SULLY WAITED on the edge of the futon. When a soft knock sounded, he sprang up for the door handle a bit too quickly. Chip stood on the other side, looking like he hadn’t shaved in days. His clothing reeked of stale cigarette smoke and smelled a little like fish too. Sully had dealt with a lot of customers with less-than-stellar hygiene, so he wasn’t too fazed. If he had his way, most of Chip’s clothing would be on the floor in a matter of minutes anyway and the smoked fish smell would stay there. Chip’s furrowed brows, though, and the brief moment of confusion on his face was enough to cut Sully in two.
“Hey. It’s me—Sully. You okay? Come to the right room?”
“Uh, yeah, yeah. Of course.” Chip stepped inside when Sully moved out of the way. He seemed to survey the room as if to really be sure the furniture matched up to before. “You look different, though. Kind of threw me for a second there.”
Sully touched his dyed black hair. Right. The gray contacts were gone. And now you don’t look like someone he used to know. Sully bristled with each swipe of Chip’s gaze across his body. He wondered if that look could bruise.
“Yeah, sorry about that. Should have warned about the hair dye and the contacts, but that was out of the ordinary so I didn’t think of it. Will this be a problem? If you have a thing for blonds, I can grab Trina again? She’s actually working as Trina right now too, so you may be in luck.”
Sully was about to leave when Chip reached out to stop him. “No, no, it’s fine.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” Chip smiled. “Truthfully, I think I like the black more.”
“It’s not my natural hair color but close to it.”
Chip nodded as he sat down on the bed. He sighed when he ran a hand through his stubble and seemed to realize it was there. He shook his head, mumbling a little. Sully stood in his doorway, unsure if he wanted to close the door right now. He’d seen men lose their shit over whether Sully had cut his nails. Having Chip upset that he changed major factors of his appearance could be enough to send this entire evening—one he hated to admit he was looking forward to—down the crapper.
“You sure you’re okay? It’s okay to have preferences. And if it’s going to be a big deal later, I don’t mind you stepping out now. You won’t hurt my feelings.”
“No, I’m fine. Just mixed up after all this paperwork. So much stuff at work, you know?”
“I can guess.”
A beat of silence. Another. Sully didn’t like this at all. “Let me get Trina.”
“Why?” Chip turned to Sully, his gaze open. “Is it because you don’t want to see me?”
“No. I like having you around.”
“Then I’d like to stay.”
There was an honesty to Chip’s voice that made him seem vulnerable. Not because he always told the truth—someone who was a vamp was conditioned to lie at all times, no matter what, and Sully couldn’t forget that—but because he understood the value in simplicity. If Chip wanted to be with him, then they would be together. That was it.
“Good. Okay. Sorry to do double duty about this, but I needed to be sure.”
Sully closed the door. When Chip looked at him again, his gaze hurt less; it was warm, inviting. Chip apparently liked looking at him, at his slender hips and pale skin. He even seemed to like staring into his boring brown eyes. Sully was tempted to strip off his shirt and get right to business with his confidence now renewed, but he took a seat next to Chip on the bed. Better to ease into this for both of them, since it was as if they were meeting each other again.
“I have the blood.” Chip reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a bag marked with Sully’s initials. “Artie said this was just for me, whenever I came, so I had to give you—or her—some warning. Is that right?”
“Yeah. I don’t exactly like my blood getting around. I like to be with the people when and if they drink.”
“Do you get asked for this a lot?”
“No, not really. Any vamp can come in and request me, but I don’t get many average people off the street looking for my blood, because it doesn’t have the same properties as the elementals or witches. You can’t get high off me, so what’s the point?”
Chip nodded along as if it was the most interesting thing in the world, but Sully already felt like a broken record, rehashing the same rules and considerations over and over again. “You know the rules for sex already, but I have some rules of my own when I give blood. Are you okay to hear them?”
“Yeah, that seems fair.”
“So, first is no drinking it like a Capri Sun. I’ve decided we should adhere to decorum.” Sully opened his drawer and took out two wineglasses. Chip furrowed his brow at the second one until Sully also brought out a juice box for himself. Chip’s grin split his face, and even though his eyes displayed some deep-seated tiredness, he played along with Sully’s need to add some normalcy to this act. Chip punctured the side of his blood bag and emptied it into the glass; Sully tore open the side of the juice box and poured it in the other.
“Grape? Really?” Chip said when he noticed the color. “You couldn’t find something like cherry?”
“It’s Trina’s fault. It’s all she could find and I can’t say I blame her for not wanting to spend all afternoon looking for the perfect blood substitute.” Sully shook the last bit of juice out. After he threw the garbage away, he held up his glass for a toast.
“What are we celebrating?” Chip asked. “Not that I mind.”
“You know what? I have no idea. Let’s keep it simple. To… cake?”
“To red velvet cake.”
They clinked their glasses together again and each took a long sip. The juice was so sweet it nearly knocked him off his feet. When his stomach churned, Sully realized he hadn’t eaten anything since before Reggie’s appointment, because he’d been too upset. Thinking of Reggie again got under his skin, making him remember the stupid incident, then the stain on the carpet. Wait. What if it was Trina and her grape juice box that made the stain? I bet—
“Hey.” Chip placed a hand on Sully’s knee. Sully didn’t mean to, but he flinched. Chip noticed right away and removed his hand like he’d touched fire. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“No, no, don’t apologize. I’m being ridiculous. Just hungry, you know. I haven’t really eaten since breakfast.”
“So eat. I’ll be doing this,” Chip said, gesturing to his blood. “I don’t mind.”
With a silent thanks, Sully opened his drawer and took out one of the chocolate bars and the remaining bag of Goldfish crackers. He devoured the chocolate bar and was at the crumbs of the Goldfish bag before his shaking hands calmed down. The Reggie incident still sat heavily on his chest, making him feel like he couldn’t breathe, but he hoped the sugar would distract his system. Or the sex. Sex was always good for a distraction.
“You should eat a real meal, you know,” Chip said. “Maybe you’ll be less shaky.”
“Coming from the person drinking blood and who probably hasn’t eaten a real meal in months? Maybe even years?”
“Hey now,” Chip said, his tone playful. “I do eat real-people food every so often. I like eating. Makes me feel human. And I’m actually a little blood-shy right now.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s strong. You’re human. And I haven’t feasted on human in a while.”
“I don’t understand the difference.”
“Well, I’m not sure I’m the best person to ask, but I know I can drink most other supernatural creatures’ blood and be okay. Except vamp. They’re sour, but everyone else is good and will sustain me. I tend to prefer supernatural blood since I know that even if I bite them, there’s no way I can transform them. There must be some antibodies in the blood that are similar enough to mine that makes them immune. And it must be similar enough, but not as strong as vamp blood, because if I gorge myself on too much creature blood, I will become sick. It’s a delicate balance between satisfaction and throwing up, honestly.”
“But humans?”
“I can transform humans. So that must mean that whatever makes me not drink too much of other creatures’ blood isn’t in humans’, because I can turn them, and it also makes your blood really, really rich.”
“Huh.” Sully considered that for a long moment. “So, I’m like butter and everyone else is margarine?”
Chip laughed, surprising Sully. “Sure, if you want to call it that. Basically, right now, I’m not used to the quality that I’m getting and I think I’m going to need to savor this.”
“Take as long as you need.”
“I think I may have to.”
Chip set aside the glass, only a quarter of it gone. Not even. Sully was surprised at how easily he discarded it. Sure, he could come back and finish it, but his response didn’t seem like the typical vamp either. He wasn’t crazed over the blood like a fiend. Sully had so often heard vamps described as addicts without a fix, that he’d drudged up the worst image of them. They were vain, they lied, and they were only out for themselves and looking for their next victims. Really it wasn’t much different than most infectious creatures or the worst humans who visited brothels. Sully certainly had enough images and customers who fit the mold, but Chip was breaking down every single one of those stereotypes.
“I’ve never met a vamp like you.”
“What do you mean? You must know some vamps if you know the sunlight rule.”
“That I do. There have been some here, but… they were hard cases. Unruly and brazen, so they were harder to handle. I think they just missed other vamps. Hard to get along here when you don’t feel like you belong,” Sully said. “Don’t most vamps like to live in dens because of that?”
“They do. Not all of them thrive there, though. It’s mostly a place to get blood and bicker.”
“Were you ever part of one?”
Chip shook his head, but there was something he wasn’t saying. Sully knew better than to push.
“Fatima was different,” Chip mentioned. “Whatever happened to her?”
“She left for another house, I’m pretty sure,” Sully said. He struggled to keep all the safe houses straight in his mind. “She didn’t work in the rooms here.”
“No?”
“No. She didn’t like that, but she was often a liaison with other people. Sometimes in the churches.”
“Really?” Chip considered this for a while after Sully nodded. “Makes sense. She saved my life.”
“What do you mean?”
“When I got back to Toronto, years ago, I was literally wandering around a drugstore, mad with sun-sickness. I hadn’t fed in a week and I’d been outside too much. She helped me find iron pills and told me to come here for blood.”
“That’s good, then. I’m glad she helped you.” Sully wanted to ask where he’d been before Toronto, but he took a drink of the juice. He wanted to ask Chip too many things. Knowing them would only make everything between them infinitely more complicated. I’m not attached, I’m not attached, I’m not—
“You sure you’re okay? You seem a little, well, distant.” Chip gestured to the large space between their bodies and their partially empty glasses. “I appreciate your blood. But if it makes you uncomfortable to have me around afterward, we don’t have to do this. I can go, you know. You’ve given me more than enough.”
“No, please. Stay.” Sully wanted to say that Chip wasn’t giving him anything; he was a paying customer and they could do whatever they wanted. But the answer seemed so cheap now. A performance he wasn’t willing to give. “Maybe I shouldn’t have taken customers tonight. I don’t think I’m over this afternoon.”
“What happened? Can I ask?”
“Just a customer. You know, the price of doing business.”
Chip’s face became ashen.
“It’s not a big deal. Really. Don’t look at me in that tone of voice.”
“I can’t help it. Cop instincts.”
“Or vamp ones.” Sully shrugged. He should have left it at that, but he went to grab his glass to press to his lips and he caught Chip’s gaze. So earnest. So vulnerable. He didn’t want to be a vamp. He wanted to be a cop. A hero. Sully didn’t know if that was better or worse.
Chip closed some of the inches between their bodies, holding Sully’s wrist. “I know it may seem weird, but… I want to be sure you’re fine.”
“I am.”
“Still tell me?”
“What’s it to you?”
“Because it may be important for a case I’m working on.”
“The dead Cupid?”
“And now a dead vamp. A fellow sex worker or a person driving the boat that shipped him. We can’t tell if he’s a good or bad guy, except that he’s dead and the for sure bad guy is still out there.” Chip worried his lip. “I probably shouldn’t have told you any of that.”
“I shouldn’t tell you any of my thing. Maybe then we’ll be even.”
“Can we be?”
Sully wanted to lash out and say that they’d never be even, given how different they were, but he only sighed. After a moment of consideration, he closed his eyes. Reggie had stayed there, mute and immobile like a Polaroid on the back of his eyelids. What had that therapist Daphne told him when he was in high school? Tell the truth and it will set you free? It was a load of bullshit, especially because telling her about what his mother and father had been doing only got him further and further down the black hole of sin. It took him years, but Sully could understand Daphne had had a point, albeit a different one. The truth never set you free, but when you said the bad stuff aloud, the monsters took on shapes.
And that way you could fight them.
“So this is silly.”
“Probably not,” Chip countered.
“Shut up and drink your blood. Let me tell the story.”
Chip smiled but nodded and took his glass in his hand. His posture made him seem like he was too full, but he took a sip anyway.
“So I see a lot of guys. I probably don’t have as many regulars as some of the other people here since I’m human and can’t cater to as many high-paying fetishes, but I take a lot of walk-ins. Anyway I had been seeing this one guy. I thought he was good. Fun. Very bread-and-butter stuff. ‘Let me fuck you, maybe hold you down,’ but nothing kinky. Not at all. Which reminds me, actually—” Sully turned, opening his drawer again. He pulled out Chip’s belt, and with a seductive smile, handed it over. “For you.”
“Thanks,” Chip said, laughing. “But what’s the guy’s name?”
“I don’t know last names and the first could be fake.”
“Either way. What is it?”
“Reggie. So I see him today. Everything is fine. We finish and it’s good. Then… he took my picture.”
“With his cell phone?”
Sully clenched his jaw and nodded. “I know it’s silly, but I don’t like it when people take my photo without my permission. When I do the chat logs and talk to guys, like we did, sometimes I’ll offer pictures. I have no problem sharing them then. Sometimes I’ll do selfies or dick picks, whatever. I really don’t mind pictures.”
“But he took it without your permission.”
“Yes, he did,” Sully said, voice still tinged with pain. “I was getting dressed again and I just saw a flash and he was there, doing it. He told me to smile then he fucking did it again. I wanted to smash his goddamn phone.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Sully shrugged. “Why else? I was stunned. I couldn’t believe he was so rude about it. I’m… I’m usually on alert when I get a new client. I’m awake, watching. Then I start to let my guard down, but even then, it’s not much. I had seen Reggie two times before and he seemed fine. But I can’t stop replaying that hideous grin on his face when he told me to smile. I’m kicking myself for letting my guard down as much as I did.”
“Hey.” Chip reached out to touch Sully’s shoulder, but he pulled away before touching skin, as if he realized how vulnerable Sully still was. “It’s not your fault. I didn’t mean to imply it was.”
“I know it’s not. I know you didn’t. But it still doesn’t help that that photo is out there now. And I have no control over it.”
Chip appeared to consider this fact for a while. When the silence only grew between them, Sully’s skin flushed. He wished he hadn’t brought Reggie up, because now, whatever happened between Chip and Sully tonight would be tinged with the same regret as Reggie’s encounter.
“What if I got the photo back for you?”
“What?” Sully laughed when he realized Chip was being serious. “It’s a little harder than that to get a picture back.”
“Maybe not. What kind of phone was it?”
“A fucking flip phone. So like, the photo quality is shit.”
“So a burner phone. Do you think he sent it to anyone? It sounded like he was taking trophies of his conquests if he was willing to take it on something with crappy pixels.”
“I wasn’t exactly reading the guy’s e-mail. But it’s possible he didn’t send it to anyone and only wanted to whack off to it later. Ugh.”
This time, Chip did squeeze his shoulder. Sully looped their hands together, wishing they could bypass this bullshit talking and just fuck already.
“So if I get his phone,” Chip said slowly, “then the photo is gone?”
“I doubt that. Photos that are in cyberspace are never gone.”
“But that’s only if he sent it. And I doubt a shitty flip phone has enough data to upload it. So, what if I got his phone for you?”
“Then good for you. I’d be happy. Is that what you want me to say?” Sully bit his lip, realizing he sounded harsh. He went to apologize, but Chip shook his head. Each time he inched closer, he lifted his brow in a silent question. May I come closer? Now? Yeah? Sully wanted to melt. He’d never been treated with so much concern. So many questions. It made his skin prickle from the memories of the times he’d said no and had it happen anyway. He’d stopped asking and stopped saying anything at all.
Like Reggie with the photo.
“So,” Chip said. “Can I ask you something weird?”
“You can ask always. But it doesn’t mean I’ll answer.”
“Fair enough. I suppose I sound too much like a detective right now, but is the reason you don’t like your photo out there the same reason why you don’t normally give out blood?”
“I think so, yeah. I like to see who uses me.”
Chip nodded, though he seemed wounded by the wording. “And you’re okay with me doing so?”
“I know you. As well as I can. You could still do all the things I’m afraid of. But so could a random guy on the street. So could a million other people. I suppose I have to, at some point, stop policing everything. And I do that by making select decisions. Setting up boundaries. The blood is a new one. Who knows? Maybe I’ll let people take my photos again at random and it won’t freak me out.”
“Maybe. But you don’t have to. And thank you.”
“For what?”
“For trusting me, I guess. Because I like your blood. Is that weird to say?”
Sully shook his head. “Trust me, I’ve heard weirder.”
“I believe that.”
Chip took a sip, then set his glass down on the bedside table again. Sully followed with his own glass. When he thought he recognized the look in Chip’s eye, he shifted closer. Only a second passed before their lips met in a hot, near-frantic kiss. Sully was sure he could taste the bitter metallic tang of his own blood on Chip’s tongue, like the one time a john punched him in the face. For weeks, he’d spat his teeth out in his dreams. Soon the blood’s scent and taste mixed with the sweetness of grape. Chip placed his hands on Sully’s arms, soft but strong. He covered Sully, bringing their bodies close and sending Sully into shivers of desire.
Chip broke the embrace as he kissed down Sully’s jaw to his ear. He hovered there, breathing against the shell, before he asked, “I need you to be safe, okay? I need you to be safe here, in this house.”
“I’ve been doing this a long time. I’m fine.”
“I know you have. But there’s no shame in asking for help or protection either.”
Sully pulled back, examining Chip’s earnest expression. “Is there something else you’re talking about?”
“I’m worried that all these deaths lead to something much bigger.”
“Like what?”
“You ever hear of the Judge and the Flame?”
“The urban legend? The stuff the tabloids print? All that stuff’s fake.”
“It’s real, though. I found the files in the police department. And I knew him—the Flame. That’s… that’s who you look like. Who you did look like when you had the different hair.”
“Really?”
Chip nodded. It seemed hard for him to swallow. “I… was with him for a while. We were in love before he became the big legend he is now. You remember what the tabloids printed? The news on TV?”
Sully nodded, though he wasn’t exactly following current events religiously—more like sleeping and sleeping and watching daytime TV. Sometimes he saw people’s cell phone photos of the Judge. The Judge was a dragon avenging those he loved; his Flame, though, was apparently someone named Nat who Sully looked like for a hot second when his eyes were gray and his hair was blond.
And it was all real.
“What was the story about the Flame?”
“A firestarter who finally burnt out,” Chip said. “His brother sold him out for a music career and then traded him to a blood wizard. The Oracle. He’d dead now too, along with Nat. And the Judge is missing. The entire underground scene is changing because of it, because once a kingpin is down, power is redistributed. I’m so, so worried that what I’m researching now about this sex-trafficking ring is much worse than I realize.”
“Maybe, but maybe not. Maybe it’s just a bunch of workers being killed for no reason. It happens all the damn time and no one makes it into a conspiracy.”
“I know. And I’m sorry. Maybe I want a something big like a war so that everything in my life makes sense.”
Sully laughed. “You know, I think I’d like that too.”
When Chip kissed him again, it was sharp and rough; grief flowed out and over him like a sudden gushing wound. When Sully realized Chip was shaking, he didn’t know what to do. He was so unaccustomed to this kind of emotional labor. The man’s a fucking mess. But it wasn’t a mess Sully didn’t want to deal with. Wasn’t a mess he couldn’t relate to.
“Hey, hey,” Sully said. “Shh. I’m so sorry. It’s okay. You’re okay.”
“I fucked it up, though. I fucked up everything.”
“We all fuck things up.”
“Well, you know, for me it’s true. Worse than before.”
“And I bet you’re Atlas carrying the world too, Chip. But sometimes you just gotta let it go. I bet you’d be surprised to realize that the world keeps on spinning even when you do. Shh.” Sully wrapped his arms around Chip and rocked him back and forth. When the weight of the motion became too much, Sully tried to push his own guilt and sorrow away. He grabbed Chip’s face and turned him to stare into his eyes.
“Brown eyes and black hair,” Sully said. “I am not Nat. I am not anyone from your past. You have no past when you’re with me.”
“Then what is there?”
“Present,” Sully said. “I love the present. I love each new thing about it. Because my past is shitty too, and my future is kinda weird, especially when I didn’t think I had one. But the present? Oh, the present is so good. It makes me want to do things to you.”
Chip took a moment before he smiled. When he did, Sully placed his lips over the grin as if he could consume him.
Chip came alive again. I’ve got him, I’ve got him, Sully thought. This was the moment where the men or the women gave into their urges and stopped second-guessing themselves. It was where Sully made his money or preserved his safety, sure, but this time, he heard another chorus behind the chant of I’ve got him, I’ve got him: I want him, I want him.
Sully swallowed hard and pushed the thought away. Present moment meant that all was desire itself: his body and his cock and the sex act between them. Nothing else, nothing else. No Reggie, no blood, no strange urban myth that made Chip’s body wrack with sobs. Not even the sex worker deaths could disrupt this moment. They already wasted too much of their time wallowing in that sadness.
Sully kissed down Chip’s jaw and hovered by his ear. “Do you want to fuck me?”
Chip’s entire body grew rigid. Sully slid a hand over Chip’s waist and lingered over the tent in his pants. Blood throbbed between them.
“Oh wow. Is that a yes?”
“Yes. God, I want to fuck you. But I’m so full.”
“I can do the work.”
“I know… but… I want you to have fun. Is that okay?”
“Sweetheart, we’ll do whatever you want.”
Chip bit his lip, already swollen from their kiss. Sully hovered over his mouth again, toying and bringing Chip out of his shell. Their positions switched as Sully brought out every last trick he’d ever learned. When their lips met again, Sully was on top of Chip as Chip’s desire bloomed stronger. Chip placed his hands on Sully’s shoulders, then leaned them both back on the bed.
“Will you sit on my face?”
Sully shuddered. Oh, he could definitely do that. He gestured to the drawer where he kept the condoms and dental dams. “Do we need both? One or the other?”
Chip swallowed, his eyes lidded with desire. “Whatever you need.”
Sully was surprised Chip hadn’t said “everything” in that breathy tone, like he had on the phone.
“We’ll see. Right now, I want you naked.”
“You too.”
Chip shifted to the opposite end of the bed and Sully followed after, undoing Chip’s pants and loosening his shirt. Chip’s stomach was swollen, overwhelmingly full like he’d claimed. Each action Sully did seemed painful to Chip, but his cock responded with each tug or incidental brush.
“I thought you were sitting on me?” Chip said.
“I’m coming, I’m coming.” Sully smiled at his double entendre. He shucked off his shirt, his pants, and his boxers like they were nothing. The chill of the room made him shiver, but as he moved over Chip’s body, the heat from his flushed skin warmed Sully instantly. Chip latched on to Sully’s thighs, anchoring his body and giving him direction. Chip grabbed Sully’s dick, stroking it a couple times before he rolled the condom over Sully’s cock. He didn’t even flinch, Sully marveled. Chip had gone for the condom right away, and it made Sully groan. The trust. The care. He didn’t have time to think much longer before Chip took him into his mouth.
“Oh God. Yeah.” Sully allowed his body to relax into Chip’s guidance. Sully hit the back of Chip’s throat rather easily because of the odd angle. Chip was deep, warm, and almost too overwhelming. When Chip’s fingers came to explore around Sully’s sac and hole, Sully let out a low, guttural cry.
Chip hummed around him in response. When Chip unwrapped one of the dental dams, Sully gasped and readied himself. Chip slipped his mouth to Sully’s balls until he dragged his tongue back to play with Sully’s hole. He licked, plunged inside, and buried his entire face between Sully’s cheeks in a matter of seconds. The plastic was so thin, it was like nothing was there at all.
“Oh God.” Sully fisted the bedsheets. It was all he could do to keep his balance. Chip’s noises—along with the feel of his tongue—were enough to get him close to the edge. Sully bit the inside of his lip to keep from coming. Not right now. Not like this. Chip engulfed him with each careful stroke. Because of my blood? Does he have my scent now? Is he that animalistic addict who wants me no matter what? Sully shuddered at the thought. It was harder and harder now to keep everything in mind. To be completely vigilant. Each stroke of his tongue unraveled Sully until he was completely vulnerable in Chip’s hands.
“I’m going to come,” Sully uttered. “Oh my God. I’m coming. I want to come on you.”
Chip didn’t miss a beat. He tore off the condom, wrapped his fist around Sully, and ushered him to his release. Sully cried out as he shot over Chip’s chest and legs, marking his dark skin with white lines. Sully folded over Chip’s body and pressed into his thighs. He kissed what bare skin he could find on Chip’s swollen stomach, scraping his teeth along the skin; it was instinct, more than anything, and Chip’s body reacted.
When Sully realized Chip was coming, he tried to make the experience good. He doesn’t need you to; he came without you, Sully thought. Then he corrected himself: he came because he was rimming you. You made him come. Just by existing.
“Jesus,” Sully shuddered. He tasted Chip and grape juice, sugar and smoke. He didn’t know which was better. The feeling of skin against skin overwhelmed him. He’d let them get so, so close. “Fuck.”
“Come here?” Chip asked between pants.
Sully obeyed—except it didn’t feel like obeying the orders he was usually given in bed. He met Chip’s mouth with a frantic kiss.
“God, my clothes,” Chip said, gesturing toward the floor. In Sully’s haste to get Chip undressed, he had knocked his wineglass of juice onto Chip’s shirt.
“Oh shit. My T-shirt too.” Sully scrambled over the side of the bed. He righted the glass and sopped up some of the juice. When he heard Chip laughing, the tension eased out of his body. None of it mattered. It was just clothing.
“Hey, lucky for us,” Sully said, “I’ve been doing some stain removing lately. I think I can have this solved in no time.”
“Okay. I’m not worried,” Chip said. “As long as you lie with me for a while first, okay?”
“Yeah, I can do that,” Sully said, crawling back into bed. “Easy.”