From the Ashes (6 page)

All the while, Henri chattered happily. Apparently, he was Quebecois, not French. That distinction came with a mess of political and social opinions that were delightfully unlike any of Jesse’s problems.

Jesse smiled as he listened to Henri talk. He loved everything about his job. The customers were funny, the staff nice. Every day he saw a piercing or a tattoo he’d never imagined before. After growing up in a small town in Eastern Washington, Speedy Coffee felt like working at a carnival.

At ten forty-five Sharon showed up, looking frazzled. She had an eleven-year-old, an eight-year-old, an ex-husband and a mortgage, the sum total of which seemed to diminish her mental capacity.

“Oh. Jesse. You came in?” She stopped where she was, coffee cup in one hand and a pile of papers—probably from her kids’ schools—in the other. Sharon wore her bottle-blonde hair in a loose ponytail and had a smudge of lipstick on her teeth. “Are you okay?”

He thought about the pile of money in the tip jar. Enough to buy him a pack of underwear and a change of clothes, and maybe even a cheap hotel for the night. “Yeah. But, um… I should talk to you about some things.” He flushed, licking his lips from nerves. He’d come to ask for money—from Sharon, who was always panicking over the cost of everything from groceries to soccer cleats.

“Okay.” She looked a little confused, but that was her normal expression whenever she heard new information. Sharon called it
Mommy Brain
. “Meet me in back.”

Jesse took off his apron and followed her into the office. She stood against the desk. They didn’t have any chairs in the room because it was too small.

“Um…” Jesse weighed what he needed against what he wanted. He decided to start there. “So, it might be a few days before I can work my regular schedule. Is there any way I can switch to second shift?” He’d miss his afternoon classes, but he couldn’t go without getting paid.

Sharon sighed. “I can ask Michael and Fred, but I think they both have class in the morning.” She checked the desk calendar, tapping her chin. “I can cover for you tomorrow. But I may have to find a temporary replacement if you have to miss more than a few days.” She folded her arms, looking miserable to be saying it. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah. Okay. I’ll figure something out.” He stared at the floor.
Fuck.

“Here.” Sharon dug through her purse. From a cash envelope, she counted five twenties. That only left her with four. “I know it’s not a lot. If I could spare more, you know I would.” She held it out as if she felt guilty.

Jesse’s chest hurt to watch her. It hammered home how little his own parents cared about him. “Thanks.” His throat tightened around the word.

“Do you have a place to stay?” Sharon asked.

Jesse didn’t want to tell her that he didn’t. Anyway, he could stay with Tomas. He didn’t know for how long, or if he wanted to take the emotional risk since he was pretty sure they’d keep making out. But, fuck. He was accepting money out of the tip jar, a hundred bucks from Sharon who he knew didn’t have it to spare. What was the harm in taking Tomas up on his offer for another couple nights?

“Yeah, I have a place to stay. For now.” He considered how long the transit ride would be from SeaTac to get to Speedy Coffee by six thirty in the morning. “Let me know if anyone wants to switch shifts for a couple days. But if not, I’ll be here at six thirty tomorrow.”

Chapter Five

The fire station weight room was empty, except for him and Rick. Tomas lay on the bench, the pump of his muscles and the rhythm of his breathing distracting him from worry over when Jesse would call.

“Hey,” Rick said from above him, where he was spotting the bar. “For fuck’s sake, man. Where’s your brain?”

Tomas lowered the weights. “Was I not paying you enough attention?” He chuckled through his heavy breathing.

When they worked out, Rick liked to tell raunchy stories about his nights out in the bars. He was always bragging about some girl he’d bedded.

“Not like I give a shit.” Rick rolled his shoulders. “But you’re totally out of it. Someone could land a boulder on you and you wouldn’t even notice.”

Right then, Tomas’s cellphone rang. The clang of his bar hitting the rack rang through the weight room.

“That’s what I’m talking about, man. If there was more weight on there, that would have been dangerous.”

Tomas ignored Rick’s scolding and checked the screen on his phone. It was Jesse’s number. “Sorry about that, man. I’ve got to take this call.” He grabbed his towel off the weight set and pushed out the door.

Behind him, Rick was sputtering something about “Bros before hoes,” but Tomas ignored him.

The early October sky had clouded up and started to mist. The air felt great against his sweaty skin.

He clicked onto the call and put on his most charming voice. “You ready for a ride home?” Tomas didn’t know whether Jesse had found a place to stay, but he assumed he hadn’t.

“Yeah.” Jesse sounded resigned but also nervous. “I…I mean, if you were serious about my staying at your place for another night?” He paused. “Or two?”

Tomas gave the air a subtle fist pump, but he kept his voice casual. “Yeah, sure. I’m serious, man. As long as you want.”

A half hour later, Tomas pulled in front of a University District coffee shop—the type of hole-in-the-wall that only had four tables.

“Hey. Thanks for driving up here. I could have taken the bus.” Jesse smiled nervously. He threw a few shopping bags into the space behind the seats.

“Don’t worry about it.” Tomas drew away from the curb and halfway into the lane where rush-hour traffic was backed up to the light. “So, looks like you got some clothes. Any luck with a place to stay?” Tomas figured he might as well hear about the competition right off the bat.

“Nah.” Jesse messed with some papers from his backpack. He leafed through, forehead creased between his eyebrows. “It might be a while before I have the cash for a deposit on a place that takes pets.”

“That’s too bad,” Tomas said, though he felt like the answer was the best thing he’d heard all day.

“I know this may be too much to ask, but—I could pay if you wanted. I’d stay on the couch. I feel really bad for making you do that last night.”

“Hey.” Tomas rubbed Jesse’s arm. He wanted to hold Jesse’s hand, but that would have felt too pushy. “I told you you’re welcome to stay. I meant it.” He wanted more time, and lots of it. Time to get to know one another.

“Well, I’d really feel better if I could pay some kind of rent. Like, for a week or two?”

Tomas hummed his agreement. Two weeks with Jesse at his house? Hell yeah. “That would be fine. My parents charge me four hundred a month. So you’d pay two hundred, but for a couple weeks—”

“You pay four hundred a month?” Jesse’s eyes bugged wide. “Crap, even a tiny room in a group house in Seattle would run me five.”

“No kidding.” Tomas grinned. “Why do you think I live in SeaTac?” He pulled onto the highway to join the traffic creeping its way over the Ship Canal Bridge.

“I see your point.” Jesse’s gaze fell back to the papers on his lap, and he frowned. “If I can find a second job in the next couple weeks, I’ll be set to drop out and have the cash to rent a new place.”

Tomas clicked his turn signal and switched lanes. “You’re dropping out?”

“For this quarter, yeah.” Jesse shoved the papers back in the bag. “I’ve already started all my classes, so I can’t get any money back. I just hope they accept my appeal so I can get financial aid for next quarter.”

“They’re not giving you any money back?”

“No.” Hands in tight fists in his lap, Jesse fixed his gaze out the window. “The most I can hope for at this point is they’ll let me apply for more aid.”

If Tomas hadn’t been on the highway, he would have pulled over. As it was, he settled for slapping the steering wheel. “How much did you spend on classes?”

Jesse shrank in his seat, crossing his arms. “It’s none of your business.”

Tomas darted him an angry look. “Well, I’m sure it’s thousands. You’re going to just, what? Walk away from that? With nothing?”

“What in the fuck?” Jesse lashed out. “What do you care what I do?”

“I just don’t understand.” Tomas tried to get his head into a place where he wasn’t seeing red. It was one thing to lose money when you had no choice. The house fire hadn’t been under Jesse’s control. But Tomas’s parents wouldn’t have gotten far in America if they hadn’t accepted help from friends and family, and they certainly hadn’t gone from being broke immigrants to owning their own home by throwing money away. “Why don’t you stay with me instead? You don’t need to find another place.”

“I don’t even know you.” Jesse leaned against the door as if Tomas was forcing him into a corner. With a frown, he added, “And, anyway, I don’t want to live in the suburbs.”

There was a pause when Tomas would have told Jesse how ridiculous and spoiled he sounded, but Jesse’s lip twitched. “Yeah, I know that sounds stupid.”

“Listen.” Tomas put a hand on Jesse’s knee but pulled it back before Jesse could get the wrong idea. “Give it a week or two. We can try it out. I could use the company.” He teased Jesse with a smile. “Try it before you make a decision. Go to work, to school. Maybe it’ll work out better than you think.”

Tomas was
not
letting Jesse drop out of school just so he could afford his own apartment. No way. But he didn’t see the point of fighting about it in the car. Time was on his side, and so was the economy. Jesse was lucky to have one job. In a recession, Tomas doubted he’d find a second so easily.

“But I work starting at six thirty,” Jesse whined. “I’ll probably have to take a bus at five. Wait, they have light rail near you, right?”

“Yeah. It’s faster than you’re thinking.” Tomas rubbed his arm again. He couldn’t keep his hands off Jesse for more than a minute. “And I’ll drive you the days I go in to work.”

Jesse shook his head. “That’s fucking insane. I can’t ask you to—”

“I don’t mind.” Tomas didn’t have to be at work until eight, but the roads would be near empty at six in the morning. They’d get into town in half the time he normally did. “That way I can drive you up to the U District. You guys sell breakfast sandwiches at that coffee shop of yours?”

“You’re just agreeing so you can score free breakfast, aren’t you?” Jesse’s grumbled, but he was smiling.

Tomas winked. “You caught me.”

The moment they got through the door of Tomas’s house, Tomas backed Jesse into the wall and kissed him. Any pretense that their arrangement would be an economic one and not a sexual one went up in a blaze of lust.

Tomas dragged off both their tops and unfastened Jesse’s pants. He palmed Jesse’s cock and started jerking him off in that too-rough way of his.

Too close already, Jesse darted a gaze between their bodies. He didn’t want to come right out and ask if it was okay with Tomas if he went down on him. Jesse’d only been with one guy who was in the closet, and he’d only been with that guy the one time.

Deciding to just go for it, Jesse tried to shimmy down the wall. They were pressed close together, and it wasn’t easy. He got as far as Tomas’s chest.

“What are you doing?” Tomas tensed, his hands tight on Jesse’s sides.

Jesse kissed his way down Tomas’s belly. “Trying to get my tongue where it will do some good.”

Tomas hooked his hands under Jesse’s shoulders and hauled him back up. “No,” he growled. Tomas attacked Jesse’s mouth, biting his lips, thrusting inside with his tongue.

Jesse broke away to breathe. “I thought you said you didn’t—”

“I don’t.” Tomas closed his fist around Jesse’s cock.

“Oh God.” Jesse didn’t care if they were skipping oral. He’d come soon just from a dry hump. “Pants.” Jesse shoved at Tomas’s jeans, and Tomas did the same to him. They kicked off their shoes, and in a messy jostle, got out of their pant legs. Before Jesse could think, Tomas lifted him by the hips. He didn’t toss Jesse over his shoulder. Not exactly. But he held Jesse high and carried him into his room like a caveman.

Maybe it was fucked up to be turned on by that, but Jess didn’t care.

Tomas tossed him on the bed. He stood there, his body muscled and his dick thick and hard and pointing straight forward. On his shoulder, a tattoo swirled in a tribal design. Jesse hadn’t gotten a good look at it, at any of Tomas really, the night before. And now…

Damn.
Jesse wanted to flip onto his stomach and assume the position, but he wasn’t going that far. Not today, at least.

“I fucking love kissing you.” Tomas’s voice was so low it sounded like a growl. He climbed over Jesse so their cocks lined up, and thrust like he had the night before. Harder this time, as if he wanted to shove right inside Jesse’s body.

Jesse grabbed his ass, pulling him in closer. Tomas’s glutes were meaty and round, and they led to a back heavy with muscle.

When they were both sweaty and panting, Tomas reached between them and palmed both their cocks to jerk them in tandem. His hands were big and calloused. Too rough, but perfect at the same time. He kissed Jesse like he was fucking his mouth.

Jesse threw his head back and came first. Come hit his belly in a hot sizzle.

A second after, Tomas went rigid and sprayed all over Jesse’s chest. He looked like something out of a porn video. Jesse had only seen four different guys come in his life—five if you counted Tomas—but Tomas was blowing the other guys out of the water.