The Only Twenty-Four-Hour Bookstore in New York 4/6
J2 RPS AU
NC-17
Part 4 of 6
Master post
Art
Now that they're alone, they can take their time with each other. Jensen has other things he needs to be doing, and he knows Jared does too, but for this one thing, this one person, he can make an exception. He runs his finger around the outline of Jared's tattoo.
"I got that when I was a sophomore at NYU, so I wouldn't forget where I came from," Jared says. "It's a boring story. Tell me about yours."
Jensen turns his arm, remembering conversations with tattoo artists in two states. "I had the camera and film done when I was still in Houston," he says, "because it was an important part of me. It's supposed to be my grandfather's camera. The roses were done here, to remind me of home. Not much different from you."
"Are you ever going to fill in the empty frames on the roll of film?"
"No, probably not. They can stand for anything," he explains, watching Jared's finger tracing around the edges of the tattooed strip of blank negatives. He shivers under Jared's light touch. "I can mentally fill them in or erase them when new things happen to me, or when I meet new people or do new things." He tilts Jared's chin up and kisses his mouth. "I can keep all the pictures in my head," he murmurs against Jared's lips, "so no one has to see them. They can be anything I want. They can be all mine."
"Like the lights on the crane," Jared breathes.
"Like the lights on the crane." Jensen grins and kisses him again, biting gently at Jared's lips.
"Like me."
"Like you."
Jensen hopes everything with Jared is this easy, this simple. He knows it won't be - no relationship worth having is without its hitches and tangles - but for now, he can hope. He can enjoy Jared's presence next to him, Jared's touch, Jared's mouth, and he can enjoy the pleasure of Jared wanting to introduce Jensen to his friends, and the anticipation of introducing his own friends to Jared. He can enjoy the comfort of Jared's bed and the solidity of Jared's body and the damp heat of Jared's breath.
And he can enjoy the hard length of Jared inside him, and the intensity of Jared's tongue in his mouth, and the slow, easy motion of Jared's thrusts.
Jared wraps his arms around Jensen's head and Jensen wraps his legs around Jared's waist and they moan softly as they rock together, taking their time, neither of them in any hurry. Jensen lets himself forget every other thing he could be doing. Nothing else is this important.
This time Jensen comes first, aided by Jared's hand on his cock and the increasing speed and power of Jared's hips pistoning in and out, and no sooner has he started to come back to himself than Jared is gasping for breath and slamming into him and climaxing as well.
"Fuck me," he pants, when he's finally finished.
"Not yet," Jensen answers, still a little out of breath. Jared laughs, a soft hitching of breath, and presses his forehead to Jensen's.
"That was so good. Just as good as the first time. Maybe even better."
"It was better. You were - you're incredible." Jensen pushes Jared's head up so he can look him in the eyes. Jared is flushed and his hair is hanging in his face and he's grinning just a little and he's so beautiful like that, Jensen can't believe his luck. He seems to have acquired a boyfriend who's hot and funny and cheerful and friendly and smart, who likes dogs and understands what it’s like to work the late shift.
Jared gets a lot of credit for that. But Jensen can pat himself on the back for his very first trip out here, that night in January when he thought he might be ready to maybe begin looking for a nice boy to share his life with, and he remembered Jared from Danneel and Genevieve's party. If he hadn't done that, who knows where he'd be right now. Brooklyn, no doubt. Maybe Queens. But not in the Village, tangled in someone else's sheets, the taste of someone else's mouth on his tongue and the weight of someone else's body on top of him.
"So can I tell people about my boyfriend now?" Jared asks. "Instead of just a friend I really like?"
"Yeah. You can. Just... nothing about how good I am in bed, okay? I'm not going to tell people that you're a great kisser."
"I'm a great kisser?"
"You're okay." Jensen shrugs, or at least tries to, considering Jared is still lying on him.
"Who said you were good in bed, anyway?" As Jensen is protesting, Jared drops a kiss on his nose, pulls out, and goes into the bathroom, stretching his arms over his head as he goes. Jensen takes a moment to just enjoy the view.
"You wanna shower?" Jared asks, sticking his head out of the bathroom as Jensen is looking for his clothes. "We should both fit." His eyebrows jump up and down suggestively. Jensen knows neither of them is ready to go again, but his cock twitches half-heartedly anyway. A naked Jared is very tempting.
"Don't you have things to do?" he asks. "I mean besides me."
"Yeah, but it’s a nice idea." He shuts the bathroom door just enough for privacy. Jensen finishes getting dressed and puts his shoes on. Jared comes out of the bathroom. "When can I see you again?"
"When do you have time?"
"I'm here until five every morning. When do you have time?"
"Can I call you? Or you can call me. Come by the bar when you get a chance, so you can meet my bartenders. Or Chris. But call first, so you know I'm there."
"I want to see your studio, too." Jared pulls underwear and a t-shirt out of his dresser and puts them on. Jensen is relieved that he no longer has to stare at Jared naked and imagine what that body would look like underneath him, although the t-shirt is a little tight and pulls across Jared's chest and shoulders, which doesn't help Jensen's mental pictures at all.
"Next time I should bring my camera," he muses. Jared strikes a pose, laughing.
"Photograph me like your French girls, Jack," he croons. Jensen walks up to him and flicks him on the nose.
"Smartass."
"Better than being a dumbass." Jared goes into the other room. Jensen grabs his jacket and heads for the front door.
"I had a really good time," he says. "Aside from the sex. I just had a really good time with you."
"I did too," Jared tells him, pulling him close and kissing him. "We should do it again."
"We will. Soon."
Another kiss, and he leaves. He's whistling by the time he walks out the door of the building and onto the sidewalk.
AJ takes the first half of September off for vaguely-explained "family reasons", necessitating a rejiggering of the schedule and allowing everyone at The Moose and Mayhem to pick up some more hours. (Except for Anton, who is content to relieve Jared at five every morning and leave it at that.)
Students come back to school and things are nicely busy. Rob, one of the former employees, publishes his third book and Jared lets Kim arrange a reading and book signing. The space they have for these kinds of things fills right up, to the point that latecomers end up standing against the shelves. Rob is almost insufferably pleased. He stays later than planned to chat with a couple of readers and sign some extra books - Genevieve thinks it's partly because the weather is so hot and the store is so nicely air-conditioned - and after a while Jared has to ask them to please move because they're in the way of himself and Genevieve putting the chairs away.
Jensen calls not five minutes after Rob and the readers finally leave. Genevieve has gone to get some iced coffee and Jared is alone in the store except for a middle-aged woman in a flowered dress browsing the cookbooks.
"I just wanted to say hi," Jensen says. "We're having a bourbon tasting tomorrow. You should come."
"And try and run my store while buzzed," Jared says, although he has to admit, it does sound like fun. The bar has started doing regular tastings, because line-dance nights are still absurdly popular and they're trying to spread the love around.
Jensen snorts. "We feed you. We don't want people drinking on an empty stomach. You're cute when you're buzzed, though."
"Yeah, but that's brunch and I have time for a nap between the drinking and the working."
They've discovered that brunch is a good time to see each other, and one of the things that makes it a good time is that they can both drink if they want, with enough time to let the alcohol work its way through their systems before either of them has to be sharp for work. Jared has also discovered that Jensen thinks he's really, really cute when he's kind of drunk, which is oddly encouraging. Also, oddly hot.
"So one night you'll ask someone to stay late. If you feel wobbly after tasting our amazing selection of scotches, you can sleep it off at my place."
"I'll think about it. How's the new menu?"
"Doing great. Chris won't shut up about it. Did I tell you the cook left?"
"No."
"He did. His girlfriend got a really good job in Austin, of all places, so he's moving with her. We lucked out, though - he knew someone to replace him. Her name's Traci. She's really good. She won't let Chris order her around." He chuckles. "He won't let her make her own fried chicken, though. I'll bring you something tomorrow night. We'll have dinner."
"Sounds good." The woman in the flowered dress brings a couple of cookbooks to the counter, a used edition of Beard on Bread and a new dessert cookbook. "I have a customer. I gotta go."
"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Love you."
"I love you too. Bye."
They hang up. The woman with the cookbooks smiles at Jared. "I'm getting dinner tomorrow," he tells her as he rings up her books. "It's probably the only way we'll get to see each other."
"Different schedules?" she asks.
"We're just both busy. It's okay. We find time." He lets himself smile at the memory of the various times he and Jensen have found for each other, and the way they can carve out a few hours when they want to. He likes having a boyfriend who keeps more or less the same hours he does.
The only problem is that those hours are really full, for various reasons that include "can't afford to pay someone else to cover the overnight shift" and "still working out the kinks from suddenly turning into a real restaurant" and "hipsters have discovered line-dancing".
The woman pays for her books, declines a bag, and wishes Jared a good time tomorrow with his dinner companion. He doesn't realize until after she's gone that she didn't make any assumptions about who that companion is. She didn't assume he has a girlfriend, or a wife, but neither did she assume he has a boyfriend, or a husband. He likes that. Jensen could be anyone, even just a platonic friend, and no one would care, as long as he and Jared enjoy being with each other.
Which they do.
The door opens to admit two guys, a black guy in a pink polo shirt and a white guy in a t-shirt with the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile on it. They both look a little sweaty. It must still be really hot out. Jared is suddenly reminded to check the water bowl he puts outside for any dogs that wander by, and to refill it with fresh water.
"Do you ever replay what you just said and wonder 'Why did I say the thing?' and want to smack yourself in the face?" Pink Polo is asking, as the two guys walk in.
"All the time," Weinermobile admits.
"Do you have any knitting books?" Pink Polo asks Jared. "Sweater patterns, that kind of thing."
"Arts and Crafts," Jared says, pointing to the back of the store. "Everything's organized by craft. We should have a couple for knitters." He imagines Pink Polo sitting next to a basket full of balls of yarn, long needles clacking as he knits a sweater.
The two guys return to the counter ten minutes later with a book of patterns for various knitted animals and toys. Pink Polo explains that it's for his sister. Jared says he doesn't judge. Weinermobile snickers. Pink Polo pays with cash, and they leave.
Late in the afternoon, Jared is down behind the front counter sorting the mail orders and separating them from the local deliveries when a male voice over his head says "Hey down there - is Genevieve here?"
Jared stands up. The guy who was asking has a square face and a dark blue t-shirt. Standing just behind him and looking expectant is another guy with facial scruff and a red-and-white-striped polo shirt that makes him look a little bit like Waldo, from the books. There's a big, shiny, purple metal tackle box sitting on the counter.
"I'm hair," the guy in the striped polo explains.
"And I'm makeup," adds the first guy, patting the tackle box. "Danny sent us."
"Uh," Jared says, stupidly. He leans over the counter to get a better view of the store and yells "Genevieve! There are strange guys here to see you!"
"What strange guys?" she yells back.
"Hair and makeup?"
Hair slings an elaborate backpack off his shoulder and rummages around in it. When Genevieve appears, looking confused, he pulls out a round brush, brandishing it like a weapon.
"We're here to make you pretty," he explains dramatically. "Well. Prettier."
"Danny sent us," Makeup repeats. Genevieve's face brightens.
"Oh thank god," she says. "You guys are angels."
"We're going to take over your bathroom," Makeup tells Jared. "Is that okay?"
"No," Jared says. When Makeup looks a little taken aback - and Genevieve looks annoyed - he adds "The store bathroom is tiny and the light's terrible. You can go upstairs and use my place. My bathroom's tiny too, but you'll have the whole apartment." He pulls his house keys out of his pocket and hands them to Genevieve, explaining which key fits which lock.
"Thank you." She blows him a kiss and takes Hair and Makeup into the back of the store so she can collect her dress and shoes, and then leads them back through the store and outside to Jared's apartment.
The three of them come back almost an hour later. Genevieve's face is made up with what even Jared can recognize as great skill, her hair is piled up in deliberately messy curls, and her spangled green dress is slit up the side. She's carrying a little gold clutch purse in one hand and her garment bag in the other. Hair and Makeup both look absurdly pleased with themselves.
"You look gorgeous," Jared says, amazed at the transformation. "Where are you going?" Whatever occasion this is, it must be something important.
"Danny’s agency is having an anniversary party," she explains. "It’s a big formal thing." In addition to bartending, Danneel works as a hand model. Jared is pretty sure that those are exceptionally incompatible professions, but neither of her careers seems to suffer.
"The guys wanted you to see me," Genevieve goes on. She gestures at Hair and Makeup, who beam.
"We want to show her off," Hair explains.
"We took pictures," Makeup adds.
"Don't share them yet," Genevieve tells them. She hands Jared her garment bag and vanishes into the back of the store, presumably to get her jacket.
"Don't say anything about the jacket," Makeup tells Jared. "It doesn't go at all. And it's too hot to be wearing it, anyway."
"You did a really great job," Jared says. Hair and Makeup high-five each other.
Genevieve returns carrying what looks suspiciously like a black suit jacket. "Can you hang on to my clothes?" she asks Jared. "I'll come get them tomorrow."
"Yeah, sure. Have a good time."
"I will." She blows kisses all around and skips off down the sidewalk.
"We did good," Hair says. Makeup nods. "Danny will be pleased."
They wish Jared a good night and leave as well.
The store is busier than normal that night, probably because of the unusual heat. Jared goes up to his apartment for five minutes to make sure his A/C is on and Sadie isn't sweltering to death, and when he comes back there are three girls who look like college students standing on the sidewalk, waiting for him and talking about something called The Raven Cycle. He lets them in and they head for the young adult section, still chatting. That explains why he doesn't know what they're talking about - Kim is the YA expert.
He should know, though. It's his store, after all.
The girls don't buy anything, but he doesn't mind. They talk like readers, and his store is open at all hours to accommodate people like them, who may or may not buy something but who want to be able to visit a bookstore at one in the morning. Besides, it's hot at night and from what he remembers, dorm room air conditioning can be inconsistent.
At almost three he gets a customer he actually knows, a guy named Chris who works in advertising. He comes in every so often when he can't sleep, which he once admitted to Jared was because he has anxiety and it gives him insomnia. He's getting into Buddhism, and every so often he feels the need to talk to Jared about it. Jared took a comparative religions class in college, but it was a survey course and while they did a unit on Buddhism, it was fairly general and he doesn't remember much of it.
But tonight Chris apparently can't talk about anything except the ad campaign he has to present in a couple of days. "I'm not a suit," he says. "I'm not a money guy. I'm the creative. I don't know how to talk to money guys."
"Haven't you done this before?" Jared asks.
"Yeah. You'd think I'd know how to deal with it, so I don't know why there's so much noise in my brain right now. I can't separate anything out."
"That's why I'm here." Jared smiles in a way he hopes is reassuring. He knows from past experience that eventually Chris will calm down enough to go home and theoretically to sleep. Jared just has to exude zen in the meantime.
Chris' phone rings. He thumbs the screen, stares at whatever he's just been sent, and laughs.
"What?" Jared asks. Chris hands him the phone so Jared can see the photo that someone has just sent him, which shows a tall, good-looking blond guy, his face split by the biggest, widest grin. There's a koala clinging to his leg.
"Australians," Chris explains. "That's my roommate. He's home for his parents' anniversary. He says 'Can I keep him? I promise to feed him and walk him.'" He chuckles. "I needed to see that."
"You feel any better?"
"A little, yeah. I can't call my mom this late, you know what I mean? And he's on the other side of the world." He shakes the phone, meaning he's talking about his roommate, and then puts it in his pocket. "I think I'll walk home. That should help."
"Good luck with your presentation," Jared says.
"Thanks. I'm gonna need it." Chris sighs. "Why did I want a career where I have to make presentations to total strangers? It's like I'm always putting myself on the line. Well, you do the best you can, and either you get it or you don't."
"When you do, you can come back and buy something to celebrate."
"Maybe I will. Thanks for listening." And he leaves.
Jared leans on the counter and thinks about anxiety, and how lucky he is that he doesn't suffer from the same kind of sleepless worry that Chris does. He loves to talk about the bookstore, and if he has to have a business conversation, he preps as well as he can, brings Chad, and hopes for the best. He doesn't lose sleep over it. He's not wired for that kind of nervousness, and he feels bad that Chris is.
As if to further clarify that thought process, after Anton shows up at five, Jared goes upstairs, checks on Sadie, who's still not overheating, and falls right to sleep. He doesn't even mind that he's sleeping alone, because he knows that somewhere in Brooklyn, Jensen is sleeping alone too, and at some point they'll get to sleep together.
The next night he's talking to his friend Misha when Jensen arrives with the promised dinner in a paper bag printed with the logo for Two Brothers.
"I come bearing food," Jensen announces. "Starve no more."
"You've met each other, right?" Jared says to Jensen. "This is Misha. Misha, this is my boyfriend Jensen. Tell him what happened today. Misha works at the UN," he explains.
"What happened?" Jensen asks, putting the bag of dinner on the counter. Jared opens it and peeks inside, trying to count the containers and breathing in the mixed scent of take-out.
"A Ukrainian ambassador went on a rant for almost an hour and a half," Misha says. "He wore out five translators. One of the French translators has only been there two days. The ambassador had to be interrupted before he wound down. Everyone went out for a drink afterwards - we all needed one - but I came here."
"I'm better than beer," Jared says, beaming. Misha nods. "So what did you bring me?"
"It's a surprise," Jensen tells him. "I'm sorry I didn't bring enough for three," he tells Misha apologetically. Misha looks in the bag.
"It doesn't look like you brought enough for two," he comments. "Enough for one moose, though."
Jared grins. "What can I say? I'm still a growing boy."
"Uh-huh. I bet you want to eat, and not here. People probably complain if there's sauce on the books."
"No one has yet. Oh! I didn't tell you!" He gestures to Misha and Jensen, because this is news he can share with everyone. "Genevieve's engaged! You probably know that," he says to Jensen, who nods. It seems a safe bet that Danneel would have called the bar with her side of the news. "I asked if she wanted to have her reception here or at Two Brothers."
Misha looks around the store, apparently measuring it for size. "You could host the bridal shower," he suggests.
"We might be doing the rehearsal dinner," Jensen says. "I don't know, though. All Danny wanted to tell us was how she proposed."
"Was it romantic?"
"They went up to the top of the Empire State Building."
"Wow," Jared says. "Gen didn't tell me that part. It's like you taking me up to your roof to show me the loading crane."
"Oh?" Misha says, in a tone of voice that Jared recognizes really means "There's a story there and now I want to hear it".
"Except I didn't propose," Jensen says, in a different tone of voice that Jared recognizes really means "Let's change the subject and that was private".
"No one's here but me," Jared tells him. "Osric had to go to the drugstore. When he gets back we can eat." He opens the bag again. "What'd you bring me?"
"Fried chicken, carrot salad, cole slaw, Grandma Kane's banana cream pie, short ribs, and, shit, what else did I bring?" Jensen pulls the bag towards himself and takes out a couple of styrofoam containers. "We get a lot of grief for using styrofoam, so we're on the lookout for biodegradable containers we can afford. Chris found a manufacturer on Staten Island, but their stuff's a little more expensive than we want. We're almost breaking even."
"Even with line-dance nights?"
"I mean with the menu. It's so much fucking work." He opens a styrofoam box and says "Fried pickles, that's it." He offers the container to Misha and Jared, who each take a fried pickle chip. The pickles are a little soggy, but Jared guesses that's because they've been steaming in styrofoam all the way from Brooklyn, and steam is not conducive to a crisp cornmeal coating. "Traci loves to fry. You should try the chicken. It's better fresh, but at least it's not cold."
The door opens, admitting Osric and a giant plastic bag from Duane Reade. He sees the paper sack on the counter and the box of fried pickles in Jensen's hand and his eyes light up. "Who brought dinner?" he asks.
"Pickle?" Jensen offers. Osric wrinkles his nose.
"It's good for you," Misha says. "Puts hair on your chest." He grins.
"Fried in cornmeal," Jensen goes on. "Fresh from Red Hook. No sauce."
Osric takes one, chews reflectively, swallows, takes another, and says "Okay, I'm sold." He holds up the bag for Jared to see. "Got toilet paper. Also paper towels. Also chocolate."
"I'm going upstairs in a minute to eat," Jared tells him. "I'll bring Sadie down to keep you company." There was a pair of very excitable terriers in the store earlier - the kind of excitable that comes from thinking every turf is your turf - and he had to take her up to the apartment to calm her down. But now he wants some time alone with Jensen, and as much as he loves his dog, he'd like some privacy so he can make out with his boyfriend.
"I should go home," Misha says. "See the wife, kiss the kid. Speak English for a while. Nice to meet you," he says to Jensen, and then leaves.
Osric takes the paper goods and the chocolate into the office, and when he returns Jared says "I'll be back before you go," and picks up the bag of dinner and takes Jensen upstairs.
Jared gets out plates and glasses and silverware and two bottles of beer. While Jensen takes Sadie downstairs, Jared fills up two plates with food and sets everything on the coffee table. Jensen comes back with a handful of miniature Hershey bars, apparently from Osric's foray to the drugstore. It's Saturday, so Jared finds college football on TV. He's not emotionally invested in either team, but he doesn't have to be to enjoy the game.
Jensen is only half interested, and they end up talking about the bar and its new menu and how much more work it is than either he or Chris expected.
"How are the other bartenders holding up?" Jared asks.
"Alona's waitressed before so that part's easy for her, and they already had to go around sometimes and take orders and get dirty glasses off the tables. But learning the menu and coordinating with the kitchen and even sometimes just having enough people there to cover everything - that's hard. And so far it's just dinner and Sunday brunch. What happens when we decide to move to lunch too? Chris and I did some recon at other restaurant-bars and gastropubs, but their serving staff is separate from the bar staff. And we're all doing everything." He sighs and sips his beer. "Traci's really on the ball, I mean she's great, we really lucked out, and Chris isn't getting in her way any more and is actually letting her do her job. I probably shouldn't complain that we seem to be doing well, but Jesus, Jared, it's so much fucking work. We opened a restaurant. We already have a bar, but - I don't know, man." He leans back against the couch. "I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"Unloading all over you."
"You're my boyfriend. That's what you do. I mean, that's what I do. I mean. Um. I'm supposed to listen. Right?"
"Yeah."
"Do you still think it was a good idea?"
"Adding a kitchen? Yeah, I think. People seem to like it. Did I say we're doing pretty well in terms of customers?" Jared nods. "So that's good. We still get a lot of people for line-dance nights. I can't believe it. Steve loves it. He gets people square dancing. We don't really have the space for that, but it's fun."
Jared still hasn't met Steve, but he knows the guy is an old friend of Chris' and the two of them play in a band together. He's pretty sure the band is just for kicks and giggles, but Steve is actually serious about a music career, square dancing at Two Brothers notwithstanding.
"I don't want to talk about it any more," Jensen says. "I haven't even had time to go out to Queens and mess around in the darkroom. I'm lucky I even have any time to take pictures. Tell me about the bookstore."
"It's fine. We had an author signing yesterday, a former employee actually - Rob, he's a good guy - it was so full, people had to stand. Rob signed some books for us. I have a bunch of deliveries to make tomorrow, I took a bunch of mail orders to the post office today, we're not losing money, and college kids are back, so more people are showing up really late. You know Genevieve got engaged. It's good. Everything's good."
"Good." Jensen is looking at him with an expression Jared can't quite identify, so Jared does the thing that seems to make the most sense, and leans over to kiss him.
That's clearly the right decision. Jensen cups the back of Jared's head, and Jared puts his hand on the back of Jensen's neck. Jensen tastes like barbecue sauce and cold carrot salad and beer, and his mouth is lazy on Jared's and his hand is firm against Jared's head and Jared completely forgets that he has to go back downstairs eventually, that Osric will have to go home, that his store will need looking after.
Soon Jared is kneeling on the floor between Jensen's thighs, head bobbing up and down as he sucks Jensen's cock. He glances up to see Jensen watching him, lips parted and breath shallow. Jensen tangles his fingers in Jared's hair. Jared grins, pulls off Jensen's cock with a pop, and twists his hand around the base as he teases the head with his tongue. Now Jensen moans. Jared wants to get him off, wants to see his face when he comes, but at the same time he himself is growing hard inside his jeans and part of him wants to yank Jensen's pants all the way down, turn him sideways on the couch, and fuck him into the cushions.
"Ahh... Jared," Jensen pants. "Don't stop."
So that answers that. Jared swallows as much of Jensen as he can, hand inside Jensen's jeans to fondle his balls, mouth working in earnest. He watches Jensen's chest heaving, watches his shoulders hitch, and he adds the tiniest edge of teeth and some pressure from his tongue and then Jensen is coming, breath stuttering as he empties himself down Jared's throat.
Jared keeps sucking until Jensen is completely empty, and then he licks him clean and sits back, trying to catch his own breath. He's never particularly liked the taste of come, but he likes sucking cock, and a bitter trail down his throat is a small price to pay for the earthy musk of a man's dick in his mouth and the pleasure on that man's face.
"God damn," Jensen pants. "Jesus, Jared."
Jared just grins. He's so hard now he doesn't know what to do. He shifts a little on his knees, trying to ease the ache, wondering what option out of several he wants to take. Jensen tucks himself back in, zips himself up, grabs Jared's shirt, and pulls him onto the couch. A little shifting, a couple of awkward elbows and knees, and Jared is half on top of Jensen on the couch, Jensen fumbling with the button and then the zipper on his jeans. Jared's breath catches.
"My turn," Jensen murmurs, pulling Jared's head close to his with one hand while his other hand shoves down inside Jared's jeans to fondle his cock.
"Hnn," Jared breathes into Jensen's mouth, grinding down on him and rubbing against his hand. He's trying to wriggle out of his jeans enough to give Jensen more room, but the way they're lying makes it difficult.
"Okay, okay." Jensen takes the hint, shifting his ass and trying to push Jared out of the way just enough to free him. And then he is free, more or less, and Jensen wraps his fingers around Jared's straining cock and strokes in earnest.
Jared moans into Jensen's mouth, relieved and turned on and apparently so hungry for Jensen's touch that it seems to take no time at all before he's frantically fucking Jensen's hand and coming on both of them.
"Was that what you were expecting when you brought me dinner?" Jared asks after a minute.
"The thought did cross my mind. Was I a good dessert?"
"The best. I love your cock."
"I love you."
"You're just saying that because I give great head."
"Maybe." Jensen licks at his lips. "You do, though."
Jared's been told that before. Even Milo, his last ex, after they broke up, admitted that he missed the blow jobs.
"You have to go, don't you," Jared says.
"Yeah. I'm sorry."
"It's okay. I gotta relieve Osric anyway, so he can go home." He glances down at himself, at the come drying sticky on his and Jensen's thighs. "And I should change." He rolls off the couch, zips himself back up, and goes into the bedroom. By the time he's found and changed into clean pants and underwear, Jensen is in the bathroom dabbing at the dried spunk on his own jeans. Jared leans around him and kisses him on the cheek.
"What was that for?" Jensen asks, not even looking up.
"Nothing," Jared says cheerfully. He wanders off to get his shoes.
They kiss one more time on the way out of the apartment, and then at the door of the building, and then Jensen goes back to Brooklyn and Jared goes into the store. Sadie is glad to see him, Osric no less so because now that he's off work he can meet his girlfriend for ice cream.
One morning at the very end of September, Jared is woken out of a sound sleep by the screech of tires and the sound of crunching metal and breaking glass. Sadie jumps off the bed and he's not far behind. It sounded close, as if whatever just happened was right under his window. He pushes the curtain aside and looks out, and he must be dreaming, because there's a car up on the sidewalk, its front end covered in shattered glass from The Moose and Mayhem's window.
The phone rings as he's grabbing his keys and running out of the apartment. He has to shove Sadie out of the doorway to keep her from following him. He runs down the stairs and outside to discover a man standing on the sidewalk, yelling at the woman leaning out of the passenger-side window of the car, while Anton is struggling to get out of the store with a cell phone at his ear, probably trying to call Jared. He should be calling the cops.
And Jared just stands there in his bare feet, still wearing his pajama bottoms and the long-sleeve t-shirt he slept in, his mouth open.
A car really crashed into the front of his bookstore.
Jesus Christ.
"Jared!" Anton calls, seeing him. "I was just - "
"What the hell," Jared says. "What happened?" Anton gestures at the car. "Yeah, I see that. How?" There's no parking on this side of the street, but there isn't room for a car to swerve hard enough to jump the curb. "Call the 6th Precinct. They know me." Jeff's shift is over and he'll have gone home, but Jared knows he would have told his fellow cops about the 24-hour bookstore with the dog.
Anton calls the station. The woman in the car gets out, ineffectually slams the car door, and throws off the man when he tries to grab her arm. She stomps over to Jared and Anton.
"He was driving," she says angrily, finger stabbing in the man's direction.
"She tried to grab the wheel," the man insists.
"You drove into my store!" Jared cries, getting over his shock enough to get angry. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"
The man and woman both start talking at once. Jared wants to bang their heads together.
"The cops are coming," Anton says, and sure enough, five minutes later there are two cop cars on the street and four cops getting out and milling around and asking questions. The cops talk to the man and woman from the car, they talk to Anton, they talk to Jared, they talk to a couple of eyewitnesses (a woman walking her dog and a man out for his morning run), they talk to the man and woman from the car again. Jared calls Chad. He looks at the front of his store in despair.
The cops are eventually followed by a tow truck to haul the car off the sidewalk. The woman with the dog apologizes to Jared and the cops, but she has to go, she has to get to work, here's her number if they need anything more from her.
Chad shows up. "What the hell," he says, sounding almost impressed. The car has been hauled away by now and the cops have written up the couple. Jared has their insurance information and some police paperwork, but there's still a significant amount of window glass and pieces of bumper and headlight on the sidewalk. Jared hasn't looked inside the store yet. He's afraid to.
"You have the number of someone to call to board up the window?" Chad asks Jared.
"No."
Chad flicks the paperwork the cops left, which Jared is holding limply. "It might be in here. We should go inside."
People have gathered on the sidewalk, staring and talking among themselves. Anton has already gone back inside the store, and when Jared and Chad follow, they discover him sweeping up glass and restacking all the books that were in the window. Jared thanks him, asks him to take care of the glass outside, and then follows Chad back to the office.
Four hours later a couple of guys have shown up with sheets of plywood to board up the tall gaping hole where the window used to be, the insurance company has been called, the sidewalk in front of the store has been swept clean of glass and bits of car, Anton has gone home, and Kim has arrived. And Chad and Jared have come to the terrifying conclusion that no matter what it will cost to replace the front of the store, they can't afford it.
"We're not running that much in the black," Chad explains. "You know - the profit margin's like this." He holds up his thumb and forefinger and presses them together. "At least we have a profit margin. That's why we have insurance, but...." He trails off. Jared knows - their rates are going up, and whatever their policy will give them, it won't be enough.
"I can't close," Jared says. "I won't close."
"We can stay open while - "
"No, I mean I can't go bankrupt. I can't close the store."
"You won't. We'll get a loan. People do it all the time. Don't worry, Moose. We'll figure something out."
Jared isn't so sure. He calls all his employees and manages to gather most of them that night for a meeting, even though all he has to tell them is that the store is staying open and as far as everyone is concerned, it should be business as usual.
"But the window," Genevieve says, pointing to the boarded-up space.
"What about it?" Jared asks. "We'll put those displays inside the plywood so you can see them from inside the store. You can still see out, just not there."
"I can paint it," Osric suggests. "Make it pretty."
Jared's phone picks now to ring. He glances at it, not intending to answer, but it's Jensen.
"I'm having a store meeting," Jared tells him by way of hello.
"I'll be quick," Jensen promises. "Danny just told me about the store. Are you okay?"
"I don't know."
"Do you want me to come over after I close up?"
"Yes."
"Okay. Don't panic. I'll see you later." And then, quietly, probably because people are within hearing distance, "I love you."
"I know. I mean, I do too. Sorry, I have to go." He hangs up.
He doesn't know what else to tell his employees, other than he and Chad will fix the damage but he doesn't know how long it will take, and he doesn't plan to close the store. He doesn't know if people will get more shifts, or fewer shifts. He'll know more after the insurance adjuster comes tomorrow, and after he gets some quotes for the repairs. He promises to keep everyone in the loop.
Onward!
NC-17
Part 4 of 6
Master post
Art
Now that they're alone, they can take their time with each other. Jensen has other things he needs to be doing, and he knows Jared does too, but for this one thing, this one person, he can make an exception. He runs his finger around the outline of Jared's tattoo.
"I got that when I was a sophomore at NYU, so I wouldn't forget where I came from," Jared says. "It's a boring story. Tell me about yours."
Jensen turns his arm, remembering conversations with tattoo artists in two states. "I had the camera and film done when I was still in Houston," he says, "because it was an important part of me. It's supposed to be my grandfather's camera. The roses were done here, to remind me of home. Not much different from you."
"Are you ever going to fill in the empty frames on the roll of film?"
"No, probably not. They can stand for anything," he explains, watching Jared's finger tracing around the edges of the tattooed strip of blank negatives. He shivers under Jared's light touch. "I can mentally fill them in or erase them when new things happen to me, or when I meet new people or do new things." He tilts Jared's chin up and kisses his mouth. "I can keep all the pictures in my head," he murmurs against Jared's lips, "so no one has to see them. They can be anything I want. They can be all mine."
"Like the lights on the crane," Jared breathes.
"Like the lights on the crane." Jensen grins and kisses him again, biting gently at Jared's lips.
"Like me."
"Like you."
Jensen hopes everything with Jared is this easy, this simple. He knows it won't be - no relationship worth having is without its hitches and tangles - but for now, he can hope. He can enjoy Jared's presence next to him, Jared's touch, Jared's mouth, and he can enjoy the pleasure of Jared wanting to introduce Jensen to his friends, and the anticipation of introducing his own friends to Jared. He can enjoy the comfort of Jared's bed and the solidity of Jared's body and the damp heat of Jared's breath.
And he can enjoy the hard length of Jared inside him, and the intensity of Jared's tongue in his mouth, and the slow, easy motion of Jared's thrusts.
Jared wraps his arms around Jensen's head and Jensen wraps his legs around Jared's waist and they moan softly as they rock together, taking their time, neither of them in any hurry. Jensen lets himself forget every other thing he could be doing. Nothing else is this important.
This time Jensen comes first, aided by Jared's hand on his cock and the increasing speed and power of Jared's hips pistoning in and out, and no sooner has he started to come back to himself than Jared is gasping for breath and slamming into him and climaxing as well.
"Fuck me," he pants, when he's finally finished.
"Not yet," Jensen answers, still a little out of breath. Jared laughs, a soft hitching of breath, and presses his forehead to Jensen's.
"That was so good. Just as good as the first time. Maybe even better."
"It was better. You were - you're incredible." Jensen pushes Jared's head up so he can look him in the eyes. Jared is flushed and his hair is hanging in his face and he's grinning just a little and he's so beautiful like that, Jensen can't believe his luck. He seems to have acquired a boyfriend who's hot and funny and cheerful and friendly and smart, who likes dogs and understands what it’s like to work the late shift.
Jared gets a lot of credit for that. But Jensen can pat himself on the back for his very first trip out here, that night in January when he thought he might be ready to maybe begin looking for a nice boy to share his life with, and he remembered Jared from Danneel and Genevieve's party. If he hadn't done that, who knows where he'd be right now. Brooklyn, no doubt. Maybe Queens. But not in the Village, tangled in someone else's sheets, the taste of someone else's mouth on his tongue and the weight of someone else's body on top of him.
"So can I tell people about my boyfriend now?" Jared asks. "Instead of just a friend I really like?"
"Yeah. You can. Just... nothing about how good I am in bed, okay? I'm not going to tell people that you're a great kisser."
"I'm a great kisser?"
"You're okay." Jensen shrugs, or at least tries to, considering Jared is still lying on him.
"Who said you were good in bed, anyway?" As Jensen is protesting, Jared drops a kiss on his nose, pulls out, and goes into the bathroom, stretching his arms over his head as he goes. Jensen takes a moment to just enjoy the view.
"You wanna shower?" Jared asks, sticking his head out of the bathroom as Jensen is looking for his clothes. "We should both fit." His eyebrows jump up and down suggestively. Jensen knows neither of them is ready to go again, but his cock twitches half-heartedly anyway. A naked Jared is very tempting.
"Don't you have things to do?" he asks. "I mean besides me."
"Yeah, but it’s a nice idea." He shuts the bathroom door just enough for privacy. Jensen finishes getting dressed and puts his shoes on. Jared comes out of the bathroom. "When can I see you again?"
"When do you have time?"
"I'm here until five every morning. When do you have time?"
"Can I call you? Or you can call me. Come by the bar when you get a chance, so you can meet my bartenders. Or Chris. But call first, so you know I'm there."
"I want to see your studio, too." Jared pulls underwear and a t-shirt out of his dresser and puts them on. Jensen is relieved that he no longer has to stare at Jared naked and imagine what that body would look like underneath him, although the t-shirt is a little tight and pulls across Jared's chest and shoulders, which doesn't help Jensen's mental pictures at all.
"Next time I should bring my camera," he muses. Jared strikes a pose, laughing.
"Photograph me like your French girls, Jack," he croons. Jensen walks up to him and flicks him on the nose.
"Smartass."
"Better than being a dumbass." Jared goes into the other room. Jensen grabs his jacket and heads for the front door.
"I had a really good time," he says. "Aside from the sex. I just had a really good time with you."
"I did too," Jared tells him, pulling him close and kissing him. "We should do it again."
"We will. Soon."
Another kiss, and he leaves. He's whistling by the time he walks out the door of the building and onto the sidewalk.
AJ takes the first half of September off for vaguely-explained "family reasons", necessitating a rejiggering of the schedule and allowing everyone at The Moose and Mayhem to pick up some more hours. (Except for Anton, who is content to relieve Jared at five every morning and leave it at that.)
Students come back to school and things are nicely busy. Rob, one of the former employees, publishes his third book and Jared lets Kim arrange a reading and book signing. The space they have for these kinds of things fills right up, to the point that latecomers end up standing against the shelves. Rob is almost insufferably pleased. He stays later than planned to chat with a couple of readers and sign some extra books - Genevieve thinks it's partly because the weather is so hot and the store is so nicely air-conditioned - and after a while Jared has to ask them to please move because they're in the way of himself and Genevieve putting the chairs away.
Jensen calls not five minutes after Rob and the readers finally leave. Genevieve has gone to get some iced coffee and Jared is alone in the store except for a middle-aged woman in a flowered dress browsing the cookbooks.
"I just wanted to say hi," Jensen says. "We're having a bourbon tasting tomorrow. You should come."
"And try and run my store while buzzed," Jared says, although he has to admit, it does sound like fun. The bar has started doing regular tastings, because line-dance nights are still absurdly popular and they're trying to spread the love around.
Jensen snorts. "We feed you. We don't want people drinking on an empty stomach. You're cute when you're buzzed, though."
"Yeah, but that's brunch and I have time for a nap between the drinking and the working."
They've discovered that brunch is a good time to see each other, and one of the things that makes it a good time is that they can both drink if they want, with enough time to let the alcohol work its way through their systems before either of them has to be sharp for work. Jared has also discovered that Jensen thinks he's really, really cute when he's kind of drunk, which is oddly encouraging. Also, oddly hot.
"So one night you'll ask someone to stay late. If you feel wobbly after tasting our amazing selection of scotches, you can sleep it off at my place."
"I'll think about it. How's the new menu?"
"Doing great. Chris won't shut up about it. Did I tell you the cook left?"
"No."
"He did. His girlfriend got a really good job in Austin, of all places, so he's moving with her. We lucked out, though - he knew someone to replace him. Her name's Traci. She's really good. She won't let Chris order her around." He chuckles. "He won't let her make her own fried chicken, though. I'll bring you something tomorrow night. We'll have dinner."
"Sounds good." The woman in the flowered dress brings a couple of cookbooks to the counter, a used edition of Beard on Bread and a new dessert cookbook. "I have a customer. I gotta go."
"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Love you."
"I love you too. Bye."
They hang up. The woman with the cookbooks smiles at Jared. "I'm getting dinner tomorrow," he tells her as he rings up her books. "It's probably the only way we'll get to see each other."
"Different schedules?" she asks.
"We're just both busy. It's okay. We find time." He lets himself smile at the memory of the various times he and Jensen have found for each other, and the way they can carve out a few hours when they want to. He likes having a boyfriend who keeps more or less the same hours he does.
The only problem is that those hours are really full, for various reasons that include "can't afford to pay someone else to cover the overnight shift" and "still working out the kinks from suddenly turning into a real restaurant" and "hipsters have discovered line-dancing".
The woman pays for her books, declines a bag, and wishes Jared a good time tomorrow with his dinner companion. He doesn't realize until after she's gone that she didn't make any assumptions about who that companion is. She didn't assume he has a girlfriend, or a wife, but neither did she assume he has a boyfriend, or a husband. He likes that. Jensen could be anyone, even just a platonic friend, and no one would care, as long as he and Jared enjoy being with each other.
Which they do.
The door opens to admit two guys, a black guy in a pink polo shirt and a white guy in a t-shirt with the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile on it. They both look a little sweaty. It must still be really hot out. Jared is suddenly reminded to check the water bowl he puts outside for any dogs that wander by, and to refill it with fresh water.
"Do you ever replay what you just said and wonder 'Why did I say the thing?' and want to smack yourself in the face?" Pink Polo is asking, as the two guys walk in.
"All the time," Weinermobile admits.
"Do you have any knitting books?" Pink Polo asks Jared. "Sweater patterns, that kind of thing."
"Arts and Crafts," Jared says, pointing to the back of the store. "Everything's organized by craft. We should have a couple for knitters." He imagines Pink Polo sitting next to a basket full of balls of yarn, long needles clacking as he knits a sweater.
The two guys return to the counter ten minutes later with a book of patterns for various knitted animals and toys. Pink Polo explains that it's for his sister. Jared says he doesn't judge. Weinermobile snickers. Pink Polo pays with cash, and they leave.
Late in the afternoon, Jared is down behind the front counter sorting the mail orders and separating them from the local deliveries when a male voice over his head says "Hey down there - is Genevieve here?"
Jared stands up. The guy who was asking has a square face and a dark blue t-shirt. Standing just behind him and looking expectant is another guy with facial scruff and a red-and-white-striped polo shirt that makes him look a little bit like Waldo, from the books. There's a big, shiny, purple metal tackle box sitting on the counter.
"I'm hair," the guy in the striped polo explains.
"And I'm makeup," adds the first guy, patting the tackle box. "Danny sent us."
"Uh," Jared says, stupidly. He leans over the counter to get a better view of the store and yells "Genevieve! There are strange guys here to see you!"
"What strange guys?" she yells back.
"Hair and makeup?"
Hair slings an elaborate backpack off his shoulder and rummages around in it. When Genevieve appears, looking confused, he pulls out a round brush, brandishing it like a weapon.
"We're here to make you pretty," he explains dramatically. "Well. Prettier."
"Danny sent us," Makeup repeats. Genevieve's face brightens.
"Oh thank god," she says. "You guys are angels."
"We're going to take over your bathroom," Makeup tells Jared. "Is that okay?"
"No," Jared says. When Makeup looks a little taken aback - and Genevieve looks annoyed - he adds "The store bathroom is tiny and the light's terrible. You can go upstairs and use my place. My bathroom's tiny too, but you'll have the whole apartment." He pulls his house keys out of his pocket and hands them to Genevieve, explaining which key fits which lock.
"Thank you." She blows him a kiss and takes Hair and Makeup into the back of the store so she can collect her dress and shoes, and then leads them back through the store and outside to Jared's apartment.
The three of them come back almost an hour later. Genevieve's face is made up with what even Jared can recognize as great skill, her hair is piled up in deliberately messy curls, and her spangled green dress is slit up the side. She's carrying a little gold clutch purse in one hand and her garment bag in the other. Hair and Makeup both look absurdly pleased with themselves.
"You look gorgeous," Jared says, amazed at the transformation. "Where are you going?" Whatever occasion this is, it must be something important.
"Danny’s agency is having an anniversary party," she explains. "It’s a big formal thing." In addition to bartending, Danneel works as a hand model. Jared is pretty sure that those are exceptionally incompatible professions, but neither of her careers seems to suffer.
"The guys wanted you to see me," Genevieve goes on. She gestures at Hair and Makeup, who beam.
"We want to show her off," Hair explains.
"We took pictures," Makeup adds.
"Don't share them yet," Genevieve tells them. She hands Jared her garment bag and vanishes into the back of the store, presumably to get her jacket.
"Don't say anything about the jacket," Makeup tells Jared. "It doesn't go at all. And it's too hot to be wearing it, anyway."
"You did a really great job," Jared says. Hair and Makeup high-five each other.
Genevieve returns carrying what looks suspiciously like a black suit jacket. "Can you hang on to my clothes?" she asks Jared. "I'll come get them tomorrow."
"Yeah, sure. Have a good time."
"I will." She blows kisses all around and skips off down the sidewalk.
"We did good," Hair says. Makeup nods. "Danny will be pleased."
They wish Jared a good night and leave as well.
The store is busier than normal that night, probably because of the unusual heat. Jared goes up to his apartment for five minutes to make sure his A/C is on and Sadie isn't sweltering to death, and when he comes back there are three girls who look like college students standing on the sidewalk, waiting for him and talking about something called The Raven Cycle. He lets them in and they head for the young adult section, still chatting. That explains why he doesn't know what they're talking about - Kim is the YA expert.
He should know, though. It's his store, after all.
The girls don't buy anything, but he doesn't mind. They talk like readers, and his store is open at all hours to accommodate people like them, who may or may not buy something but who want to be able to visit a bookstore at one in the morning. Besides, it's hot at night and from what he remembers, dorm room air conditioning can be inconsistent.
At almost three he gets a customer he actually knows, a guy named Chris who works in advertising. He comes in every so often when he can't sleep, which he once admitted to Jared was because he has anxiety and it gives him insomnia. He's getting into Buddhism, and every so often he feels the need to talk to Jared about it. Jared took a comparative religions class in college, but it was a survey course and while they did a unit on Buddhism, it was fairly general and he doesn't remember much of it.
But tonight Chris apparently can't talk about anything except the ad campaign he has to present in a couple of days. "I'm not a suit," he says. "I'm not a money guy. I'm the creative. I don't know how to talk to money guys."
"Haven't you done this before?" Jared asks.
"Yeah. You'd think I'd know how to deal with it, so I don't know why there's so much noise in my brain right now. I can't separate anything out."
"That's why I'm here." Jared smiles in a way he hopes is reassuring. He knows from past experience that eventually Chris will calm down enough to go home and theoretically to sleep. Jared just has to exude zen in the meantime.
Chris' phone rings. He thumbs the screen, stares at whatever he's just been sent, and laughs.
"What?" Jared asks. Chris hands him the phone so Jared can see the photo that someone has just sent him, which shows a tall, good-looking blond guy, his face split by the biggest, widest grin. There's a koala clinging to his leg.
"Australians," Chris explains. "That's my roommate. He's home for his parents' anniversary. He says 'Can I keep him? I promise to feed him and walk him.'" He chuckles. "I needed to see that."
"You feel any better?"
"A little, yeah. I can't call my mom this late, you know what I mean? And he's on the other side of the world." He shakes the phone, meaning he's talking about his roommate, and then puts it in his pocket. "I think I'll walk home. That should help."
"Good luck with your presentation," Jared says.
"Thanks. I'm gonna need it." Chris sighs. "Why did I want a career where I have to make presentations to total strangers? It's like I'm always putting myself on the line. Well, you do the best you can, and either you get it or you don't."
"When you do, you can come back and buy something to celebrate."
"Maybe I will. Thanks for listening." And he leaves.
Jared leans on the counter and thinks about anxiety, and how lucky he is that he doesn't suffer from the same kind of sleepless worry that Chris does. He loves to talk about the bookstore, and if he has to have a business conversation, he preps as well as he can, brings Chad, and hopes for the best. He doesn't lose sleep over it. He's not wired for that kind of nervousness, and he feels bad that Chris is.
As if to further clarify that thought process, after Anton shows up at five, Jared goes upstairs, checks on Sadie, who's still not overheating, and falls right to sleep. He doesn't even mind that he's sleeping alone, because he knows that somewhere in Brooklyn, Jensen is sleeping alone too, and at some point they'll get to sleep together.
The next night he's talking to his friend Misha when Jensen arrives with the promised dinner in a paper bag printed with the logo for Two Brothers.
"I come bearing food," Jensen announces. "Starve no more."
"You've met each other, right?" Jared says to Jensen. "This is Misha. Misha, this is my boyfriend Jensen. Tell him what happened today. Misha works at the UN," he explains.
"What happened?" Jensen asks, putting the bag of dinner on the counter. Jared opens it and peeks inside, trying to count the containers and breathing in the mixed scent of take-out.
"A Ukrainian ambassador went on a rant for almost an hour and a half," Misha says. "He wore out five translators. One of the French translators has only been there two days. The ambassador had to be interrupted before he wound down. Everyone went out for a drink afterwards - we all needed one - but I came here."
"I'm better than beer," Jared says, beaming. Misha nods. "So what did you bring me?"
"It's a surprise," Jensen tells him. "I'm sorry I didn't bring enough for three," he tells Misha apologetically. Misha looks in the bag.
"It doesn't look like you brought enough for two," he comments. "Enough for one moose, though."
Jared grins. "What can I say? I'm still a growing boy."
"Uh-huh. I bet you want to eat, and not here. People probably complain if there's sauce on the books."
"No one has yet. Oh! I didn't tell you!" He gestures to Misha and Jensen, because this is news he can share with everyone. "Genevieve's engaged! You probably know that," he says to Jensen, who nods. It seems a safe bet that Danneel would have called the bar with her side of the news. "I asked if she wanted to have her reception here or at Two Brothers."
Misha looks around the store, apparently measuring it for size. "You could host the bridal shower," he suggests.
"We might be doing the rehearsal dinner," Jensen says. "I don't know, though. All Danny wanted to tell us was how she proposed."
"Was it romantic?"
"They went up to the top of the Empire State Building."
"Wow," Jared says. "Gen didn't tell me that part. It's like you taking me up to your roof to show me the loading crane."
"Oh?" Misha says, in a tone of voice that Jared recognizes really means "There's a story there and now I want to hear it".
"Except I didn't propose," Jensen says, in a different tone of voice that Jared recognizes really means "Let's change the subject and that was private".
"No one's here but me," Jared tells him. "Osric had to go to the drugstore. When he gets back we can eat." He opens the bag again. "What'd you bring me?"
"Fried chicken, carrot salad, cole slaw, Grandma Kane's banana cream pie, short ribs, and, shit, what else did I bring?" Jensen pulls the bag towards himself and takes out a couple of styrofoam containers. "We get a lot of grief for using styrofoam, so we're on the lookout for biodegradable containers we can afford. Chris found a manufacturer on Staten Island, but their stuff's a little more expensive than we want. We're almost breaking even."
"Even with line-dance nights?"
"I mean with the menu. It's so much fucking work." He opens a styrofoam box and says "Fried pickles, that's it." He offers the container to Misha and Jared, who each take a fried pickle chip. The pickles are a little soggy, but Jared guesses that's because they've been steaming in styrofoam all the way from Brooklyn, and steam is not conducive to a crisp cornmeal coating. "Traci loves to fry. You should try the chicken. It's better fresh, but at least it's not cold."
The door opens, admitting Osric and a giant plastic bag from Duane Reade. He sees the paper sack on the counter and the box of fried pickles in Jensen's hand and his eyes light up. "Who brought dinner?" he asks.
"Pickle?" Jensen offers. Osric wrinkles his nose.
"It's good for you," Misha says. "Puts hair on your chest." He grins.
"Fried in cornmeal," Jensen goes on. "Fresh from Red Hook. No sauce."
Osric takes one, chews reflectively, swallows, takes another, and says "Okay, I'm sold." He holds up the bag for Jared to see. "Got toilet paper. Also paper towels. Also chocolate."
"I'm going upstairs in a minute to eat," Jared tells him. "I'll bring Sadie down to keep you company." There was a pair of very excitable terriers in the store earlier - the kind of excitable that comes from thinking every turf is your turf - and he had to take her up to the apartment to calm her down. But now he wants some time alone with Jensen, and as much as he loves his dog, he'd like some privacy so he can make out with his boyfriend.
"I should go home," Misha says. "See the wife, kiss the kid. Speak English for a while. Nice to meet you," he says to Jensen, and then leaves.
Osric takes the paper goods and the chocolate into the office, and when he returns Jared says "I'll be back before you go," and picks up the bag of dinner and takes Jensen upstairs.
Jared gets out plates and glasses and silverware and two bottles of beer. While Jensen takes Sadie downstairs, Jared fills up two plates with food and sets everything on the coffee table. Jensen comes back with a handful of miniature Hershey bars, apparently from Osric's foray to the drugstore. It's Saturday, so Jared finds college football on TV. He's not emotionally invested in either team, but he doesn't have to be to enjoy the game.
Jensen is only half interested, and they end up talking about the bar and its new menu and how much more work it is than either he or Chris expected.
"How are the other bartenders holding up?" Jared asks.
"Alona's waitressed before so that part's easy for her, and they already had to go around sometimes and take orders and get dirty glasses off the tables. But learning the menu and coordinating with the kitchen and even sometimes just having enough people there to cover everything - that's hard. And so far it's just dinner and Sunday brunch. What happens when we decide to move to lunch too? Chris and I did some recon at other restaurant-bars and gastropubs, but their serving staff is separate from the bar staff. And we're all doing everything." He sighs and sips his beer. "Traci's really on the ball, I mean she's great, we really lucked out, and Chris isn't getting in her way any more and is actually letting her do her job. I probably shouldn't complain that we seem to be doing well, but Jesus, Jared, it's so much fucking work. We opened a restaurant. We already have a bar, but - I don't know, man." He leans back against the couch. "I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"Unloading all over you."
"You're my boyfriend. That's what you do. I mean, that's what I do. I mean. Um. I'm supposed to listen. Right?"
"Yeah."
"Do you still think it was a good idea?"
"Adding a kitchen? Yeah, I think. People seem to like it. Did I say we're doing pretty well in terms of customers?" Jared nods. "So that's good. We still get a lot of people for line-dance nights. I can't believe it. Steve loves it. He gets people square dancing. We don't really have the space for that, but it's fun."
Jared still hasn't met Steve, but he knows the guy is an old friend of Chris' and the two of them play in a band together. He's pretty sure the band is just for kicks and giggles, but Steve is actually serious about a music career, square dancing at Two Brothers notwithstanding.
"I don't want to talk about it any more," Jensen says. "I haven't even had time to go out to Queens and mess around in the darkroom. I'm lucky I even have any time to take pictures. Tell me about the bookstore."
"It's fine. We had an author signing yesterday, a former employee actually - Rob, he's a good guy - it was so full, people had to stand. Rob signed some books for us. I have a bunch of deliveries to make tomorrow, I took a bunch of mail orders to the post office today, we're not losing money, and college kids are back, so more people are showing up really late. You know Genevieve got engaged. It's good. Everything's good."
"Good." Jensen is looking at him with an expression Jared can't quite identify, so Jared does the thing that seems to make the most sense, and leans over to kiss him.
That's clearly the right decision. Jensen cups the back of Jared's head, and Jared puts his hand on the back of Jensen's neck. Jensen tastes like barbecue sauce and cold carrot salad and beer, and his mouth is lazy on Jared's and his hand is firm against Jared's head and Jared completely forgets that he has to go back downstairs eventually, that Osric will have to go home, that his store will need looking after.
Soon Jared is kneeling on the floor between Jensen's thighs, head bobbing up and down as he sucks Jensen's cock. He glances up to see Jensen watching him, lips parted and breath shallow. Jensen tangles his fingers in Jared's hair. Jared grins, pulls off Jensen's cock with a pop, and twists his hand around the base as he teases the head with his tongue. Now Jensen moans. Jared wants to get him off, wants to see his face when he comes, but at the same time he himself is growing hard inside his jeans and part of him wants to yank Jensen's pants all the way down, turn him sideways on the couch, and fuck him into the cushions.
"Ahh... Jared," Jensen pants. "Don't stop."
So that answers that. Jared swallows as much of Jensen as he can, hand inside Jensen's jeans to fondle his balls, mouth working in earnest. He watches Jensen's chest heaving, watches his shoulders hitch, and he adds the tiniest edge of teeth and some pressure from his tongue and then Jensen is coming, breath stuttering as he empties himself down Jared's throat.
Jared keeps sucking until Jensen is completely empty, and then he licks him clean and sits back, trying to catch his own breath. He's never particularly liked the taste of come, but he likes sucking cock, and a bitter trail down his throat is a small price to pay for the earthy musk of a man's dick in his mouth and the pleasure on that man's face.
"God damn," Jensen pants. "Jesus, Jared."
Jared just grins. He's so hard now he doesn't know what to do. He shifts a little on his knees, trying to ease the ache, wondering what option out of several he wants to take. Jensen tucks himself back in, zips himself up, grabs Jared's shirt, and pulls him onto the couch. A little shifting, a couple of awkward elbows and knees, and Jared is half on top of Jensen on the couch, Jensen fumbling with the button and then the zipper on his jeans. Jared's breath catches.
"My turn," Jensen murmurs, pulling Jared's head close to his with one hand while his other hand shoves down inside Jared's jeans to fondle his cock.
"Hnn," Jared breathes into Jensen's mouth, grinding down on him and rubbing against his hand. He's trying to wriggle out of his jeans enough to give Jensen more room, but the way they're lying makes it difficult.
"Okay, okay." Jensen takes the hint, shifting his ass and trying to push Jared out of the way just enough to free him. And then he is free, more or less, and Jensen wraps his fingers around Jared's straining cock and strokes in earnest.
Jared moans into Jensen's mouth, relieved and turned on and apparently so hungry for Jensen's touch that it seems to take no time at all before he's frantically fucking Jensen's hand and coming on both of them.
"Was that what you were expecting when you brought me dinner?" Jared asks after a minute.
"The thought did cross my mind. Was I a good dessert?"
"The best. I love your cock."
"I love you."
"You're just saying that because I give great head."
"Maybe." Jensen licks at his lips. "You do, though."
Jared's been told that before. Even Milo, his last ex, after they broke up, admitted that he missed the blow jobs.
"You have to go, don't you," Jared says.
"Yeah. I'm sorry."
"It's okay. I gotta relieve Osric anyway, so he can go home." He glances down at himself, at the come drying sticky on his and Jensen's thighs. "And I should change." He rolls off the couch, zips himself back up, and goes into the bedroom. By the time he's found and changed into clean pants and underwear, Jensen is in the bathroom dabbing at the dried spunk on his own jeans. Jared leans around him and kisses him on the cheek.
"What was that for?" Jensen asks, not even looking up.
"Nothing," Jared says cheerfully. He wanders off to get his shoes.
They kiss one more time on the way out of the apartment, and then at the door of the building, and then Jensen goes back to Brooklyn and Jared goes into the store. Sadie is glad to see him, Osric no less so because now that he's off work he can meet his girlfriend for ice cream.
One morning at the very end of September, Jared is woken out of a sound sleep by the screech of tires and the sound of crunching metal and breaking glass. Sadie jumps off the bed and he's not far behind. It sounded close, as if whatever just happened was right under his window. He pushes the curtain aside and looks out, and he must be dreaming, because there's a car up on the sidewalk, its front end covered in shattered glass from The Moose and Mayhem's window.
The phone rings as he's grabbing his keys and running out of the apartment. He has to shove Sadie out of the doorway to keep her from following him. He runs down the stairs and outside to discover a man standing on the sidewalk, yelling at the woman leaning out of the passenger-side window of the car, while Anton is struggling to get out of the store with a cell phone at his ear, probably trying to call Jared. He should be calling the cops.
And Jared just stands there in his bare feet, still wearing his pajama bottoms and the long-sleeve t-shirt he slept in, his mouth open.
A car really crashed into the front of his bookstore.
Jesus Christ.
"Jared!" Anton calls, seeing him. "I was just - "
"What the hell," Jared says. "What happened?" Anton gestures at the car. "Yeah, I see that. How?" There's no parking on this side of the street, but there isn't room for a car to swerve hard enough to jump the curb. "Call the 6th Precinct. They know me." Jeff's shift is over and he'll have gone home, but Jared knows he would have told his fellow cops about the 24-hour bookstore with the dog.
Anton calls the station. The woman in the car gets out, ineffectually slams the car door, and throws off the man when he tries to grab her arm. She stomps over to Jared and Anton.
"He was driving," she says angrily, finger stabbing in the man's direction.
"She tried to grab the wheel," the man insists.
"You drove into my store!" Jared cries, getting over his shock enough to get angry. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"
The man and woman both start talking at once. Jared wants to bang their heads together.
"The cops are coming," Anton says, and sure enough, five minutes later there are two cop cars on the street and four cops getting out and milling around and asking questions. The cops talk to the man and woman from the car, they talk to Anton, they talk to Jared, they talk to a couple of eyewitnesses (a woman walking her dog and a man out for his morning run), they talk to the man and woman from the car again. Jared calls Chad. He looks at the front of his store in despair.
The cops are eventually followed by a tow truck to haul the car off the sidewalk. The woman with the dog apologizes to Jared and the cops, but she has to go, she has to get to work, here's her number if they need anything more from her.
Chad shows up. "What the hell," he says, sounding almost impressed. The car has been hauled away by now and the cops have written up the couple. Jared has their insurance information and some police paperwork, but there's still a significant amount of window glass and pieces of bumper and headlight on the sidewalk. Jared hasn't looked inside the store yet. He's afraid to.
"You have the number of someone to call to board up the window?" Chad asks Jared.
"No."
Chad flicks the paperwork the cops left, which Jared is holding limply. "It might be in here. We should go inside."
People have gathered on the sidewalk, staring and talking among themselves. Anton has already gone back inside the store, and when Jared and Chad follow, they discover him sweeping up glass and restacking all the books that were in the window. Jared thanks him, asks him to take care of the glass outside, and then follows Chad back to the office.
Four hours later a couple of guys have shown up with sheets of plywood to board up the tall gaping hole where the window used to be, the insurance company has been called, the sidewalk in front of the store has been swept clean of glass and bits of car, Anton has gone home, and Kim has arrived. And Chad and Jared have come to the terrifying conclusion that no matter what it will cost to replace the front of the store, they can't afford it.
"We're not running that much in the black," Chad explains. "You know - the profit margin's like this." He holds up his thumb and forefinger and presses them together. "At least we have a profit margin. That's why we have insurance, but...." He trails off. Jared knows - their rates are going up, and whatever their policy will give them, it won't be enough.
"I can't close," Jared says. "I won't close."
"We can stay open while - "
"No, I mean I can't go bankrupt. I can't close the store."
"You won't. We'll get a loan. People do it all the time. Don't worry, Moose. We'll figure something out."
Jared isn't so sure. He calls all his employees and manages to gather most of them that night for a meeting, even though all he has to tell them is that the store is staying open and as far as everyone is concerned, it should be business as usual.
"But the window," Genevieve says, pointing to the boarded-up space.
"What about it?" Jared asks. "We'll put those displays inside the plywood so you can see them from inside the store. You can still see out, just not there."
"I can paint it," Osric suggests. "Make it pretty."
Jared's phone picks now to ring. He glances at it, not intending to answer, but it's Jensen.
"I'm having a store meeting," Jared tells him by way of hello.
"I'll be quick," Jensen promises. "Danny just told me about the store. Are you okay?"
"I don't know."
"Do you want me to come over after I close up?"
"Yes."
"Okay. Don't panic. I'll see you later." And then, quietly, probably because people are within hearing distance, "I love you."
"I know. I mean, I do too. Sorry, I have to go." He hangs up.
He doesn't know what else to tell his employees, other than he and Chad will fix the damage but he doesn't know how long it will take, and he doesn't plan to close the store. He doesn't know if people will get more shifts, or fewer shifts. He'll know more after the insurance adjuster comes tomorrow, and after he gets some quotes for the repairs. He promises to keep everyone in the loop.
Onward!