“Slut doesn’t end in U-C-K.”
The knickknacks catch my eye. “Firetruck.”
I hang up the phone and rush over to the antique toy firetruck in amongst other classic metal cars.
There’s another clue stuck to the bottom.
“After you turn me on, I get hot. I’m of no use until you screw me. If I’m not in tight, I could fall out.”
“Seriously?” Jet asks. “Is it me or are these clues super dirty?”
“I think that’s the point. They sound dirty but have normal answers.”
“Okay, so we’re not looking for a vibrating butt plug. Got it.”
“Something you screw,” I say. “Like a drill? Or a nail?”
Jet glances above my head. “Light bulb.”
“Perfect.”
There’s a single dark light bulb hanging from the roof, but there’s nothing on it. No clue, no letters …
“Do we have to unscrew it?” Jet asks.
I shake my head. “It’s fixed.”
“Maybe turn it on?”
I pull on the chain, and it illuminates the room in a bluish hue, but nothing happens.
“I don’t get it,” Jet says.
“Neither.”
Our next fifteen-minute warning sounds before we can figure it out.
“It’s a black light,” I mutter. “But what does that have to do with anything?”
“Let’s go back to making out on the desk,” Jet says.
“Giving up on only the third clue?”
He shrugs.
“Black lights show things you can’t see without them.” I step away, and on the ground is … I squint to try to make out what image it is. “Is that …” I cock my head.
“It’s a dick,” Jet supplies helpfully.
“It’s not going to be a dick. It looks like one, but it’s going to be something not sexual.”
We split up and look through all the junk in the room. There’s so much stuff in here it could be anything.
“What if we look under everything?” Jet asks. “Statistically, we have to come across another clue somewhere.”
I glare at him. “You don’t play by the rules, do you?”
“Never.”
“I’m making a mental note right now.”
Jet picks up a random snow globe and looks under it. “You’re taking notes on me?”
“I’m going to remember that if we ever play a game, I’ll have to keep an eye on you to make sure you’re not cheating.”
“Cheating makes it fun.”
“Well, yeah, winning is fun. Which is why we need to find this cock-shaped … whatever.”
“Maybe there’re cameras in here, and they want one of us to whip out our dick, and then they’ll give us the next clue.”
“By all means.” I gesture for him to go first.
He gets as far as unzipping his jeans when I see it on the shelf next to him.
“Cactus plant.”
Jet glances up from his crotch. “Huh?”
“Beside you. Cactus. Looks like a dick.”
“Are you sure I don’t have to take out my cock?”
“I didn’t think this through.”
Jet zips up his fly again. “You’ve seen it plenty.”
“I’ll never, ever see it too much. Just FYI.”
“What if we joined a nudist colony?”
I involuntarily growl. “No one gets to see that but me.”
Jet seems to like that. Our eyes lock, his deep-brown eyes on my lighter ones, and suddenly, I can’t remember what we were supposed to be looking for.
Jet breaks first and as if reading my mind, he says, “Cactus.”
“Right. Cactus.”
We move through more clues, all dirtier sounding than the last, but always with a normal answer.
It takes us an hour and a half to find the key out of the room.
I flip it in my hands. “Should we use it now or enjoy the last half an hour of no interruptions?”
“Let’s get out of here. I have another surprise for you.”
“Well, aren’t I lucky?”
“No, you’ll get lucky later tonight. This afternoon, you might wonder if you still like me.”
It’s not until we arrive back at the hotel and, instead of going up to the room, he drags me down to the basement that I understand what he means.
“You’ve brought me to a gym.”
“I know you haven’t had much time to work out, so I spoke to Luce, and he’s going to schedule some bigger blocks of time for you in each city while I’m doing radio interviews.”
“Is this because I complained about getting fat?”
“Sort of, but no.” Jet turns to face me. “I kinda feel like I dragged you from a vacation in Fiji to practically working on my tour, and I know you were tired last night, so it was mostly whining, but I want this to work for both of us. You need to be ready for the season, and I don’t want it to get to a point where you have to go home early so you can focus on training. I’m trying to find a way we can both get what we need while getting you to stay on tour with me.”
The things Jet does shouldn’t stun me. I shouldn’t be surprised by how thoughtful he is.
Perhaps it’s because of this outlandish persona he has even with the rest of the gay brigade and his band. He puts on a show for everyone, but this—this caring guy who wants to fix whatever made me go on a tired rant—this is who Jet is deep down. And that guy is someone I could so easily fall in love with.