Page 30 of Light Up
“It was a joke,” Corey said. “Do you still like finding out new things?”
“Yes.”
“Me too.”
Corey basked in the pleasure of them having that in common.
“Ready for breakfast? I’ve been waiting for you to wake up.”
“Thank you. Erm… Is it included?”
“It’s part of the package. So is the entertainment, apparently.”
“Could you settle the bill and I’ll pay you back? It might take me a while, but I will. I promise.”
“Don’t worry about it. I can afford to pay.”
But he would worry. Much as Corey might have imagined Tal offering to pay and him accepting, he knew that would make him uncomfortable. Corey looked out of the window again, then went to check the French doors on the other wall which gave a view of a different side of the hotel. More snow as far as the eye could see and…a balcony with… “A hot tub?”
“It appears so.”
“Wow.” Corey had never been in a hot tub. Later maybe…
“It doesn’t seem likely we’ll be leaving here today.”
“It might seem the wrong thing to say but I’m glad about that. Glad we’re safe and somewhere warm if this is what the country has turned into.”Glad I’m with you.Corey mentally crossed his fingers.Please agree with me.
Tal shot him a look. “There could be a lot worse places to be stuck.”
Corey brushed his fingers against Tal’s, and Tal jerked back.Shit!But then Tal squeezed his hand, just for a second, and Corey’s heart leapt.
“Shall we go down?” Tal asked.
“Okay.”
Corey picked up a key and slipped it into his pocket before he left the room. Tal was striding towards the stairs and Corey had to hurry to keep up. Even the way Tal walked showed self-assurance. Corey bet he wouldn’t think twice about going into a hotel, using their bathroom and walking out again. Corey didn’t even like doing that at McDonald’s.
Yet underneath the possible autism and Tal’s polished, confident exterior, Corey felt there was more to the guy. He clearly didn’t like being touched but he’d squeezed Corey’s fingers and they’d been close together last night. Hecouldmake eye contact.Andhe didn’t always give short responses. Tal was like an iceberg. There was a lot hidden under the surface. Maybe he was coming out of a long relationship. His partner might have died and Tal was still grieving. Or he’d been dumped.
Corey wanted to make him feel better. He liked making Tal smile. He’d love the opportunity to watch Tal come undone, to see the look on his face when he wasn’t in control, those moments before he settled into acceptance and let go, the point at which he surrendered to someone else.
To me.
Oh fuck.That fantasy was still playing, then? As if this guy was likely to let Corey fuck him. The nearest he’d get to what he needed was imagining it while he wanked off in bed.
Eight
In the breakfast room, where Christmas music was being quietly piped through speakers, Corey and Tal were shown to a table by the window. It was a big glass-ceilinged room looking out onto rolling white countryside. Closer in, the hotel gardens were dotted with a lot of alien-looking shapes. Corey wondered what the snow was hiding. The tables were occupied by adults of varying ages. There was no one as young as him.
Christmas trees were strategically positioned in each corner and there were festive arrangements on every table. Corey didn’t mind the music and decorations as much as he thought he might. He had a lot of reasons to not like Christmas. It had been the end of so much for him, but maybe he’d just needed to be somewhere like this to see it in a different light. Though they might not be here on Christmas Day. Tal was expecting to spend the holiday with his friends, assuming the weather cooperated. Corey had to find a way to get to his car, then to his uncle’s and hope he could get into the house.
A waiter handed them handwritten menus with a delicate decoupage of holly leaves and berries glued to one corner. Was there anything here that Christmas hadn’t touched? Corey had only intended to ask for toast. It was what he usually had,if he ate anything at all,but the man on the next table was tucking into a full English breakfast with bacon, eggs, sausages, tomatoes, mushrooms, fried bread in the shape of a Christmas tree and…ugh…a black pudding star.Thathe could live without.
“Delicious,” said the man who’d seen Corey staring.
“Looks it,” Corey said.Apart from the star of solid blood.He repressed his shudder and ran his gaze down the menu.Oh, poached eggs on toast.His mum had made him those and he’d dipped fingers of toast into the yolk. He wouldn’t eat boiled eggsbut he’d eaten poached ones and she used to try to persuade him there was no difference. He hadn’t thought about that for years.
“There’s a lot to choose from,” Tal said.
