Strings Attached

“Did you ever want to write?”

“Nah, I enjoy it, but I went straight from never wanting to be anything to knowing I would be a teacher.”

He still seemed off, but I didn’t push for more information.

A little after eight, we went to the bedroom. Zander showered, and then I did. When I came out, he was sitting in the middle of the bed in his underwear, with a gift bag in front of him. I only had my boxer briefs on too as I walked over. “What’s that?”

He picked it up and set it on the mattress closer to me. “It’s a gift…for you. I mean, you did get me my nameplate and all…plus the car thing. I figured I owed you.”

“Need a reason, do you?” I said lightly, but from the wide-eyed look of horror on his face, I could tell my joke had missed the mark. “I was teasing. Zander, I’m…honored.” And I was, because I didn’t think he did things like this often. Not because he didn’t want to or because he didn’t care about others, but because it made him feel vulnerable.

“You don’t even know what it is yet.”

“I don’t have to. You were thinking about me while you were gone. My evil plan worked.”

“Your evil plan is inconvenient.”

“Not the first time I’ve been difficult.”

“Are you going to open it?”

“Try and stop me,” I replied, picking it up and looking inside. There was colored paper on top. I pushed it aside and pulled out… “Holy shit, Zander. This is…” It was incredible.

“I know it’s not brand-new, and for all we know, it takes shitty photos. The old man I bought it from swears it doesn’t. He said it’s operational and takes great pictures. I got film too and already put some in for you. I don’t think you ended up getting a camera, and if you did, you might not want to use this one. I’m sure yours is nicer, but I saw it and…I don’t know. I thought it was really cool, that you might like it since it’s from your era—the 1950s, right?”

I forced myself to pull my gaze from the gift to see him grinning—no, that wasn’t the right word. His face was split in an ear-to-ear smile. This camera meant a lot to him, and he really wanted me to like it. “Ha-ha, you brat. Will there ever be a time when you’ll stop busting my balls?”

“Not that I foresee.”

“Good.” I winked. “Maybe lick them a little too. I like that flicky thing you do with your tongue on my sac.”

“Oh my God.” His ears pinkened.

I sobered, looking at the gift, which was likely what had made him nervous all night. “Zander, this is really special. Thank you. I love that it’s not brand-new, that it has character and a story and that it’s different. I love that you saw it and thought of me. I took a photography class in high school, and we learned to develop our own photos. I wonder if I could do that again. It would be cool, huh?”

“It would be very cool.”

There were so many things I wanted to say to him, so many ways I wanted to make sure he knew how much I appreciated this, but they would only make him uncomfortable. But this…it must have cost a few hundred bucks. The fact that he bought it when money was so tight for him…well, something must have been very important to Zander for him to do that.

And he’d chosen to. For me.

“Thank you,” I said, then pointed the camera toward him. “Smile.”

And he did, this sexy, bite-your-lip kind of smile I didn’t think he even realized he was doing. I snapped a photo.

“How did people survive without looking at the picture on a screen and the ability to delete it if they didn’t like it.” He laughed.

“I like it.”

“You haven’t seen it.”

“I still know I like it.”

He shook his head. “You’re so dramatic,” he said, but the tone of his voice told me he liked it.

“I have the perfect inspiration.”

Heat flared in his eyes, and then Zander surprised me by lying on his back, hand behind his head, giving me a better look at him. He was hard already, the bulge in his briefs prominent. He touched himself, adjusted his erection…smiled shyly.

“I want to take photos of you,” I told him. It wasn’t something I’d ever done before, taking pictures like this of a lover. I hadn’t even thought of it until that moment. “I want to take photos of you, and then I want to fuck you.”

“What are you waiting for?”

I loved that Zander was up for almost anything when it came to sex. That he might not have hooked up a lot, but he was sexually open, into experimenting, and I wanted to do everything with him. “What indeed.”