Painted On My Heart

“Really, stop. I can do it,” Kellus protested, covering his own mouth and nose as he stepped closer. The smell made him queasy. Arik continued to swipe at the floor around the toilet, but then suddenly lurched forward again, seriously gagging as he shot to his feet, tossing the brush in the clean toilet. He darted past Kellus and took off down the hall. Kellus followed, watching as Arik started pulling off his gloves before he reached the back door. Out on the patio, he found Arik bent over at the waist, one hand on his knee, the other on his stomach, breathing deeply with his eyes closed. The gloves lay at his feet.

“You shouldn’t have even tried to tackle that,” he said, rubbing a hand along Arik’s back.

“Fuck, Kellus. How could he let this happen to the house you two lived in?” Arik asked and straightened to his full height, facing off with him, aversion clear on his face.

“I don’t know. I ask myself that question all the time. This is worse than ever before. I think he did it on purpose because he knows I like things clean. Don’t worry about finishing in there. Leave it for me. You shouldn’t even be here doing this.”

“There’s everything imaginable, or unimaginable, in there. Vomit, pee, come, shit. He’s disgusting. What the hell is wrong with him?” Arik’s stomach gave a loud rumble of disapproval, and he lifted his hand to his mouth before turning away.

The million-dollar question. One he didn’t have an answer to. But he’d gotten John’s message loud and clear; his ex was not happy about him cutting ties and attempting to move on. “I’ll finish cleaning in the morning.”

“That’s not the point, Kellus. He left that for you to deal with. He did that to you on purpose. It’s fucking demeaning.” Arik was back in his face, the repulsion turned into a flash of anger. He could see it in Arik’s eyes.

“I don’t think he realizes what he puts me through, only that he’s angry with me and wants me to know it. He’s never considered the consequences,” he replied, trying to make Arik understand what he knew about John’s personality.

“How can you defend that?” Arik asked, then left him standing there as he headed back inside the house, letting the door slam shut behind him. Apprehension had Kellus moving at a much slower pace. He’d known it wasn’t a good idea to bring Arik into his world; the sick dread grew, and it had nothing to do with that appalling bathroom. After a brief pause with his hand on the doorknob, he opened the back door and stepped inside. He could hear the sink faucet running and headed for the kitchen but stayed across the room, watching Arik aggressively scrub his hands and arms. When he started to rinse, Kellus made a move for the new package of paper towels, unrolling several sheets before extending them toward Arik.

“My staff’s better equipped to handle that bathroom. They have a version of a hazmat suit when people do that kind of shit at the resort,” Arik said, facing him while drying his hands.

The coil in Kellus’s gut eased, and he smiled at the image that produced in his head, thinking of either one of them going in that bathroom, protected from head to toe.

“I don’t know how you do it,” Arik said when he didn’t respond. He took a few steps to the trashcan and threw the paper towels in the bin.

“I’m sorry,” Kellus said, having no idea what else to say. His heart hurt and the embarrassment was a bitch to get past. This was a bad idea; he should have put his foot down and not allowed Arik to do this tonight. Arik was just such a force when he got something in his head. He made it hard to hang on to what he knew was right.

“It’s not your fault,” Arik shot back.

Having no response to that minor outburst, Kellus moved past him on his way to the living room. The back door was still slightly open, and he shut it, then twisted the lock before looking over the house from this angle. If he got there early enough in the morning, he could start on the bathroom. He’d been dumb to wait. He should have begun in there. Of course Arik would want to get the hardest part out of the way first. Kellus went for the trash bag to set outside with his trash cans, only talking to help ease some of the tension that had formed between them.

“We got a lot done tonight, more than I thought we could. I’ll finish…”

Arik reached out and grabbed his arm, stopping him from moving or speaking. “It’s not your fault, Kellus. This isn’t your fault. What that man does has no bearing on how I feel about you. You need to understand that. When I’m frustrated as hell at John that has nothing to do with you or us.”