Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 127213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 636(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 424(@300wpm)
“Reminds me of that weekend away we had. The sky was also clear, and the stars so bright. I know you’re a city boy, but I hope you really did enjoy yourself.”
Being paid to enjoy himself was a part of every single encounter Ezra had with Frank over their first year, and the weekend getaway had been amazing too. Not a single moment of those two days had felt like being at work.
No wonder Ezra had gotten so attached to Frank he sometimes forgot that he was in fact imprisoned by the beast prowling beyond the junkyard.
“I loved it being just the two of us,” he confessed. “And I hope you forget my meltdown.”
Frank chuckled. “Never. It was so cute. I felt like a hero by the time I got you to a drugstore.”
“And even there they didn’t have wheatgrass,” Ezra mumbled before poking Frank with his elbow. “God, this is gonna haunt us forever, won’t it?”
“It will, but it’s okay. You’re allowed to want all the weird-ass health things you want as long as you don’t make me use charcoal toothpaste. Aaaand, here we are.”
When Frank stopped the truck, for a moment Ezra wasn’t sure what he was looking at, but the outline of a boat was clear against the glowing sky. Longer than three sedans standing in a row, it sat atop a pile of other junk, but when Frank clicked something on his phone, colorful fairy lights attached all around the railing lit up the night, transforming the disused vessel into a fairground ride.
“Ta-dah!” Frank said, pointing to it and already opening his door. “I know you wanted to be on a yacht in California, so I figured you might enjoy a tiny piece of the experience here.”
Ezra sank into the seat under the weight of all the joyful thoughts popping up in his head, and he squeezed Frank’s thigh harder as his mind transformed the boat into an expensive vessel floating somewhere off the coast of Italy.
Robert, the film producer, claimed to have one in the Mediterranean. While handsome enough, even his brief time with Ezra had made it clear how much the man loved to talk, mostly about himself. Which was fair enough. Paid for his time, Ezra might fuck or nod to whatever nonsense was being said—it was all the same to him—but neither of those was relaxing.
But Frank listened to what Ezra had to say and instead of planning a date according to his own taste, he made the effort to give Ezra a bit of magic.
Frank laughed and pushed at Ezra’s chin to close his mouth. “Come on, let’s see how it fares in the open waters.”
“You did all this? By yourself?” Ezra asked, sliding out of the truck and approaching the boat lit up with several strings of small LEDs. A part of him wanted to head straight for the surprise, but his legs carried him to Frank first, so he pushed into his warm arms.
“Yeah. I’m good at DIY stuff, it was easy. You’ve been through a lot and I wanted you to forget it all for one night.” Frank hugged him and kissed the top of his head.
Even on this autumnal night, his presence kept Ezra warm, and he smiled, rubbing his face against Frank’s pec as he breathed in the scent of security.
It was so much easier to throw money at someone, to have an exquisite experience prepared by someone else, than get one’s hands dirty. But Frank’s were lovely, despite the calluses, the roughness, and scars. Ezra pressed one of them to his lips. When he looked up, Frank’s eyes were bright like the moon above.
When Frank gently urged him forward, Ezra pulled back.
“Wait, I’ll get the snacks.”
With the bag of food in hand, he followed Frank up the slope.
“People dump the weirdest shit, you know. This boat has several holes in its hull, but it’s actually fine otherwise. After you.” Frank smiled and pointed to the ladder attached to the side of the boat.
“Oh, thank you, Captain,” Ezra said in an overly polite voice and offered Frank his hand. Electricity sparked when their skin met, and he climbed the rungs at a languid pace, as was appropriate for an elegant gentleman from a bygone era. The breeze combed his hair, bringing with it the scent of the woods around the junkyard. There was something about this moment that connected him to the sky above, reaching way beyond where his eyes could see, but then Frank joined him on the deck, and his arms brought Ezra right back to reality.
Frank must have also taken into account Ezra’s need for cleanliness, because the railings had been polished, and the wood of the deck, while worn, wasn’t covered in dirt.
Frank hugged him with one arm as he fiddled with something on his phone, and moments later, the sound of waves crashing against a beach came from someplace close.