Page 150 of Silver Sweet

I secretly lovethat he invited me to his place. It’s like voyaging into a whole new aspect of Phoenix I haven’t investigated yet. This is where he sleeps after our late-night songwriting sessions, where he wakes in the morning before meeting up with me.

“Cozy,” I smile.

“You mean tiny as fuck.”

“Cozy and tiny,” I shrug. “You weren’t exaggerating when you said it’s small.” The hallway he led me down was cramped, but nothing could’ve prepared me for his bedroom—which can’t be bigger than seventy square feet. It consists of a full-size bed, a skinny end table, and a closet. Just enough space on the floor for my guitar case.

I pry off my Vans and jump on the gray comforter, just to check out the rainy view. The window is situated above his slated headboard. “You have a fire escape outside your window?” I grin back at him. “You hang out there a lot?”

“Not unless I want to be fined. The building manager, Freddie, is a fucking ass and made me pay for leaving anashtrayon the grate.”

“Seems harsh,” I spin around, plopping down on the mattress. “I have a friend in the Upper West Side who had firefighters called on him, and the citation went to the building manager, who ended up just slapping my friend with a warning.”

“What friend is this?” Phoenix asks while unlacing his boots. “First I’ve heard of him?”

“Yeah. Party friend. Trust fund baby. Eliot and I know a lot of them, being trust fund babies ourselves, but some of them are…I don’t know, super unmotivated? They basically sleep all day, then smoke weed and party all night. They act like Eliot and I are wasting time with our ‘hobbies.’” I use air quotes. “You probably wouldn’t like Sheperd.”

“I probably wouldn’t,” he agrees, hurling his boot aside.

“He’s getting axed off my birthday party invite list. There’s a ten out of ten chance Shep would piss in one of Ben’s house plants.” I bring my knees up and flick open my lighter, trying not to fixate too much on what he’s doing. “So what’d you do to piss him off?”

“Piss who off?” Phoenix kicks away his left boot.

“Your asshole building manager. If he’s coming at you for an ashtray, it sounds vindictive.”

“That’s because it is,” he says. “Ever since Birdie fucked and chucked him, he’s been a pain in the ass.”

My brows spring upward, not expecting that at all. Theclick, click, clickof my lighter fills the brief silence. “How far does the apple fall from the St. Pierre tree?”

He’s rigid. “Are you asking if I would fuck and chuck you?”

“Yeah.” I shrug tensely. “I mean, I know you won’t because weworktogether, but I guess if we didn’t?—”

“That’s not the plan, Tom,” he interjects, eyes narrowed on me. “That’s never been the fucking plan. I don’t want to get rid of you.”

Good to know, good to know.I try to shake off the jittery anticipation of sex. Rising to my feet, I hop off his bed and stand a couple inches from Phoenix. “The plan should be to put my poster on your blank wall.” I smirk and nod toward the muddy-colored brick wall behind him. “Perfect spot for it.”

He’s not entertaining a look backward. “You nervous?”

I try not to cage breath. “Dude, I could sing to millions without breaking a sweat. I have nerves of Cobalt steel.”

“Then why do you keep flicking open your lighter?”

Anticipation (justanticipation) pricks my skin. “Habit.” I shove my traitorous Zippo lighter in my pocket, then I hold out my palms. “Steady. Unshakeable. Hands that’ve made you come.”

“You think that’s noteworthy, nepo baby?” He inspects my hands, his fingers skimming my knuckles.

There is no way he can hear my pounding pulse. “I’m sure I’ve made you come the hardest of all the hands that’ve ever touched you, soyeah.” My breath shallows. “Yeah.”

He’s twisting the two stacked black rings on my pinky. I have a thicker onyx ring on my middle finger, and he thumbs that one before kneading the pit of my palm. “You think I’d like you less if your hands shook?”

My eyes sting. “I don’t know, dude.” I shrug. “Maybe I’d like myself less if they did.”

His knitted brows darken his features. “Expand on that.”

My chest is tight. “I have brothers whobulldoze.Parents who can slaughter. I do not want to be the Cobalt that people look at and see weakness. I’ve wanted to be exactly what is expected when people think of the Cobalt Empire. Intelligent, unflappablepower.”

Phoenix processes this with his usual puncturing glare.