Fic : Eat Me 4/? (Pinto, NC17)
Title : Eat Me chapter 4
Fandom : Pinto
Rating : NC17
Word count : 3365
Summary : Zach owns a smoothie bar in Silverlake, but a new arrival in town might trouble his business, and his pants.
Chapters 1 2 3
Chris chewed his pen as he sat with his laptop. He had planned to download and make notes from some cooking shows and already had a great idea for some hake sliders with spring greens and tartar sauce, like a fillet o’ fish but classy. He glanced up and saw Zach’s paperwork on the table, sorted into piles of invoices, bills, statements and what the hell is this and why is it in here?
Zach wasn’t dumb. There were some great ideas for products in there which had had Chris’s mouth watering. Chris hadn’t know that there was a whole second story which was unused and Zach’s ideas for using that were also really good, but he hadn’t had the cash to refurbish the area and put them into practice. His finances were a mess - he charged too little and spent too much on the fruit, he hadn’t changed suppliers despite the fact that Chris could see they’d been screwing him for years. The shop needed to be completely redecorated too, the vision didn’t match the decor and the white walls and dusty plants and messy looking notice board made it look like a shoddy operation. If Quinto Smoothie was his store, people would know about the provenance, his father and grandfather’s work. They would know that this was an original West Coast idea and that it was so much more than just another smoothie place.
He sighed, going back to his shows. The ads were coming out soon and then Zach would find out. Karl was on his way over for opening week, the store interior was done and Chris was hiring staff today. He shut down his laptop, reminding himself to get a good fish supplier, and headed for the shower. Long day. He would definitely need a smoothie to set him up for this.
------
Everyone in the world was an idiot. First of all there was what Chris called the “Waiting Staff Dichotomy” - if you’re as smart as Chris demands you be, you’re not really dedicated to being on a serving staff full time. If you’ve resigned yourself to waiting on full time, you’re not exactly reading Balzac in the break room. His first test was to read some of the wackier dishes from the menu to see the job applicant’s reaction. One had honest to God pronounced venison like Verizon, and one had asked if the Kobe beef was named after Kobe Bryant. He needed someone smart,charming and who actually cared about food. All he had were people who were applying both to here and Fatburger.
“Hello?”
Chris turned around to see a young asian guy peeping in through the back door. He jumped up to stop the guy pushing the door wide open in case Zach was in the alleyway. “Uh, hey. Can I help you?”
“Are you hiring?”
“Yeah, we’re hiring but I wasn’t expecting you, did you send an online application?”
“No, I just saw in through the front window and you seemed to be interviewing.”
The rest of what the kid said was swallowed up in Chris’s panic as he rushed to the front window and re attached a plastic sheet that had come loose.
“Wow, keeping a low profile huh?”
Chris took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. “I’m choosing my moment. So, you want to apply to be a server? I can interview you now I guess.”
“Great! I’m John Cho.” John stuck out his hand and Chris shook it, noting that that was the first time that had happened today.
“Have a seat John, as you can see we’re based on a 1950s diner, we’ll be serving traditional diner fayre with a twist and we’ll be open twenty four hours, so we need people who can be flexible and really know their food.” This spiel had been getting boring for Chris but John was nodding enthusiastically.
“Well, I’m a graduate of Food Science from Cornell and I’m currently writing a book about the lesser known fast food chains and their relative successes in not adopting the traditional model. So, I can be very flexible.”
“You’re fucking kidding right? So there’s a huge catch coming, there has to be.”
“Well, as part of my book research I was planning on taking a month long trip to the UK in September to visit every single branch of the Wimpy franchise.”
“And what do you hope to learn from that?”
John blinked like he’d never been asked the question before. “Well, they’re unique in that they’re the only burger chain in the UK which routinely gives plates and cutlery to their customers and their business model requires customers to place secondary orders, like in any restaurant, whereas the fast food model requires them to be gone in under 10 minutes.They’re also expanding, which is of interest to me because that model was though to have died off.”
“Interesting. So how would that information benefit, say, this business?”
John nodded. “Well, this is based on the Silk City model, right? So you’re having booths even though they’re totally out of fashion in modern burger places because that would be accurate. You have a soda fountain over there, and most of your customers aren’t gonna have a clue what it does, they’ll think it’s just decorative, but it’s not, is it?”
“Nope, it’ll work.”
“Exactly, so you’re forgoing a lot of very standard operations for the industry not because they’ll make you more money but because they’re genuine, they’re accurate for this style of restaurant. You’re not looking to homogenise but to offer something new to the customer, something that they won’t expect, something that might make them uncomfortable. Well there are a lot of places that do that because they’ve been left behind, but they’ve never changed because that’s what makes them unique. How they pull that off should be of interest to you. Especially if you were hoping to expand in the future.”
Chris grinned, sitting back in the booth in case the sheer awesomeness of John made his eyes water. “Okay, so you’ll be my floor manager. You can have the month off on full pay so long as I can take a glance at that raw research and so long as you bring me back some recipes. Do we have a deal?”
“Hell yes, we have a deal!” They shook hands and Chris slapped the table, looking to the heavens to thank some supreme being which specialised in burger restaurants.
“Awesome, we open in 10 days and I’d like you to start in three so we can go over the operations. You’ve done this before, right?”
“I’ll email you my references, you won’t regret this.”
“I have a feeling I won’t.” Chris slapped him on the shoulder and handed him a menu. “Take a look at that. Do some googling of my grandmother’s diner, and please don’t quit when you see the hats, you’re officially exempt.”
John chuckled. “Thanks so much, I’ll be in touch with those references.”
When John was gone, Chris relaxed back into his booth. He had eighteen waiting staff, three chefs and twelve kitchen staff to hire and his current total was zero, with one floor manager. The next applicant on his list had dotted the ‘i’ in their name with a heart. It was going to be a long day.
-------
“Please please please tell me you do spiked smoothies for stressed business people who have lost their faith in humanity.”
“Well hello Mr Pine, I’m pretty sure Eliza has stashed some vodka hereabouts, I recommend it with lime and pineapple and a positivity booster, and maybe a hug.” Zach winked at him as he shuffled the cups and, hey presto, Smirnoff.
Chris sat at the corner table and let his head fall onto it. Zach splashed in some vodka, then a little more as Chris started to moan. Taking his place opposite him he nudged Chris’s hand with the cup and then started to massage the back of his neck.
“Uhhhh s’good”.
“Should be, it’s what I’m actually trained for. God, what have you been doing today?”
“Hiring.”
“Oh man, you need Brody.”
“He masseur?”
“Better, a mixologist.”
“Love you.”
Zach couldn’t deny his stomach did a flip when Chris said that. He continued to work loose the knots in Chris’s neck and shoulders until he was satisfied, then leaned across and pecked him on the back of the head. “Drink your vodka smoothie, I’m closing up and we’re going to see Doctor Cocktail.”
-----
“What is tamarind?”
“It’s an African date. Amazing right?”
“Beautiful. This is very dangerous.”
“Brody is under strict instruction to send me home if I come here more than once in a month. Last time I spent $200 in one night.”
“But this is research,so it’s okay.”
Zach watched as Chris sneaked a lick inside his glass at the pulpy fruit sticking to the side. He hadn’t meant to bring him here to get him drunk but....que sera sera. He was a cute, affectionate drunk, Zach’s favourite kind. He had started a running joke that he wanted to meet him in the bathroom and now every time one of them came back from the john they had to do this exaggerated “where were you?” shrug. It was stupid, Brody was shaking his head at them and every time he put their drinks down he would say something like....
“Crazy fruits.”
“Hey!” they chorused.
“What? That’s what in your drinks, crazy fruits.”
“I like him” Chris mock-whispered as they started on their blueberry and apple martinis. They were sat facing the window so Chris would stroke his leg every now and then without anyone seeing and Zach would have to bite his lip to quell the urge to attack Chris with his mouth.
When they got to the $200 mark Chris whispered “Take me home” into Zach’s ear.
“Whose home?”
“Take me to your home.”
“What for?”
“Sex?”
Brody managed to give Zach back his credit card and thank him for the show off tip before the two barrelled out of the bar and started to walk. Zach squeezed Chris’s ass every time someone approached them and Chris shoved him playfully telling him that they would “get fucking stabbed” if they weren’t careful. They managed to get into Zach’s place on the third attempt after Zach tried both shop keys in the lock first. This time, when they made out against the wall, Chris seemed in no mood to slow things down.
“Mm, I though you..mmm, wanted to get to know me...”
Chris stopped and grinned against Zach’s lips. “Favourite colour?”
“Blue”.
“Great, now fuck me.”
Zach walked backwards, pulling him into the bedroom and making a start on his shirt, pausing at the last button to run his hands up Chris’s chest and swipe his thumbs over plump nipples. He nipped Chris’s throat and spun him around, leading him to the bed and undressing them both in a frankly unsystematic manner - a sleeve, a zipper, a shoe, another sleeve, half a tshirt. When Zach’s pants hit the floor Chris put a firm hand around his cock and started to jerk him, using his other hand to grip Zach around the neck and smash their mouths together. Just as Zach’s breaths started to falter and he thought he was going to spurt all over Chris’s hand he let go and climbed up onto the bed, lying flat out with one leg bent at the knee, just waiting for him.
Zach followed, kissing Chris’s inner thigh and working his way up to suck on his balls as he writhed and moaned. Pushing up on Chris’s leg he spread his hole open and licked gently, smiling at the high pitched gasps that were the result. After working him open for a few minutes Zach felt a hand fisting in his hair and looked up see Chris, sweaty and red faced, mouthing “Now, now.” He quickly grabbed lube and condoms from the drawer where they had been waiting for Chris the last time and started to prepare himself so Chris could see. He used his thumb to stretch Chris, pressing it deep inside and feeling no need for additional fingering as he whined for Zach’s cock. He pushed in, trying to get the bend of Chris’s knee over his shoulder and succeeding as he put pressure on something and Chris arched his back. It was an awkward position as Zach snapped his hips faster, digging his nails into Chris’s hip and moaning through heaving breaths as started to edge towards his orgasm. Every thrust was so much effort but eventually Chris grabbed his own dick and with two strong pulls he was coming hard and tensing and releasing around Zach, who came with a cry and froze in position, his whole body aching.
Extricating himself was harder than he thought, his arm screamed from holding Chris’s leg and it was left to his partner to move and roll over while Zach staggered backwards off the bed and barely stayed on his feet. He shucked the condom off and trashed it, lumbering towards the bed and collapsing next to Chris who was panting with a dopey expression on his face. With huge effort Zach managed to get both of them under the sheets where he draped an arm across Chris’s chest and kissed his cheek. Chris rolled to face him and they made out lazily for a minute before Chris shoved Zach onto his back and settled his head on his chest.
-----
Zach woke to someone kissing him, which was usually a good thing. He opened his eyes and saw blue, beautiful blue eyes and a shy smile, like Chris wasn’t sure he should still be here. Then he smelled eggs, and his mouth watered involuntarily.
“I did it, I knew I would! Full Indiana Jones, man. Got up, got loose, made you breakfast and made it back before you woke up, it’s like you get a prize for fucking me.”
Zach laughed as best he could while lying flat and heaved himself up. “Wow, they are not just eggs my friend.”
“They are eggs with peppers and spring onions, and pepper and some dill. I love that you have dill.”
Zach took a bite, moaning as he did so.
“Yeah I know that noise.” Chris winked at him, eating his own eggs and sneaking a quick peck on Zach’s cheek.
“Please never go away ever again.” Zach said, only half joking.
“Well, I have about thirty minutes then I have to go to the store for a delivery.”
“On Sunday? Come on, it’s the day of rest and blowjobs.”
“Don’t you think I know that? Meet me at the store at noon and we’ll have a picnic today in the park, then back here for more rest and blowjobs.”
“I guess...I want three blowjobs though.”
“Okay honey.”
They ate the rest of their eggs in silence aside from appreciative hums and Zach reluctantly let Chris take a shower without his help so that he’d make the delivery time. On the doorstep they kissed their goodbyes like teenagers and Chris instructed him to bring a blanket later. Zach watched Chris go until he disappeared round the corner and then practically skipped into the kitchen with their plates. The rattle of the dishes in the sink almost blocked out a tinny noise which Zach couldn’t put his finger on. He wandered out of the kitchen and saw a phone, not his, dancing on the hall table. He picked it up,confused to see the name on the display.
“John?”
“Yeah, is that Chris?”
“No, John, it’s Zach Quinto.”
“Oh, hey man! Why are you answering Chris’s phone? Is he there?”
“He left it behind, you know Chris?”
“I’m going to be working for him, I need to email my references but I think I have the address down wrong.”
Zach paused, trying to work around the million questions in his head. “Wait, you wanna sell furniture now?”
“Furniture? No, he’s opening a diner, I’m going to be his floor manager........Zach? Zach are you still there?”
Zach stared at the screen then shook himself. “I’m here, he’s gone to the store, I don’t have his email, sorry.”
“It’s okay man, I’ll go down there. Thanks anyway, I’ll see you soon, won’t it be so cool, I’ll be working next door!”
“Yeah, it’ll be awesome. See you soon.”
Zach hung up and set the phone down, partly to stop himself from throwing it. He sat on the couch and ran through the past week in his head. Chris had said furniture right? No. He’d never said it. He’d never said what he did. He’d sure asked a lot of fucking questions though, about the business, about the neighbourhood, about the store.
“Shit.” Zach remembered that Chris still had his fucking books, his entire financial history. He was opening up a diner next door to a smoothie store and just neglected to mention it? The business thing was what Zach was trying to focus on but there was a stomach churning counterpoint to his thought processes which he didn’t want to engage with. Chris lied to him. He lied and flirted and made him fall for him and fucked him and all of this just to get to know the competition. Zach jumped up, grabbed the phone and headed for the store, not sure whether to cry or scream.
------
Zach pounded on the back door of Chris’s place willing himself not to break down before he got out what he had to say. Chris’s face when he opened the door quickly changed from surprise to trepidation to guilt.
“You left your phone at my place.” Zach pushed past him to get inside and crumbled a little when he realised that what John said was true. “When were you going to tell me?”
Chris’s shoulders dropped. “I should have told you straight away, I just....I got to know you and I thought you’d be mad.”
“Mad? That you were spying on me and pretending to like me so that you could find out if I was a threat to your margins?” Zach heard his voice raise and balled his fists.
“No, I never pretended to like you, I do like you and this shouldn’t change anything, I don’t see why we can’t co-exist here, I’m not trying to take your business away.” Chris’s voice was pleading but Zach was in no mood to give him an inch.
“You know how tough it is for me, you’ve seen my God damn books, which was a wonderful power play by the way, pretend to care about my dead father so you can get your hands on the paperwork?”
Chris looked genuinely hurt by that and Zach was about to back track when a tall guy with dark hair appeared at the door.
“Surprise! By the way, you can hear you two arguing right down the street, better hope there’s no potential customers out there.”
“Karl, you’re not mean to be here until Tuesday.” Chris was glancing between the two of them like he was trying to work out which was the bigger nightmare.
“Right, but I lied so I could see if you really were ready to open or if you were just yanking me. Hey, you were right about the place next door, looks like a dive. Who’s this?”
Zach barely heard Chris start to defend his store before he ran out of there feeling like he could vomit. Right about now he felt like he needed someone to give him a hug and tell him everything was gonna be okay and he wanted that person to be Chris. Chris who had just humiliated him and, yes, made him cry. Zach wiped his angry tears and tried to ignore the glances of people passing by as he almost ran the last block to his house. Once inside he threw himself onto the couch and sobbed, clutching his spasming stomach and wishing he had never laid eyes on Chris Pine.
Fandom : Pinto
Rating : NC17
Word count : 3365
Summary : Zach owns a smoothie bar in Silverlake, but a new arrival in town might trouble his business, and his pants.
Chapters 1 2 3
Chris chewed his pen as he sat with his laptop. He had planned to download and make notes from some cooking shows and already had a great idea for some hake sliders with spring greens and tartar sauce, like a fillet o’ fish but classy. He glanced up and saw Zach’s paperwork on the table, sorted into piles of invoices, bills, statements and what the hell is this and why is it in here?
Zach wasn’t dumb. There were some great ideas for products in there which had had Chris’s mouth watering. Chris hadn’t know that there was a whole second story which was unused and Zach’s ideas for using that were also really good, but he hadn’t had the cash to refurbish the area and put them into practice. His finances were a mess - he charged too little and spent too much on the fruit, he hadn’t changed suppliers despite the fact that Chris could see they’d been screwing him for years. The shop needed to be completely redecorated too, the vision didn’t match the decor and the white walls and dusty plants and messy looking notice board made it look like a shoddy operation. If Quinto Smoothie was his store, people would know about the provenance, his father and grandfather’s work. They would know that this was an original West Coast idea and that it was so much more than just another smoothie place.
He sighed, going back to his shows. The ads were coming out soon and then Zach would find out. Karl was on his way over for opening week, the store interior was done and Chris was hiring staff today. He shut down his laptop, reminding himself to get a good fish supplier, and headed for the shower. Long day. He would definitely need a smoothie to set him up for this.
------
Everyone in the world was an idiot. First of all there was what Chris called the “Waiting Staff Dichotomy” - if you’re as smart as Chris demands you be, you’re not really dedicated to being on a serving staff full time. If you’ve resigned yourself to waiting on full time, you’re not exactly reading Balzac in the break room. His first test was to read some of the wackier dishes from the menu to see the job applicant’s reaction. One had honest to God pronounced venison like Verizon, and one had asked if the Kobe beef was named after Kobe Bryant. He needed someone smart,charming and who actually cared about food. All he had were people who were applying both to here and Fatburger.
“Hello?”
Chris turned around to see a young asian guy peeping in through the back door. He jumped up to stop the guy pushing the door wide open in case Zach was in the alleyway. “Uh, hey. Can I help you?”
“Are you hiring?”
“Yeah, we’re hiring but I wasn’t expecting you, did you send an online application?”
“No, I just saw in through the front window and you seemed to be interviewing.”
The rest of what the kid said was swallowed up in Chris’s panic as he rushed to the front window and re attached a plastic sheet that had come loose.
“Wow, keeping a low profile huh?”
Chris took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. “I’m choosing my moment. So, you want to apply to be a server? I can interview you now I guess.”
“Great! I’m John Cho.” John stuck out his hand and Chris shook it, noting that that was the first time that had happened today.
“Have a seat John, as you can see we’re based on a 1950s diner, we’ll be serving traditional diner fayre with a twist and we’ll be open twenty four hours, so we need people who can be flexible and really know their food.” This spiel had been getting boring for Chris but John was nodding enthusiastically.
“Well, I’m a graduate of Food Science from Cornell and I’m currently writing a book about the lesser known fast food chains and their relative successes in not adopting the traditional model. So, I can be very flexible.”
“You’re fucking kidding right? So there’s a huge catch coming, there has to be.”
“Well, as part of my book research I was planning on taking a month long trip to the UK in September to visit every single branch of the Wimpy franchise.”
“And what do you hope to learn from that?”
John blinked like he’d never been asked the question before. “Well, they’re unique in that they’re the only burger chain in the UK which routinely gives plates and cutlery to their customers and their business model requires customers to place secondary orders, like in any restaurant, whereas the fast food model requires them to be gone in under 10 minutes.They’re also expanding, which is of interest to me because that model was though to have died off.”
“Interesting. So how would that information benefit, say, this business?”
John nodded. “Well, this is based on the Silk City model, right? So you’re having booths even though they’re totally out of fashion in modern burger places because that would be accurate. You have a soda fountain over there, and most of your customers aren’t gonna have a clue what it does, they’ll think it’s just decorative, but it’s not, is it?”
“Nope, it’ll work.”
“Exactly, so you’re forgoing a lot of very standard operations for the industry not because they’ll make you more money but because they’re genuine, they’re accurate for this style of restaurant. You’re not looking to homogenise but to offer something new to the customer, something that they won’t expect, something that might make them uncomfortable. Well there are a lot of places that do that because they’ve been left behind, but they’ve never changed because that’s what makes them unique. How they pull that off should be of interest to you. Especially if you were hoping to expand in the future.”
Chris grinned, sitting back in the booth in case the sheer awesomeness of John made his eyes water. “Okay, so you’ll be my floor manager. You can have the month off on full pay so long as I can take a glance at that raw research and so long as you bring me back some recipes. Do we have a deal?”
“Hell yes, we have a deal!” They shook hands and Chris slapped the table, looking to the heavens to thank some supreme being which specialised in burger restaurants.
“Awesome, we open in 10 days and I’d like you to start in three so we can go over the operations. You’ve done this before, right?”
“I’ll email you my references, you won’t regret this.”
“I have a feeling I won’t.” Chris slapped him on the shoulder and handed him a menu. “Take a look at that. Do some googling of my grandmother’s diner, and please don’t quit when you see the hats, you’re officially exempt.”
John chuckled. “Thanks so much, I’ll be in touch with those references.”
When John was gone, Chris relaxed back into his booth. He had eighteen waiting staff, three chefs and twelve kitchen staff to hire and his current total was zero, with one floor manager. The next applicant on his list had dotted the ‘i’ in their name with a heart. It was going to be a long day.
-------
“Please please please tell me you do spiked smoothies for stressed business people who have lost their faith in humanity.”
“Well hello Mr Pine, I’m pretty sure Eliza has stashed some vodka hereabouts, I recommend it with lime and pineapple and a positivity booster, and maybe a hug.” Zach winked at him as he shuffled the cups and, hey presto, Smirnoff.
Chris sat at the corner table and let his head fall onto it. Zach splashed in some vodka, then a little more as Chris started to moan. Taking his place opposite him he nudged Chris’s hand with the cup and then started to massage the back of his neck.
“Uhhhh s’good”.
“Should be, it’s what I’m actually trained for. God, what have you been doing today?”
“Hiring.”
“Oh man, you need Brody.”
“He masseur?”
“Better, a mixologist.”
“Love you.”
Zach couldn’t deny his stomach did a flip when Chris said that. He continued to work loose the knots in Chris’s neck and shoulders until he was satisfied, then leaned across and pecked him on the back of the head. “Drink your vodka smoothie, I’m closing up and we’re going to see Doctor Cocktail.”
-----
“What is tamarind?”
“It’s an African date. Amazing right?”
“Beautiful. This is very dangerous.”
“Brody is under strict instruction to send me home if I come here more than once in a month. Last time I spent $200 in one night.”
“But this is research,so it’s okay.”
Zach watched as Chris sneaked a lick inside his glass at the pulpy fruit sticking to the side. He hadn’t meant to bring him here to get him drunk but....que sera sera. He was a cute, affectionate drunk, Zach’s favourite kind. He had started a running joke that he wanted to meet him in the bathroom and now every time one of them came back from the john they had to do this exaggerated “where were you?” shrug. It was stupid, Brody was shaking his head at them and every time he put their drinks down he would say something like....
“Crazy fruits.”
“Hey!” they chorused.
“What? That’s what in your drinks, crazy fruits.”
“I like him” Chris mock-whispered as they started on their blueberry and apple martinis. They were sat facing the window so Chris would stroke his leg every now and then without anyone seeing and Zach would have to bite his lip to quell the urge to attack Chris with his mouth.
When they got to the $200 mark Chris whispered “Take me home” into Zach’s ear.
“Whose home?”
“Take me to your home.”
“What for?”
“Sex?”
Brody managed to give Zach back his credit card and thank him for the show off tip before the two barrelled out of the bar and started to walk. Zach squeezed Chris’s ass every time someone approached them and Chris shoved him playfully telling him that they would “get fucking stabbed” if they weren’t careful. They managed to get into Zach’s place on the third attempt after Zach tried both shop keys in the lock first. This time, when they made out against the wall, Chris seemed in no mood to slow things down.
“Mm, I though you..mmm, wanted to get to know me...”
Chris stopped and grinned against Zach’s lips. “Favourite colour?”
“Blue”.
“Great, now fuck me.”
Zach walked backwards, pulling him into the bedroom and making a start on his shirt, pausing at the last button to run his hands up Chris’s chest and swipe his thumbs over plump nipples. He nipped Chris’s throat and spun him around, leading him to the bed and undressing them both in a frankly unsystematic manner - a sleeve, a zipper, a shoe, another sleeve, half a tshirt. When Zach’s pants hit the floor Chris put a firm hand around his cock and started to jerk him, using his other hand to grip Zach around the neck and smash their mouths together. Just as Zach’s breaths started to falter and he thought he was going to spurt all over Chris’s hand he let go and climbed up onto the bed, lying flat out with one leg bent at the knee, just waiting for him.
Zach followed, kissing Chris’s inner thigh and working his way up to suck on his balls as he writhed and moaned. Pushing up on Chris’s leg he spread his hole open and licked gently, smiling at the high pitched gasps that were the result. After working him open for a few minutes Zach felt a hand fisting in his hair and looked up see Chris, sweaty and red faced, mouthing “Now, now.” He quickly grabbed lube and condoms from the drawer where they had been waiting for Chris the last time and started to prepare himself so Chris could see. He used his thumb to stretch Chris, pressing it deep inside and feeling no need for additional fingering as he whined for Zach’s cock. He pushed in, trying to get the bend of Chris’s knee over his shoulder and succeeding as he put pressure on something and Chris arched his back. It was an awkward position as Zach snapped his hips faster, digging his nails into Chris’s hip and moaning through heaving breaths as started to edge towards his orgasm. Every thrust was so much effort but eventually Chris grabbed his own dick and with two strong pulls he was coming hard and tensing and releasing around Zach, who came with a cry and froze in position, his whole body aching.
Extricating himself was harder than he thought, his arm screamed from holding Chris’s leg and it was left to his partner to move and roll over while Zach staggered backwards off the bed and barely stayed on his feet. He shucked the condom off and trashed it, lumbering towards the bed and collapsing next to Chris who was panting with a dopey expression on his face. With huge effort Zach managed to get both of them under the sheets where he draped an arm across Chris’s chest and kissed his cheek. Chris rolled to face him and they made out lazily for a minute before Chris shoved Zach onto his back and settled his head on his chest.
-----
Zach woke to someone kissing him, which was usually a good thing. He opened his eyes and saw blue, beautiful blue eyes and a shy smile, like Chris wasn’t sure he should still be here. Then he smelled eggs, and his mouth watered involuntarily.
“I did it, I knew I would! Full Indiana Jones, man. Got up, got loose, made you breakfast and made it back before you woke up, it’s like you get a prize for fucking me.”
Zach laughed as best he could while lying flat and heaved himself up. “Wow, they are not just eggs my friend.”
“They are eggs with peppers and spring onions, and pepper and some dill. I love that you have dill.”
Zach took a bite, moaning as he did so.
“Yeah I know that noise.” Chris winked at him, eating his own eggs and sneaking a quick peck on Zach’s cheek.
“Please never go away ever again.” Zach said, only half joking.
“Well, I have about thirty minutes then I have to go to the store for a delivery.”
“On Sunday? Come on, it’s the day of rest and blowjobs.”
“Don’t you think I know that? Meet me at the store at noon and we’ll have a picnic today in the park, then back here for more rest and blowjobs.”
“I guess...I want three blowjobs though.”
“Okay honey.”
They ate the rest of their eggs in silence aside from appreciative hums and Zach reluctantly let Chris take a shower without his help so that he’d make the delivery time. On the doorstep they kissed their goodbyes like teenagers and Chris instructed him to bring a blanket later. Zach watched Chris go until he disappeared round the corner and then practically skipped into the kitchen with their plates. The rattle of the dishes in the sink almost blocked out a tinny noise which Zach couldn’t put his finger on. He wandered out of the kitchen and saw a phone, not his, dancing on the hall table. He picked it up,confused to see the name on the display.
“John?”
“Yeah, is that Chris?”
“No, John, it’s Zach Quinto.”
“Oh, hey man! Why are you answering Chris’s phone? Is he there?”
“He left it behind, you know Chris?”
“I’m going to be working for him, I need to email my references but I think I have the address down wrong.”
Zach paused, trying to work around the million questions in his head. “Wait, you wanna sell furniture now?”
“Furniture? No, he’s opening a diner, I’m going to be his floor manager........Zach? Zach are you still there?”
Zach stared at the screen then shook himself. “I’m here, he’s gone to the store, I don’t have his email, sorry.”
“It’s okay man, I’ll go down there. Thanks anyway, I’ll see you soon, won’t it be so cool, I’ll be working next door!”
“Yeah, it’ll be awesome. See you soon.”
Zach hung up and set the phone down, partly to stop himself from throwing it. He sat on the couch and ran through the past week in his head. Chris had said furniture right? No. He’d never said it. He’d never said what he did. He’d sure asked a lot of fucking questions though, about the business, about the neighbourhood, about the store.
“Shit.” Zach remembered that Chris still had his fucking books, his entire financial history. He was opening up a diner next door to a smoothie store and just neglected to mention it? The business thing was what Zach was trying to focus on but there was a stomach churning counterpoint to his thought processes which he didn’t want to engage with. Chris lied to him. He lied and flirted and made him fall for him and fucked him and all of this just to get to know the competition. Zach jumped up, grabbed the phone and headed for the store, not sure whether to cry or scream.
------
Zach pounded on the back door of Chris’s place willing himself not to break down before he got out what he had to say. Chris’s face when he opened the door quickly changed from surprise to trepidation to guilt.
“You left your phone at my place.” Zach pushed past him to get inside and crumbled a little when he realised that what John said was true. “When were you going to tell me?”
Chris’s shoulders dropped. “I should have told you straight away, I just....I got to know you and I thought you’d be mad.”
“Mad? That you were spying on me and pretending to like me so that you could find out if I was a threat to your margins?” Zach heard his voice raise and balled his fists.
“No, I never pretended to like you, I do like you and this shouldn’t change anything, I don’t see why we can’t co-exist here, I’m not trying to take your business away.” Chris’s voice was pleading but Zach was in no mood to give him an inch.
“You know how tough it is for me, you’ve seen my God damn books, which was a wonderful power play by the way, pretend to care about my dead father so you can get your hands on the paperwork?”
Chris looked genuinely hurt by that and Zach was about to back track when a tall guy with dark hair appeared at the door.
“Surprise! By the way, you can hear you two arguing right down the street, better hope there’s no potential customers out there.”
“Karl, you’re not mean to be here until Tuesday.” Chris was glancing between the two of them like he was trying to work out which was the bigger nightmare.
“Right, but I lied so I could see if you really were ready to open or if you were just yanking me. Hey, you were right about the place next door, looks like a dive. Who’s this?”
Zach barely heard Chris start to defend his store before he ran out of there feeling like he could vomit. Right about now he felt like he needed someone to give him a hug and tell him everything was gonna be okay and he wanted that person to be Chris. Chris who had just humiliated him and, yes, made him cry. Zach wiped his angry tears and tried to ignore the glances of people passing by as he almost ran the last block to his house. Once inside he threw himself onto the couch and sobbed, clutching his spasming stomach and wishing he had never laid eyes on Chris Pine.