When The Rich Son Falls

Twenty Four

Topher was f****d.

Not literally—since he had been suffering a week-long dry spell that continued when he rejected the advances of the woman from Mystique—but he was f****d. His childish prank last night certainly backfired and bit him in the ass, because from the moment he closed his eyes to the second he woke up in the mattress that was too firm for his liking, all he could think about was James. It also didn’t help that those thoughts were limited to the things he’d witnessed in the alley, and it surely didn’t help either that the man basically confirmed last night that he was attracted to Topher, even without him directly saying so.

Of course, the latter didn’t really come as a surprise to Topher, since even some straight men were not completely immune to his charms, but it did make him get in his own head even more. It became bad to the point that when he woke up that morning, sweating, he wasn’t sure if it was because of his thoughts or because it was warm in the attic. Nevertheless, he chose to blame it on the weather, and chalked it up to James’s false advertisement of the attic when he said that it was only hot up there midday.

Topher was ready to complain about it early in the morning, but when he went down from the attic, he found the house empty. On the kitchen table was food in a microwavable container that had a sticky note with his name on it; and even though he never really ate breakfast, he did just for that day.

Bored out of his mind by noontime, he found himself on the path to the hotel once more, wearing his usual hat, sunglasses, and face mask. The locals had stopped giving him odd looks whenever he passed, and most even waved and greeted him on his way. Topher, of course, returned in kind like he always did. He had found it to be nice that even those who didn’t know who he was were still that friendly towards an out-of-place stranger like him. He was even able to make new acquaintances out of his new neighbors when he had casually stopped by to chat with them—always introducing himself as Steve, and very rarely taking off the mask that covered his face from the nose down.

So, when he heard someone calling him by his nickname a block away from the hotel, he looked for the caller with some confusion. It only made sense when he saw that it was Glory—the front desk agent on the night shift—waving at him from the other side of the street.

“Oh, who do we have here?” he asked with a wide smile as he crossed the road and walked up to Glory. He almost didn’t recognize her since she was sporting a casual ponytail and wearing a tank top, shorts, and flipflops.

“Good morning, Topher,” she greeted with a smile as she placed the three tote bags she was carrying onto the floor then wiped the sweat off her brow.

“I have to say, it’s a bit disorienting to see you outside of your uniform, not behind the lobby, and when the sun is still shining,” Topher honestly remarked. “Let me help you out here.” He lifted the bags off the ground and was initially surprised at how heavy they were. “Have you been carrying these bags of rocks around? Where are you off to?”

“Those are art supplies,” Glory let him know with a chuckle as they began to walk. “I’m going to help out for the festival preparations.”

“Oh,” Topher said in a tone that lacked enthusiasm. “You’re going to the beach?”

“No, not the beach. This one’s just at Linda’s backyard. She lends her space for free to volunteers. Don’t tell me you still haven’t been to the beach? You’ve been here for more than a week already.”

“And I can live longer without feeling dirty, warm sand on my toes,” he indignantly replied before realizing that the name Linda sounded familiar. “Hold on, is this Linda the, uh, a middle-aged woman that likes to gossip? Has a friend called Anica? No, Anita.”

Glory lightly chuckled at that. “You basically just described most of the population in Mariner’s Bay, but if you’re pertaining to the one with short hair that went to our monthly pool event, then you got it right. Anyway, where were you off to?”

“Nowhere specific. I was thinking about going to the hotel, though, because I was bored. There’s not much to do around here aside from going to the beach, it seems.”

“Yeah, swimming and surfing are most of people’s hobbies in this place. That’s why we have festivals and community events like this. It keeps everyone busy, and gives people something to look forward to,” Glory said as she stopped in front of a house. “We’re here.”

After she announced it, Topher was surprised when she didn’t even bother to ring the doorbell and just opened the unlocked front door. It was small moments like this that reminded him he was nowhere near home; because in the city, it was rare to find a house or an apartment with only one lock, let alone having a front door that was readily accessible to anyone who wanted to come in.

The trust of the people in their community was something that he found astounding.

“Thanks for the help, Topher. You can just leave the stuff here by the door,” Glory said as she stepped in. Topher placed the bags down, still hesitant to take a step inside as he peeked in. He could see and hear people in the kitchen and in the back.

“You can go in if you want to. We can always use an extra hand,” Glory offered.

Topher thought about it for a second, but then he remembered he literally had nothing else to do. He could always go to the hotel to laze around, work out, or socialize, but with the risk of running into James… Topher shrugged and smiled behind his face mask, saying, “I guess it couldn’t hurt. Count me in.”

Glory led him into the house, and the moment they came across people in the kitchen, it was all Hi’s and Hello’s. Topher took a look outside through the large sliding glass wall that overlooked the backyard, and saw people of varying ages making posters, stands, and signages under the sun; and right there, smack dab at the middle of it, was James, gluing what looked like sequins onto a large painted plywood.

He was wearing a t-shirt that looked like it had been with him since high school, and old jeans that had paint splatters—which definitely weren’t there as a design. Seeing his lack of fashion sense and care for his appearance made Topher think in wild disbelief, “Is this it? Is this really the person that’s making me lose sleep?” The man didn’t even have a proper skincare routine, for heaven’s sake—and that’s a fact that Topher knew because he had looked through the bathroom cabinets already.

As if he felt eyes on him, James looked up from what he was doing and looked around until he spotted Topher, who was quick to avoid his gaze by turning his attention back to Glory and her friends.

Just in time, an unfamiliar teenager approached them and curiously asked Glory, “New blood?” as he nodded at Topher.

“Sort of,” Topher answered. “The name’s Steve.”

The teenager also introduced himself, but Topher was unable to hear it when Linda stepped in and happily exclaimed, “Oh, the volunteer at the hotel!” when she recognized him. “Aren’t you hot in that mask, Steve?’

“Oh, I have um, I have a bit of a cough, so I want to keep it on,” Topher easily lied. He even cleared his throat to make it more believable. Beside him, Glory also nodded and piled onto his excuse.

“I’ll go make you some lemonade with honey. It ought to make your throat feel better,” Linda said with concern, and before Topher could politely decline, she had already made him sit down then stepped away to start on it.

He looked at Glory, unsure if he should stay or get up. “Better stay put and finish the drink unless you want Linda following you around with it,” she suggested. “I’ll go ahead and set up outside. You can just follow when you’re done.”

Topher nodded and simply waited there. He watched as a few of the older people prepared snacks in the kitchen with Linda, how the kids outside just played with paint or used small wooden sticks as swords, and when Glory and the teenager carried in the tote bags that she had brought with her.

He wondered if any of these people had jobs, since it didn’t seem like they were being paid to spend time for this. Then, his eyes landed on James who ran a hotel, yet was giving up his time and effort and was missing work to glue sequins on wood. And all of it was for what? Pure volunteerism?

That curiosity led to a train of thought that quickly spiraled the more he watched James interact with others. The man looked like an innocent straightedged member of the community, just smiling and helping out whenever he can. But Topher knew where he was last night and what he was planning to do, and he wondered if anyone else in the hotel or their neighborhood had been able to take a peek at that side of James’s life.

Probably not, Topher thought, with a small smile on his face brought about by the childish fact that he knew something that the others didn’t. But his smile slowly faded when he saw James lift up the plywood to set it aside to dry, then wipe off the sweat from his forehead with the front of his shirt, causing the fabric in front to rise, and for the back to cling onto his skin.

The sight of it pulled Topher out of a laughing mood as he found himself staring intently. As impossible and as ludicrous as it previously seemed, Topher finally accepted that, for whatever inexplicable reason, he had become completely and undeniably attracted to him.