Page 59 of The King of Halloween
“Because we’re running low, and it’s your job to do inventory.”
“No, it’s your job. And judging by the state of this place, you’re slacking off. If you’ve got time to sing, you’ve got time to—”
“Yes, yes. How droll.” Damn. She wasn’t wrong. There were empty shelves that should have been filled after closing. He could have sworn he’d restocked before leaving last night. Oh, no, he’d had to leave early to get dressed. And the night before that was the Halloween carnival. Well, he could always double down on stocking tonight… Except it was the haunted concert, and the Halloween king needed to announce the bands.
“You’ve been letting this place go, boss,” Chrissy said, appearing out of nowhere behind him. He couldn’t stop his jerk of surprise, but did his best to not scream ‘witch’ and run.
“I’ve been busy with my royal duties.”
“Do those duties include schtupping the local hotel owner?”
Adam’s face drained of all blood. “What?”
“Everyone saw you two on a date. Mrs. Melnar couldn’t stop blabbing about it while you were squatting on the throne.”
Mrs. Melnar saw them? Together? And she was cognizant enough to understand what was happening?Heat flickered then burned at the sides of his face. He tried to keep his breathing calm, but the slamming of lockers echoed in his ears.
“We were just…having a ceasefire.”
“Oh.” Chrissy, his employee, nodded. “Is that what they call it when youbonein the theater?”
Fuck. Someone saw? How? There were no cameras, no guards. No one cared about the damn costume department. Flung from his body, Adam watched his own eyes drift over to Chrissy, his lips forming the words, “How did you—?”
She laughed. “So you did? All I heard was that Jeffrey saw you go in there and not come back out for a half hour.”
So no one saw him get on his knees, just that he was with a man in a private space for some amount of time. He could fix this. There was a way to… Adam stared into Chrissy’s face knotted like a trap about to spring. He couldn’t fix shit. He was screwed. “How many people…assume that’s what happened?”
“No one else. They still think you two hate each other. Like you weren’t eye fucking on day one.”
Okay. Good, good, good. Everyone was under the delusion that Adam despised Raj and would never, say, suck that perfect brown cock until his eyes rolled back into his head. It wasn’t that they didn’t know he was gay. The town seemed rather proud of the fact that their King of Halloween was a skinny man who preferred the naked company of men. They just didn’t like hearing about it. Not only the details but that his part of being gay meant, on occasion, he would touch another man’s butt and like it.
He could be gay as long as he was completely celibate. It’d been a state of purgatory that Adam could live with until that gorgeous teddy bear strolled into his town. In his rush to see where this was going, Adam never thought about what happened after. Come Christmas, Easter, the Fourth of July—will they all chuckle at the two men kissing during their parades?
“You know, boss, no one cares. You could have an army of oiled-up men in thongs parade through the store, and people wouldn’t bat an eye.”
“That sounds like something you’d prefer more than me.”
Chrissy sighed. “Point being, it’s not the ancient times. No one’s gonna tie you two to a stake. It’s…” She gave the longest, most exhausted groan. “Cute. You’re cute in a nerdy, macabre, angry pigeons pecking each other for territory sort of way.”
Cute? That wasn’t something people said about two men furiously fucking in the dark for a month before getting sick of each other. Cute couples bought throw pillows together, adopted a fluffy cat to clash with the pillows, ate brunch at their kitchen table.
Oh god. I mean, I know I like Raj. He’s stable but also quirky. Those glasses and his little dimpled cheek. The way he bats his long black eyelashes and smiles with just a little tic to the side… Am I past like and into serious with him?
And he doesn’t even know…
Adam slammed the heels of his palms to his eyes, trying to stop the runaway headache from building to a panic attack in his brain. He didn’t just like Raj Choudhary, he cared for him, and that was fucking terrifying.
?
“Logan!” Raj peeled out across the floor. At the last second, he grabbed a pole before falling into a nest of barbed wire. “Is it working now?”
After a few seconds, his business partner called out an exhausted, “No.”
Damn it.Raj rammed his fist into the chicken wire, denting the flimsy fence. Great, one more thing to fix in this never-ending house of horrors. He glared at the line of imposing animatronics, none of which wanted to leap, shake, cackle, or scare the pants off of teenagers. He didn’t have a haunted house but a derelict shack.
Logan’s blond head popped around the corner where an old lady refused to rock in her chair. But as Logan passed, a horrifying cat screech broke from the speakers.
“At least that works,” Raj said, earning no encouragement from the man. Before Logan could start in, he toyed with the extension cords and their outlets. “I swear, I’ve checked these a dozen times, and the electrician.”
