Siempre (6 page)

The door crept open and Jaime smiled when he saw Sean was up.

“Hey.” Jaime closed the door behind him and walked to the bed. “I thought you were going to sleep through breakfast.”

“Breakfast?” Sean was more of a brunch person. Sometimes when he had to get up early for classes, Travis would make him eat a bagel.

“Are you on some weird dancer diet that doesn’t let you eat breakfast?” Jaime climbed on the bed and crawled over Sean so he was pressing Sean down on his back as Jaime nipped at his neck. “Because I was thinking you’d need the energy, and I don’t have any weird diet shakes or anything.”

“I usually sleep through it,” Sean mumbled as Jaime pressed a soft kiss to the base of his neck.

“Well, if you want something since you woke up, it’s ready.” Jaime pulled back, smirking at Sean’s soft whine of protest. “I’m not going to make you get up before you want to on your day off, but I’m warning you that there’s a limit on how long Lexi will save you some.”

With that, Jaime left him, closing the door behind him. Part of Sean wanted to sleep for another hour. He couldn’t relax with the warmth that came over him as he realized no guy had ever cooked him breakfast. Maybe he had been missing out by not dating morning people. No, he was not going to get up early all the time, but Jaime had no way of knowing he usually slept until eleven on Sundays. What mattered was that he’d made breakfast the first morning they really had to spend together.

Jaime was at the stove when Sean came out to the kitchen wearing the same clothes he’d had on the night before. He’d assumed he was spending the night, but bringing extra clothes seemed like too much. He’d tried to make something of his hair in the small mirror in Jaime’s room before deciding he’d just have to face Aleksandra on the way to the bathroom.

“He wakes.” Aleksandra was sitting at the table with one leg curled under her on the small padded folding chair. Sean couldn’t imagine it was comfortable, but she seemed to think so. Her hair was in messy dark waves around her shoulders, and she was still dressed in a tank top and pajama pants Sean assumed she’d slept in.

“Yeah. Good morning?” Sean glanced behind Aleksandra toward the bathroom, and she laughed as she waved him away.

“Go ahead. I’m not as uncivilized as this one makes me out to be. I’ll leave you something to eat.”

“Yeah. She’ll just eat my food instead,” Jaime said as Sean closed the door to the bathroom and surveyed his options. Jaime’s hair was trimmed so close to his head that any hair products had to be Aleksandra’s, and he should probably not steal her products without asking. Instead, he’d just have to hope water would make whatever gel was left in his hair from the day before hold some kind of a decent shape. He splashed his face with water and gave up hope there was a moisturizer he could use without getting caught. If his skin felt dry later, he’d just do a mask. It was always worth doing with Alana anyway, because Travis hated looking at them.

“Do you like breakfast burritos?” Jaime asked when he came back in the kitchen. “If you don’t, there’s also bacon because Lexi demanded some, or you could have eggs without all the fun stuff if you wanted. There’s also cereal, because Lexi has to eat something when I’m not home.”

“A breakfast burrito’s good.”

“Usually he makes them spicier, but he was afraid you couldn’t handle it, so they’re not as good,” Aleksandra said as she took another bite of her own.

“They’re just as good.” Jaime set a plate in front of him. There was already orange juice on the table, so Sean shook his head at the offer of coffee.

“You don’t drink coffee?” Aleksandra stared at him like he’d just told her he murdered small children.

“Sometimes, if I didn’t sleep well, but not all the time. It makes me jittery.”

“And you slept really well last night, I’m sure.” Aleksandra smirked as she picked up her own mug of coffee and sat back to pretzel herself in the chair.

Chapter 5

S
EAN
WAS
loitering in the dressing room on Thursday almost three weeks later when Alana sauntered in after everyone else had left. It was the one day a week Jaime was in the city, and Sean’s schedule was easy enough that he wasn’t useless. The short time span meant they had to spend the time just hanging out and talking instead of hooking up. The previous week Alana had figured out how much he was looking forward to it and spent the entire day teasing him for being more excited about getting to know Jaime than having a sex marathon on the weekend.

“Why are you pouty? Teasing you for being excited for your weekly sexless date night is not fun if you are not actually excited for it.” Alana wiped her hand over the nearest bench before deciding it was clean enough to lie down on her back. “Don’t worry. I’m not invading again. I wish I was. Travis is coming back to help me work on Steph’s piece. You might need to come back after the date to carry me home, though.”

“Tell Travis if he kills you, it’s his job to carry you home,” Sean answered.

“I did notice you ignored the other question. Why are you pouty? Did he cancel? Does he have something else to do and he said you can’t come with? Did he give you herpes?”

“What?” Sean stopped tossing stuff in his bag to look at her.

“You weren’t reacting to anything. I took a guess.”

“And you guessed herpes?”

“So it’s not herpes, then?” Alana asked, as though she actually deserved an answer. “Or it is herpes? Because Travis is really going to freak out if Jaime gave you herpes. Or did some other guy call and say he might have given you herpes, and now you have to tell Jaime the herpes is your fault?”

“No. What is wrong with you? No one gave anyone else herpes!” This sentence, of course, would be Travis’s cue to show up.

“Is there a story here I should be concerned about?” he asked.

“No. Unless something personal has made your crazy adoptive daughter think about herpes too much.” Sean would have felt bad about the look Alana got from Travis if she hadn’t deserved it.

“What? I don’t have herpes!” Alana cast him a glare before turning back to Travis. “Travis, I swear I did not do anything to get herpes. Sean is being pouty about his date. I merely guessed that maybe it was because he had herpes.”

Travis looked back at her for a moment before sighing and raising his gaze to the ceiling. His lips moved in a silent count to ten before he looked back down and ignored Alana to look at Sean.

“Right. So now that we’ve cleared that up, is there an actual problem here?”

“Not really.” Sean glanced at his phone. He still had at least a few minutes before Jaime would text him and save him from this mess.

“Not really, or just no, there is not a problem, and Alana just wanted an excuse to scare the shit out of me?” Travis’s face was already shifting from the exhausted look Alana often inspired in him to the concerned one that made Sean want to hide from him.

“Not really, as in I’m making up a problem in my head that is not really a problem or anything I should be upset about, so you can drop the mother hen act before you start.” Sean sighed and rolled his eyes when Travis’s expression didn’t relax. “Really. It’s stupid, and I haven’t mentioned it to him at all. If you go after him, he will just be confused and possibly ask me why I didn’t just ask him myself, so please refrain from making me look stupid.”

“In that case, this would be easier and more convincing if you’d tell me exactly what the issue is so I can just not worry about it, and Alana can stop acting like I don’t know she’s trying to shorten her rehearsal by getting you to drag out this conversation.”

Sean considered avoiding the question again, but that would just help Alana, and Travis would still harass him when he got home.

“He hasn’t said if he’s coming to opening night. But it’s not a big deal if he does, and he probably will anyway because Lupe is supposed to come. He’s not suddenly going to decide she can come here even later at night by herself.”

“But you’re not sure if he’s going to drop her off or stay and watch you dance—which he really should do, considering that he’s been dating you for almost two months,” Travis finished for him, and then ran his hand over his face when Sean didn’t deny it. “I think you know the solution is to just ask him, but considering I can’t seem to keep him from smudging up the window when he spies on you during every rehearsal, if he passes on the real thing, you should probably worry about his fixation with breathing all over clean glass. Tell him he owes me some Windex. I don’t even let mothers hover like that over my level-two class.”

“I will make sure to bring that up.” Sean couldn’t help laughing.

“But you knew he’d never be able to go as your boyfriend. He’ll have to pretend he’s there for Lupe at the cast party.” Travis shifted back to his worried gaze. “Is that going to be enough for you?”

“I know that. I’ll know why he’s there. That’s what matters.”

Travis didn’t look like he believed it, but Sean’s vibrating phone saved him anyway.

Back seat of my car?

Sean laughed and ignored the eye rolls he was sure Travis and Alana were sharing over his reaction to the text in favor of typing back.
Still not happening.

Fine. Then I hope you have energy to walk around. I have spent too much of my day sitting in this fucking car.

“Talk to him,” Travis called after him. Sean held up a hand to flip him off instead of answering as he made his way out of the dressing room.

“Hey.” Jaime didn’t move from his position leaning against the car to meet him, but as soon as Sean was close enough, he pulled Sean close. Jaime skipped a normal greeting kiss in favor of turning his head to the side to mouth up Sean’s neck from his collarbone until he could nibble on the lobe of Sean’s ear.

“Car is still an option,
querido
.” Jaime’s breath was hot in his ear, and he slipped his thumb under Sean’s shirt to stroke the bare skin of his hip. It was almost enough for Sean to forget he was above hooking up in the back seat of an old Camaro.

“The Spanish is cheating. I can never even remember what you’re saying so I can look it up later.” Sean knew his voice was rough as Jaime grazed his teeth down Sean’s neck.

“
Tu me vuelves loco
.” Jaime’s tongue flicked his ear as he finished.

“Did you just call me crazy? I know
loco
is crazy. Are you actually insulting me while trying to get in my pants?”

Jaime sighed and let his forehead drop onto the crook of Sean’s neck with a short laugh.

“I didn’t call you crazy, but the statement is really accurate now.” Jaime groaned as Sean pulled away.

“Well, you’re crazy if you think I’m ever hooking up in the backseat of your car,” Sean said as he stepped back. He let his hand skim down Jaime’s arm until he reached his hand to pull him away from the car. “You wanted to walk.”

“I wanted to blow you. Walking was very much a second-choice activity.” Jaime tried to pull him back, but Sean pulled harder, dragging Jaime along until he gave up and relaxed into an easy stride next to him.

“Should I worry about your one-track mind?” Sean went for light, but had to force himself to look ahead and not study Jaime’s face for a reaction.

“You should take the compliment.” Jaime tugged his hand to lead him down around the next corner before letting go and shoving his hands in the pockets of his black leather jacket. The fall hadn’t really shifted to cold yet, but Sean told himself the sun was setting, and it was getting there as he copied the action so he didn’t feel like his hand was dangling empty.

“Still driving next week?” Sean asked. It wasn’t exactly what he wanted to ask, but it was something. They had two dress rehearsals at night that Lupe was supposed to watch, and Sean would be dancing through most of them, but he couldn’t help wanting Jaime there.

“Monday and Thursday, but I have class Wednesday night, so Lexi’s driving then. Lupe will probably even let her stay because she’s cooler than me. So if you mess up, I’ll hear about it. She’ll probably sneak in a camera and take a picture if you fall.” Jaime laughed at Sean’s glare. “Go ahead. You tell her she has to follow the rules.”

“Right. I have to be perfect on Wednesday.”

“Exactly.” Jaime smiled and stepped closer to bump his shoulder.

“And Friday?” Sean asked, unable to lift his eyes from where his feet hit the dirty sidewalk with each stride.

“On Friday, I’m bringing Lexi with me so Lupe will let me stay for the whole thing. She might even let me follow Lexi into the cast party after—during which she is not allowed to drink, by the way.”

“Seriously?” Sean laughed, letting the smile that had been growing stay. “Travis even lets Alana drink at cast parties. He doesn’t know she refills her one glass of champagne little by little while he’s not looking, but he lets her have it.”

“You haven’t told him?”

“Not getting in the middle of that.” Sean shook his head. “But I make no promises she won’t teach that trick to Lupe.”

“Lupe can drink in front of me next year when she’s legal. I don’t care how much bitching I have to hear about it on Friday.” Jaime groaned and lifted one of his hands out of his pocket to rub over his short hair. “And there will be bitching if Alana gets to drink.”