Untouchable

Dinner at Mike's

Mike pulled the gray and white checkered electric blanket closer around his legs and shifted deeper into the cushions of his couch. Lexie stretched next to him and turned onto her back, her tail flicking lazily in his direction as he ignored her and furiously typed back another text. His dinner plate with the crusts of a hastily prepared frozen pizza was abandoned on the coffee table and his second glass of wine was nearly gone. There hadn't been a lot of cooking happening after school the past week. Too much of his time was being taken with other things.

Mike: It's getting close to my bedtime, you know.

Chester: You haven't been to bed on time for two weeks, as far as I know. One more night won't hurt you.

Mike: If I miss another morning run, you won't want to talk to me anymore. I'll weigh 50 pounds more than I did the last time you saw me.

Chester: Stop eating Kit-Kats then.

Mike grinned at his phone. He'd seen Chester only briefly twice in the two weeks since their coffee date, and both of those were the Tuesday afternoons that the insurance agent had come to retrieve his daughters after flute tutorials. That hadn't stopped the two of them from texting almost non-stop, and talking into the late hours. Not surprisingly, the more Mike talked to Chester, the more enraptured he became with the father of the Bennington twins.

Mike: Not giving up my Kit-Kats. You need to more strictly enforce bedtimes around your house so we can talk earlier. I'm falling asleep.

Chester: I don't think you need as much sleep as you think you do. Live a little.

Chester's last message was read with one eye open as Mike rubbed the other. He was sleepy, and his entire nighttime routine was off. It had been shot to hell the night after he told Chester he wanted to get to know him better, after he insisted they keep their interest in each other a secret. They'd exchanged numbers at Momentum, and Chester had only waited until that evening to text him the first time. From there, their conversations exploded.

Mike: How do you know what I need?

Chester: Trust me. I know.

Mike giggled under his breath and leaned his head back into the cushion, staring at the ceiling in his living room. The recessed lighting wasn't on, and the lamp in the corner behind him was casting shadows around every bit of furniture. He knew he should get up and go to bed, but he was afraid he'd fall asleep, and then he'd miss out on his now nightly conversation with Chester.

Rob knows something is up with me. I've been dragging at school. I'm so far off my schedule right now it's ridiculous. He thought about the way his contacts had been burning when he put them in the last few mornings, and his rush to get to school on time after skipping his morning run and sleeping an extra hour. Keeping up with Chester Bennington was proving to be exhausting, in the most exhilarating way. Mike was both excited and scared about what that could potentially mean if and when they became boyfriends.

He bit down on his bottom lip nervously. It was so unlike him to already be thinking the word boyfriends. Mike was utterly cautious when it came to new people in all facets of his life, but Chester had turned that whole pragmatic approach upside down. There was something so fascinating and wholly captivating about him, and Mike was smitten. He spent the entire day looking forward to the phone call he knew would be coming around nine-thirty, after Lily and Lila had gone to their rooms for the night. The sound of Chester's hushed voice through his iPhone speaker had his stomach tied up in breathless knots the entire time they talked.

Through those secret conversations, Mike had learned about Chester's favorite color (red), his favorite candy (sour patch kids), and his small Pomeranian (Lucy). They'd talked over how Mike met Brad (at a college frat party) and Chester had smoothed over how he met Talinda (in a bar - no mention of sleeping with her that same night). Chester had asked about Mike's family (two parents - still married - a younger brother and sister-in-law and two small nieces, ages three and a surprising two). Mike had learned that Chester was an only child.