Not a Game: A Contemporary Gay Romance Novel by C. Cardeno

Author:C., Cardeno [C., Cardeno]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: M/M, Fiction
Publisher: The Romance Authors, LLC
Published: 2016-07-15T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

“Hi. I’m meeting someone for lunch. I’m not sure if he’s here yet. He’s got brown hair and green eyes. He’s about six three, well built—”

“Is his name Jaime?” the hostess asked, grinning.

Oliver’s face heated at the realization of how he had sounded. Oh well, if she had seen Jaime, she had to understand. “Yeah, that’s him.”

“Right this way.”

Tugging at his shirtsleeves, Oliver followed behind her and tried not to be nervous about why he was there. Jaime’s text had said he was looking forward to their date, but that word could mean many different things, and Oliver didn’t want to jump to any conclusions. Maybe Jaime needed to discuss something, not that Oliver had any clue what that could possibly be. He developed video games for a living; that wasn’t a service most people found themselves needing.

“Miss! I need to speak with a manager.” A customer stepped in front of the hostess, blocking their path.

“I’m showing this gentleman to his table and then—”

The customer shook his head. “I’m in a rush. I need to speak with the manager now.”

The hostess looked flustered, so Oliver said, “If you point me in the direction of the table, I’m sure I won’t have any trouble finding him.”

“Thank you.” She looked grateful. “He’s right over there.” She pointed to a three-quarter length wall.

“Got it.” Oliver wound his way around the tables as quickly as he could, not wanting to be late, but the sight that greeted him on the other side of the wall stopped him in his tracks: Jaime and another man, leaning close together, touching, and whispering intimately.

Right away, he realized he was seeing Jaime with another client, and he instinctively stepped back behind the wall, needing space between himself and the unwelcome vision. He had known why Jaime was with him from the first moment they’d met but as the weeks passed and they spent more and more time together, he had begun to believe they weren’t just an escort and a client. He had naïvely thought the way Jaime touched him, looked at him, and spoke to him made him different from other people, special. But a front-row view of Jaime with another man showed Oliver that what he had considered unique was simply Jaime being good at his job.

He leaned against the wall and wiped his clammy hands on his pants while he waited for his lungs to stop working overtime. Instead of sticking to his plan of bettering himself so he could meet people and hopefully get a boyfriend, Oliver had blown all his extra money and stupidly developed feelings for someone who saw him as a paycheck. Bits and pieces of Jaime’s conversation drifted over, stabbing at Oliver’s racing heart until, finally, the man with Jaime scheduled his next appointment and left.

A large part of Oliver wanted to follow him, not to confront him or even to speak to him, but to walk out of the restaurant and get away from the pain and disappointment. But he had promised to meet Jaime for lunch and standing him up would be rude.

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