Chapter Twelve

Galen

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When I pulled up in front of Blaze’s steps he looked incredible, and nervous. He’d put on a black button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up enough that the bottom part of his tattoo was visible, a pair of painted on light wash jeans and a leather arm cuff I hadn’t seen him wear before.

As he came around the car he ran his hand through his hair, and for some reason that move made my dick twitch in appreciation.

I’d never been a ‘hair’ guy before. When it came to women I really didn’t have a preference for length or color, as long as it suited them then I’d found it attractive. I’d never really noticed guys’ hair before, and never really thought about long hair on a man being sexy, but on Blaze it was hot as fuck.

With his slightly rugged good looks and very masculine body, it didn’t add any femininity to his appearance. If anything, it made him stand out and let his personality shine.

“Hey.” He slid into the car and glanced at me.

“Hey.” I leaned over the center console and was happy when Blaze leaned into my kiss. “You okay?”

“It’s stupid.” He shook his head as I started the car.

“I’m sure it isn’t. Try me.”

“I’ve never been on a date before.”

“Really?” I glanced over at him as I left the lot and pulled onto the street. “Never?”

“Nope. Back when I was at home I had a girlfriend, but we weren’t allowed to date. Basically we hung around with a bunch of other church kids holding hands, and we were never allowed to be alone together or go anywhere we could be exposed to ungodly behavior.”

“You’re shitting me.”

“I wish. It made it easy to fake being interested in her, but it didn’t exactly teach me what dating was really like.”

“What about in the last few years?” I asked, remembering to specify so he wouldn’t think I was asking about his time on the street. He’d already told me he hadn’t been interested in dating or sex then.

“No. I mean, I met guys while I was out, or met up with them, but there was never a date.”

“You basically met up to sleep together?”

“Yeah, as slutty as that makes me sound.”

“You’re talking to the guy who used to order his dates online and pay for sex. Trust me, slutty is way better than that.”

Blaze chuckled and glanced over at me.

“So you don’t think I’m ridiculous.”

“Not at all. Although I kinda wish I’d known.”

“So you wouldn’t have to bother taking me out?”

“So I could have planned something better.” I looked over at him and saw he was chewing his lower lip. “Careful. I intend to have those lips all over my body after our date,” I said softly as I reached over and gently freed his lip from his teeth.

“Sorry, I don’t know why I’m freaking out, and you don’t need to do anything special for me.”

“You’re right, I don’t. But I want to.” I dropped my hand onto his knee and was glad when he immediately covered it with his. “I want you to feel special. You’re worth the effort, and I told you this isn’t just fucking.”

“Is it just me, or has this moved out of casual dating?” he asked softly as he squeezed my hand.

“It has, but I don’t know what to call it.” I sighed and flipped my signal on so I could take a right turn, not moving my hand off his knee.

“Why label it? Why not just call it dating and leave it at that. You don’t have to think of me as your boyfriend or anything.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him I wanted to think of him as my boyfriend, but I bit it back. I was still conflicted about what I was feeling.

I liked Blaze, a lot, and it wasn’t just the sex. He might have opened my eyes to pleasure I’d never known existed, but there was so much more to him than that. I enjoyed talking with him, spending time with him, and I thought about him constantly.

When I was at home or at work, at the gym or in my car. It didn’t matter where I was, my thoughts would drift to him more often than not.

I had more affection for Blaze than all the other people in my life to this point combined, and that scared the shit out of me.

“I guess that’s probably the easiest way to do it.” I nodded and squeezed his knee before removing my hand so I could take a left turn. “We’re dating.”

“Exactly. As long as we’re happy with what we have, fuck labels.”

I chuckled and nodded in agreement.

“So, can I ask where you’re taking me for my first real date?” he asked, a teasing lilt in his voice.

“You’ll see.”

“Fine.” He gave me an exaggerated pout before looking out the window.

It didn’t take long to get to our destination, and when we’d parked and gotten out of the car, Blaze looked at the building and then at me.

“An escape room?” He grinned. “I’ve heard of these.”

“We’re a bit early, but I managed to get us a spot since it’s in their off time. You like it?”

“I do. But, I have to warn you, I don’t think my GED is going to go far when it comes to figuring this puzzle shit out.”

“Don’t sell yourself short.” I nodded for him to follow me in. “You don’t have to be educated to be smart.”

“Says the guy with a law degree.” He rolled his eyes playfully and followed me in.

When we were inside we found ourselves in a reception area of sorts, only it looked like an old library — it even had floor-to-ceiling bookshelves crammed with leather volumes and sconces on the wall.

“Hi, reservation under Wells,” I said to the young man sitting behind a huge mahogany desk. The only modern thing in the whole room was the tablet and laptop in front of him.

“Welcome to Escapers’ Haven.” He smiled and picked up the tablet. After pushing a few icons and entering in some information, he handed it to me. “You can use this to look at our rooms, and when you see the one you want, click on it and bring the tablet back.”

“Thank you.”

Blaze and I headed over to the seating area filled with overstuffed leather furniture and sank down on the sofa.

As I scrolled through the rooms I was impressed by how different they were.

“What do you think? Any of these sound interesting?” I asked after we’d scrolled through all of them.

“I kind of like the apocalypse one, and the haunted house one seems cool too.”

“You like horror movies, I take it?”

“I don’t mind them. I just like the adrenaline rush from getting scared.”

“As long as you don’t judge me for squealing if a fake ghost pops out at me, then I’m good with the haunted house one. Zombies are a little too bloody for me.”

“This is definitely a judgment free zone.” He grinned.

“Alright, haunted house it is.” I clicked on the icon and waited as the request was processed. When the tablet told me to bring it back up to the counter, I did.

“Okay, that room is currently free so you can go in right away if you’d like,” the man at the desk said when he took the tablet back. “First rule is all phones or other devices must be locked up in one of our secure lockers. You’ll take the key with you and it will never be out of my sight until you get out.”

Blaze and I pulled our phones out of our pockets and handed them over. The man locked them up in a rack of small lockers behind him and handed me the key.

“Now, when you’re in there, there will be no help at all from any actors you might see. They’re there to give you clues, so don’t bother trying to get answers out of them. You can use anything in the room, but be mindful of the props. Nothing useful will be difficult to acquire, so if something is stuck, please don’t break it.

“You’ll have exactly sixty minutes from the time the door closes to finish all the clues and get out of the room. If you need help for any sort of medical emergency or you’re feeling overwhelmed or unwell, call out ‘no chill’ and we’ll get the doors open and help to you as soon as we can. Any questions?”

“What’s the success rate?” I had to ask. My competitive side was starting to come out and we hadn’t even started.

“For this room? It’s about fifteen percent.”

I glanced at Blaze and saw he was grinning. “Think we can be one of those fifteen percent?”

“Sure, why not.”

“So enthusiastic.” I laughed and turned back to the man behind the desk. “I think we’re good.”

“Okay. It’s room 13. Go up the stairs and it’s down the hall on the left.”

I looked around. We were in a single room. There were no stairs.

I saw the man push a button on his desk out of the corner of my eye and suddenly one of the bookshelves swung away from the wall, revealing a circular staircase.

“Ready?” I glanced over at Blaze and he nodded, his grin still on his face.

We made our way up the stairs, and I almost jumped when the false door swung shut behind us. The hallway was dark, but there were four doors, and the second one on the left had a 13 on it. Just as we reached it there was an audible clicking, like a lock being disengaged, and then the door swung open.

“Ready?” I asked Blaze as we looked into the dark room.

“Oh yeah.” He gripped my hand for a second, giving it a reassuring squeeze, and then we headed into the room.

* * * * *

“Holy shit. That was something else.” Blaze pushed his hair back off his face, his grin as big as mine felt. “Damn, you plan good dates.”

We hadn’t managed to escape the room, but we’d gotten close.

The clues had been a mix of puzzles, brain teasers and physical obstacles, and while they’d been hard, they’d played off both of our strengths. Blaze was really good at brain teasers, and I was pretty decent with puzzles. We were both fit so the physical aspect had been easy.

The best part had been working together on the clues, and Blaze hadn’t laughed once when I’d jumped or squealed when something seemed to come out of nowhere at me.

At one point in the room we’d been searching around a mirror for some sort of switch to open a hidden compartment. I’d been so intent on the switch that I hadn’t noticed the mirror had effects in it until I’d looked up to see what looked like a translucent woman in a long white dress standing right behind me. I’d shrieked and jumped into Blaze’s arms like a startled kitten, and he’d just given me a tight hug and turned me away from the mirror. I’d let him go pretty quick, more than a little embarrassed by my reaction, but he’d just winked and pointed to a spot under the mirror before reaching down to flick the switch.

“Yeah, that was something.” I absentmindedly reached for his hand as we left the building. I’d paid in advance so we didn’t have to bother with the bill.

“Ever done one before?” he asked, gripping my hand a little tighter as I steered him down the street.

“I pitched it to the firm as a team building thing so we wouldn’t have to go on another tedious cabin day.”

“Cabin day?”

“Where the entire staff gets together and goes to a cabin for the day. They arrange games and stuff for us, like camp. It’s supposed to build teamwork.”

“That sounds awful.”

“It is. I hated camp when I was a kid, going as an adult is hell.”

“And they didn’t want to branch out and try something different?”

“Nope. I’ve suggested paintball, the escape rooms, even laser tag, but most of the firm is over forty so they don’t have the same sense of adventure apparently.”

“You know, I never asked your age.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“Are you going to tell me?”

“If you guess.”

“Okay, I’ll play that game.” He looked me up and down. “Thirty-three?”

“Close.”

“Higher or lower?”

“Not telling.”

“Thirty-one?”

“Not bad.” I glanced at him. “And by my math, you’re twenty-three?”

“You got it. So is this a May/December thing?”

“I’d like to think we’d need a bigger age difference for that.” I laughed. “I’m not that old.”

“You’re eight years older than me,” he pointed out teasingly. “You’re practically an old man.”

“Shut up.” I bumped him with my shoulder, causing him to laugh. “I’m going to forget you ever said that.”

“So, where are we going?” he asked as he looked down the street.

“You’ll see. It’s only a few blocks away.”

Walking hand-in-hand with Blaze felt nice. It was true that most of the people we passed looked twice at us, but there was no outright hostility. I liked feeling connected to him, and showing him that I wasn’t trying to hide him away like I suspected he feared.

“Food trucks?” Blaze grinned when we turned the final corner.

“You’ve never been down here? They have trucks here every night. In the summer they have a few festivals where they bring in trucks from other cities.”

“I never knew about this.”

“Well I’m glad I could introduce you to something new.” I leaned over and kissed his cheek. “What are you in the mood for?”

“Can we walk down the street and see what’s here?”

“Of course.”

After walking up and down the street twice we decided to get a little bit of everything. After loading our arms down with sweet potato fries, a lamb burger piled high with Greek fixings, a grilled cheese and bacon sandwich, an order of lobster mac and cheese, funnel cake, and exotic fruit smoothies we found an empty table and spread out our food.

“I’m glad I went for a run today,” Blaze mused as he took a bite of the mac and cheese. “Oh my god that’s good.”

“You like to run?” I snagged a few of the fries and dipped them in the spicy mayo they’d given us. “It’s something I should get into, I just find it tedious.”

“I’m getting back into it.” He picked up the plastic knife we’d managed to hunt down and carefully cut the burger and sandwich in half.

“Oh?” I could tell there was more to the story but didn’t want to push.

“I used to run a lot, but about six months ago I went out a bit later than usual. I was almost done my route when these teenagers jumped me. I never carried money on me so they kicked the shit out of me and left me on the ground. I don’t know if they knew I was gay or were just throwing slurs out, but they called me every name they could think of as they beat me.”

“What happened to them?”

“Nothing.”

“Did you report them?”

“Yup.” He bit his lip and grabbed a few fries. “A bunch of cars drove by while I was on the ground getting my ass kicked and the cops showed up. The sirens spooked them and they took off. I gave them my statement and did everything I was supposed to do, but it never went anywhere. I didn’t hear back from the police so a few months later Evan convinced me to call them and find out what was going on with my file. It had been closed within a week. They didn’t even bother to look.”

“So that’s why you don’t like cops.”

“They hassled me when I was on the streets but didn’t care enough to help me. They didn’t give a fuck when I’d gotten my ass handed to me by a bunch of kids, and they keep harassing me now that I’m living straight, so to speak.”

“Is that the only time you’ve been messed with?” I asked carefully.

“I spent six years living that life. Most of the time I could make enough to stay in a motel, but there were times I had to sleep outside or in a men’s shelter. I got in more fights than I can count, and most didn’t go my way. It’s a tough life and you gotta be tough to survive.”

I could tell it was hard for him to rehash all of this, but I liked that he trusted me enough to tell me. Instead of saying anything else I handed him half the burger.

“So, good date?” I asked after he’d taken a big bite.

“Oh yeah. The best I’ve ever been on.” He winked and then ducked as I tossed a napkin at him. “But seriously, thank you. This has been one of the best nights I’ve ever had.”

“Me too.”

We finished our food and then picked up an order of deep fried ice cream to share, just because. When we were done we walked into the shopping district.

Again, I didn’t even think twice as I reached out for his hand. Since we were in a pretty crowded area not all the looks we got were friendly, but no one bothered us. Since we were feeling a little stuffed we decided to go for a bit of a walk, and it was nice to just talk and joke with him as we window shopped and wandered around.

By the time we’d walked back to the car I was feeling a little conflicted. I’d had more fun tonight than I’d ever had, and I felt something for Blaze I’d never felt for anyone. I didn’t know if that meant I was falling for him, but I couldn’t deny there was something very real between us. The big question was if I could embrace it instead of pushing it away like my instincts were telling me to.