Attraction - a fraudulent marriage

2. suits

The dingy apartment always hosted the worst mix of smells first thing in the morning. Stale smoke, trash, dirty dishes and training gear all joined in perfect disharmony. The only way to avoid it was to keep a window ajar at night, but that meant you had to sleep with one eye half-open or not sleep at all. The neighborhood wasn't all that bad, but we were close to ground level. It was a huge fail since I loved a nice view. That didn't always require a window, though.

The two other guys I shared the space with were nice enough, but I couldn't wait to find something better. Partly because it was uncomfortable bringing someone there, no matter how drunk that guy might be. They would see the mess in the morning and think that I had something to do with it. Unacceptable, of course. After flawless sex, dudes shouldn't have to wake up with a single doubt or any sliver of regret.

Chris hadn't been allowed to visit. Adam, on the other hand, knew everything as he had helped me move in, but he had vowed to never disclose details about this misery. He was good like that—ever the gentle-hearted friend.

I knew how lucky I'd been to have met Adam that day in the hospital. Without him, my stay in the US would have been totally wrecked. The bruises after the late night run-in with a crowd of idiots had faded long ago, but sometimes I still looked one too many times over my shoulder on my way through the city. But after hearing what happened to Adam, my experience of being on the receiving end of violence didn't count for much.

Rubbing my tired eyes, I thought about the ride back to my shared apartment last night. No matter how much I'd wanted to bring hot stuff into my bed, I'd skipped the car a few blocks away to prevent him from seeing the place. A grin spread across my lips as I recalled my promise. Tom would get his playlist, and I would make sure he listened to it. Chris might be right that the dude wouldn't appreciate my gesture, but that didn't matter. I could still give myself an A for effort.

I threw away the cover and sat up, my gaze already trained on the laptop across the room. Time to get to work. The faded reflection on the dark screen made me wince. My blond hair was a mess, standing in all directions at once. Also, perhaps it was time to stop forgetting about meals.

"Joachim, you up?" one of the guys yelled from outside. I couldn't hear who it was since they both sounded exactly the same to me. Maybe it was Rody. That guy liked to shout.

"Yeah, I'm up."

"We'll clean up later. Gotta run."

"Fine. See you later." I shook my head. The guys were cute, but they were full of shit. Their promises were next to useless. No doubt, they planned to visit the coffee shop down the street to ogle the twins who worked there. It was rather funny to see them try to score a phone number from the brunette darlings, but not as funny when they returned to wallow in self-pity, forgetting all about cleaning.

I sighed and planted my ass on the white plastic chair. It resembled a chair I remembered from back home, only, we'd had those outside, not inside. Either way, I had nothing better to replace it with, and style-wise nothing matched in my room so...whatever.

* * * *

One shower and three coffee cups later, I skimmed through the titles on the new list. Tom was unlikely to know any of the songs, but they meant something to me.

My stomach whined at the excess acid when I took one more gulp of coffee and checked my phone for the first time since last night. Damn, I'd slept through half the day and wasted most of the afternoon. Also, I had one missed call from Chris. I grinned to myself. Now I had a reason to call him without coming off as a creepy stalker if I mentioned Tom.