Sleepless in San Francisco by Ryan Field Page A

could I want?” Then he lowered his eyes to his
     
plate and started to eat. He certainly wasn’t going into any details about his relationship
     
with Mike in front of Ed. He’d already said enough. But out of the corner of his eye, he
     
saw Lisa give Ed a look from across the table. Her eyebrows went up and she jerked her
     
head in Jonathan’s direction. Ed pretended to ignore her. He lifted his hand and asked the
     
waiter if he could have another glass of wine.
     
Toward the end of their dinner, Ed took one last sip of his wine and spilled a few
     
drops on his white polo shirt. Noah noticed it first and told him. Ed scolded him for
     
pointing.
     
Lisa said, “You’d better ask the waiter for some club soda or you’ll never get that
     
out.” They were waiting for the waiter to bring back Ed’s credit card. Jonathan had
     
offered to pay. He could have written it off as a business dinner with clients of the show.
     
But Ed insisted, so he put his wallet back in his pants and shrugged. “Salt is better than club soda,” Jonathan said. “The salt will soak up most of the
     
wine for the time being, and when you get home you’ll have to pre-soak the stain with a
     
mixture of hydrogen peroxide and a good, strong laundry detergent. Then wash it on a
     
normal cycle and it should come out. But you have to do it right away.”
     
They all stared at him for a moment. He felt as if there was a piece of food on the

 
end of his nose. Lisa’s head was tilted sideways, and Ed’s eyebrows were up.
     
He shrugged. “I know how to do laundry,” he said. “I like clean clothes.”
     
“You’d better put salt on that right now, Ed,” Lisa said. “Jonathan, you’d better
     
do it for him. He’ll just let it dry and we’ll all have to look at that wine stain for the next
     
ten years. And I’m no good with laundry. I send everything out.” She reached for the salt
     
and handed it to Jonathan.
     
“I’m fine,” Ed said, waving his arm. “I’ll just throw it into the washer when I get
     
home.”
     
But Lisa insisted. “Stop being so stubborn and let him at least put the salt on it.”
     
Ed sighed and turned to face him.
     
Jonathan opened the salt shaker and placed it on the table. The stain was just
     
below Ed’s collar, on Jonathan’s left. Lisa and Noah watched while he dipped a napkin
     
into a glass of water and dabbed it lightly on the stain. From the way they stared, you’d
     
have thought he was performing major surgery. He spread salt all over the wet section of
     
the napkin and reached toward Ed’s shirt. He didn’t want to just dab it onto Ed’s body; it
     
would have fallen all over his lap. So he slipped his right hand through the opening of the
     
shirt at the base of his neck, rested his knuckles on Ed’s bare chest, and lifted the shirt so
     
the salt wouldn’t fall off. He gently rubbed the salt into the stain with his left hand, pressing against his right palm. Ed’s chest was arm and solid and his chest muscle
     
jumped a few times. When he inhaled, Ed’s woody aftershave had mellowed to a soft,
     
soothing aroma. Jonathan pinched his lips and focused hard on the stain, because when
     
his knuckles touched Ed’s chest something happened between his legs.
     
Ed sat still, staring up at the ceiling the entire time.
     
When Jonathan was finished, he patted it dry with another napkin and said, “Now
     
when you get home, pre-soak with detergent and peroxide and put it through a normal
     
cycle.” He placed the napkin on the table and reached to get his jacket from the back of
     
the chair. He had a full erection between his legs. It was a good thing he’d brought his
     
jacket to cover his crotch.
     
After that, Ed drove Noah and Lisa back to the guest house. Noah wanted to show
     
Jonathan his bedroom. Ed thought it was too late. He had to get up early; he wanted to
     
finish sanding all the hardwood on the first floor that