 |
| Dylan |
I realized
I woke up smiling. I felt relaxed and at ease. I opened my eyes and noticed I
was spooning Dylan. There was something so very comforting about not waking up
alone for the first time in a while. At the same time I was surprised about
enjoying myself so much last night. I had definitely temporarily forgotten why
I had met Dylan. The sex had been good and the crush may have been mutual after
all, which was a bad sign for the assignment.
I knew I had to do some thinking. I slowly got up and succeeded in not waking Dylan up. I quickly put on the shorts and the T-shirt that I had left on the bedroom floor. I quietly sneaked out of the bedroom, shoes in hand.
In the living room, I sloppily stepped in my sneakers. I wanted to make my way out as fast as I could, when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. On a desk I saw an itinerary for Amanda Conway. It said she was in San Francisco until next weekend. I lifted up the sheet of paper and inspected it. Something was off about this, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I put the sheet down and tried to back away from the desk to turn around and leave. But I froze in place.
I felt a gun against the small of my back. I was immediately certain I had been found out. Then two arms appeared from behind me and pulled me backwards. I thought I was going to be wrestled to the floor. Just as I tried to resist I realized the two arms were cuddling me.
“Hey, where are you off to?”
I heard Dylan’s voice. His scruffy beard scratched my face as he rested his chin on my left shoulder. It was then I realized that it wasn’t a gun against my back at all.
“I need to get to work”, I lied.
“Awww, do you really? Are you sure you can’t stay around for some morning cuddles? I’ll make you breakfast!”
I turned to my left, trying to face him.
“Sorry”, I said.
He gave me a kiss on the cheek and let go of me. I turned around. Dylan stood fully naked in front of me, his cock rock hard and leaking.
“Oh all right then”, he said as he dropped his hands to his sides. “On one condition. Come visit my Southwick art gallery when you’re finished?”
I smiled. His messy morning hair and his big blue eyes were incredibly attractive, not to even mention his beautiful bare body before me in its excited state. I was surprised about my body’s reaction when I was starting to get hard again too.
“Sure”, I said as I walked toward him.
I gave him a short kiss on the lips and hugged him. He walked me to the door, his boner bouncing around in front of him. I walked to my car as he stood naked in the doorway, unashamed. I drove off, feeling confused. I saw the car parked across the street with officer Smith inside, smiling.
During the drive I forced myself to focus on the case. I was scared that I was developing feelings for Dylan, even though it was very possible that he was a murderer. All of the thoughts about how comfortable it had felt to sleep with him and what that meant, had to be pushed away.
I got back to the apartment and checked my phone. I had several messages. The first was from Medina:
“The wife has been located in Southwick, but after tracing her phone and her movements it turns out she hasn’t been at Kohl’s address for weeks. I’ll put someone on her.”
The other two were from Smith later on in the night:
“I’m on lookout for you, can you give a sign of life?” and “I was able to look into the window and confirm you are safe. You really go above and beyond the call of duty.”
I wasn’t sure if the tone of that last message was sarcastic. Most important was the information from Medina. The itinerary was bullshit as I had anticipated.
I called Medina.
“I have to say, I didn’t think you had it in you”, was the first thing he said when he answered.
I chuckled nervously.
“Thanks, I guess?”
“You did what you had to do, I will be sure to speak highly of you to your commanding officer.”
I smiled. I did not mention I had actually enjoyed my night with Dylan.
“Thank you, Sir.”
“Now, let’s focus on the case. You got some great new findings.”
I mentioned the itinerary in Amanda’s name for San Francisco and how there were photos of the two of them, but there was no sign of her.
“Were there women’s clothes in the closet?”
“I had no possibility to check. But I saw female products in the bathroom.”
“Well, we’re tracking her now and her location matches her phone’s. So she hasn’t been there a while.”
“I need to find out why. Tonight I’ll see Dylan at his art gallery.”
“You can ask him about her directly now that you have seen the photos of them together. You’re his lover now, you have a right to ask.”
“Are you making fun of me?”
“I wouldn’t dare!”
I asked Medina about what they had found suspicious about these art galleries, and he said that the one in Southwick specifically attracts people from far away, outside the state and that the gallery makes far too much money on its pieces. This sounded a bit vague to me, but I kept it in mind.
During the day, Dylan texted me the address for his art gallery. I replied and said I would be there around 5.30 PM. I put on a nice button-down shirt and jeans and got in the car. The address was 108 Congamond Road, which quite obviously turned out to be next to Congamond Lake, the lake I had drove past yesterday. For a large part, I drove the same route as I did to Louie’s Lakehouse, only this time I ended up on the Eastern side of the lake. It seemed quite far away from the center of Southwick, but with boat rentals and summer houses nearby, this place could see lots of customers in summer.
I parked and got out of the car. Today it seemed reasonably quiet, but it was a Monday. With 87 degrees (31 Celsius), it had been a great day, but a nice breeze came across the parking lot as it was so close to the lake. I opened the door to the gallery and it was empty. A soothing piece of music played in the background. I looked at some of the paintings and I was quite impressed.
After about a minute of looking at the art, I heard someone approach.
“Hello there, can I help you with anything?”
I looked up and saw a diminutive young man looking at me. I estimated him in his mid- to late twenties. He was very small and thin, and there was something almost stereotypically gay about the way he looked me over and had one hand on his side.
“Hi”, I said, smiling, “I’m here to see Dylan.”
The young man raised his eyebrows and pointed at me.
“You’re Josh?”
“Yeah”, I replied.
“Wow. I’m Grant, nice to meet you.”
We shook hands.
“Dylan just told me about you today.”
“Only good things, I hope.”
Grant smiled, but didn’t allow me the satisfaction of his laughter at my corny remark.
“I’ll go get him.”
Grant walked out of the room like he was on a runway.
In a matter of seconds, Dylan walked in.
“You made it!”, he said.
“Of course!”
He gave me a kiss on the mouth.
“I like your shirt”, he said, “you look good.”
“Thanks”, I replied, “so do you.”
“So, do you like?”
He gestured to the paintings, or maybe the gallery as a whole.
“Yeah, it’s great!”
“Can you imagine your own work hanging here one day?”
“That would be awesome”, I said.
“Can we talk?”, I said.
“Sure”, Dylan replied.
His smile was blindingly beautiful.
“Do you want to go sit at the pizza place next door?”
“OK.”
“Grant, you can lock up! I’ll be back… Thursday, I think.”
“Goodbye, you lovebirds!”, could be heard from the back.
Dylan and I smiled at each other.
I hadn’t spotted it on my way in, but two doors down from the gallery was Congamond Pizza. We sat outside. After we had ordered drinks and pizzas, Dylan said,
“I feel like I know what you want to talk about.”
“You do?”
He pointed at the ring on his left hand.
“Am I right?”
I looked down, looked back up and nodded.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. But it’s not as bad as it looks.”
I tried to keep a neutral expression on my face.
“You may have gathered it is a marriage of convenience, as I am…”
“Gay?”
“Well, yes, that too. But also… Canadian.”
Suddenly it felt like time was slowing down. Had I not picked up on his accent? If the Southwick police department didn’t know this, then how would I have?
“I did not pick up on that”, I said, smiling. “Now I feel like I know where this is going.”
“I married Amanda when my visa ran out. We had made all these agreements, to make it look as real as possible… which explains the pictures, and just the whole female presence in my house.”
Dylan stopped talking as our drinks arrived.
“We were even living together. I wasn’t pursuing any relationships and neither was she. We had also agreed on her financial compensation. We made a contract, which I still have back home. But once I started making more and more money from the galleries, she felt like she would deserve a portion of that.”
My heart was beating fast as I felt I was getting close to the answer to the case. I took a breadstick and slowly ate it, not wanting to show what I was feeling inside.
“So we had a fight about a year ago. She no longer wanted to live with me. So if Immigration comes over, I always have some excuse ready for why she’s not there.”
“The itinerary.”
“Yeah.”
There was a short silence as now our pizzas were being served.
“So, that’s the story behind the wedding ring. We had agreed for the marriage to end by December of this year, and I think that’s still on. But she seems more and more angry, asking me for money every time we speak.”
I nodded, listening intently. I had a question, but I needed to be careful when and how I asked it.
“I’m relieved. Thanks for telling me.”
“I guess you deserved to hear this sooner. But you’re welcome.”
He winked at me.
“Bit of a nasty situation with her now though…”, I started.
“I don’t really think about it day to day, to be honest.”
“Really? Sounds like she’s pissed. She doesn’t have access to your money now though, right?”
I had asked the question casually, right before I put a slice of pizza in my mouth.
“It’s not like she can run away with it?”, I clarified with my mouth full. Dylan chuckled.
“No, not really. Well… she knows how to get to it… But she won’t be able to, as long as I’m around.”
I looked back at him, smiling.
“That sounds vague”, I said. “As long as you feel safe.”
“Of course I do. Especially with you around.”
I smiled at him. His knee touched mine under the table.
I felt a sense of urgency to tell Medina that Amanda has to be considered a suspect. It was hard to remain focused on the flirting at the same time.
“Sorry, my phone just buzzed”, I lied. “I have to check if it’s Mom.”
“Of course, is she doing OK?”
I took my phone out of my pocket and pretended to read a non-existent text.
“She’s hanging in there”, I said absent-mindedly as I texted Medina.
“I have to go see her tonight though. Sorry.”
“That’s OK. I’ll see you at practice on Wednesday, right?”
“Absolutely!”
During the rest of the meal, Dylan and I just got to know each other. I forgot all about the case and noticed I started getting butterflies in my stomach. I had never felt like this about another man. As much as it surprised me and to a point scared me, I really didn’t feel like resisting it. Connections like these are rare. Unfortunately, the odds of this relationship continuing when my assignment was over were really slim. Even if my intuition was right and Dylan was innocent, once it would be made clear to him that I was an undercover cop, he would know I had lied to him. It would make him doubt our entire connection. I tried not to think about it too much.
Once we finished our pizzas, I didn’t feel like leaving, but said that I had to go and see my Mom. Dylan paid for our meals and walked me to my car. When we got there I turned toward him to kiss him goodbye. He pushed me against the car door and started kissing me passionately. I reached down and squeezed his ass, feeling my cock get hard in between our bodies.
“I’ll see you Wednesday”, Dylan then whispered and gave me a long hug.
“Do we tell the teammates or do we keep quiet?”
“Brandon saw us kiss last night. The entire team will probably know.”
I chuckled.
“I forgot about that.”
“Let’s spend the night at my place after practice though”, he asked me, only then breaking the hug.
“Absolutely”, I smiled.
Dylan stepped back and adjusted the very visible boner in his pants.
I winked at him and got in the car.
“Josh?”, I heard.
I rolled down the window.
“I like you.”
I grinned from ear to ear.
“I like you too, Dylan.”
I drove off, feeling sad.
When I parked at the apartment, I was thinking about the new information I had to tell Medina. Amanda could have motive to kill the three men, if she was trying to set Dylan up. From what I had understood, with Dylan in prison she would have access to all of his money. The only question that remained was why she didn’t just kill Dylan and inherit his money immediately. Maybe because he was still making so much and she wanted more? I walked toward the building when I suddenly heard a car drive past at full speed. Just as I wanted to look up, I heard a shot.
--------
I knew I had to do some thinking. I slowly got up and succeeded in not waking Dylan up. I quickly put on the shorts and the T-shirt that I had left on the bedroom floor. I quietly sneaked out of the bedroom, shoes in hand.
In the living room, I sloppily stepped in my sneakers. I wanted to make my way out as fast as I could, when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. On a desk I saw an itinerary for Amanda Conway. It said she was in San Francisco until next weekend. I lifted up the sheet of paper and inspected it. Something was off about this, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I put the sheet down and tried to back away from the desk to turn around and leave. But I froze in place.
I felt a gun against the small of my back. I was immediately certain I had been found out. Then two arms appeared from behind me and pulled me backwards. I thought I was going to be wrestled to the floor. Just as I tried to resist I realized the two arms were cuddling me.
“Hey, where are you off to?”
I heard Dylan’s voice. His scruffy beard scratched my face as he rested his chin on my left shoulder. It was then I realized that it wasn’t a gun against my back at all.
“I need to get to work”, I lied.
“Awww, do you really? Are you sure you can’t stay around for some morning cuddles? I’ll make you breakfast!”
I turned to my left, trying to face him.
“Sorry”, I said.
He gave me a kiss on the cheek and let go of me. I turned around. Dylan stood fully naked in front of me, his cock rock hard and leaking.
“Oh all right then”, he said as he dropped his hands to his sides. “On one condition. Come visit my Southwick art gallery when you’re finished?”
I smiled. His messy morning hair and his big blue eyes were incredibly attractive, not to even mention his beautiful bare body before me in its excited state. I was surprised about my body’s reaction when I was starting to get hard again too.
“Sure”, I said as I walked toward him.
I gave him a short kiss on the lips and hugged him. He walked me to the door, his boner bouncing around in front of him. I walked to my car as he stood naked in the doorway, unashamed. I drove off, feeling confused. I saw the car parked across the street with officer Smith inside, smiling.
During the drive I forced myself to focus on the case. I was scared that I was developing feelings for Dylan, even though it was very possible that he was a murderer. All of the thoughts about how comfortable it had felt to sleep with him and what that meant, had to be pushed away.
I got back to the apartment and checked my phone. I had several messages. The first was from Medina:
“The wife has been located in Southwick, but after tracing her phone and her movements it turns out she hasn’t been at Kohl’s address for weeks. I’ll put someone on her.”
The other two were from Smith later on in the night:
“I’m on lookout for you, can you give a sign of life?” and “I was able to look into the window and confirm you are safe. You really go above and beyond the call of duty.”
I wasn’t sure if the tone of that last message was sarcastic. Most important was the information from Medina. The itinerary was bullshit as I had anticipated.
I called Medina.
“I have to say, I didn’t think you had it in you”, was the first thing he said when he answered.
I chuckled nervously.
“Thanks, I guess?”
“You did what you had to do, I will be sure to speak highly of you to your commanding officer.”
I smiled. I did not mention I had actually enjoyed my night with Dylan.
“Thank you, Sir.”
“Now, let’s focus on the case. You got some great new findings.”
I mentioned the itinerary in Amanda’s name for San Francisco and how there were photos of the two of them, but there was no sign of her.
“Were there women’s clothes in the closet?”
“I had no possibility to check. But I saw female products in the bathroom.”
“Well, we’re tracking her now and her location matches her phone’s. So she hasn’t been there a while.”
“I need to find out why. Tonight I’ll see Dylan at his art gallery.”
“You can ask him about her directly now that you have seen the photos of them together. You’re his lover now, you have a right to ask.”
“Are you making fun of me?”
“I wouldn’t dare!”
I asked Medina about what they had found suspicious about these art galleries, and he said that the one in Southwick specifically attracts people from far away, outside the state and that the gallery makes far too much money on its pieces. This sounded a bit vague to me, but I kept it in mind.
During the day, Dylan texted me the address for his art gallery. I replied and said I would be there around 5.30 PM. I put on a nice button-down shirt and jeans and got in the car. The address was 108 Congamond Road, which quite obviously turned out to be next to Congamond Lake, the lake I had drove past yesterday. For a large part, I drove the same route as I did to Louie’s Lakehouse, only this time I ended up on the Eastern side of the lake. It seemed quite far away from the center of Southwick, but with boat rentals and summer houses nearby, this place could see lots of customers in summer.
I parked and got out of the car. Today it seemed reasonably quiet, but it was a Monday. With 87 degrees (31 Celsius), it had been a great day, but a nice breeze came across the parking lot as it was so close to the lake. I opened the door to the gallery and it was empty. A soothing piece of music played in the background. I looked at some of the paintings and I was quite impressed.
After about a minute of looking at the art, I heard someone approach.
“Hello there, can I help you with anything?”
I looked up and saw a diminutive young man looking at me. I estimated him in his mid- to late twenties. He was very small and thin, and there was something almost stereotypically gay about the way he looked me over and had one hand on his side.
“Hi”, I said, smiling, “I’m here to see Dylan.”
The young man raised his eyebrows and pointed at me.
“You’re Josh?”
“Yeah”, I replied.
“Wow. I’m Grant, nice to meet you.”
We shook hands.
“Dylan just told me about you today.”
“Only good things, I hope.”
Grant smiled, but didn’t allow me the satisfaction of his laughter at my corny remark.
“I’ll go get him.”
Grant walked out of the room like he was on a runway.
In a matter of seconds, Dylan walked in.
“You made it!”, he said.
“Of course!”
He gave me a kiss on the mouth.
“I like your shirt”, he said, “you look good.”
“Thanks”, I replied, “so do you.”
“So, do you like?”
He gestured to the paintings, or maybe the gallery as a whole.
“Yeah, it’s great!”
“Can you imagine your own work hanging here one day?”
“That would be awesome”, I said.
“Can we talk?”, I said.
“Sure”, Dylan replied.
His smile was blindingly beautiful.
“Do you want to go sit at the pizza place next door?”
“OK.”
“Grant, you can lock up! I’ll be back… Thursday, I think.”
“Goodbye, you lovebirds!”, could be heard from the back.
Dylan and I smiled at each other.
I hadn’t spotted it on my way in, but two doors down from the gallery was Congamond Pizza. We sat outside. After we had ordered drinks and pizzas, Dylan said,
“I feel like I know what you want to talk about.”
“You do?”
He pointed at the ring on his left hand.
“Am I right?”
I looked down, looked back up and nodded.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. But it’s not as bad as it looks.”
I tried to keep a neutral expression on my face.
“You may have gathered it is a marriage of convenience, as I am…”
“Gay?”
“Well, yes, that too. But also… Canadian.”
Suddenly it felt like time was slowing down. Had I not picked up on his accent? If the Southwick police department didn’t know this, then how would I have?
“I did not pick up on that”, I said, smiling. “Now I feel like I know where this is going.”
“I married Amanda when my visa ran out. We had made all these agreements, to make it look as real as possible… which explains the pictures, and just the whole female presence in my house.”
Dylan stopped talking as our drinks arrived.
“We were even living together. I wasn’t pursuing any relationships and neither was she. We had also agreed on her financial compensation. We made a contract, which I still have back home. But once I started making more and more money from the galleries, she felt like she would deserve a portion of that.”
My heart was beating fast as I felt I was getting close to the answer to the case. I took a breadstick and slowly ate it, not wanting to show what I was feeling inside.
“So we had a fight about a year ago. She no longer wanted to live with me. So if Immigration comes over, I always have some excuse ready for why she’s not there.”
“The itinerary.”
“Yeah.”
There was a short silence as now our pizzas were being served.
“So, that’s the story behind the wedding ring. We had agreed for the marriage to end by December of this year, and I think that’s still on. But she seems more and more angry, asking me for money every time we speak.”
I nodded, listening intently. I had a question, but I needed to be careful when and how I asked it.
“I’m relieved. Thanks for telling me.”
“I guess you deserved to hear this sooner. But you’re welcome.”
He winked at me.
“Bit of a nasty situation with her now though…”, I started.
“I don’t really think about it day to day, to be honest.”
“Really? Sounds like she’s pissed. She doesn’t have access to your money now though, right?”
I had asked the question casually, right before I put a slice of pizza in my mouth.
“It’s not like she can run away with it?”, I clarified with my mouth full. Dylan chuckled.
“No, not really. Well… she knows how to get to it… But she won’t be able to, as long as I’m around.”
I looked back at him, smiling.
“That sounds vague”, I said. “As long as you feel safe.”
“Of course I do. Especially with you around.”
I smiled at him. His knee touched mine under the table.
I felt a sense of urgency to tell Medina that Amanda has to be considered a suspect. It was hard to remain focused on the flirting at the same time.
“Sorry, my phone just buzzed”, I lied. “I have to check if it’s Mom.”
“Of course, is she doing OK?”
I took my phone out of my pocket and pretended to read a non-existent text.
“She’s hanging in there”, I said absent-mindedly as I texted Medina.
“I have to go see her tonight though. Sorry.”
“That’s OK. I’ll see you at practice on Wednesday, right?”
“Absolutely!”
During the rest of the meal, Dylan and I just got to know each other. I forgot all about the case and noticed I started getting butterflies in my stomach. I had never felt like this about another man. As much as it surprised me and to a point scared me, I really didn’t feel like resisting it. Connections like these are rare. Unfortunately, the odds of this relationship continuing when my assignment was over were really slim. Even if my intuition was right and Dylan was innocent, once it would be made clear to him that I was an undercover cop, he would know I had lied to him. It would make him doubt our entire connection. I tried not to think about it too much.
Once we finished our pizzas, I didn’t feel like leaving, but said that I had to go and see my Mom. Dylan paid for our meals and walked me to my car. When we got there I turned toward him to kiss him goodbye. He pushed me against the car door and started kissing me passionately. I reached down and squeezed his ass, feeling my cock get hard in between our bodies.
“I’ll see you Wednesday”, Dylan then whispered and gave me a long hug.
“Do we tell the teammates or do we keep quiet?”
“Brandon saw us kiss last night. The entire team will probably know.”
I chuckled.
“I forgot about that.”
“Let’s spend the night at my place after practice though”, he asked me, only then breaking the hug.
“Absolutely”, I smiled.
Dylan stepped back and adjusted the very visible boner in his pants.
I winked at him and got in the car.
“Josh?”, I heard.
I rolled down the window.
“I like you.”
I grinned from ear to ear.
“I like you too, Dylan.”
I drove off, feeling sad.
When I parked at the apartment, I was thinking about the new information I had to tell Medina. Amanda could have motive to kill the three men, if she was trying to set Dylan up. From what I had understood, with Dylan in prison she would have access to all of his money. The only question that remained was why she didn’t just kill Dylan and inherit his money immediately. Maybe because he was still making so much and she wanted more? I walked toward the building when I suddenly heard a car drive past at full speed. Just as I wanted to look up, I heard a shot.
--------
My eyes felt heavy. My head was throbbing like the worst migraine of my life. I opened my eyes and everything was white. The walls, the ceiling, the light. I was in a hospital.
“Hey there, how are you feeling?”
I looked to my right and I saw a woman, African American, short hair, in scrubs.
“What happened?”
My voice sounded raspy.
“I’m afraid you got shot in the neck last night.”
I turned my head and immediately felt a sharp pain on the left side of my neck.
“Careful with any sudden movements”, she said.
With my hand I reached up and felt the large bandage.
“It only grazed you, no surgery was needed.”
“Who did this?”
“I don’t know. There were some people who wanted to see you, I’m sure they can tell you more. Let me go call them.”
I must have fallen asleep. When I woke up, Medina sat on a chair to my right.
“Hey”, he said.
“Hi”, I said, again with my raspy voice.
“Does it hurt?”
“I’m clearly on some medication”, I answered, “so I’ll be fine.”
Medina laughed.
“Tell me what happened.”
“You did it, Fanucci. You solved the case.”
“I… what?”
“It was Amanda Kohl. She shot you. Her usual MO. But because she was being followed, officer Pratt could just get to her as she was aiming for your head.”
“Pratt saved my life?”
He laughed again.
“Maybe you owe him a muffin basket.”
I grinned.
“I had just found out her possible motive, I can’t believe she was onto me so fast.”
“I doubt she knew. She just knew you were close to Dylan. She has already admitted to blackmailing him. Apparently Dylan knew all along why people around him were getting murdered whenever he wasn’t making enough money for her.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah. He has been briefed this morning. He was devastated about the whole thing.”
“He was briefed. About…”
“Everything, yeah.”
Fuck. Dylan knew I was here undercover.
“He…”, Medina cleared his throat. “He… well, OK. This is not protocol at all. But he insisted on seeing you. He refused to believe that your romance was all an act, can you believe that?”
He chuckled. I smiled, but couldn’t look Medina in the eye.
“So anyway, if you feel like it, maybe it’s best if he hears it from you.”
“Did you bring him here?”
Medina nodded.
“But I can bring him back another time, you must feel exhausted.”
“No, no”, I shook my head. “Bring him in.”
“Sure.”
As soon as Medina left the room, I tried to fix my hair without a mirror. As if that mattered. Dylan entered. I could tell he had been crying. His blue eyes looked at me and he seemed unsure of what to think. Medina had obviously repeatedly told him I had been lying to get close to him and get information. He walked around the bed and sat where Medina had just been.
“I’ll leave you two alone for a while”, Medina had followed Dylan back in but now left and closed the door.
“Josh?”, Dylan started, his voice breaking. “Is that your real name?”
I smiled and nodded.
“Josh Fanucci.”
Dylan smiled just as a tear started falling from his right eye.
“I could tell you had an Italian background.”
There was a short silence. I didn’t know what to say.
“Are you OK?”
“I will be”, I said.
“I am so sorry for bringing you into all of this”, he then said, crying more.
I shrugged, which hurt a lot, but I didn’t want Dylan to see that.
“It’s my job”, I said.
“So I heard”, he replied.
Now it was me who started to feel my eyes water.
“I have to be upfront about something”, I started. “I am straight, I always have been.”
Dylan was looking away from me, clearly crying.
“But with you… there was something.”
Dylan turned to face me.
“R-really?”
I nodded.
“Connections like these are rare. And if you can trust me after this… I was hoping we could continue exploring this.”
Dylan’s face lit up. He got up and hugged me as I was lying down. I hugged him back.
“You took my gay virginity”, I whispered.
He laughed.
“Did I really? You were very good for a virgin.”
I laughed.
Dylan helped me get better. He took me in and looked after me. I had plenty of time to tell him all about my life to catch him up. I told him that my mother wasn’t sick, she was absolutely fine back in Boston. We only grew closer and closer.
About a week after getting shot, Dylan was driving me to the apartment the police department had arranged for me, to pick up some more stuff. My phone buzzed. It was Medina. He had been in close contact all through the week to check up on me. I picked up.
“Hey how ya doin’, Fanucci?”
“Getting better and better! Actually on the road now to pick up stuff at the apartment.”
“Oh right, that apartment. Yeah, the contract on that runs out next week on the 30th, I thought I should tell you.”
“Oh OK, cool. Thanks for telling me.”
“Unless…”
“Unless what?”
“Unless I can tempt you into joining the Southwick Police Department. We would just have the contract switch to your name.”
I smiled. I looked at Dylan, who was driving and not really paying attention to my phone call. His beautiful face was so adorable when he was concentrating.
“Let’s do the latter.”
THE END
And another cracking story. You are so talented.
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