Page 60 of Any Given Lifetime
“At my hotel.”
“Are you…are we…? Yeah, here’s the deal—I need to come see you.”
“Miss me already?”
“Yes.”
Joshua smiled at Neil’s gruff, frank response. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“What are you talking about? You already went somewhere. I’ve done my work. Which hotel? I can take a car and be there in less than an hour.”
Joshua stretched and told Neil the name of the hotel. He sniffed his armpits, and said, “I need to shower.”
“Okay. I’ll be there in twenty. Which room?”
“312.”
“Right. Don’t go anywhere.”
“Just the shower,” Joshua said, a rush of adrenaline pulsing through him.
“Whatever. I like you dirty. Or clean. Just…be there.”
“Neil, I’m not going anywhere. I promise.” Joshua grinned, amazed by the certainty that filled him from the inside. “I want to be with you.” It suddenly occurred to Joshua that was true no matter what—even if it turned out they were both delusional.
“I’ll believe it when I see it.”
Joshua could tell by the ambient noises behind Neil’s voice that he was outside, moving quickly.
“Then come see it,” Joshua said. “Did you call a car?”
“Yeah, before I called you. It’ll be here any second.”
“Then I really have to shower.” Joshua struggled to find the words to end the call.
“Okay,” Neil said. “I’ll be there.”
The call disconnected, and Joshua felt the drop like a physical thing in his gut. He groaned as he got up from the bed, every muscle in his body sore from the physical exertion of the last twenty-four hours. He touched the water with his hand before stepping under the stream.
He scrubbed himself quickly, every nerve ending in his body alive and straining for Neil. It was almost as if Joshua could feel Neil’s approach, and with every second he felt more and more lit up from the inside. He started to hum as he washed. When he turned off the water to grab a towel, he decided that if this was insanity, he didn’t want to be sane.
Chapter Twenty-Two
November 2032—Atlanta, Georgia
Neil lay acrossJoshua’s chest, feeling the thunder of Joshua’s heartbeat under his hands. He greedily watched as Joshua gathered his composure. They were both sweaty and smeared with come again. Joshua’s eyes drooped; he was completely wiped out. It was a cute look on him, and Neil smirked in amusement.
“I hope you get old fast,” Joshua panted. “Or you’re going to kill me.”
“You’re keeping up pretty well. For an old guy.”
Joshua huffed but grinned, and Neil felt like he’d won something better than the Nobel Prize just for getting to see that smile aimed at him again.
It had been a week since the madness had started, and they’d been out of each other’s company for no more than ten minutes at a time. Neil was surprised to find that he was just as needy and clingy as Joshua—if not more so, because despite how weird everything was, Joshua seemed committed to accepting it and moving forward into a new reality with Neil.
“I was looking at houses,” Joshua said. “There’s one not far from the university. Four bedrooms. Two baths. A spacious kitchen. Lots of light.”
“What would we need four bedrooms for? Variety?”
