Author: Kristbethke

**Today’s prompt: a diner after a Broadway audition. Enjoy!**

It had been a long, fucking day. Made to feel even longer by waiting for most of it, attempting to keep myself limber, while I watched group after group of dancers head in to audition. Waiting my turn. I’d been in one of the last groups to preform for the director and choreographer. This was both a good and bad thing. Waiting was terrible, and everyone was tired. Including the powers that be, the ones who made the decisions. But by then they also knew what they didn’t want, and they often grouped the better dancers toward the end of the day. I had a pretty good reputation, having just come off a successful two year run in the ensemble of Fiddler. This new show was supposed to be groundbreaking, and getting in on the first run would go a long way to prettying up my resume.

“I’m starving, Jj!” Leigh whined, slinging her dance bag over her shoulder, and putting on a huge pout. “Teddy and Marcus are too. Let’s go eat.”

“That diner on 45th?” I suggested picking up my own bag and looking at the other three. Teddy rolled his eyes, and Marcus’s got big.

“Are you sure you want to go there?” he asked.

Leigh rolled her eyes. “He always wants to go there. He’s likes staring at the big dude behind the counter.”

“I like it,” I protested mildly, “because the food is good and it’s usually pretty quiet in there.”

“And you like staring at the dude.”

I ignored Leigh and led the way out of the theater and into the cool night air. It was going on ten, but then temp was still pretty balmy. The city kept the heat in. So even though I was tired, I didn’t have a problem walking the three blocks over and two up to get to the diner. The moment I stepped inside, I felt better. Some nourishing carbs to build back up the calories I’d lost, and some eye candy to boot, while I ate with my friends. Because Leigh was right; I did like looking at the big man behind the counter.

He gave us a nod and a wave as we traipsed inside and headed for a booth in the corner. There were only a couple of other occupied tables, and the man made sure everyone else was doing fine before making his way to our table. He graced us with a grin.

“Waters all around?”

“Yes please,” I said with a smile. He smiled back.

“Seen you a lot lately,” he mentioned casually, passing around menus. His gaze kept straying back to me.

“I like the food.” I caught his gaze, made my smile a little bit wicked. “I wanted to bring my friends.”

“Just come from an audition?” He crossed to the counter and grabbed four glasses and a pitcher of water, and then came back.

Marcus was staring wide-eyed, and Leigh was practically gaping. I grinned. “How’d you know?”

The man shrugged, but his smile was adorable. “You have that hungry look that’s a combination of both actual hunger and metaphorical. Usually when it’s rehearsal, it’s just exhausted and physical hunger.”

I laughed, and the man grinned. He left us with the menus for a bit so that we could look over the menus, and I pointedly ignored my friends. When the man came back to take our orders, he made a point of talking to everyone else before focusing on me. I tried not to read too much into his smile as I ordered a patty melt. He wrote it down, but kept his gaze on me.

“My name’s Sam.”

“Jason. Everyone calls me Jj.”

Sam’s smile widened.  “Well, Jason. If you’re interested, maybe one day soon, you and I can get a meal together somewhere else.”

My heart pounded hard at the surge of adrenaline and arousal. I nodded, smiling. “Yeah. I’d like that.”

“Good.” Sam rapped his knuckles on the table. “I’ll get your order in.”

I watched him walk away, the grin growing until my face hurt. I didn’t even care that my friends were teasing me. Despite the long day full of tense waiting, the audition had gone well and now I had a date with a pretty man.

I was going to call that a win.

**Today’s prompt: an argument after a game. I had to think about exactly how I wanted to do this one. Enjoy!**

I slammed through the front door, anger seething in my gut, and dropped my equipment in the mudroom. Behind me, Henri entered more sedately. I caught his wince out of the corner of my eye when I threw my stick into the corner. I should be more careful, but I was too angry to care. I stomped into the kitchen, then yanked open the refrigerator door. The bottles clanked and clinked dangerously. I grabbed a beer off the lower shelf, slammed the door shut, then banged the bottle down on the counter to pry off the top.

“Please stop banging around.” Henri’s voice was quiet as he followed me into the kitchen, his words slightly accented from his formative years spent in Quebec.

I pointed a finger at him, scowling. “Don’t. Just don’t.”

His answering scowl was adorable, but I wouldn’t let his pretty face sway me from my anger. I had every right be pissed off and I wasn’t going to stop just because he was pleading with me with his big brown eyes.

“What would you have me do, Christopher?”

Always my full name. Never Chris like everyone else in the world. Not for Henri. Not since the moment we met when I joined the team and certainly not since my apartment building collapsed and I moved in with him because I needed a place to stay. And his voice, saying my full name, caused shivers to roll down my spine. But I was angry, dammit!

“I was wide open! Half the night, standing there with a hand on my ass, while you fucking refused to pass me the puck!”

Henri’s eyes blazed, color rising high on his cheeks, and he straightened to his full six two height. “Their defensemen were twice your size. And gunned for you every time you did have the puck.”

“I can handle myself on the ice!” I threw up my hands, slopping beer out of the bottle in my hand. I slammed it down on the counter and rounded on Henri again, pushing into his space. “It’s not up to you to make those kind of decisions. You play the game!”

He reached out, almost too fast for me to track, and he grabbed my shoulders. He pulled me in, right up against him, and then slid his hands into my hair, tilting my head back so he could look down into my eyes. “I will not have you hurt.”

The ferocity in his voice, the utter conviction, made me catch my breath. What the hell? His grip softened, turned into holding on instead of gripping, and I licked my lips, watching him. His exhalation was explosive.

“You got something to tell me, Henri?” I whispered.

For a long moment, he was silent. And I was sure, for just a second, that he was going to pull away. Then he sagged against me, and I held on, wrapping my arms around his waist. Henri slid his fingers into my hair.

“Yes,” he said with conviction. “I want us to stop pretending we don’t love each other, stop being roommates, stop sleeping in separate rooms. I want you to come to bed with me right now, and stay there all night. I want you to be mine, not just my friend who lives in my house.”

I swallowed hard. He was offering me everything I’d been craving for months, the thing I only dared to acknowledge to myself in the dead of night. I’d hoped, sure. We’d been dancing around each other since the beginning, and we’d fallen into an easy rhythm of cohabitation. But I didn’t allow myself to give it solid thought, because I couldn’t be entirely sure.

But now he was staring at me, his eyes full of warmth and affection, desire and need, and a little bit of worry. I knew he was speaking the absolute truth. Henri never minced words.

The longer I was silent, the more the worry replaced the lust, and I couldn’t allow that. Not when I wanted him so much.

I lifted up onto my toes, closed the few inches between us, and kissed him.

**This week’s prompt: a road trip and a discovery. Enjoy!**

“I got the snacks!”

I chuckled over Jake’s enthusiasm. He was more excited about the trip than I was, but he loved to drive, and three days on the open road as we transversed the country sounded like heaven to him.Me? I wasn’t quite as excited as my best friend, but his eagerness more than made up for it. I was only doing this for him anyway. His grandmother’s ninetieth birthday could not be missed, and Jake decided to turn it into a vacation. Three days to drive there, three days to hang out and celebrate, and three days back. I still wasn’t sure how he’d talked me into going with him, but Jake was persuasive in the best of times. When there was something he really wanted? I couldn’t even try to stand in his way.

“Get a move on!” Jake called over the top of his car. I laughed again, and pushed off from the door. I turned and locked it, and then jogged down the steps with my bag slung over my shoulder. Jake popped the trunk, and I dropped the bag inside, then slammed it shut. Jake winced.

“Careful with her, now.”

I refrained from pointing out that the car was actually an inanimate object, and didn’t have feelings. But Jake was overly attached to his car, and I knew it. I patted the trunk consolingly, then climbed into passenger side. Jake shot me a huge grin.

“Thanks for coming with me. It means a lot to me.”

“Of course, Jake.” He’d been my best friend ever since he and his mother moved in next to my family. We’d been barely old enough to walk. And the past thirty years we’d been inseparable. He wanted me to go, of course I would.

He was my world

He pulled out onto the street and pointed the car toward the highway. Thirty minutes later, we were cruising the interstate at only a slightly higher speed than the limit. Jake turned up the volume on his music, classic rock, and I settled back, letting his smooth baritone wash over me, as the rhythmic whir of the tires on pavement lulled me. I wasn’t asleep, for all that it was seven o’clock in the morning, but I was soothed by the whole thing.

We rode like that for hours, occasionally making conversation, or pointing out a bit of interesting landscape, but mostly riding in comfortable silence. Jake ate like a machine, and I passed over his snacks as he wanted, whatever he was hungry for. We passed the day like that, him behind the wheel, me helping him navigate. Which, when I thought about it, was pretty much how we lived our lives. Eventually, the sun had slunk below the horizon, and Jake’s eyes began to droop.

“Maybe we should stop for the night, huh? Get some dinner?”

Finding a hotel was easy, and they had plenty of rooms available. I went to reserve two, but Jake’s face fell and he bumped me with his hip. “No need to waste the money, yeah?”

I turned to the clerk. “One room with two queens please.”

Upstairs in our room, Jake investigated everything, and found a nearby restaurant in the little book on the bedside table. It looked good to me, so I agreed. Jake wanted a shower first and I turned on the TV to find something to watch while I waited for him to be ready.

“Can you grab my bag of stuff out of my bag?” he shouted.

I rolled my eyes, chuckling as I pushed off the bed. It was a good thing I’d long ago become fluent in Jake-speak. I put his bag on the bed, then unzipped the duffel and sifted through the content until I found his toiletries bag. I shoved aside t-shirts, and there at the bottom was the bag. As well as a rope bracelet. My heart started to pound. The piece of hemp was worn and frayed, but still whole. I’d given him that when we were eight, and I’d learned how to tie sliding knot.

Why did he still have it? And more importantly, why did he pack it in his bag? He wasn’t an overly sentimental guy. So why did he have this piece of our childhood and why was he carrying it with him.

“Hey!”

I startled, then took his bag into the bathroom, dropping it onto the closed toilet lid without look at him and heading back into the room. I told myself to put the bracelet back away and pretend I didn’t know about it, but I couldn’t stop staring.

I was still holding it in my hand when Jake emerged from the bathroom.

He caught sight of me and froze. Then he gave me a lopsided, nervous grin. “So. Uh. I see you discovered my secret.”

I shook my head, holding it up. “Jake? I… uh?”

He smiled. “I don’t go anywhere without it. That’s the moment I knew I…” He looked scared for a second. Then cleared his throat. “The moment I fell in love and lost my heart. To you.”

“You never said anything,” I whispered.

“How could I? But, you know, you have the proof of it in your hand so…” He blew out a breath. “Luke?”

I walked forward, and he sucked in a breath. When I was right in his space, took his hand in mind and slipped the bracelet onto wrist. It barely fit, even extended all the way. But I managed to get it on, and in the process, I felt like I marked him as mine. Just as I had all those years ago.

I grinned. He grinned back. And then I noticed what he was wearing. I rolled my eyes, and nudged him toward his bag. “Get dressed. I believe we have things to discuss.”

He sighed, and kissed my temple as he walked by. “I guess we do.”

 

**The prompt was simple this week: Tom bails Greg out of jail. Enjoy!**

Tom watched as Greg collected his belongings. Keys, phone, wallet, pink hat with the pointy ears. Greg made sure he took possession of each item before signing the form the booking sergeant held out. He signed a few more forms, and Tom stood by, not saying a word until Greg was finished. Then Greg walked toward Tom, and just as Greg opened his mouth, Tom turned and headed out of the precinct. He didn’t have to look to know Greg was following behind him.

Silently, they made their way down the long parking lot to the car. Without a word, Tom got into the driver’s side and stared straight ahead, waiting for Greg to get in as well.

“Tommy, I’m sorry.”

Tom blew out a breath, spared a glance at Greg, before he started the car and got into motion.

“I can’t not protest, Tommy.” Greg’s voice was low and urgent. “I have to keep speaking out. I can’t be quiet. We can’t be quiet. That’s the only way anything will change.”

“I know, Greg.” Tommy turned onto a quiet street, wending his way toward home. “And I love how vocal you are. How hard you fight. It’s one of the things I’ve always admired about you. And if I hadn’t been on shift, I would have been right there with you.”

“I know! So what is with you? I said I was sorry.”

“I’m not mad.”

A beat of silence. “Really?” Disbelief laced Greg’s voice. “Because you haven’t said a single word to me since I called you for bail.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t love getting up in the middle of the night to bail my husband out of jail.” Tom shook his head. He reached out and grabbed Greg’s hand, squeezing his fingers. “I get it babe. I do. Of course I wish you hadn’t gotten arrested. But I’m not mad. Because if you don’t speak up, then who will?”

The tension melted from Greg’s shoulders, and he exhaled heavily, settling back in the seat. Tom refocused on the road, but he kept glancing at his husband. The man was beautiful, if tired and disheveled. And the pink hat looked good with his dark hair.

“You’re going to keep speaking out, and I love you for that. You have a voice when so many others don’t. But honey? Please can you try not to get arrested again? Bail money aside, coming to get you, I worry what could happen and…” Tom’s gut clenched as his mind raced with all the possibilities.

“Yeah,” Greg said quickly, soothingly. “Of course. I’ll do my damnedest. And pretty soon? Pretty soon all this protesting, speaking out, constantly barraging them, they’ll learn. They’ll learn we aren’t going to get tired and give up. That we aren’t going to go away. We’ll make a difference.”

Tom nodded. He wanted exactly that. Though he didn’t have the unwavering faith his husband had, he still held onto hope.

Pulling into their driveway just as the sun lightened the sky, Tom wearily exited the car and pulled Greg in close when the man pushed into his space. Maybe not the most pleasant way Tom had ever spent the night. But it was worth it. Important. He wasn’t in the position to do it himself, but he loved Greg with all that he was. He would support the man in everything he did.

Even bailing him out of jail.

**A Valentine’s Day prompt this week! Evan thinks the box of sweets is from his work BFF to cheer him up after a recent breakup…but is it? Enjoy!**

Evan wasn’t really big on celebrating Valentine’s Day himself, but he enjoyed all the red and pink decorations, and he liked seeing couples in love. All that gave him hope that one day he would find the same. He’d take hope wherever he could find it these days. Since Christmas, since that moment when Lou had walked out, he’d had little hope.

Evan shook his head and resumed his walk. Sure, after the fact he’d realized how much better off he was without Lou. It hadn’t been as amazing as he thought it had. But it had taken it quite a while to get to this point, because he’d been certain Lou was it. His forever. And now he was thirty-seven and alone again.

That was more than a little depressing, and even more so when he thought about his age in conjunction. Evan knew from a young age he was the settling down type. In all his fantasies, he had imagined being settled long before now. But that hadn’t happened. Reality was different.

It had taken a lot of tears, soul searching, and one ritual burning, but he was okay now. Most of the time anyway. Evan pushed it all aside as he got to his corner cubicle. He had the office luncheon to look forward to later, and the quiet chatter that filled the floor seemed happy and upbeat. It was a good day, and Evan resolutely refused to let those morose thoughts ruin the mood.

The dark mood that threatened abruptly vanished when Evan got to his desk. Because right there in the center of his previously spotless desk was a red, heart shaped box. The satin bow was a nice touch.  No card, but Evan didn’t need one. He knew who the present was from. A grin stretched his mouth, and he lifted the lid to sample one of the smooth, milk chocolate confections inside. He gave a tiny moan as it melted on his tongue, then slid his jacket off and hung it up.

“Whatcha got there?” Joanie’s melodic voice sounded behind Evan, and he turned as his smile grew. He burst out laughing when he saw his work best friend wearing a headband with heart-topped antennae.

“Like you don’t know.” He leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Thanks, Joanie B. The chocolates made my day.”

She glanced at the desk, and then back up at Evan’s face. “I didn’t get them for you.”

“Yeah, right.” Evan chuckled as he sat.

“Evan.” Joanie stared right at him. “I’m telling you. I didn’t. I made the red velvet cupcakes you like for the potluck because I knew they would cheer you up. But the candy is not from me.”

Evan sat up straighter and really studied her. Joanie was the greatest friend, and he wouldn’t put it past her to do something exactly like this. She would think it was the best way to cheer him up. But Joanie also didn’t lie, and she was very serious. It took a second for everything to process. Just about the time Evan decided she was telling the truth was the moment Joanie figured out what was going on.

“There’s no card or note?” Joanie’s eyes lit up as he shook his head, and her voice dropped. “You have a secret admirer!”

Rolling his eyes, Evan shooed her away. “I don’t. Stop it. I’m sure there’s an explanation. I can’t be the only one who got one.”

Joanie opened her mouth but Evan shut it down with another firm dismissive motion.

“Go to work,” he told her.

She went.

***

It was three hours later when the heart antennae appeared over the top of the cubicle wall seconds before Joanie’s  beaming face.

“No one else got one. I checked. You have a secret admirer.”

“Go away,” Evan said, purposefully ignoring her sing-song voice. She frowned before she disappeared again.

Once she was gone, Evan let himself grin. Someone liked him enough to leave him chocolates. He wouldn’t go so far as to think he actually had a secret admirer. But it was nice to think of nonetheless.

The smile stayed on his face the rest of the day.

***

It was after six before Evan finally finished what he was working on and was able to pack up for the day. He went through the methodical process of shutting down his computers and putting away his things. He snapped off his desk lamp, and then stood to shrug on his jacket. His eyes fell on the now half empty heart.

That had really made his day.

After a moment’s debate, Evan decided he was taking the chocolates home. He’d been going to lock them in the drawer and have more again tomorrow. But he thought he’d rather have them this evening with a glass of wine, remembering the feeling he had when he saw them. He tucked them into his messenger bag, slung it over his shoulder, and headed out.

At the elevators, Evan ran into Lucas, one of the managers in a neighboring department. Evan admired Lucas’s confident, take charge attitude. He also enjoyed the way the man filled out a suit, and the bright smile he always gave Evan. Lucas was definitely the stuff Evan was happy to fantasize about.

The elevator arrived before they could do much more than exchange greetings. Lucas stepped back and allowed Evan to enter first, and Evan hit the button for the bottom floor. Lucas offered him a small smile, little more than a smirk.

“How did you enjoy your chocolate?”

Evan gave a tiny moan of happiness. “They are unbelievably good. I…wait. How did you know about that? Did Joanie ask everybody in the whole company?”

Lucas shook his head, and his grin grew heated. “No. But I was hoping you would enjoy them when I picked them out.”

Evan opened his mouth to speak, but he couldn’t manage to make a single sound. It’d been a gift from Lucas? How was that possible?

The elevator dinged, and Lucas stepped into Evan’s space, putting a hand on the small of his back and steering him out into the garage. Evan could smell Lucas, the hint of spice and fabric starch, and he nearly moaned at the heat the man was giving off.

“How about dinner? I have reservations. And I can tell you all about how I’ve been plotting this for weeks. Ever since I heard you were no longer with your boyfriend and I could see you were healing.” Lucas leaned down, and skimmed his nose against Evan’s cheek, making him shudder. “And you can tell me if you want to pursue this after dinner?”

Evan swallowed, smiled, and nodded. This was already turning out to be one of the most romantic Valentine’s Day Evan had ever had. And the promise in Lucas’s voice, and the heat in his eyes, assured Evan it was about to get even better.