Duncan texted me the next night.

U top?

So much for a how are you doing? And they said romance was dead.

I replied, yeah

U just saying that or do you actually top?????

Why did tops think topping was so hard? Yeah, I too can piston my hips back and forth for the five minutes it takes to cum before I fall asleep after never offering a reach around. Christ, I was getting jaded and bitter. I told Duncan, I know I’m not some Masc4Masc dude with a gym membership, but I can top.

Lol ok princess just asking. U wanna come over? Been a while since this bussy been smashed.

Ugh, why did I find myself attracted to this man? He was probably trying to be funny, but it was hard to tell via text. It was also hard to tell because I barely knew him.

If you never call me princess again I will come over. What time is good?

That’s how I ended up at Duncan’s apartment at nine that night, right after I got out of work at the liquor store. I’d been really hungover this morning and I’d gotten every type of shitty customer at the liquor store, so I was in a terrible mood, but most of that was forgotten once Duncan answered the door. I wasn’t sure if there was anything he couldn’t wear, because even a thin, too-small T-shirt and a pair of old sweats couldn’t impede the power of pure good looks. If being tall and slim weren’t enough, the tattoos definitely added a danger factor that got my engine gassed up and ready to run.

“Come in,” he said, stepping aside. He closed the door behind me, then walked over to the kitchen in bare feet. “I ordered some Thai food. I hope that’s good with you.”

“Wow, take-out? Is this a date or something?”

Duncan rolled his eyes and pulled a take-out container out of a plastic bag. “Don’t push your luck. You down with pad thai?”

“Yeah, sure.” I sank onto a stool across the island from him, accepting the food with outstretched hands. He gave me some chopsticks, but I never learned how to use them, so I had to ask for a fork instead.

“In this day and age, even white boys can usually figure out how to use chopsticks,” he said with a smirk as he handed me a fork.

“Shut up, I’m uncultured. What about it? Sorry I don’t speak five languages like you.”

“I speak three.”

“Whatever.” I stabbed my fork into my pad thai and took a bite. “So why have you been blowing me off for weeks?”

“Family drama.”

“Family drama doesn’t mean you blow off my texts.”

Duncan leaned his elbows on the counter, pushing his own food around with chopsticks. “Sorry. I’m pretty unplugged when I deal with this shit. It’s not that I don’t like you or something.”

“It feels that way,” I replied like some kind of whiny child. I had no chill. “Please tell me you don’t have a boyfriend or something.”

Duncan snorted. “No way.”

“Cuz I don’t fuck guys with boyfriends. I’ve been on the other side of that shit, and it sucks.”

“I don’t date much. I usually just fuck around.”

“Well, you’re only young once.” I shoved my noodles in my mouth. “Thanks for dinner, by the way. I never got around to eating at work.”

Duncan asked me about my job, and I unloaded all my frustrations about three customers in particular, one of whom was a regular who stopped by just to give me a hard time. I had difficulty with customer service jobs because I tended to go off, and that was a good way to get fired. That’s why I liked jobs without bosses. As an Uber driver, I could tell a rude passenger to get fucked and all he could do was rate me poorly.

Duncan somehow finished his meal before mine and headed off to the bathroom. The phone on the counter buzzed, and on the screen flashed the face of a young woman who resembled Duncan enough to be his sister. Her name showed up as Asel.

The phone went to voicemail, and Duncan returned.

“Um, someone was trying to call you,” I said.

Duncan glanced at his phone, then picked it up. When he saw who it was, he sighed and rubbed his temple.

“More family shit?”

“Yeah, my sister. She got out of rehab three weeks ago and barely made it five days before getting high again.”

“Oh, shit. That’s—I’m sorry.”

“I’m the only one in my family who doesn’t, like, scream at her and get her all upset, but she’s testing my fucking patience, let me tell you.” He dropped the phone back onto the counter. “Anyway, I didn’t bring you here to talk about my sister.”

“I don’t mind talking about your sister.”

“I’d rather you fuck the shit out of me, preferably before the Thai food digests.”

I couldn’t help but laugh as I slid off my stool. “Sure, okay.”

***

The next morning, I was woken up by a mouth around my dick. With one hand, I grabbed the backboard of the bed. With the other, I searched around under the covers until I found the top of Duncan’s head. I was happy to let him lead, and I was rewarded with a strong and prolonged orgasm at the end of it. As my brain soaked in a soup of endorphins, Duncan kissed his way up my abdomen and chest before latching onto a nipple and sucking it until my dick jerked in exhausted interest.

“I really have to pee,” I told him when he transferred his mouth to the other nipple.

“Sure, fine,” he said, kissing my throat. “I’m not stopping you.”

Reluctantly, I slipped out of bed and staggered my way to the bathroom. After relieving myself, washing my hands and swirling around some of his mouthwash, I returned to the bedroom, where Duncan was waiting, buck naked and holding his stiff dick in his hand, jacking off. I decided to help him out, using my mouth halfway through until he came. Then he offered to make me breakfast, which turned out to be toast, coffee, and some scrambled eggs. I wasn’t sure how he got them so perfectly moist, but he had both blow jobs and cooking breakfast down to an art.

We didn’t talk much. We didn’t need to. Right now we were operating on pure sexual chemistry, and it seemed to be working out well enough. He was willing to tell me that he had three siblings, two older and one younger—Asel.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what did she go to rehab for? Which drug?”

“Heroin.”

“That one’s hard.”

“Yeah.”

“I, uh, was in rehab for a bit.” I probably shouldn’t be telling him this, as we weren’t even friends. But maybe we could be if I opened up. “When I was eighteen.”

“What for?”

“Cocaine.”

“Hmm.” Duncan took a sip of coffee. “Still using?”

“No, I’ve never relapsed.”

He lifted his eyebrows with surprise. “Never?”

“No. I guess I had other addictions to fall into. It’s not because of strength of character, that’s for sure. I actually broke up with my last boyfriend because he started using again. Well, that and he, uh, gave me a concussion.” I winced. I realized halfway through the sentence that I should have kept that detail quiet, and now it was too late to take it back. “Anyway, addiction is a bitch. I can’t imagine what heroin addiction is like. At least coke withdrawal doesn’t put you in physical pain.”

“The worst part is that she’s got a kid. My parents are taking care of her daughter, but Asel’s an idiot about safe sex. It’s only a matter of time before she’s pregnant again. Or she gets HIV or something. She’s so irresponsible, and it’s a new excuse every day.” He paused with a frown. “I really don’t want to talk about this.”

“That’s fine. I don’t blame you.”

Duncan drank a bit more coffee, then leaned back against the kitchen sink. “I hope your last boyfriend wasn’t that guy who came to the bar with you.”

“What? No! Well, I mean, we did date, but that was years ago. Josh is just my friend now.”

“He’s cute.”

“Yeah?” Normally bad boys like Duncan wouldn’t think so. Josh was a dork, and he didn’t have movie star good looks to make up for it. “That’s what I keep saying but he doesn’t believe me.”

“Low self-esteem?”

I shrugged. “Hard to say. He’s really confident in some things and really awkward in others. He used to do theater in high school and he’d do anything onstage for a laugh, but ask him to talk to a cute guy for five minutes and he turns into a total mess.”

“Yeah, I got that.” Duncan lifted an eyebrow and smirked.

“Do you enjoy making people uncomfortable?”

Duncan chuckled. “A little bit. I’m surprised you two dated, or that you’re even friends. You seem like really different people.”

“We are in some ways. But we enjoy doing shit together and our sense of humor is the same, so I guess it works out.” I finished off my eggs and pushed my plate aside. “Why are you so interested?”

“Just making conversation, that’s all.”

“Well, if you want to fuck Josh, too, you’re out of luck. He’s not nearly as slutty as I am.”

“You’d be shocked by how slutty some people can be if you give them time and space.”

“Personal experience?”

“I bring out the best in people.” He smiled at me above the rim of his coffee mug, and I believed him.