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HE WALKED IN AND SURVEYED the room until his eyes settled on Eli. He could barely make him out in the dim room with its tall, narrow window, muted colors, and lights off.
“Bo?” Eli sounded uncertain, as though he was balancing upon a sharp edge between mortal embarrassment and utter delight.
“Hey, man.” Bo came to the foot of his bed. It was one of those high-tech numbers on wheels, with control panels built into the sides. He’d been aching to get to Eli ever since the accident, but now that he was here, he was as tongue-tied as on his worst day at work. From the look of it, Eli didn’t fare any better.
A young nurse bustled in with just a brief knock on the door frame. “Oh, sorry honey, I didn’t realize you had yourself a visitor,” she said, glancing at Bo before she smiled at Eli so wide, her even teeth glistened against her mocha skin. “I just wanted to drop off these forms with you, okay? Now fill these out, yo, so we know where to send that home care aid of yours tomorrow.” She set a sheaf of papers on the wheeled table to his left. It was clipped together with a pen. “I’ll need these by dinner, sweetheart.” She beamed at him like he was her favorite kitten. “Okay?”
“Yeah, thanks.” Eli did his best to return her cheer, but as soon as she was gone, his look soured as he regarded the pile of paper that awaited him.
“I can go,” Bo offered. “If you want some quiet time to do the paperwork, y’know, without me hovering...”
“No!” Eli whirled, toward him, then hissed in pain. “Shouldn’t move so fast, dammit.” He adjusted his bed to sit all the way up. His left leg was still under the light blanket and Eli wiggled and winced for a bit before casting an imploring look at him. “Could I ask you to help me with this? I don’t wanna call the nurse again.”
“Sure!” The assent was out of Bo’s mouth before he even thought about it. “What do you need?”
“I got to stuff that extra pillow under my left leg, but I can’t use the muscles to bend it yet.”
Bo strode to Eli’s left side. “Now what?”
“Now this.” Eli kicked the blanket and the sheet off with his good leg. Bo took note of his short, thin hospital gown and the heavy bandages on his left thigh. He wanted to have a meltdown. The blood, all that blood. And Eli passing out, and the paramedics bustling and pushing him away, and him being unable to even ask to go to the hospital with Eli, because there were accident forms to fill out.
Oblivious to his turmoil, Eli scrunched his face up in a look of intense focus. “If you can lift my knee up, I can stuff the pillow under it.”
Instead of stooping over him, Bo dropped to one knee. Gingerly, keeping his fingers supple and sensitive, he slid his hands between the smooth sheet and Eli’s knee. Eli’s soft skin contrasted with the texture of the clean, loosely woven wound dressing. The bandage was cool compared to Eli’s tender, warm skin.
Bo pressed up. Eli gasped.
“Did I hurt you?” Bo was ready to back off.
“Feels good,” Eli mumbled, and when Bo glanced at him, he noticed a flush cover his cheeks.
“It does,” Bo said, whispering. “I wish I could kiss the back of your knee right now.” Their eyes met. “Maybe lick it, even. Or suck on it.”
“Bo!” The outraged complaint was at odds with the grin Eli was trying to bite back as his hospital gown began to tent at his groin.
“Gimme the pillow, I’ll do it,” Bo said. He got Eli nicely settled in, with his leg slightly elevated, but he had no desire to cover him up. Instead, he examined the leg that was busy healing under all that high-tech cloth. “So what happened?”
Eli averted his eyes. “I’ve been an idiot, is what happened. I just got so fascinated by the sun on the damn cullet pile, y’know?”
Bo nodded. He remembered his own close calls. Everyone fell in love with the internal shimmers in the chunks of irregular, jagged glass. The old-timers were smart enough to put the coveted piece through the lehr before they brought it home. Bo hadn’t done that the first time he’d brought lovely rocks to decorate his mother’s herb garden. The hot and cold of the sun and the nighttime dew nudged the cullet into yielding to its internal pressures, and Bo had to spend weeks picking glass shards out of her soil, bit by bit. “Everybody loves the look of it,” he said instead in a soothing voice. “Y’mind if I sit down? It’s been a long day.”
“Sorry. Sit anywhere.” Eli looked at him hopefully. “Please.”
Bo was going to ask who else came to visit, but figured it might sound nosy. Or possessive. Or, in all likelihood, he was the first and only one with Eli new in town, and Eli had been in this lonely room by himself all along.
Eli had told him to sit anywhere. Bo surveyed the room again, taking in the customary arranged vase of mixed flowers Millie always sent out for special occasions, from births to birthdays to bereavement.
He could be more personal than that. A lot more personal. He circled to Eli’s right. “Bend your leg,” he said.
Eli did.
Bo sat down, grasped Eli’s foot, and put his healthy leg across his lap. He then turned sideways to see Eli better.
“You look like the cerium pink we were making today,” he commented, smiling. “All flushed.”
Eli wiggled ineffectually, but remained silent.
“Are you comfortable?”
“Yeah.” Eli’s cerium-pink complexion deepened into the fuchsia tones of Bohemia Red. Or rather, the rarely requested batch that required adding milled gold as a colorant. Why colloidal gold turned glass red was a mystery to Bo. Eli might know, though. And Eli was worth all the gold in a whole big batch of Bohemia Red. In fact, next time they were melting Bohemia Red, Bo could blow a nice vase for Eli’s office, and...
“I need to thank you,” Eli said, interrupting Bo’s jumbled thoughts. “You saved my life. You... I would have bled out, had it not been for you. And for acting fast and smart.” Eli ran out of words and looked up at Bo from under his generous eyelashes. Sincere, warm brown eyes added sweetness to his sheepish expression.
“I... uh...” Bo sure didn’t expect any official thanks. “Glass is a physical job, y’know. Shit happens. I’d have done the same for anyone.” Fuck. Now he pigeon-holed Eli with the unwashed masses. He didn’t mean to do that.
“I know,” Eli said, his eyes bright and earnest. “And that’s what’s so special about you. That’s just how you are. Nice. You are nice. And generous.”
Bo’s heart sank the slightest bit. He hesitated. Breaking the bad news to Eli was the right thing to do – but that didn’t make it any more fun. “Eli.” He stopped, swallowed dry, then started again. “Eli, maybe this wasn’t just a freak accident.”
“Whaddaya mean?”
“Remember when you stood by the cullet pile? Doing that pose you did?”
Eli nodded, not saying anything. He looked mortified.
“I came up the loading dock, and I saw you, but I also saw a guy with a gun point your way and shoot.”
“A gun?” Eli frowned, as though his personal embarrassment just flew out the window.
“A BB gun,” Bo corrected. “It was hard to see, I saw just his shape, but I know the sound. We all played with ‘em when I was a kid.”
“I did hear something, but it’s hard to tell what,” Eli said. “It felt like the glass was singing. Sounds dumb, I know...”
“No, I know what you mean. You heard the glass crack on the inside. That’s normal. Just... it doesn’t usually just blow. That’s pretty rare. I think that guy aimed at the pile to make it blow.”
“Shit.” Eli paled. “Y’mean someone’s after me?”
“No, I mean someone might have been dumb and decided to freak you out.” Bo frowned. “I don’t see why anyone would be after you.”
“Uh, ‘cause I’m gay?”
Bo didn’t reply. It was a possibility he himself had brought up, and which LeRoy had echoed. Razzing the newbie and hazing him was one thing, but making cullet blow was a lot more personal. Their stupid initiation games never got as far as that. Usually they just had the guy go to the office with stupid questions, or asked him to find a piece of equipment that didn’t exist. Harmless stuff, at least when compared to shooting at cullet and making it explode.
Eli reached for Bo’s hand and squeezed. “You’re really nice to visit.”
“Of course I’d visit.” His resolve not to get involved had been well and truly out the window when he’d seen Eli’s graceful silhouette outlined against the shimmering pile of cullet. Deep inside, Bo knew a thought of anything more than a hook-up should have sent him screaming for the hills. It didn’t. He’d have to think about why, but he’d do his thinking later. Bo filed the nagging concern away and tuned in to what Eli was saying.
“And I like nice guys,” Eli continued in a blithe, burbling stream of words. Fresh, irregular like a brook tumbling down the rocks on a mountainside. “I have it bad for the bad boys, of course, which got me in trouble before, but you have the bad boy in spades when you’re on stage. Or at work, not talking to people and being all grim and serious. But when we’re alone...” he let his words hang.
Bo waited. When they were alone, then what? He cleared his throat. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” Eli said, as though the answer was obvious. “I was telling my dad there’s this guy I really like. Except I was worried you’d think it was just one of those psychological hang-ups, on account of you saving my life and all.”
Like the Stockholm syndrome? Somehow, Bo didn’t think that was the right name for it. He’d have to look it up later. “So... “ Bo wanted to ask Eli whether he liked him. He wanted to say he liked him back.
He couldn’t. Not yet. This could still blow up in his face like that thing with whats-her-name from accounting.
Their heads were just a foot apart. “So...” Eli echoed on an exhale, moist lips parted, want in his eyes.
“I wanna kiss it all better,” Bo whispered and leaned in. Eli met him halfway. Their lips brushed, skin catching against skin, Eli’s hospital-grown bristle scratching Bo’s five o’clock shadow. They leaned into each other and Bo felt Eli’s leg tighten around him along with his arms. Warm lips. Slick tongues dancing, entwining. Lungs burning – Bo broke the kiss and drew a breath of fresh air. He drew Eli as close to him as Eli’s body allowed. “Baby,” Bo crooned into his hair, all messy and brown, the strands of which were getting into his nose, his eyes. “I’m so relieved you’re all right.”
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HE’D CALLED HIM ‘BABY.’ The small, gay dancer part of Eli threatened to rebel against that, because he was a grown man and being called anything remotely diminutive or chicky reeked of likening him to someone small, ineffectual, or incompetent. Yet the other part of him – the hidden, secret part Eli himself didn’t know very well – gave a satisfied purr.
Bo cared.
Matt and Jeff were good for a night – or five – of hedonistic pleasure, and they had sort-of cared. When it suited them. Bo was here right now, breathing into his hair, stroking his back, and calling him ‘baby.’ He wallowed in the warmth of it, choosing to dampen the outcry of his masculine ego.
“I’m relieved I’m all right, too.” Eli inhaled, relishing in the smell of Bo. “Don’t worry, I heal fast.” The sweat Bo had earned by the furnace was already dry on his skin, and even his shirt wasn’t damp anymore. He still smelled like the dusty heat of the hot floor and the warm, delicious musk that Eli knew had accumulated in his armpits over the course of the day.
Sexy man-smell. He wanted to lick it and he wanted it right now. Eli buried his face between Bo’s chest and his arm, as close to the source as his current position permitted. His bum leg was secure on its pillow, true, and it ached if he tried to move it, but the rest of him hummed with excitement at Bo’s presence.
Sprawled open under his hospital gown, his leg wrapped around Bo, he felt the cool air caress his most private place. All Bo had to do was reach under. He stirred.
“Hmm? You okay?” Of course Bo would worry about that.
“More than,” Eli whispered. “I don’t know if this is weird, but you really turn me on.”
Bo chuckled. “Is that so?” Eli felt Bo’s big hand slide down his chest, skim his ribs, caress his belly. He gasped as the palm of Bo’s hand touched Eli’s tip under his gown.
“Oh yeah.”
Bo cupped him, being so gentle, so careful. “We better stop, baby. Somebody could come in.”
“Or come,” Eli giggled, then inhaled more of Bo’s warm scent. “It wouldn’t take long.” He felt Bo turn around, presumably to check the door or listen for footsteps. Action was at a lull. Even the early hospital dinner was more than an hour away.
Bo slid his hand under the hem of Eli’s hospital gown, fingers wrapping around Eli’s dick. “This good?”
“Ah... ha! Yeah!” The eyes threatened to roll up in Eli’s head. He threw his head back and bit his lip. No noise. He was in a hospital room with the door cracked open, and if he made any noise...
“Ummm!” The slide of Bo’s hand up and down his shaft made him want to buck into it.
“Good?” He couldn’t see it, not with his eyes rolled up and into the back of his skull, but he head the mischievous smile in Bo’s voice. Bo stroked him again, all the way up, then down...
Eli thrusted. “Oww!” A shock of pain hit him in the gut. How the hell could the pain from a wound in his leg cramp his gut? Eli had no idea.
“What?” Bo let go. “Too much?”
“Can’t keep still. Too good.” Eli drew a deep breath and pushed it out as tears threatened to accumulate in his eyes. Damn, that hurt.
“You tensed your leg.” Bo stroked Eli’s hair. “Here, let me get my dirty old man paws off of you. I should’ve known better.” He extricated himself from the clutch of Eli’s good leg, stood up, and straightened it. Then he carefully covered Eli with both sheet and blanket and reached for the water on the cart. “Here, drink something. You need to call for any meds?”
“I’m fine,” Eli gritted between his teeth. Yet he did take the water cup Bo offered, and drank some. “I’m afraid the fun will have to wait.”
“You all okay down there?” Bo’s gaze was aimed at his groin now, and an amused twitch was tugging on the corner of his mouth.
“Nothing wilts a dick faster than pulling fresh stitches, I guess.” Eli handed the cup back. “Thanks.”
Bo looked around. He had that helpless, lost feeling about him. “So what happens next? You need anything from your place? Like a razor, or clothing?”
“Good idea. My old clothes have been thrown into the biohazard bin.” Eli’s expression dropped into sadness. “The dinner will be served in a while, and it will be mashed potatoes and white gravy with peas and chicken. You’ll see. And a Jell-O dessert.” He sighed. “I hate hospital food. I really do. And I have these forms to fill out.”
“You want me to go or stay?” Bo wasn’t sure. Normally they’d be rehearsing tonight, but it was an emergency, and Eli sure looked happy to see him. “You gotta tell me now, actually.”
Eli trained his puppy-dog eyes at him. “Stay? If it’s not too much trouble. You have anything to read while I wade through the paperwork?”
“Yeah,” Bo said. Eli’s assumption that he’d read for pleasure was a happy surprise. Lots of the guys never picked up a book. “Let me step out and make a phone call.”
Once Eli was settled with the lights on and a pen in his hand, reading the forms carefully, Bo walked out the hall and to the left, to the nurses’ station. A woman and a man in scrubs stood behind the chest-high, pale blue counter with their heads bent over a folder with a chart on it.
“Excuse me.” Bo had no idea if they were nurses or doctors, with their badges covered up by the paperwork.
“Yes?”
“I’m visiting a friend. Is it okay to use a cell phone up here?” Bo had a vague recollection of the no-cell signs from when his sister had a C-section.
“Yes, and thank you for asking. Who are you visiting?”
“Uh.” Bo had to think about Eli’s last name. “Eli Winkler.”
“Okay. Does he need anything?”
“Other than hating hospital food? No, I think he’s fine for now.” Bo’s mind turned to the water Eli drank. “A bathroom, maybe.”
“I’ll send someone.” The woman gave him an assessing look. “You can bring him food from the outside, if you want.” She fished behind the counter where he couldn’t see, and pulled out a sheet of paper. “Here. These places deliver, but you have to pick it up downstairs.”
Bo nodded, fished his phone out of his pocket, and dialed. While he waited for Allison to pick up, he scanned the list of local restaurants. Pizza, Thai, Chinese. More pizza. A sandwich shop.
“Hey, Allison!” he was relieved when she picked up. “Remember Eli, the guy who brought the Gatorade?” She did. “I’m visiting him at the hospital.”
This prompted the Holy Inquisition of Allison, which Bo had been counting on. Fifteen long minutes later he leaned back into the upholstered sofa in the upstairs lobby, and grinned. He knew to call Allison instead of Jay or Ralph. She was the only one able to entice the rest of them to come over, visit Eli and Bo, and bring pizza. They’d make sure to leave when Eli started to look tired – but at least he wouldn’t be missing his family.
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ELI HAD BEEN STARING at the questionnaire, thinking. He’d have crutches, right? The elevator at his apartment building was probably still out, but once he made it upstairs to his apartment, he could have the groceries delivered, and the home care person would show up to check on his wound. That would pretty much work. There was no reason he couldn’t stay on his own. His dad had texted, saying the closest open flight was three days from now.
He could survive three days on his own.
A knock on the door preceded Bo and his happy grin. “Dinner’s coming,” he announced without preamble. “I hope you like pizza.”
The dark clouds his anxiety parted long enough for Eli to smile. “Really? Pizza?”
“Yeah. Give it an hour.” Then he leaned back in the armchair under the blank TV screen. “What’s wrong?”
How did Bo know? Dammit. Eli shrugged. “Just release forms. They’re springing me tomorrow. And honestly, that’s a good thing, ‘cause have you ever been to the hospital? I don’t know how people get any sleep in here. The nurses come in and check your vitals in the middle of the night, or when you’re napping. And it gets loud. You can hear almost anything that goes on out there.”
Bo frowned. “Really. But you have people do shit for you here, but at your place...” he paused for a bit. “Isn’t your elevator still broken? That would suck, having to crawl up the stairs with that wound in your thigh. Man, that would hurt like a motherfucker.”
Eli winced. The thought had occurred to him. “Uh-huh.”
“So...?”
Eli’s jaw tightened and he frowned. “I can make it up the stairs. I can go slow.”
“Bullshit. And what about during the day? Even if you live on pizza and shit, and surf the Internet, you’ll be alone.”
“I have my cell phone.”
“Yeah, Eli, a cell phone will carry you out in case of fire, all right.” Bo shook his head. “You can’t stay by yourself.”
“Well I can’t hire a babysitter, either! Besides, an aide will come and check on me every day.” Eli’s chin had a stubborn set to it. “And my parents will be here in three days, but it’s not like they can stay for long, and they’ll have to sleep in a hotel anyway. Don’t worry, three days of pizza won’t kill me.” Eli smiled bravely.
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IT WAS THAT FORCED, brave smile that did it. “You’ll be staying with me,” Bo said. “What do the forms say? Isn’t there supposed to be someone in the household with you?”
“You’ll be at work.”
“I live a few miles away. I can come home for lunch.” The more Bo considered the setup, the more logical it seemed. “You’ll take the guest room. Or, even better, we’ll set up a bed downstairs in the music room. You’ll have privacy, but there’ll be no stairs. And I’ll make sure my sister or mom comes in to visit, at least till your parents come to see you.”
“I could call Matt and Jeff,” Eli said, but the doubt in his voice was unmistakable.
“Not on my watch, baby.” Bo heaved himself out of the armchair and walked over to Eli. “I want to make sure you’re safe. I don’t think those guys are the most reliable people in the world.” He leaned over Eli and pecked a kiss on his forehead.
“They used to be, though!” Now there was pain in Eli’s voice. Pain of betrayal and loss, and Bo didn’t know whether to be sympathetic or jealous. “We went through so much together, y’now? Good times, bad times. They fucked up, sure, but...” Eli looked up, meeting Bo’s eyes evenly. “I don’t think they’re all bad. I’d like to give them another chance. Just to be friends.” He grabbed Bo’s hand. “No benefits. Not anymore,” he added hastily.
Bo nodded. “Okay. How’ve ‘bout this. You agree to stay with me till your parents come, and only once you’re all healed up, you’ll see if you guys can patch it up. Sounds good?”
Eli fell back into his pillows. His body language spelled capitulation, but his face still had that stubborn set to it. Bo was almost convinced he’d have to bring in reinforcement in the form of his mother. Mrs. Bartowski was a force of nature and didn’t put up with much nonsense, and with all her kids out of the house, Bo just knew she’d love to help out and take care of Eli.
To his great surprise, reason prevailed when Eli spoke up. “I hate to say this, but that would help so much. Just the thought of crawling up two flights of stairs is making my stomach turn.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe you’re doing this. Hell, I can’t believe I’m doing this. But thanks. That would be great. What’s your address? I need to put it on this form.”
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“AND THEY’RE RELEASING him this fast? Really?” The only woman in the room – Alice? No, Allison – glanced at Eli and his propped up, bandaged leg hiding under the blanket. “That’s insane. If he gets hurt or if it gets infected, he’ll be worse than before.”
Eli took another bite of his pepperoni pizza. He couldn’t rightly tell if the pizza was any good compared to other pizzas he’d tried in Pittsburgh, because even a cheap, soggy, over-baked slice would taste downright heavenly compared to the bland hospital fare everyone else was sentenced to eat. The salty tang of melted cheese, just stretchy, but not enough to dry out the crust. The crunch of the thin pepperoni slices. The tart tomato sauce with just a hint of basil.
Heavenly.
He moaned in satisfaction, not paying any heed to the conversation. Bo and his band members were talking over him rather than to him. His presence was merely coincidental, as though he was a subject of a curious experiment.
“You don’t know shit about changing bandages,” Jay said. He pulled on his beer – something Eli couldn’t have just yet – and burped. “We covered all that stuff in basic training, though, and I helped our corpsman all the time. If you need help, just holler.”