Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 119011 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 595(@200wpm)___ 476(@250wpm)___ 397(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119011 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 595(@200wpm)___ 476(@250wpm)___ 397(@300wpm)
The weekly poker nights were a thorn in Leo’s side, and the next one was tonight. If it were only up to Leo, he’d have shown himself out and returned late at night, when the three vultures were gone, but he couldn’t leave the cargo unguarded while there were strangers in the house. He and Zolt did go out together from time to time, but the pawn shop was alarmed, protected with heavy-duty shutters and many locks. And even if someone did get in, they surely wouldn’t have found the drugs in the short window of time required for shopping or dining at a restaurant.
Still, Leo would be a prisoner in the pawn show yet again tonight.
Zolt shrugged, swallowing the last of the wrap. “If they found out you cook this well, they’d try to steal you away, and I can’t have that.”
Leo’s breath caught at this obvious tickle to his ego. “I sure as fuck am not into fisting, so I’m good where I am.”
Zolt washed down the food with soda and returned to his box. “Don’t listen to Anders. He likes making people uncomfortable. Might be part of his fetish, for all I know.”
“Oh. So the fisting itself isn’t the fetish?”
Zolt shuddered. “I don’t know, and I’d rather never find out. I don’t even like him that much. He’s only there for the cards, so—” He seemed ready to say something more, but his attention shifted to the large Styrofoam cube, which he placed on the counter.
Leo cocked his head. “What is that?”
Zolt smiled and cut through some sticky tape holding the thing together before carefully lifting the lid to reveal a castle made of colored glass. With numerous towers and walkways spiraling between the structures, the whole thing reminded Leo of the underwater castle from Disney’s Little Mermaid.
“Look. At. That. Isn’t it fucking stunning?” Zolt asked, wiping the figurine with a fuzzy brush.
“Wow! Yes, but… what is it?”
Zolt cleared his throat and nodded at the big fish tank. “It’s for them. Well, I suppose for me too. It’ll look nice in the blue light,” he said and walked up to the glass container to show what he meant. The translucent towers weren’t all smooth, and when hit by the illumination inside the fish tank, complex patterns emerged all over the thing.
The fish were a little chip in Zolt’s big-bad persona, and Leo loved to see that side of him come out. A reminder that Zolt was gentler than he liked to let on. A Minotaur with human sensibility.
“Oooh! A never ending addition to the underwater extravaganza. You’ll need a bigger tank soon. When will you set up the castle?”
Zolt smirked and shot Leo a giddy, childlike glance. “I’ll have to clean it, but then it’s good to go. Do you wanna watch?”
“Watch? I can help you set it up. Just tell me what to do. You wanna do it tonight? Wait—” he groaned. “Poker night.”
Zolt looked at his watch and approached Leo, his smile reaching his eyes for once and radiating off him as if this hobby unlocked the gates protecting a man who never let his guard down. “We still have two hours.”
Leo rubbed his hands, ready to get them dirty. “How did you even get into fish of all things?”
Zolt uncovered the tank and gathered some water into a mug. He then took the container to a bowl he’d prepared earlier and started gently pouring the contents of the cup over the new addition to decor. “My dad was really into it. We had fish since I could remember, and early on I had this Japan-themed setup in my own room, with a Mount Fuji, and a pagoda, and even a bonsai.”
Leo could hardly imagine a smaller, younger, smooth-faced Zolt, and latched on to that vision with a grin. Zolt had never talked about his family before either, and he gravitated closer, giddy for new information about his mysterious friend. “Does he still live around here?”
Zolt was weirdly still, so Leo repeated his question, wondering if he hadn’t been heard through the splashing, but Zolt faced him with the damp castle in hand.
“We’ve lost touch,” was all he said before grabbing a small stepladder and making his way back to the tank.
“Oh. Sorry.” And yet Leo couldn’t help his curiosity. “Same with you mom?”
Zolt shrugged. “I don’t think I’ve missed much. I’m much better off on my own. With my own rules. There’s really nothing to discuss.”
Leo shut up but couldn’t help the longing settling in his chest. They spent so much time together. They had sex. Watched movies and played games. They’d been on bike rides and had eaten together, but he’d hardly found out anything about Zolt, and at times like this it seemed he’d never see through the man’s impenetrable walls. He’d always stand in front of the moat, yelling to get in.