Page 10 of Epidermis

Jasper couldn’t shake the smile that had taken form. He pressed his tongue against the inside of his lower lip, playing with his piercings, and he dropped his eyes to the small amount of empty booth between them.

“Where are you from?” Konrad asked.

“Georgia, originally. But we moved all over the South, port to port.” God, the drawl really tried to come out in full force there. Jasper’s smile faltered. “As you can probably tell.”

“Indeed. The United States is home to many unique accents, it’s always enjoyable to hear another.”

Jasper’s smile widened. He liked that Konrad accepted it without making a big deal of it.

Dessert sat forgotten on the table as conversation started to flow more freely. Jasper let his hands move as he spoke, something he usually tried to avoid by keeping them occupied or in his pockets. He talked about fly fishing and Konrad talked about the canals in Venice. His wine glass was empty again, and then it wasn’t. He found himself laughing, smiling again. He leaned his head sideways, against the back of the booth, listening to Konrad recount his first visit to the Florence Cathedral, or Cathedral of Sante Maria del Fiore.

It was warm. Probably because he’d been drinking. He reached up to loosen his scarf so he could take it off, but even with it knotted so loosely, his uncoordinated fingers struggled.

“Here. Let me.”

Konrad reached out but didn’t touch. He waited for permission, and that made Jasper’s chest do strange things. Jasper nodded. He swallowed as Konrad loosened the knot, his knuckles grazing Jasper’s throat. Konrad gently unwrapped it from around his neck, and Jasper became acutely aware of how close they were. They’d already been sitting close, but they had seemed to magnetize as they spoke, and now their knees touched.

Warm fingers brushed against his nape as Konrad untwisted the back of Jasper’s scarf. Jasper’s lashes fluttered; no one had touched him even this much in months. It could have been over a year, he hadn’t kept track. He just knew it had been long enough that he soaked up the single point of contact like the first rays of sunshine after a storm. Jasper was deprived of touch by choice. He felt vulnerable when someone was touching him, and this was no exception. However, he’d had nearly four glasses of wine to help with ignoring the anxiety it created.

“Thank you,” he said quietly, when Konrad withdrew his hands.

Konrad was decent enough not to call out Jasper’s reaction, how disproportionate it was to such a passing touch unless the recipient was starved for it. “You’re welcome.”

“I should probably get home soon. The dogs are gonna be looking for their dinner.”

“Let me take you. I confess to remembering you say that you had to drive, and I continued to fill your glass all the same.”

“I’m a big boy, Konrad. You’re not responsible for me drinking too much.” Jasper chuckled and played with one of the now loose ends of his scarf, the plaid fabric nearly reaching his belt. “I’ll just drink some water and I’ll be fine.”

“Very well.”

Konrad fetched a glass and a pitcher of ice water, because plastic bottles were just too pedestrian, Jasper guessed. He poured and Jasper nodded his thanks as he picked up the chilled glass. “So are you just a wine person or do you drink any of the hard stuff?”

“Spirits are nearly as varied as the meals they can be served with. I’m open to trying anything for the flavor.”

“Ever had moonshine?” Jasper asked. The drawl came out and he didn’t entirely fight it. Konrad had made him feel… uncomfortably comfortable.

“I can’t say that I have. Though from what I’ve heard of its alcohol content, I’m not sure I would recall if I had.”

Jasper laughed. “You should come to the house sometime. I’ll show you a night to not remember.”

He finished his water and Konrad refilled it before he could even think about excusing himself. Fine, one more glass would only help him sober up more, and it would help with the headache in the morning. Konrad regarded him for such a long moment that Jasper almost withdrew the invitation. Maybe Konrad didn’t want to get dog hair on his suit, or spend an evening in a run-down farmhouse.

“I would like that very much,” Konrad said.

He sounded like he meant it. He was smiling, and Jasper smiled back, his tongue finding the inside of his piercings again. Konrad really wasn’t so bad.

four

They made plans for Konrad to come for dinner that next Saturday, and in the meantime, Jasper had dinner at the restaurant twice. Konrad wouldn’t stop pestering him that he needed to eat lunch at work, and somehow got Jasper to agree to release him from his vow not to return to the shop. Konrad started bringing him lunch. Leftovers, he claimed. But even in a lidded container, the meals were always arranged to perfection, and the smell alone made Jasper the envy of the shop. River kept giving him shit about “his wife bringing him lunch.”

Hiyori kept the teasing to a minimum, so she was the only one Jasper shared his food with. He only ate lunch on the days Konrad came in, but on those days, he couldn’t deny that he enjoyed every bite. Not because of the gesture. It was just good food. He had no delusions that Konrad was doing it out of care so much as he was just enjoying that he’d managed to push another one of Jasper’s boundaries. Konrad seemed to take some satisfaction in that.

Hiyori seemed to have a different appraisal, though, and she finally voiced it the day Jasper was supposed to have Konrad over for dinner.

“He likes you,” she said.

Jasper was packing up for the day, and he wished he could play stupid, but they knew each other too well for him to even feign ignorance. “It’s not like that.”