Chapter 4: Chapter 4

And he’d never felt better in his life.

They lay side-by-side, backs on the mattress and listened to the sounds of the hotel—the ping of the a/c, the clumps of footsteps down the hallway, the drone of the traffic. They rested without speaking and drank in the aftermath of sex.

* * * *

“I could stay,” Arik said, awkwardly dragging fingers through his hair and standing at the doorway of Blaze’s room.

Blaze smiled. “Why don’t you just tell me your name?”

“Oh!” Arik said, eyes wide. “Jesus! Blaze, I don’t…I mean…holy shit! You must think I’m some kind of asshole! Arik, my name is Arik. With an ‘A’. I don’t know why. My mom…she liked it and there’s a story, but…”

“Arik,” Blaze parroted. “I like it. Very nice. It suits you.”

Arik shook his head and laughed, embarrassed. “Thanks. Blaze your real name?” Blaze nodded, and Arik lifted his hand to tug a red curl at the side of Blaze’s neck. “Suits you, too.”