Page 46 of Not Another Dark Romance

What bet did he lose this time?

Grant

Booo. You never hang out anymore.

Grant

He thought I couldn’t be silent for a full hour at work today.

Zane

Sounds like you both won.

Zane

And I see you almost every day

Grant

While we’re working barely counts.

Eric

I like the way you think. Except now he’s almost more insufferable since he did it

Zane

Fine, we’ll plan something soon but not tonight. I’m already in bed and there’s no way I’m leaving it.

“You should go hang out with your friends,” Mason encourages, obviously reading the conversation over my shoulder, but I don’t care.

I shrug. “Nah, I’d rather hang out with you.”

“Oh,” Mason breathes, sounding surprised by my answer. He pushes his glasses higher up on his nose as he looks at my phone again, completely unashamed of his snooping. “Your friends seem cool, though. They’re the ones you grew up with, right?”

“Yeah, they’re the best. What about you? Why has no one been blowing up your phone?”

He shrugs, focusing on his pizza. “I think I mentioned that I didn’t exactly fit in growing up. I have some friends from college that I get along with well, but most of us ended up in different cities after graduation, and we go months without reaching out. There’s a few people I know in town, mostly through the art fairs. I used to go out with them for dinner or drinks, but in the last year or so they’ve all ended up in new relationships, and I haven’t seen any of them in a while…”

He trails off and puts down his food to rest his head on my shoulder. No wonder he’s so eager to spend time with me. His admission only makes me want to make his time here even more enjoyable. It’s hard for me to imagine not having Grant and Eric so involved in my life, but it’s also difficult for me to wrap my head around Mason being so alone. He’s such an interesting person, and I’m so drawn to him that I can’t imagine other people not having the same desire to be around him as I do.

We don’t talk much after that, just casually touching and cuddling with each other. Mason ends up falling asleep before the movie’s over. As I drift off, Mason’s smiling face is all I see when I close my eyes. How happy he was when he said I’d gotten him a TV. I want to make him happy like that again. As often as I possibly can.

“Hey, Zane, are you ready to go?” Grant calls out from his office. I worked the early shift at the restaurant today and came over to the brewery after to help them out. The Halloween party launch is coming together well but trying to be budget-conscious for an event like that is difficult. We’re also trying to make sure we have enough staff hired and working by then, so we’ve all been going through applications.

I look at the stack of résumés in front of me that were all rejected, and I know that more effort tonight is useless, so I shout back, “Yeah, we can go whenever!”

He walks up, already behind me. “Thanks again for driving me home today. I knew I’d need a new battery soon, but I haven’t had the time or motivation to spend the money on a new one.”

“No worries, man.” I shrug. Eric drove him this morning but left like an hour ago, so I volunteered.

We talk about some of the more ridiculous applications we’ve come across as we get into my car, and I turn it on as I’m describing one that was left almost entirely blank. “Like, did they think the rest of the questions were optiona⁠—”

“Look at your tight little hole squeezing around my thick cock like you were made for me to fuck you,” blares throughout the car as my Bluetooth connects to my phone, resuming the audiobook I’d been listening to on the way to work.

“Fuck!” I yell, only partially drowning out the response of “Just wait until your cum is dripping out of my ass, sir,” as the book continues to play while I scramble to pull my phone out of my pocket.

My face feels like it’s on fire when I’m finally able to pause the audio, and I stare straight ahead, unable to face Grant.