“Adam! Hold on!” Nick hopped into the door frame, tugging jeans up and bare chested. “Wait a moment here!” He stumbled out onto the balcony but Adam was already half way down the steps.

Epi found himself leaning forward in the wheelchair to better be able to see through the tree branches.

“No, I don’t want to hear your shit, Nick Kern!” Adam shouted back.

“Shhh, God, you’ll wake the dead!”

Adam pulled at his shirt and another bit of fabric came loose. He turned it over in his hands and Epi thought it looked like a pair of boxers before the man balled it up and threw it back at Nick. “I told you not to do this shit again.”

“Adam…”

“No, no…” he turned and shook a finger at Nick as the taller man came down the steps. “I get that you’re fucked in the head, I do and yeah it’s kind of really hot that you’re totally unattainable. The fact that it’s hot is simply because I’m fucked in the head too but I’m not so stupid to think you’re not just fucking me! I don’t mind being the booty call because God damn…” Adam’s anger dissolved into a bit of a lustful grin. “But I do have some shred of self respect.”

“Adam…it’s not like that…”

“What? You aren’t some cold hearted bastard that called me over here to just fuck me while pretending I was someone else? It wasn’t like that? Maybe you wanted to cuddle?” Adam hissed back. “Fuck you Nick. I know I’m just a piece of ass to you but this is the final straw…fucking moaning someone else’s name…did you forget who you were fucking?”

“Adam, keep your voice down.” Nick hissed back and glanced toward the house.

Epi was pretty sure he was invisible, sitting on the porch in the dark but he also knew he’d left the bedside lamp on and Nick would assume he was still awake.

“You could at least pretend to be upset. Oh wait, that would require you giving a shit about anyone but yourself!” Adam pulled his car door open. “Take me out of your black book Nick, I don’t care how hot of a fuck you are, I’m not taking your calls again.”

“Adam.”  Nick stopped at the bottom of the steps, his jeans closed but unbuttoned. He stood and watched Adam back out of the drive way, stick an arm out the window and flip him off. “Damn it!” He cursed and rubbed a hand through his hair. With one last glance toward where Epi sat hidden in the shadows, Nick made his way back up his steps shaking his head the whole way.

Epi sat still and unmoving for a very long time. What he’d just accidentally witnessed seemed like something from a bizarre dream. He continued to sit on the sleeping porch long after the car had disappeared from the driveway and Nick’s apartment door was shut behind him. The wheels in his brain turned over slowly and digested the obvious facts of the situation. Nick, his neighbor, the good small town boy football player, had just been fucking another man. More so, the stream of various men that had appeared since his arrival had all stayed for short amounts of time and all could be chalked up to casual encounters. Nick was not only gay, he was actively gay with a varied and interesting sex life.

“God damn.” Epi whispered and wheeled himself back inside. He felt more numb than when he’d been heavily drugged. There was no thought to it, he wheeled over to the bed and flopped down on it’s surface. His hand scrambled across the covers until he found the phone. Tori’s number wasn’t on speed dial but it may as well have been for how quickly Epi was able to tap out the numbers. It rang three times and on the fourth his friend finally picked up.

“Heya Epi…” Tori sighed as he answered.

“Hey, sorry for calling so late.”

“No problem…” There was a sighing quality to Tori’s voice that was odd.

“Look, you’ll never guess what I just saw.”

“If I’ll never guess it why should I try?” He teased back. “Mmm watch the teeth baby!” Tori moaned a little.

“Oh God you aren’t…”

“Hmm?”

“The fetus is blowing you isn’t he?”

“Quite well too I might add.”

“Not like he uses his mouth to communicate complex thoughts… Should I call you back?”

“Huh…oh oh no…I’m fine…” He sighed. “What is it?”

“Nick’s gay.”

There was a pause on the phone and a long silence. “Nick who? What show’s he on?”

“Not an actor, Nick Kern, the guy living over my garage? He’s gay!”

“Sweetie we’ll hire you a pro or I’ll loan you Dillon cause you’ve been celibate too long.”

“I’m not crazy. He just had some guy storm out of his apartment yelling at him about calling out the wrong name and when Nick followed he was three quarters naked…”

“Did you get a picture?” Tori chuckled.

“No!” Epi sighed and tried to push the mental picture of what was happening on the other end of the phone from his thoughts. “I’m serious, Tori.”

“Okay, assuming you’re right and oh…oh Dill that’s it…assuming you’re right and not crazy…”

“I’m not crazy.”

“So what? Mr. Hot Buns is gay…oh… happy hunting.”

“Tori!”

“What? He’s hot…I’d do him…so should you…oh yeah…oh…”

Epi made a face at the moaning sounds. “This is too much like listening to your brother get laid. I’ll talk to you tomorrow?”

“Prude…”

The easiest way to end the conversation was to hang up. Epi took the easy way out. He dropped the phone onto the bed and crawled his way to where he liked to sleep. He sat still on the bed but his thoughts felt frozen, stuck in place and after a while he shook his head and crawled under the covers.

When he clicked out the light, left alone in the darkness, his mind unfroze. A mental picture flashed across his mind of his neighbor, naked and sweaty. Nick’s broad shoulders were a nice to see. Epi had felt first hand the strength in the other man’s arms and the idea of that strength being gay made him shiver. He tried to picture Nick with any one of the men that had come and gone from his apartment and failed. He tried to picture Nick doing anything sexual with another man and his mind almost formed it. The mental picture was too erotic and it shivered away before he could fully grasp onto it. It just seemed impossible that Nick, his straight looking, straight acting, former jock, neighbor Nick, was gay.

He shook his head again as the cats started to join him on the bed. “You all could have given me fair warning.” The cats didn’t answer and Epi chalked it up as another reason they were evil as he drifted to sleep in the darkness.

 

*********************************************************

The next morning Epi ate his oatmeal and watched out his back porch. He’d gotten up late and Nick was already moving about the yard gathering up fallen sticks and twigs from among the falling leaves. It was chillier today than it had been with a real crisp feel of fall to the air and he’d pulled on a sweater. As he bent down to pull another fallen branch from the lawn, Epi found himself checking out the other man’s ass in his blue jeans.

“God, Epi, Tori’s right…you’ve been celibate too long. When did you ever go for the butch ones?” He whispered to himself as he scraped another spoonful of the oats up.

Nick carried the armful of branches to a pile by the garage and stacked them there before turning and walking to the house. Epi tried to watch the man with his new knowledge, to look for any sense in his movements that said he was anything but the straight man he seemed. Even with him looking for it he didn’t see it and he focused so hard that when Nick actually knocked on the screen door he jumped a little.

“Sorry.” Nick said as he came in. “Thought you saw me coming.”

“Huh? Oh, yeah…I…yeah just distracted…” He covered his nerves by shoving another spoonful of oats into his mouth.

“Guess you’ve a right. Would have thought you’d been excited.”

“Huh?”

Nick cocked his head to the side. “You know, today? Your new leg? I’d be excited.”

He’d forgotten about getting his new and permanent leg, all his thoughts had been on Nick and other men, Nick doing things with other men. “Less exciting when you have to have one chopped off before you get a new one.”

“I’ll be ready as soon as I feed the cats.” Nick nodded and left Epi’s bitterness alone. “We’ll get your new leg, grab lunch and get you to rehab on time.”

“I’m giddy with joy.” He was going to be spending the entire morning and some of the afternoon with Nick, alone with Nick. Epi wiped his suddenly sweaty palm on his pants leg.

 

 

“I still say you should have had flames put on it.” Nick added in as he shifted his weight on the chair. He was sitting on the side of the fitting room and trying to stay out of the way.

Epi ran his hand over the deep blue plastic of his new, custom made socket and shook his head. “It’s not like anyone is going to see it. I was happy with black.”

“Black is dull.” Nick had been the one to suggest a deep blue for the plastic and Epi had given in at his prodding.

“I don’t need flames or decals.”

“Decals are quite popular. We have skins that fit over the plastic of the socket and change the look of it as well as protect it.” The doctor added in, smiling at the pair as Epi settled the new leg in place. He was perched on a stool, one leg ended with a sneaker and the other ended in a obvious replacement that molded into a fake foot in the opposite sneaker.

“I don’t need to make a fashion statement.”

“Well, if you change your mind, about the decals or about leaving the pylon exposed we can hook you up.”

“It’ll never look like a real leg, why bother?”

“We can get it pretty close, but the choice is yours. I can tell you’re self conscious about it. I kept my pylon covered for years, it wasn’t until after we had kids that I change my mind. I wanted them to see me as I am. How’s that feel?”

“Fine for sitting.”

“Okay, let’s get you on your feet. I think this new foot will really work out well for you.”

Epi slid to the edge of the table and braced himself to stand. Unconsciously he put most of his weight on his good foot and ignored the pain that leg’s knee.

“No cheating.”

“I’m not, I’m just being careful.” Epi frowned and eased his weight over, balancing with a hand on the table, until he felt himself settled evenly over both legs. “Huh.”

“What?” The doctor asked as he stood and moved closer in case Epi lost his balance.

“You were right, it’s far more comfortable.”

“How’s your pain level?”

“Much better, it’s just tender feeling not actually painful.” He transferred more weight over and was surprised again by how little it hurt. “That surprises me.”

“Good! That’s what we like to hear. Anything feel pinched or tight? It should feel secure and not too loose….”

“So far so good.”

“Alright, let’s get you walking on it.” He gathered up and handed Epi’s crutches to him. “See how that feels.”

With a deep breath Epi took a few steps across the room, paused, turned around and walked back. “That is lighter, it doesn’t feel as dead.” It wasn’t like his real leg, not by any means, but for the first time in a year it didn’t feel like he was walking with a slab of wood nailed to the bottom of the fake leg. “Huh…”

“That foot should let you feel more stable on uneven surfaces. Can you walk to that wall and back for me?”

Epi obeyed but found it odd to walk with everyone watching each step so closely.

“Good, your gait is better, even with the crutches. How’s it feel?”

He returned to the table and slid back on it. “Better, more secure…surprised me that it hurt less.”

“You’ll finish healing better now, in a month you should be up and about without any pain at all. Now, Epi…I know I’m not your doctor but I’ve been where you are and I know what isn’t said so before I turn you loose… has anyone discussed sex with you?”

The words weren’t the cautioning warning about taking care and being careful and his head snapped up. “What?”

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