Page 24 of Don't Scare Me, My Love

It had a bench on the right and some lockers that looked like they were now used as a walk-in closet. A door on the left led to a bathroom with three showers and two sinks. Three eyeballs—well, more like half of them—lay beside the sink. They were shaped like shells, with only the iris visible. I winced for a second until I realized they must all be Jason’s prosthetics. I glanced at him to see if he had noticed my reaction, but he was already looking at me.

“Scary, huh?”

“Not scary, just…new.”

“These are all custom-made.” He walked in front of them and waved me over. “You can take a closer look if you want.”

I stepped beside him cautiously, as if the prosthetics could come to life at any moment and pounce on me. “They look pretty damn real.”

“That’s the idea behind it. Go ahead. You can touch them.”

I looked at him to see if he wasn’t pulling my leg and then back at the eyeballs. “I always thought eye prosthetics would be more like… awholeeyeball.”

Jason frowned as if he didn’t know what to make of my sentence. “I guess I’ve had them for too long to ever imagine them looking any different.”

They were lined up from the smallest to the largest.

“Why are there different sizes?” I asked.

“This is the first one I got when I was ten.” He pointed to the one on the left. “They grew with me. That’s why.”

I carefully poked at the smallest one as if I might destroy it if I was too rough. To my surprise, it wasn’t particularly softorhard.

“You don’t have to be afraid. Just take it in your hand. As long as you don’t try to break it by force, it’s okay.”

I picked it up. It felt like plastic, although it was probably some special material that no one could pronounce. I brought it up to my face, and the work on it was magnificent. It looked like a real iris. “Do you mind if I compare?”

“Not at all.” He widened his eyes and brought his face closer to mine.

I stepped in front of him, moving closer so that I was now only six inches away. I alternated between his left and right eye and the prosthetic in my hand. All irises were a deep brown with light flashes of gold. “Your eyes are beautiful. All five of them.”

Jason's head dropped forward for a second, almost colliding with mine, before he burst out laughing. “Never heard that one before.”

“You’re welcome,” I smiled at him, unable to shake off the feeling that my sentence might have been rude. “I meant what I said, though. Theyarebeautiful.”

“Thank you.”

I looked down at the prosthetic in my hand again, wondering if he would ever tell me how he lost his right eye. He probably wasn't born without it since he just told me he didn’t get his first prosthetic until he was ten. But I wasn’t going to ask him. He didn’t like questions about it, and I didn’t want the whole evening to revolve around it. Whenever he was ready, he would probably tell me.

I put the prosthetic back with the others. “Thank you for letting me touch it and compare it. I’m grateful you shared it with me.”

“Sure. The idea of going on a date is to get to know each other, isn’t it? And this is part of me.” He turned and motioned toward the showers. “So, yeah. This is my bathroom. The three showers are especially useful for orgies. Of which I have plenty, Seastone being such a Mecca for gay men.”

The showers were side by side with no walls between them, the tiles a matte cream color. “Sounds about right. Four showers would be better, though.”

“Five, if you want to call it a party.”

We grinned at each other for a moment before Jason turned around.

He led me back through the break room to the foyer, up the right staircase. The banister wasn’t as dusty as I’d expected.

“So, how come you live here?” I asked.

“I inherited it from my grandparents. It was their life’s work, but when they retired, they closed it down because no one wanted to take over. My parents didn’t want it either. So, since I had already taken over the gas station, I said I’d at least take careof the building and save money on rent until we found a buyer. But it’s been,oh my God, six years already.”

“Must be hard for them to see their life’s work no longer full of life.”

Jason looked at the floor, his left hand searching for the handrail. “They’re both gone. They don’t care anymore.”

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