Mack Daddy(9)

He and I both went to Boston University, which was right down Commonwealth Avenue. Moses was a regular ball buster who hung out a lot at the student union. Since I worked at one of the cell phone stores right near there, we’d gotten to know each other. We’d shoot the shit, and when I happened to tell him my landlord was kicking me out of the small studio apartment I was renting, Moses offered me an empty bedroom in the apartment he shared with another guy.

“This is your room.”

I looked around at the large open space with burgundy-colored walls. “It’s nice, bigger than I expected.” It was empty except for a lava lamp plugged into an outlet in the corner.

“Nice lamp.”

“Yeah, Pat left that behind. It fits you, I think.”

“It kind of does. Like a hot mess.” I sat down on the bed and bounced on the spiny mattress. “This is really a lot of space for the city.”

“Yeah. You lucked out. It’s the biggest room. Neither of us felt like moving all of our shit into it when Pat moved out.”

“I can’t tell you enough how grateful I am.”

“It’ll be nice to have another nerd around.”

Moses and I were a lot alike, actually. We both wore glasses and enjoyed comics, tech gadgets, and science fiction books, among other things. We definitely had a lot of similar interests. He was also one of the few people who knew about my social anxiety and OCD tendencies. It contributed to how we met.

Moses had been one of the unlucky visitors to the store on a day when one of the new Apple phones was introduced. It was my first time dealing with that kind of a crowd, and I had a minor freak out after my only co-worker bailed. Moses saved the day, pretending to be an employee and picked up the slack while I calmed my ass down in the stock room.

When I was closing down that night, he randomly came out to me; he basically just blurted out that he was gay. Moses admitted that he felt safe telling me once he’d realized there was no way I could be judgmental after the shit I’d just pulled. That was the day we became fast friends.

“So, what’s Mack like? Is that his actual name?”

“It’s short for Mackenzie. But he goes by Mack.”

“Is he nice?”

“You’ll find him intimidating,” Moses said matter-of-factly.

“Great. Why do you say that? Is he an *?”

“He can be, depends on his mood. Sometimes he’s cool. But mainly, he’s just…easy on the eyes. And he knows it.”

“You mean he’s hot?”

“Yeah.” He let out a breath. “Fucking amazing.”

Shit.

I’m going to make a fool of myself.

“Does he know you appreciate…such things?” I asked.

“Does he know I’m gay?” Moses laughed. “I don’t know. We don’t talk about shit like that, but I’m pretty sure he caught me checking him out once when he whipped his dick out to take a piss in front of me.”

“That sucks. I mean…that you got caught looking.”

Moses winked. “It was worth it, though.”

Lord.

“Is he a student? What does he do?”

“His father is a politician in Virginia. Mack is in grad school at Boston College—political science. He’s doing some kind of paid internship at the State House. He’s got a girlfriend in D.C., goes back there every so often, about twice a month.”

“I see.”

“He’s not around much, which I like. Makes it seem like I live alone.”

“How did you end up living with him?”

“Craigslist.”

“Of course.”

Moses grabbed his keys. “I gotta run.”

Panic set in. “Where are you going? You’re leaving me alone?”

“You live here, Francesca.”

“I know, but what if Mack comes home?”

“What IF Mack comes home?”

“I don’t want to meet him by myself. What if he thinks I’m an intruder? Does he even know I’m moving in today?”

“Yes. I told him this morning. You’ll be fine.”

Rubbing my temples, I sighed. “Jesus.”

“Francesca…don’t freak out while I’m gone.”

“I’ll try not to.”

Despite Moses’s assurances, I hid in my room the rest of that evening. To the best of my knowledge, Mack hadn’t even come home, or at least he never bothered to introduce himself to me.

It was the middle of the night. I really had to pee but didn’t feel like leaving my room. Lifting myself out of bed, I forced myself to walk down the hall. Without my glasses, I couldn’t see much. The hallway was darker than I expected.

After feeling my way to the bathroom, I sat down on the toilet and let out a relieved breath. When trying not to wake anyone up while peeing, you have to push out at just the right speed so that it doesn’t tinkle loudly when it hits the water. I discovered that if I pushed extra hard, the stream of urine would hit the water more quietly as opposed to a loud but slower tinkle. The only problem with this method was always the risk of flatulence. I found that out the hard way when I unexpectedly passed gas.

It was loud.

I froze. It was still quiet, and I prayed that I’d dodged a bullet—that no one had overheard me fart. I wiped and opted not to run the water, so I skipped washing my hands.