chair.
This is such a bad idea
, he thought.

He wished Uncle Len hadn’t spent their entire lunch gushing on and on about Corey and his magical massage energy. Angelo had been curious since his impromptu meeting with Corey at the sports bar, wondering if maybe, just maybe, he’d met someone who would understand what he experienced on some level. Someone who wouldn’t laugh when he told them about it.

“I can feel a fragment of how they feel...”

Corey hadn’t laughed. But he’d also referred to Angelo as a ‘fellow nutcase’.

Maybe he was a nutcase, despite his profession. Maybe he and Corey both were. But Angelo had gone so long harboring this secret alone. The idea that Corey and his supposed ability to feel out someone’s inner problems might be legit? Well, it was too big a temptation. Angelo had past wounds and internal angst like anybody else, so it would be interesting to see what Corey did or did not pick up from him during the massage. If he hit something on the money, then maybe Angelo could tell himself that his
own
weird ability was real, and not just in his head.

That’s why he’d come here today, he assured himself. The only reason.

His fingers paused before unzipping his jeans.
Shit, this is a bad idea.
Because there was the other reason too, the one he’d been battling with and resisting even as he’d made this appointment with Corey. It was like he was being lured toward the other man against his will, unable to help himself.

Am I gay now? Is that what’s going on here? Boom, I’m fucking gay, just like that?

It was a quagmire he’d been tangling with. Because he couldn’t stop thinking about Corey. And some of the thoughts he was having were unsettling. He’d been dreaming about Corey at night, and they were
not
the kind of dreams a straight guy should be having.

He thought about the things Tommy had said to Uncle Len, about how you don’t just suddenly
turn
gay. But when Angelo had gone to lunch with Len on Wednesday, his uncle had confided in him somewhat. It seemed Uncle Len had not
suddenly
turned gay. He’d known for many years. So that meant Angelo wasn’t gay, right? Because he’d
never
suspected he was, not in his entire life.

But you’ve never been in love
.

So what? Not everyone fell in love so easily. He thought he’d gotten close with Crystal, they certainly had a special bond. But whether it was due to how they met and their intense history, he didn’t know. Angelo understood the human mind, or so he thought. He knew about denial and sublimation of feelings, and he wasn’t trying to fool himself or repress anything. He just didn’t understand how he could instantly be so insanely fascinated with a man.

He also recognized his own resistance to it, though he didn’t try to analyze that too much. It was understandable he’d resist something that had come on so suddenly, something as foreign and unfamiliar as these feelings he was having. And he hadn’t
only
been resisting mentally. Yesterday morning he’d awoken from a dream about Corey with his cock so hard and ready he’d barely been able to resist the urge to beat off. But he hadn’t, opting for a cold shower instead. He’d been taking a lot of those.