Page 59 of Solo Stan
“It’s like that.”
Elias crinkled his nose and said, “I didn’t really want to kiss you anyway.”
“Oh yeah?” Kai said, raising an eyebrow. “Because there are cameras downstairs, so you’ve been caught in at least 720p lying your ass off.”
They stood like this for a few moments, watching each other, each waiting for the other to act. The tension broke, however, when Kai’s phone started ringing, just out of reach of his fingertips. Elias dropped his head, his eyes fixed on the floor. Kai put some distance between them, but Elias swiftly reached out, catching Kai’s wrist before he could fully retreat. He sat him down on one of the high barstools and said, “If that’s Bobby, don’t answer it.”
Kai narrowed his eyes. “He called when my phone wasn’t working. I should let him know I’m safe.”
“It’s the middle of the night in his time zone. It can’t wait until the morning?”
“You don’t have to be jealous of him, you know. We’re only friends, and he has a girlfriend.”
Elias didn’t respond. He just started moving around the kitchen, preparing breakfast with a silent determination.
It was clear that Kai had made the right choice in having Elias primarily run the café portion of the shop, because everything he did seemed so natural. His timing was always on point, so he was never standing around looking confused. By the time the bread clicked out of the toaster, Elias already had the cutting boards and tools he used washed, avocados sliced, and shakers of salt and red pepper flakes ready to go. He set the plate down in front of Kai. Taking a seat next to him, he dragged his stool closer by the foot spindle.
Kai took a bite and turned his attention back to Elias, who wasstill watching him through hooded eyes. “Are you going to stare at me the whole time?”
Elias wet his lips and appeared thoughtful for a moment. “I’m thinking of what to say to you. You just happen to be sitting in my thinking place.”
Kai shook his head and took another satisfying crunch of toast. “I’m listening.”
“I…” Elias began but then appeared to reconsider his words. “You know what? Just forget it,” he said, the same coldness from when they first met making a sudden return—when he wouldn’t even look at Kai while handing him the tissue.
The wooden floors creaked beneath his feet as he swiftly moved around the kitchen, gathering the ingredients to prepare a plate for himself. With Kai at his back, all that resonated in the air was the rhythmic sound of Elias’s knife gliding across the cutting board. Kai wrapped his arms around Elias’s waist and pulled him into a back hug but was immediately rebuffed.
Abruptly slamming the knife down, Elias let out an exasperated breath and spun toward Kai. “What am I doing? Why am I treating you like this?” he muttered, more to himself than to Kai. “All night, all I’ve wanted is your attention. And when I didn’t have it, I just wanted to”—he turned Kai’s head to face him—“start screaming until you looked at me.” He took a deep breath. “You say you want to be in a relationship, but are you aware that you’re already in one with your best friend?”
Kai blinked hard, trying to process what he’d just heard.A relationship with Bobby?Of course he was in a relationship with Bobby. A friendship. Kai had made that clear plenty of times throughout the night.
Kai and Elias grew quiet for a moment. Elias fiddled with thehem of his shorts, picking at some of the threads on the bottom with his fingernails as he avoided Kai’s eyes. He then gathered himself and looked directly into Kai’s gaze. Elias, his skin slick with sweat, was even more beautiful than usual, shining like Carolina Gold. “I get that you guys are close,” he said. “Trust me, it’s a huge green flag that you have such a good friend. But you guys kissed when you were kids, and even though it didn’t mean anything, you broke a barrier between friendship and romance, and now it seems like you’re somewhere in between. Which is okay if you’re both aware and intentional about it, but it doesn’t seem to me like you are. Every time you play flirt or call each other your little pet names, you just make it impossible to set boundaries. Do you not see that? If you don’t make space for other people, everyone you date is only ever going to be a fling as long as you have this Bobby kid waiting at home for you. But he isn’t home anymore, Kai. You chose to be apart from him. He’s gone, so you need to let him be gone,” Elias said, leaning over the counter.
Kai squirmed under Elias’s unyielding stare. Elias hadn’t been this serious about anything all night. He’d even called himKaifor the first time. Kai’s lip twitched, unsure of what to say. “Are you really jealous?” was all that came out.
Elias’s jaw tightened. “Damn right I’m jealous.”
Is this really jealousy, or is it ego?Kai wondered, studying Elias’s face. Elias was constantly sizing himself up against others; he had felt threatened by Bobby’s intelligence earlier in the night, and it was clear that Kai gave Elias a bit of a Napoleon complex. But had Kai misread the situation? Could it be that Elias had been truly jealous all along simply because he liked Kai?
“I’m right here with you,” Kai said, sliding his phone across the counter. “But you’ve let me make all the first moves tonight. If youwant my attention, then what are you going to do about it?” He held Elias’s gaze, as if he was issuing a challenge. “Well?”
“I’m waiting on you.”
“Waiting on me for what?”
Elias let out a breath. “If you make me stand on my tiptoes, I’ll never forgive you.”
Kai’s belief was confirmed—it had only ever been about Elias’s ego.
“Then you don’t really want it,” Kai said, defeated.
“I do,” Elias replied, determined.
“No, you don’t.”
“I do.”
“Then do it.”
