Read Light of Heart :: Set up

"Man, you should have seen that goal! You really chose the wrong moment to pop to the loo." Devon claps my back and downs the last gulp of his beer. I look at the TV in the corner of the dark bar. On the screen Liverpool is playing against Manchester. City or United, I don't know, but I don't care either, so it doesn't matter. Devon clearly is a football enthusiast and he supposes I am too, because in his opinion every guy is or should be. He's a good friend, but I prefer a good psychological thriller to spend my time. I only fake interest because obviously some of those men have fine legs and an equally fine ass and a great body in general. I wouldn't mind getting it on with one of them if he were gay.

Meanwhile, Devon is chatting away with Luke about Liverpool's keeper. I let my eyes glide over the crowd. I can't make out many faces, because they're either turned to the TV or it's too dark.

"Hey, Abel!" A voice pops up next to me.

"Hey, Ramiro!" I briefly clasp his shoulder while he gives some money to the bartender and takes two cocktails in his hands. "You here as well? I didn't know you lived here in the neighbourhood."

"Nah, I'm just visiting my cousin. He lives in the university dorms like you and nobody under thirty stays at home on a Friday night, right?"

"Of course." The conversation already comes to a dead end. After all, we don't know each other that well, but we share some classes and we've worked together on group assignments.

"Hey, you're gay, right?"

"Yeah, I am. Why?"

"My cousin's gay too. Would you like to meet?"

I shrug. It's not the first time someone I know, tries to set me up with their other gay acquaintance, but it's not like it will hurt to meet that cousin of his and it spares me the struggle to politely decline.

"Devon, Luke, Ramiro wants to present me to his gay cousin, so I'll see you in a bit." They just nod and dismiss me, not once glancing away from the TV screen and cheering loudly when Liverpool almost scores.

Ramiro leads me to a table without a clear view of the screen where a boy with thin, dark blond hair is seated. He can't be much taller than me and his entire build nearly mirrors mine. I burst out laughing.

"You wanted to set me up with another twink? Yeah, right, like that would work." The boy glances up and Ramiro looks at me confused.

"What's a twink?"

I shake my head. "Never mind." I stick out my hand to the boy. "I'm Abel and your cousin here wanted to set us up because we're both gay, but he clearly doesn't know anything about gay subculture."

The boy laughs and shakes my hand with a firm grip. "I'm Emilio and I'm aware of his ignorance. I've tried to educate him, but he refused because he was afraid I would tell him all about the ins and outs of gay sex."

I chuckle. "Like any other straight man. He doesn't know what he's missing."

"Hey! I could say the same", Ramiro butts in indignantly. "You ever had sex with a woman?"

"No, but I kissed a few girls when I was like fourteen. That's probably more than you can say."

"Same." Emilio looks pointedly at Ramiro. "I bet you've never kissed any boys."

"True. But I'm sure you wouldn't want to hear about my sex life, so why would I want to hear yours?"

"Of course we wouldn't, because you have none." Emilio snickers and I laugh at Ramiro's face. "By the way, Abel, take a seat. I think we'll fit together like two pieces of a puzzle to smother Ramiro with our gayness."

"Our new hobby."

"Exactly." Emilio leans forward. "So, how do you know my straight as a pole cousin?"

"We share some classes."

"Oh, do you study chemistry as well?"

"Not exactly. I want to become a chemist, though, and open my own shop."

"Nice."

"What about you? Ramiro said you live in the university dorms as well."

"Yes, I'm currently striving to get my master in astrophysics."

"Wow, you're older than us?"

Emilio chuckles. "I don't know if I should feel flattered or insulted."

"It's just ... You look very ... boyish, you know, so I estimated you no more than twenty."

"Don't worry. I'm used to it. Don't you get the same reactions?"

"Well, yeah." I smile sheepishly. "So, astrophysics? Isn't that, like, really difficult?"

"I don't know. I've always had a knack for physics and math and there won't be any lives depending on me like on you."

"Now he's purposely hiding the fact that he's the first of his year and can easily quote lots of Stephen Hawking", Ramiro declares. "But I'm off now to Luke and Devon. Clearly you won't be bitch-fighting nor playing tonsil hockey any time soon, so no reason for me to stay."

"You would stay if we kissed?" Emilio questions.

"Well, no, but that would at least be more interesting than you getting to know one another."

"Okay. Bye. If we're not done talking by midnight, come find me."

"Okay. See you later."

"Later", I reply.

For a moment we both look at the football match.

"Are you interested in football?"

Emilio laughs heartily. "Except for the free eye candy? No, thanks. I'm a swimmer, though I wouldn't want to watch a swimming contest either."

"You swim? What kind of style?"

"Nothing in particular. It's just for fun. I'm not even a member of some club. Besides, my professors keep me busy enough, but it clears my head after a day of studying, if you get what I mean."

"I do. I mainly read to relax, but maybe I should tag along sometime. Get some exercise done. The amount of sweets and coffee I consume during the exams, isn't considered healthy and I could use a bit of muscle definition instead of this skinny body with zero muscle."

Emilio looks me up and down and shrugs. "You look fine, but I wouldn't mind if you accompanied me on my swimming sessions. Give me your phone and I'll put my number in it. You can put yours in mine." I smirk at the unintended sexual innuendo, but don't comment on it, because it's a bit childish.

Emilio resumes our conversation. "So you like reading? What kind of books do you prefer?"

"Mainly psychological thrillers and the occasional fantasy or sci-fi, sometimes even historical fiction."

"Really? I'm very keen on detectives, both books and TV series or movies. I like solving puzzles. Give me enough sudokus and I'll be a sweet boy for the rest of the day." His eyes twinkle. "Or any mind game actually."

"Do you play chess then?"

"If I can get someone to play with me, yes."

"I don't mind the occasional chess game."

"Another reason to see each other again. If one of us were more the other's type, we really would be the perfect match."

"Too bad Ramiro doesn't know twinks don't get it on. Though, maybe we can work together to lure someone in our bed and then we'll still have slept together, just not the way he intended." I smirk.

Emilio grins widely. "I like you. I think we'll be great friends."

***

I shiver slightly in the cold evening breeze. I'm currently waiting for Emilio in front of the municipal swimming pool. It'll be the first time we see each other since the night we met, and I've been looking forward to it since we settled the date.

"Abel! I'm here." Emilio rushes across the parking lot. "Sorry I'm late, but my roommate is sick and I had to clean up before I could leave."

We enter the building and blink against the too bright light, but it gives me a first look of Emilio in decent light. His hair is not blond like I thought, but more of a characterless mouse brown. He's also not as pale as I expected.

"Hey Emilio, do you and Ramiro have Spanish names for a reason?"

"You mean, if we have a Spanish origin."

"Well, yeah."

"We do. My mother and Ramiro's moved here as children from Spain and they decided to pass down the Spanish names, but I take more after my father. Otherwise I wouldn't look that much like a twink, because I would definitely have more body hair and isn't 'twink' usually only used for white boys?"

"Yeah, quite a racist word if you think about it."

"It is, but it's not like we should be ashamed because we're white. That's racist too."

I pay my entrance fee and Emilio flashes his membership card. We quickly change and when we come out, I must admit Emilio doesn't look too bad in his tight swimming briefs. He has a small but firm arse, but his legs are a bit pudgy and he has acne on his shoulders. When he looks back and our eyes connect, he smirks, as if he knows I was checking him out. He waits a second so I can catch up with him. We walk to the showers and he playfully pats my right arse cheek.

"Nice."

I jerk away. "Keep your hands to yourself, Emily."

"Hey!" He lightly pushes me. I let him be and just wash down myself, before we head to the pool.

"Let's do a little race. I want to see how good you are."

"Don't get your hopes up", I warn him, but I get in nonetheless.

As expected, Emilio wins with ease, but I laugh my loss off. He swats at my stomach and says: "I can see why you said you could use some exercise. You've quite some baby fat here. You definitely need to work that off. I bet you don't have any stamina either."

"But I do. In a much more enjoyable activity, that is." I wiggle my eyebrows and Emilio rolls his eyes.

"You really are the stereotypical twink, aren't you? Insatiable sex drive and all. Are you a butt slut as well?"

I know he means it as a joke, but I still answer a bit more seriously. "No, I'm not. I don't sleep around. I mean, it's not like I've never hooked up when I didn't have a relationship, but – I mean – haven't we all?"

"I haven't."

"You haven't?"

"That's what I said."

"Oh." Maybe I'm a butt slut then.

All of a sudden, Emilio smiles. "Don't worry. I'm not judging you. I just don't want to share my body with someone I can't share my mind with as well."

"Ah, okay." I force a small chuckle. "But you're not a virgin, right? Because that would be kind of awkward."

"God, no. Besides: I'm well acquainted with certain other things, if you get what I mean." This time, he is the one to wiggle his eyebrows and I blush, because I've never used toys and it kind of weirds me out to think about it, especially if I imagine Emilio using a vibrator or whatever else he likes.

"Let's cease the flirting for now. I don't want to know what you put in your body."

"Are you jealous because you can't put your own thingy in it?"

"Emilio!" I blush for the second time in not even a minute. Flirting with someone of the same build makes me feel uncomfortable for some reason.

"I'll stop, I'll stop. Don't get your panties in a twist."

I sigh and roll my eyes.

After that we swim laps and when I'm tired, I sit on the side of the pool and watch Emilio swim some more laps. Breaststroke, crawl, back crawl, breaststroke again. I'm no expert, but he seems to glide through the water as effortlessly as a professional swimmer. The tiles and the artificial light make the part of his body that is underwater, glisten with a blue gleam.

When Emilio deems his performance satisfactory, he comes to sit by my side and we look at the pool with only one other nightly swimmer. I feel strangely at peace, even though the light and the colours of the walls are too cold for my liking.

"It's nice to have some company. We should do this again. If you're up for it, that is?"

"Yeah."

"Are you always free on Tuesday evenings?"

"Yeah."

"Do you want to make this a weekly occurrence then?"

"Yeah."

"Everything okay? You seem a bit mellow."

"Yeah."

"Can you answer with something else?"

"Yeah." I try to keep the hint of my smile hidden.

"Will you suck my dick?"

I splutter and shove Emilio in the water. He coughs before climbing back up.

"Sorry. It was too tempting. But you sure you're all right?"

"Yeah." I smile. "I just get like this in the evenings, especially if I'm tired. And like you pointed out so kindly, I'm not used to any exercise."

"You know I didn't mean that as an insult, right?"

"Yeah."

He chuckles. "Let's go change, before you fall asleep and fall in the pool and drown. That would be a pity."

"Would it?"

"Come on." He stands up and offers me his hand. I gladly take it and we walk to the locker rooms in an amicable silence.

***

"Checkmate!"

"Ugh! Why do you have to be so good at this?" Emilio groans. "With anyone else I win every game and with you I lose every one of them."

I smirk. "You can't be good at everything, can you? I just kick arse, honey. Besides, my parents sent me to chess club when I was in primary school, so I had a lot of practice."

"Don't honey me, baby."

"Whatever floats your boat, sweetheart."

"Keep that up and I'll show you what a sweet heart I have."

I grin. "Sure."

Emilio grunts and then asks: "Did your parents really send you to chess club?"

"Yes, but it's not like they forced me or anything. I loved chess and I think they were just tired of me whining that they didn't want to play with me, because I beat them."

"Really? You beat them? How old were you?"

"Like eight?"

"That's ... Wow. Impressive. No wonder I can't beat you! You deceived me!"

"What deception? You're just a sore loser."

"You hid from me that you're a chess champion."

"No, I didn't, because I'm not. I've never participated in any contests, except the one in school."

"It was meant as a figure of speech."

"Whatever floats your boat, honey."

"Don't honey me, you dick!"

***

"Hey Abel! Are you free on Friday?"

"Yes. Why?" I flop on my bed while listening to Emilio on the phone.