Hot Cappuccino Boy - BxB (COMPLETE)

Chapter 19

I decide to log into the nearest computer I can get my hands on.

I enter the link given by Aden and reach directly a page hosted by the Troublemakers' website.

I enter the code Aden gave me at the same time than the link – I assume it gives access to his personal profile.

Bingo.

The banner at the top of the website is selling everyone's dreams – young and carefree people doing fun things together, taking up challenges in breathtaking scenery, whether they're on a boat sailing away in azure sea as far as the eye can see or they're skiing down on snowy mountains' slopes. I scroll down the page. Photos are now appearing, each one with their own caption – "Dare at Palma de Mallorca! Amazing!" or "That's what happened when you take up the Troublemakers' challenge with my closest friends".

People with tanned skin and pearly white smiles, so perfect they seem surreal. Photoshopped and instagrammed bodies rather than real people. I click photo after photo and when I find one with a familiar face, I realise with a jolt it's Aden. His deep blue gaze directed at the camera. Smiling but clearly lost at the same time. None of that playful authority he loves to show when we are together. I remember his confession when we were at the restaurant – the loss of his father sending him spiralling down the party rabbit's hole. He clearly looks the part – disheveled hair, giving him a rakish look, "look at me I've just rolled out of bed", reddened eyes, unkempt appearance. Bile rises suddenly in my throat when I see him, his arms around many young women. French kissing some of them. The fact that he's also clearly intimate with men, even if these photos are not as explicit as some others, doesn't diminish in the least my unease.

Warning signals are flashing dully in the back of my mind. What is he trying to achieve, making me look at these pictures? Making me jealous?

"Congrats," I whisper in the stifling silence of the flat, "You've succeeded."

I wash down a spark of jealousy with a swallow of water.

I'm on the verge of sending him a text to tell him what's exactly on my mind when discovering these photos when I suddenly see, scrolling down a little bit further, another heading titled "Aden's challenge wish list". Curiosity killed the cat, as they say – I click on it.

They're classified by category - "Risky" "General" and "Intimate".

Can't resist, really.

At the top of this particular list is "faking having sex in one of the London Eye's pods."

Oh.

That's probably what he wanted to show me.

I reach out for my mobile and tap on the following text:

First, reaching orgasm in another person's garden and now the London Eye? Do you have an exhibitionist streak I should be warned of?

His reply comes swiftly, as if he was just waiting for my reaction:

Not so much an exhibitionist streak than a wish to take up this particular challenge with you. So... What do you think of it?

Flattery will get you nowhere, you know.

I hesitate, my fingers hovering about the keyboard.

Oh, fuck it, after all.

Besides, from what I can gather of your profile, you've no shortage of willing candidatures to fake whatever you want to do in a public setting...

You've seen the pics, then.

"Seriously," I sigh while rolling my eyes.

Did he expect me not to do a bit of snooping around while I was logged in? Though it can barely be qualified as "snooping around". Pics were openly displayed on his profile. I'm not the one to turn a blind eye to such things.

I reply with a terse "Yes".

It's another topic we should talk about face to face tomorrow... if you're still willing to see me, of course.

Damn. Turnabout is fair play, as they say in the US.

Yes, I want to, I type. As for the challenge... How about I give you an answer tomorrow as well?

☕️☕️☕️

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