DON'T BREAK THE RULES

Chapter 2 - Move-In

"How come you don't have a place to stay?"

Jamie leaned over the island counter, staring at a stumbling Joe trying to balance himself. He had been handed glasses of water and could barely finish the first one, but Jamie forced him to keep drinking it.

Joe had been surprised the moment they stepped inside the apartment. The decors were ravishingly, the colours in a comfortable harmony, and all the canvases were expensive ones from many well-known artists. At the entrance, a long hallway had a few doors, one of the laundry room and two bedrooms. Then, a few steps down was the entry to the huge space, on the left being the marble kitchen with an island in the center, and on the right, there was a stepped down living room, three couches around a glass table, facing a humongous television, replicating the feeling of being in a theatre.

Each room had its own bathroom, one thing Joe found peculiar was the cleanliness of the place. It was way too perfect, as if nobody even existed here; there was no personality that evoked from this apartment. He couldn't tell what Jamie preferred or if he even had a life outside of work since there was nothing other than the furnitures that were spotless.

"You can sit down by the way." Jamie finally said after a snort, noticing how Joe was struggling to even stand.

After taking a seat, Joe shrugged his shoulders and answered, "I don't have a job."

"You look like you should?"

Joe wondered if Jamie was simply clueless or shallow, but either or, the way he spoke with lack of empathy—lack of any emotions for that matter—made him shuffle in his seat. He cleared his throat before he added, "I lost my job."

"How did you lose your job?" Jamie noticed Joe becoming reluctant to answer the questions, his face tightening as he glancing elsewhere. But he was not taking no for an answer and he tilted his head to the side, forcing their gazes to meet. "I know you heard my question."

"I don't want to talk about it," Joe snapped, his head turning violently to face Jamie, who raised an eyebrow challengingly.

He stood tall, broadening his shoulders. "Then get out of my apartment." Jamie was quite toned, which Joe had noticed the moment he first eyed him. He was definitely more muscular than Joe, who never even headed to a gym once in his life.

"Okay."

Joe pushed the glass over the counter, letting it crash into the tiles and began heading for the door. However, when he reached the door, he thought about walking around the streets in the middle of the night, too ashamed to face his grandmother at three a.m. in the morning.

His ankles rapidly rotated and returned to the kitchen, meeting Jamie's raised eyebrows. There was nowhere else for him to go. And besides, Jamie's place was way too nice to ignore this opportunity. "My husband divorced me, and I got...depressed, I could say."

"Now was that so hard to admit?" Jamie chuckled, shaking his head. He reached his rag and began cleaning the broken glass and spilt water. The way he did it—his lats shifting from left the right as he cluttered the pieces together, how the shirt squeezed slightly every time his arm moved—Was enough to make Joe's body begin to throb.

However, when Joe noticed his hand stop for a second, he rapidly turned elsewhere, unsure if Jamie had seen him checking him out. But all Jamie said was, "I figured you were gay."

"Yes, I am." Joe paused for a moment before adding, "Sorry about the glass."

"I bartend for a living while I go to school; cleaning broken glass is a daily thing." He threw the pieces in the garbage, and made Joe another glass of water; he didn't seem upset by the glass whatsoever. "You need to drink more water though and you won't have a hangover in the morning."