Page 18 of Fruit and Flash

He’s out the door before I can think of a response, so I wrap my own towel around my waist and stop to grab Shadow a treat before following. When I toss the snack to Shadow, I see Kai is already pulling his clothes on and I have my answer. He doesn’t want to stay.

“Thank you for the introductory sex lesson,” I tell him with a smirk I hope is casual.

“Anytime,” Kei replies with a wink before looking around for his shoes. “You have my number.”

“I’ll call,” I start, then remember who I’m talking to. “I’ll text you?”

“Please do,” Kai comes closer and goes up on tiptoes to kiss me. It starts soft but gets deeper, and I know I’ll be contacting Kai soon.

We break and grin at each other in the way of two people who just shared an orgasm. If he doesn’t message me, I will gladly be the one to reach out.

Kai is only in Foggy Basin for a short time and I plan on being part of it.

Chapter eleven

Kai

MylittlerendezvouswithHayes has me smiling and walking with a bounce in my step for days after. I message Hayes to ask if his escape artist animals have been behaving, and he tells me they destroyed a row of radishes but he stopped them before they got into the tomatoes, which are apparently toxic to them. It’s all fascinating to me and I find myself messaging him random questions about the food he grows.

Sharing the video of the farm chase with Hayes is rapidly becoming one of my most viral posts to date. It’s wild, because I like to think I’m spreading positivity through my regular stuff, not promoting unethical corporations and instead propping up queer businesses, but a hot cowboy trumps it all.

The urge to message Hayes about it is strong. I want to share how popular my ‘Hot Cowboy Chases Cute Animals’ video is with him, though a lot of people are laughing at how my ridiculous ass was reacting to the situation. I get the feeling hewould either shrug it off or freak out. Hayes has zero social media, after all.

Looking for music to pair with the chase scene also opened my eyes to a bunch of gay country musicians. I’ve been enjoying them more than I expected, even though some make me laugh at how raunchy the lyrics are. Dixon Dallas and Orville Peck are now on their own playlist with a few others, and I never thought I’d choose country over pop music.

Back on the couch at my temporary living arrangement, I’m finding that living with another creative person isn’t the best when they like different music than you. I’ve had bad situations with other influencers before, where I showed up and the promised living space is a recliner tucked between clothing racks, or one time a fold down bed in an RV at a co-living space that blasted music twenty-four-seven.

Avery isn’t that bad, and Ezra’s place is nice. It’s air conditioned, clean, and I have easy access to him and the shop below. But Avery likes loud rock music when he’s designing, and he loses track of time. Otherwise he’s extremely respectful as a roommate. I knock and he apologizes before switching to headphones. Problem solved.

This time, I came upstairs to the sound of two men’s voices, and I suspect Avery has his new fling over. Hell, they probably turned the music up to drown out their sex noises. Gideon is a bee keeper or something, and he’s hot, so I get it.

Now it’s one am and I want to sleep. My noise-cancelling ear buds aren’t cutting it, and it’s not like the other businesses are open to complain. Even though I grew up with a buttload of siblings, we were expected to be silent at night so our parents and the older kids could sleep for work the next day. And we all worked.

Still, the countryside is supposed to be quieter, right? I bet Hayes’ farm is nice and quiet at night. I could be riding him as hecomes undone for me right now and no one would hear a thing. My dick twitches at the thought and I roll to my side.

Thinking of the farmer, I open my phone to scroll Pinterest as a distraction, because jacking it while my roommate gets off in the next room feels weird. Over the months, I’ve looked up what grows in California at different times and gone down rabbit holes about chickens and miniature animals. I now have a board about homesteading and follow a bunch of queer DIY farmers on social media.

It’s a surprisingly big group of influencers making content, and I lose hours scrolling their mini-renovations. Most are couples who have a farm together or who fix up houses, but I feel like combining the two would be very popular.

The only thing is that I’m openly queer and Hayes is not. Plus, we’re not a couple. A twink on the farm is fun and all, but if Hayes isn’t on board with being in the posts, I don’t see it doing well. The commenters on the video of him skewed heavily towards how hot Hayes is and how incompetent I am.

Maybe I can ask what needs fixing up or he needs help with and he can show me how to do things? I can make his farm a page to link to and get him more followers. Hayes has mentioned that some of his produce gets thrown out every day, mostly to the farm animals, but how sad it is to see food waste. More followers would mean an increase in sales, since he’s less than fifteen minutes off the interstate. This could be a way to help him that benefits us both.

The other thing plaguing me lately is how shallow a lot of my online presence is. Wanting to lean into the influence side of social media influencer is part of why I took the job with Ezra. Growing his online presence and building his brand is fun, but also makes me feel helpful in the way a middle child like me craves. The need to be seen and heard in a crowd.

Sharing inclusive brands and body positivity isn’t nothing. It’s important. But my old stuff isn’t fulfilling the way it used to be. I’m twenty-six, and I’ve been heading away from twink status with my muscle growth and getting closer to thirty.

Being gay and carefree was a blast in my teens and early twenties, but I think it’s time for a rebrand.

Never one to shy away from an idea or a man I’m interested in, I open my text messages. The one at the top is Ezra saying he is taking tomorrow off to do something with Ollie, but right underneath is a picture of the pigs eating fruit from Hayes. He was letting me know it was their last meal. I wanted to feel bad, but they were menaces.

Debating the wisdom of sending a WYD? text at way too early-o-clock, I decide it will be better to just show up. Hayes probably gets up with the sunrise or some farmer ridiculousness. He’ll have a harder time saying no in person, right? And I have tomorrow free.

Closing out of our texts, I create an email for Hayes Farm and get started on a social media presence. Even if he doesn’t want to use it, I can still tag the page and show him how it works.

By the time Avery and Gideon turn off the music and get quiet for the night, I have everything I need to bring to Hayes in the morning.

Who am I kidding? I’ll probably sleep until noon. I just have to hope Hayes wants to have someone on the farm who thinks mornings are for sleeping and his animals can be used for me to make content.