Chapter Four - What Your Man Bun Says About You

April was busy playing with Jay, after changing him, and now they were both surrounded by toys. He was pretty sure Jett’s baby was super bright for his age, as he used his own personal language and appeared to be taken with one of the toys that came with a wide array of animal sounds.

After spending some time with Jay, April was afraid he might start talking gibberish, too. Still, Jay’s company was preferred to that of his father. Jett would so kill him for ruining his date.

April looked out the window. It had been quite a day. When he woke up that morning, he had had no idea how much his life would change. The fact that he now practically lived under the same roof as Jett was incredible. How could one go so quickly from a comfortable life, not ounce challenging to figure out, to this?

Maybe his obsession with crypto was unhealthy. But, hey, a lot of people liked to shop, smoke, drink, or watch cat videos on YouTube for eight hours on end. April’s passion was to let his heart do flip flops with the ups and downs of the crypto charts. To anyone asking, it was quite the adrenaline rush.

There seemed to be quiet downstairs, so April could only hope that Jett was already out. He didn’t quite believe he would escape unpunished, but it was still better to have a breather before Jett would strangle him, pun totally intended.

The issue was he was still hungry. He would have to order takeout anyway until he could cook a real meal. Now, the kitchen was off-limits for the simple fact that it was downstairs and that was where Jett could still lurk, waiting to jump him and break his bones after all.

***

Trying to convince Maya that the kid wasn’t his over what was a costly dinner had been exhausting. Now Jett was even more pissed. Mostly because he hadn’t managed to get laid, but he could not totally blame that on Maya and her curiosity about the baby. Jett had a feeling she hadn’t believe one iota about a long-distance relative leaving a baby in his care.

That was the official version of why he hadn’t gotten his fix between the sheets as he had hoped for. In all truth, after kissing April earlier, Jett was in no mood for a replacement. Eventually, Maya had ordered the most expensive stuff on the menu and laughed about how he ended up taking care of a kid - the official version, of course. No word of them hooking up had come up, and Jett had kept silent on the subject, too.

But now, he was back home, and he had someone to straighten up.

He yelled from the bottom of the stairs. “Hey, yo, April! Get down here now!”

Jett was sure April could hear him. It wasn’t long that rushed footsteps could be heard from above. April looked down at him, from the top of the stairs. “Can you be less of a human-size alarm clock going off at odd hours?”

“If that was your idea of making fun of me, you suck,” Jett said matter-of-factly. “You use too many words, and you’re annoying.”

“I’m not coming down,” April whispered, as he remained standing. “You want to kill me, right?”

“Yeah, but that’s not why I want you to come down. Have you set up that baby monitor thingy?”

“No. I didn’t have the time. I’m starving, too.”

“Didn’t you say you’d cook?”

It was weird to whisper angry words at each other over the stairs. Jett went to the kitchen, grabbed the baby monitor from the table, and began marching up the stairs.

“What are you doing?” April began walking backward, his eyes growing wide.

“I’ll put this fucking house in order,” Jett replied and began climbing the stairs, two by two.

April looked like he was about to break into a sprint, but Jett was faster. Just as April was about to disappear through the door to the bedroom he shared with Jay, Jett caught him by the waist and pressed him against the wall.

“You have no idea about personal space, have you?” April moaned as he struggled to break himself free, but without too much force.

To Jett, it was clear that April didn’t want to make noise because of the baby. Well, it worked for him. He kept April there, enjoying, most probably more than he would have liked to admit, the way the dweeb was rubbing his ass dressed in nothing but a thin pair of sweatpants against his crotch. All evening, he had been too busy with other things to think properly about sex, but now that firm butt was giving his cock a good workout he could feel even through his jeans. The pressure was damned nice.

“Dude, are you getting hard or something?” April whispered. “I can feel it.”

Jett pushed himself away. “Can’t help it, after getting a bad case of blue balls because of you.”

April turned and faced him. “What? The girl didn’t put out?”

“That’s not relevant,” Jett said.

“Not relevant to what?” April asked.

“To what I’m about to do to you.”

April’s eyes grew wide again. “Don’t beat me up, please! I just have a bad case of putting a foot in my mouth, that’s all. I didn’t mean anything by it!”

Jett snorted. “Really? I thought you cockblocked me for a reason.”

“No reason!” April put his hands up and gesticulated.

“Let’s set up that baby monitor because I don’t want you distracted,” Jett said.

“Wait, if your girlfriend --”

“She’s not my girlfriend.”

“But she said --”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Jett walked into the bedroom and began right away to fiddle with the station.

“Don’t you ever read the manual?” April asked as he followed.

Jett threw him a pointed look. “Do you?”

April pulled down the zipper on his tracksuit jacket. Jett stared blankly at the black t-shirt with some vividly colored letters on the front. “RTFM?”

“Read the fucking manual,” April explained with a roll of the eyes. “Give that to me,” he added and opened his palm.

Jett held the monitor away from the greedy hand. “Hey, it’s my kid. Let me have my fun.”

“You’ll take forever,” April complained. “And I’m hungry.”

“You’re always hungry.”

“Only when I’m not eating.”

“And who’s to blame for that? Not my fault you liked testing the law of gravity with your burger.”

“I didn’t! You made me drop it!”

“Hey, keep your voice down. Baby in the room.”

April obeyed right away, but his eyes were filled with daggers waiting to launch. “All right. Play with the baby monitor if you must, and tell me what you need me for.”

“You’ll help me figure out who Jay’s mom is.”

“I don’t have a clue about your girlfriends. What help can I be?”

“Well, you seem smart. When you’re not stupid and get in deep shit with loan sharks.”

“Hey, I didn’t know they were loan sharks. I thought only that they were well-intended and wishing to invest in a young enterprise.”

Jett chuckled and continued to play with the baby monitor. “There,” he said with satisfaction and placed the camera so that it could point at the bed and the sleeping baby. “And this is yours,” he said as he handed the receiver to April.

The dweeb took the object and hooked it to his pocket. Jett noticed with satisfaction how pissed April was. Probably he didn’t expect Jett to know how to set up the baby monitor. He had read the manual at a stop on his way back. No biggie.

***

April placed the French fries and the fried chicken on the table. “How come you have a cooktop stove, but you don’t use it?”

Jett shrugged. “The house came that way or something.”

April had a feeling Jett was omitting on purpose to give away some vital information. “Does anyone else live here? You know, someone who cooks and knows the fridge is not just for beer?”

Jett threw him a brief look. “Do you see anyone else? And is this ready? I’m starving.”

“Didn’t you just come back from a restaurant dinner?”

“This looks better. And, by the way, completely unhealthy.”

“I know,” April said. “But I’m hungry, and only dripping oil foods will do it for me now.”

“Then just dig in and shut up. If you put food in your mouth each time you opened it instead of running it like a fucking broken record, you wouldn’t be so skinny.”

He paid no attention to Jett as they ate in silence. The situation was getting weirder and weirder, and April had no idea what to make of it. He got busy with washing the dishes in the sink since he hadn’t noticed the presence of a dishwasher. “I’ll need more cleaning supplies. I saw some in the bathroom, but I need more. Maybe a vacuum cleaner, too.”

“Do I look like I’m made of money?” Jett asked.

April gave him a careful once-over. “Yeah.”

“Good answer.” Jett grinned at him. “Make a list, send it to my phone. Okay?”

April nodded. “I should give Jay a bath.”

“Later. Now that you finally ate, you’re going to help me out.”

They moved to the living room, and Jett dropped on the sofa, spreading his legs wide. April wasn’t sure if he was supposed to sit next to him. The right thing to do, at least for him, was to remain standing.

Jett fiddled with his phone, with a deep frown on his face. “Are you just going to stand there?” he asked, without looking up.

“Yeah. It’s safer,” April said without thinking.

The caramel eyes scrutinized him until April looked away. “Really? Safer? From what?”

“Um, you?”

“Chill, dude. I’m not going to beat you up. Just for the record, though. Do you like guys?”

April could feel the blood rushing to his cheeks. “None of your business.”

“So yes,” Jett concluded on his own.

“Hey, you’re the one who kissed me,” April protested.

Jett shrugged, his eyes back to the screen. “And?”

“And shouldn’t I be the one to ask you that?”

“Nope. My house, my rules. I’m asking the questions. And I don’t like guys since you’re wondering.”

“What an insufferable ass,” April said through his teeth.

“I heard that,” Jett said and looked up. This time he was smiling.

Why was he smiling? And particularly, why was he smiling like that? He probably did that to all his girlfriends. They probably felt weak to the knees just like April now. Or maybe they were stronger and impervious to the charms of this fucker. The girl from earlier hadn’t seemed that impressed with Jett, truth be told.

Only that April knew he was much impressed.

“Come here,” Jett said.

He patted his knee.

“Do you want me to sit on your lap?” April asked, not quite sure he understood the gesture.

“Yeah. If I don’t like dudes and you don’t like dudes, what’s the big deal? It will be easier for both of us to look through my phone and search for Jay’s mom. It’s like bros chilling.”

“You either had not one bro in your life, or you’re pulling my leg. And I never said I don’t like guys. Actually, you concluded --”

A stern look was all it took for him to shut up. April moved to sit on the sofa, by Jett’s side. But just as he was about to put his ass down, Jett grabbed him and pulled him into his lap. April grunted and tried to release himself, but Jet snuck both arms around him while balancing his phone with ease in one hand.

He was about to protest when he felt hot breath on one ear, and sharp teeth sinking into the lobe. “Ouch! Why are you trying to pull a Mike Tyson on me, dude?”

April didn’t dare to move, afraid of what might happen to his ear.

It took a few seconds for Jett to release him. “Behave,” Jett ordered shortly. “You’re like an untrained puppy, and my teeth were tingling.”

“Seriously? Is that your explanation?” April protested, but didn’t remove himself from Jett’s arms.

Actually, that felt nice. If he didn’t know any better, he would lean into that warm embrace. But that was Jett, the clearly straight guy in the room if booty calls and girlfriends dropping babies by his doorsteps were any indication, and that meant that it was all nothing but teasing.

Why Jett felt the need to tease him was a different matter. Maybe he was just easy to tease. Or maybe Jett was still pissed about not getting laid, and instead of kicking April’s butt, he compromised by biting his ear and forcing him to sit with his ass right on top of …

“Dude,” he whispered.

“Um?” Jett asked while he continued to browse through his phone.

“Can you tone it down a bit? I can feel it poking my ass, you know?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Jett said airily.

“Your friggin’ erection?”

“Erection? You must be imagining things,” Jett replied.

“Then what the fuck is that in your pants?”

“My gun,” Jett said, but April could feel the body under him shaking with laughter.

“You don’t have a gun,” April protested.

“You think I’m a gangster. What kind of gangster walks around without a piece?”

“I can tell the difference,” April pointed out. “Is your gun made of meat or something?”

Jett laughed out loud. He lifted April just a fraction of an inch, and then pulled him down hard. “I don’t know, but your ass sitting on it surely feels great.”

April shook his head. “You’re such an asshole.”

“Now stop annoying me and help me figure out this. How the hell do I see posts from the past on this?”

April took the phone from Jett’s hand. Damn, that was an impressive number of chicks in those pictures. “Have you really fucked all of them?”

“They aren’t all my girlfriends,” Jett said, somewhat defensive.

What was the deal with that? “We should go back two years or so.”

April held the phone. “We’re looking at pics with your exes, right?”

Jett nodded.

“Her?” April pointed at a picture featuring Jett holding a redhead lovingly into his arms.

Fucking player.

Jett chewed his bottom lip, lost in thought. “I just hooked up with her once.”

April made a face. “You really need sex ed in your life. One time is enough.”

“I used a condom. Next,” Jett said.

“All right,” April muttered and began shuffling through Jett’s photo albums. “What about her?” This time, it was a beautiful blonde leaning against Jett’s arm and smiling for the camera.

Jett grimaced. “I told you I don’t do blondes. She just wanted a photo with me.”

“And you just said ‘yes’?”

Jett’s shrug was the only answer.

April continued. A fierce-looking woman was holding Jett in a tight headlock and grinning. She had a certain appeal without being someone people would call beautiful. Her short dark hair was all spikes, and her wiry arms were wrapped around Jett, while her eyes weren’t turned toward the camera, like the other girls, but looking at Jett in what appeared to be unhidden affection.

April shifted in his place. Looking at that picture made him feel like he was intruding on a private moment between two people who had feelings for one another. Jett looked happy in that picture, too. “What about her?” he asked quietly.

Jett’s face changed, and his jaw set hard.

April insisted. “Could she be Jay’s mom?”

“Maybe,” Jett said and worked his jaw a little.

“All right. It looks like we’re making headway. Let’s make a list. Pen and paper?”

“I’ll just remember this one,” Jett said and pursed his lips.

April swallowed hard. From the corner of his eye, he could inspect Jett. There was an intense look in his eyes, his eyebrows furrowed in thought. There was some painful history there, he could tell.

Pretending he hadn’t noticed anything, he continued to browse through the pictures. At the end of it all, they had narrowed down to four names. April was still impressed and not in a good way. For a guy barely out of his teens, to have so many girlfriends, women he could get pregnant was an achievement Jett shouldn’t be proud of.

“You’re such a womanizer,” April said and shook his head. “Are you sure these are all?”

Jett nodded. “Yeah. And hey, we don’t know Jay’s exact age. So I just took a longer time into consideration. You know, to cover all the bases.”

“I’m pretty sure you covered all the bases and scored, too,” April said. “How do you manage to fool these women? Is it because of your man bun that they trust you? They take a look at you and say: this guy must be in touch with his feminine side and he’ll understand me!”

April was overly conscious that he was exaggerating, but the serious look on Jett’s face was unnerving. Was it because of the girl with the spiky hair? For some reason, the thought of it made him feel cold and pushed aside.

He yelped when Jett turned him and made him lay on his back in one smooth move. From above, Jett’s eyes burned. “All right! All right! You’re not in touch with your feminine side! I was just joking! Jeez, you’re really tough, aren’t you?”

“You remind me of someone,” Jett said.

“That’s no reason to trample me, though, right?”

“I’m not gay,” Jett added, seemingly oblivious to whatever April was saying.

“Sure thing you’re not. You single-handedly broke more female hearts than five boys bands together, plus Justin Bieber. You’re safe, you’re safe,” April said quickly and freed one hand to pat Jett on the cheek.

The gesture was supposed to be casual but turned into a caress. Jett leaned forward, and April closed his eyes fast. But, to his surprise, Jett moved away.

“I have phone calls to make,” Jett said. “You can go see about Jay’s bath. And I’ll see about a crib tomorrow. Okay?”

April scrambled to his feet. “Okay. Goodnight. I think.”

He didn’t stay to see if Jett wanted to say something else. April knew he would be safer upstairs. Jett was making him confused, and April hated that. He just wanted to be safe, away from uncertain feelings that amounted to nothing.

***

Jett cursed under his breath as he browsed through his contacts. If Jay’s mom was one of them ... He knew who he hoped Jay’s mom to be. Could it be...? Even after more than one year, there was still something there, like the trace of a sharp object piercing through.

Back then, he had been almost happy. He had nearly forgotten Theo and confusing feelings. Jett had been at his best back then, or so he thought. Until, of course, he had ruined it, because that was what he did best, after all.

And now he needed to remember, and he was in no mood for that. Having April around, with his cute bottom lip, and even cutter butt was a problem already. His head was messed up enough.

He began calling, leaving the bitter medicine at the end.

“What? You’re married?” Jett exclaimed as he heard his first ex scolding him at the other end. “Say, do you have any kids? Especially a boy named Jay? Sure, sure ... Don’t put your husband on the line ... Whatever. Man, no offense. I just wanted to ask your wife a question.”

First one, excluded. The second was no longer in the country and hadn’t been for a long time. She was quite chatty, and Jett managed with difficulty to end the conversation.

Two left. Jett listened to the phone ringing, without anyone picking at the other end. A breathless voice eventually answered. “Jett? Jett who?”

Okay, so he could remember this ex to have always been an airhead, but he felt stupid about having to repeat his name three times. At the same time, whatever it was that she did to be so out of breath didn’t stop. “A child? With you? I’ve been on the pill since I was eighteen,” the woman at the other end replied. “No honey, sorry, it’s just a jealous ex ...” Jett heard her talking to her bed partner.

He cut the convo. That left him with just one, the one he was afraid to call. But he needed to bite the bullet and do it.

With a long sigh, he initiated the call.

A harsh voice replied. “Yes? Who is this?”

“Carina?” Jett asked, a bit unsure. That wasn’t her voice, but people changed, so who knew.

A silence which he interpreted as tense followed. “Carina is not available.”

“Is she in the shower or something? I can call later.”

Loud laughter was the answer.

“Who’s this?” he asked.

“That’s what I should ask you,” the voice replied.

“I’m Jett. Jett Huntsman.”

“Ah. What do you want?”

“I want to talk to Carina.”

“That would be tricky.”

“Why?”

“Correctional facilities for women don’t take calls at this hour.”

“What? Carina’s in the can? Since when? What for?”

“None of your business. But it must be the bad influence you were for her. You’ve been out of her life for more than a year, right? What do you care?” The voice was venomous, heated.

“Do you happen to know if she had a baby?” Jett decided to cut to the chase.

“A baby? What? With you?” The hoarse laughter returned.

“Did she or not?” Jett’s voice turned to stone.

“No. Happy now? Just stay out of her life, asshole!”

This time, it wasn’t Jett who cut the conversation. He stared at the phone, wondering who the hell that was. What kind of trouble had Carina gotten in? So she wasn’t Jay’s mom, after all. He should have felt relieved, in a way. The last thing he wanted was for Carina’s life to get even more complicated because of him.

***

April remained hidden in the shadows, as he listened intently. Carina. That must have been the girl with the spiky hair. Jett’s voice changed when saying her name. That counted more than an entire photo album filled with beautiful women.

He snuck back into the bedroom. There was no point in fooling himself Jett could like him like that. It was for the best to let the past remain in the past.

TBC