Designs On You by Carrie Pack

Author:Carrie Pack
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Published: 2014-08-17T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

“Jamie, please call me back. I want to explain.”

It’s the third message Scott’s left on Jamie’s voice mail, plus five text messages, all variations on the same theme: I’m sorry. Please call me back. I haven’t called Preston.

But Jamie doesn’t call. There are no text messages. Jamie had skipped their Tuesday lunch after the disastrous photo shoot, and Scott hadn’t seen him in days. He’d found out from David that Jamie had gotten a cold and later learned from Sheena that it had developed into pneumonia, so Scott doesn’t see him at work for weeks either.

Preston, on the other hand, is omnipresent. And he wants Scott to know it.

“So, hot stuff, you want to grab a drink after we finish up to­night?” Preston asks Scott with his usual smirk.

It’s the second shoot Jamie’s missed, and Scott is already feeling uneasy, almost as though his skin is the wrong size for his body. And his promise to Jamie remains at the forefront of his thoughts, keeping him from accepting the invitation despite his habitual courtesy.

But Preston is undeterred; his advances persist day after day, regardless of Scott’s endless refrain of “no thank you.”

The longer Jamie’s gone—and not returning Scott’s calls—the more the feeling of unease gives way to plain old loneliness, and after a tongue lashing from Ben about how he’s still not “putting himself out there,” Scott considers one of Preston’s offers of lunch. Then he sees Preston flirting with Zach’s assistant only moments later, and is even more determined to steer clear of him. Preston is obviously not interested in friendship or dating, and there’s still the issue of Jamie.

“Preston, I appreciate the offer for lunch,” he says, “but I’ve got some work to catch up on, and I think I’ll call Jamie to see how he’s feeling.”

If the disdain Preston shows at the mention of Jamie’s name is any indication, Scott made the right choice. He can’t betray Jamie by befriending Preston, let alone dating him.

“You don’t really know Jamie that well, do you?” Preston asks, his lips twisting into a gross parody of a smile.

“I’m sorry?” Scott says.

Preston sighs. “Me too,” he says. “He’ll never give it up, you know. He doesn’t do casual sex.”

Scott doesn’t bother to tell Preston he’s not looking for casual sex either because it’s none of his business. Casual sex is easy to come by. He’d much rather have an actual relationship—the closeness, the intimacy, the comfort. His mind wanders back to Jamie. In just a few weeks, Jamie had become one of Scott’s closest friends. He can tell Jamie things his straight friends would never understand. He’d forgotten what it was like to have another gay man to talk to; most of the guys he used to hang out with were really Jacob’s friends, and when they broke up, the friends disappeared too.

After Preston walks away, Scott suddenly realizes he misses Jamie terribly; knowing that Jamie might still be upset with him makes it all somehow worse.

Scott picks up his

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.