Does it need more? Less?
Chapter 1
Ricky leaned on the buzzer at the door to
the apartment building. In this area around the university there were all kinds
of accommodation, some more secure than others. To someone delivering pizzas,
like Ricky did that summer vacation, it became a game to classify buildings
according to ease of access. There were the walk-ins, the Fort Knoxes, and then
buildings like this one with a sort of middling . You had to be buzzed in, but
probably the customer would be well off enough to give a good tip.
Ricky checked the slip and worked out
fifteen percent of the total. Come on
people, I need the tips.
He was on the point of poking the button
again when the line clicked open and a strong male voice said “Yeah?” Then the guy squealed like he’d been goosed
and said, “Brad, wait!” and then he giggled.
“Poifect Pizza,” Ricky said.
“Excellent! Come up, number 714,” the voice
said and the door buzzed.
All the way up to the seventh floor Ricky
pondered that giggle after the injunction to the unknown Brad “to wait”. It sounded like hanky, and possibly panky was
going on up there. Ricky was glad he didn’t have to shake hands with anyone.
Standing in front of number 714 in the long
corridor he shuffled his warming bag to have a hand free to knock. His hand was
still en route when the door opened. Light and sound spilled out, the smell of
wine and faintly, sandalwood.
The man who stood there knocked Ricky’s
breath out. He could go for weeks without seeing anyone whom he thought striking,
not that such high flown ideas kept him from having lascivious thoughts all the
time. But this guy hit all the right notes in Ricky’s personal hit list of
looks.
He was as tall as Ricky was, perhaps a mite
shorter. The right kissing height. And he was fair without being too blond. But
those were external things, really. What mattered was the vibe, the aura of the
man. If forced to put words to it he would
have said “sexiness”, but it comprised so much more. The intelligence in the hazel
eyes, the tilt of the lips which indicated good humor, and yes, sex
appeal.
“Hello Pizza Man,” the guy said. It was the
Wait-Brad guy, and he had his wallet in his hands. He also had no shirt on, and
his jeans, oh lord his jeans…the top button was open and the zipper a ways
down. Dark blond hair swooped down from the middle of his chest and disappeared
into tight whities. He clearly had an erection, which was going down even while
he was standing there, but not by much.
Ricky forced himself to look up, while
holding the warming bag in front of his own crotch.
Ricky opened his dry mouth to go into his
Poifect Pizza spiel, when another man appeared in the doorway. Tall, easily a
head taller than Ricky, dark and rangy. His piecing gaze focused on Ricky and
saw through him in one second. This must
be Brad, Ricky thought.
Bradley slid his arm around his lover, and
lay his hand on his stomach, fingers spread and almost dipping into the
underwear. He looked Ricky in the eyes and then he pulled back his ears. Like a
wolf, or a cat. Even if he had used words he could not have said Mine with more of snarl.
As Ricky fumbled the pizza from its warmer,
and held it out with one hand, while taking the money from the sexy guy with
the other.
‘’Keep the change, dude,’’ he said, smiled,
and stepped backwards to close the door. Brad also stepped back, and the last
thing Ricky saw were Bradley’s dark eyes, still flashing their warning.
Then the door closed. Ricky stood there for
several seconds. What the hell just
happened?
* *
* *
“People can’t pull their ears back!” Anica
said. It was the next day and Ricky and two of his girl friends were having
lunch. “I’m sure you’re exaggerating,” she laughed, and popped a fry in her
mouth.
‘’I swear he did,” Ricky protested. “I’ve
tried but it’s like there are no muscles to my ears.”
‘’I’ve seen someone do it once,’’ his other
friend, Lauren, said. “My old roommate’s boyfriend’s cousin could do it.’’ She
stopped and an expression of effort crossed her pretty face. Eventually her one
eyebrow lifted a few millimeters.
‘’No can do.’’
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