Going Up! by Amy Lane

bed sank next to him and Zach felt delicate fingers stroking through his hair.
    “Real life.”
    “You’re the one who relocated your entire office to come out of the closet. You tell me.”
    “Lonely,” Zach mumbled, feeling tearful and a little broken.
    “Sh….” He didn’t imagine Sean’s kiss on his forehead, did he? “You’re exhausted, buddy. Time to sleep.”
    “But I’ll wake up, and you’ll be gone, like a dream.”
    There was a sigh, and some violent rustling next to him. “Scoot over.”
    Zach did, and Sean lay down on top of the comforter next to him, wearing his boxers and T-shirt. “I’ve got an early matinee,” Sean said softly. His phone glowed softly as he set an alarm on it. “I’ve got to be up at seven.”
    Zach buried his nose in Sean’s neck and murmured, “Thank you.”
    “You know, you do know where I live,” Sean said softly.
    “That’s not how it works,” Zach said, feeling loopy. “The prince in the tower needs rescuing. The peasant on the fourteenth floor has it all figured out on his own.”
    Soft laughter ruffled Zach’s hair. “True. And, I gotta admit, the tower has a lot more privacy.”
    “Mmhm….”
    Oh, the things Zach wanted to do with all the privacy….
    And on that note he fell asleep.
     
     
    H E WOKE up alone, but there was a piece of his old company letterhead next to his pillow, probably from a pad he kept in the kitchen.
    See you in the elevator, sweet prince. When your life is settled, maybe I can visit your tower again.
    Sean Mallory
    He looked at the note and smiled.
    Sean Mallory.
    Very carefully, before he took a shower and brushed his teeth or anything, he folded that piece of paper up and put it in his wallet, behind his driver’s license. Sean Mallory, Apartment 1409.
    That right there was real.
     
     
    I T TOOK another month before his life was settled again. Then, one morning, he stepped outside his door and watched Jace and Quent disappear into the elevator, and realized that, oh hell yes, it was mid-to-late August, school might have started, and he might actually see Sean today.
    His heart pounded while he waited for the elevator to return, and when the door opened….
    Sean stepped out and right into his arms.
    “Ohmygod!”
    And then he didn’t have anything to say, because Sean’s mouth was on his, and his lips were soft and his tongue was sweeping in and….
    Sean pulled back and grinned. “You’re a terrible kisser. I’ve waited for that for months, and that’s all you’ve got for me?”
    “Uhm… I’m surprised. How would you fix it? I’m surprised!”
    Sean went to step back, but some weird constriction thing happened to Zach’s arms, and he wasn’t letting go. Sean’s wicked expression, the kind with the arched eyebrows, sobered, became gentle, and he nuzzled Zach’s cheek and this time, when he stepped back, Zach let him go.
    “I’ll give you kissing lessons later. Right now, we’re both running late.”
    “So, lessons—that implies I’ll get more kissing, right?”
    “You are so not suave and sophisticated, you know that?”
    “I’m aware. So, kissing?”
    Sean laughed, grabbed his hand, and pushed the down button. “I’ve got an in-service today—let me not be the slacker who gets there last, okay?”
    “So school hasn’t started yet?”
    “Monday—why?”
    Zach shifted a little, uncomfortable about asking, but not wanting this moment to end. “See, my secretary Leah and her roommate Jenn—we were meeting for Frisbee on Saturdays, but I screwed that up with the whole ‘hey, let’s move the office in an insane amount of time!’ and I offered to make it up by taking them to Monterey for two days, like, Friday through Sunday, and it wouldn’t be a sex thing, seriously, it would be a date thing, not that I—” He stopped babbling and closed his eyes because he wasn’t sure if that look in Sean’s eyes was pity or fear, but he was pretty sure it was no.
    Sean kissed him and pulled back,