Emery [bxb]

65

I show Emery my results and he skims everything with clinical scrutiny.

"Alright," he nods.

"Great. So no condoms. 'Cause I hate condoms." By the time I've got it on, I've gone limp. But with girls, you can't just saddle them with an unwanted pregnancy and ditch; it should be illegal not to wear one. With boys... Well, I expect a much better fuck.

Later in the day, Emery gets a phone call from his grandma. One of the kittens in the latest batch, Babou, didn't make it. He Skypes her pretty regularly to check up on them, so he's grown attached. Devastated, he cries in my arms.

"Shh, it's okay. Kittens die all the time." I hold Emery close, rubbing his back and over his bony shoulders. "Some creatures in this world are so fragile," I murmur, thinking of him when I met him and took him under my wing. "You do everything you can to help and protect them, and then at one point it's just...out of your hands. And if they make it, you count yourself very, very lucky."

I curl up with him in the bed just spooning him and murmuring words of comfort. I'm a dick, but not so heartless a dick as to make him deliver on our deal now.