lee_fallon | PSL - Chance Encounter

Lee's been in Darrow now about a week and a half, and he's been to every bar in the city limits, met all of the owners, and offered to tailor each of their wine lists. He wasn't getting paid for any of this, but based on the amount of money in his bank account, his monthly stipend, and the cost of rent, he didn't really need money to get by day to day. And he certainly didn't need to save up for anything.

He still hasn't bothered to see a doctor. He feels like he probably should, just so someone in the city (besides his dear friend Susan) knows what was going on with him. But he'll get to that later.

Today he's out for a run. His running shoes arrived in the mail yesterday, and he's been itching to get his pulse up. He never feels as alive as he does when he's out on the street, feet pounding against the pavement, sweating freely, breathing hard. Sex is a very close second, but nothing beats the adrenaline rush of a good, hard sprint.

He doesn't have a route yet, just sort of turning left and right at intersections with no rhyme or reason. He's planning on doing six miles today, using the app on his phone to track his progress; so far he's just over four miles, maintaining something close to an eight minute mile pace, nice and respectable.

But then, turning a corner, he stops, abruptly enough that he nearly stumbles. It's been a few days since he last saw Connor, his last glimpse when Connor slipped out of his apartment. He'd thought about calling a few times, just to check on him, but for some reason Lee had always changed his mind.

Here he is now, walking down the street, late afternoon sun lighting up his face. Lee's thought about him a lot, about what it had been like to be with him, but also worrying about him, all that sorrow filling him up, sending him on a self-destructive path. He looks good, right now, not happy really but not falling into himself like he had been a few nights ago.

He can't make himself say anything, just stands and watches Connor walk his way on the opposite side of the street. He's breathing heavily from running, covered in sweat, and his heart is pounding, but some of that has to do with seeing Connor again. More than he's willing to admit even to himself.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yeah, Thai sounds good," Lee replies, and he unplugs his headphones from his iPod and wraps them up so he can tuck them into his pocket. He wants to make small talk, because if they don't talk they're probably both going to just sit there and think about the noises they make during sex or something. Lee knows he hasn't been able to forget the sound of Connor's voice pleading with him to fuck him harder in the days since they slept together.

"Have you seen the internet they have here yet?" he asks, and it's a dumb question, but he knows he doesn't want to dig into Connor's real life, the one he left behind. If Connor wants to talk about it, Lee absolutely will, but the last thing Lee wants is to bring up painful things.

"Only a little bit through my phone," he says, glancing across at Lee as they fall into step with each other. "Why? Is there something I ought to be looking out for?"

"No," Lee replies as he and Connor walk toward the restaurant. "It's just sort of weird and restrictive. You can't get information about the current world outside of Darrow, they have their own version of Google and Amazon. For instance, I ordered these shoes online, but it didn't tell me where they were shipping from, just when they were arriving."

"Wow. Sort of like China, only more...localised?" says Connor, and that sort of weirds him out, actually. He's not as connected to the internet as, say, Olly, but he can see the creepy implications of that. "I pretty much used to just rely on the internet for porn, anyway."

“Yes, exactly,” Lee replies, and he hadn’t thought of it that way, but now that Connor mentions it he’s starting to realize how fucked up it is that they’re trapped here with no way out and no contact with the outside world.

“I didn’t go looking for porn. That might still be out there,” Lee says. “I can’t imagine any internet without porn."

"It's got to still be out there," says Connor, who knows it's out there because he found some on his phone the night before, lonely and desperate but not really in the mood to leave the apartment. "I think porn's pretty much the glue holding the internet together at this point."

"I'm sure it is," Lee agrees with a soft laugh. "I personally think sex is the path to peace. Imagine if everyone got to be sexually satisfied on a regular basis. Who wouldn't be happy with that?"

Connor's never really thought about it like that, but it does make sense. He certainly has always felt like he's got a better handle on his life when he's getting laid on a regular basis.

"You've got a point," he admits.

"It's my personal philosophy to enjoy life as much as possible, guilt free," Lee tells Connor as they arrive at the Thai restaurant. He reaches out and pulls open the door, motioning for Connor to go in ahead of him. "As long as you're not hurting anyone, I feel like denying yourself things is a total waste of time."

Conner walks in ahead of Lee, automatically starting to shrug out of his coat. There's a girl waiting to take it and he nods his thanks.

"Hey - I agree," he says, smiling. "I'm just saying, it's not always convenient to live in the moment."

Lee doesn't reply right away, waiting until they're lead to a table and left with menus. "Practically goes out the window in a place like this, doesn't it?" he wonders. "Why can't we live in the moment here? What do we have to lose?"

"I'm...I guess I'm hoping that I get back to some freaking semblance of the life I used to have," he admits. "I'm not ready to admit that I have to move on from it, yet."

Lee nods, and even though he'd been trying to avoid dragging Connor down by reminding him of his situation here, he stumbled into it by accident anyway. "I can understand that," he replies, and he's not sure if he's sad that he doesn't feel that way himself, or glad that the terminal status of his cancer is sparing him from it.

The waitress arrives just at that moment, thankfully saving them from the ringing, awkward silence that follows. They put in their drink orders, then she leaves them alone to decide on what they'd like to eat.

"What are you thinking of ordering?" Lee asks, wanting to say something, anything, to fill the quiet that's descended around them.

Connor pauses for a moment, scanning down the menu and then tapping something with his finger. "This," he says, picking out something with chicken and broccoli, oyster sauce, rice.

"You don't have to avoid it, you know," he says. "I can talk about it without breaking."

Lee nods in appreciation of Connor's choice. He considered the chicken himself, but he'd been trying to get back to the vegetarian diet his Buddhism dictated he follow. He wasn't getting treatment here anyway, so there was no reason to worry about his iron levels.

He sighs, feeling guilty now for being so obviously avoidant. "I'm sorry," he said. "I do want to know more about you, Connor. I just didn't want to ask anything that would potentially upset you."

That makes Connor laugh a little, when he thinks about everything he's been through since starting at Middleton. Still, it's telling that that's something that Lee would worry about, and Connor's not surprised, somehow.

"You can ask," he says, smiling a little. "If there's anything I don't want to talk about, I promise, I'll tap out."

Lee nods, folding his menu and looking at Connor across the table from him. "A minute ago I was going to ask what you do," he says. "Though I suppose I mean what you did before you came here. Were you in school?"

"I was in my first year of Law School at Middleton in Philly," says Connor. That's a pretty innocuous question, one that he feels comfortable enough answering. "I got my degree from Harvard, but I'm from Grand Rapids, originally, so I decided to move a little closer to home."

"Law school, wow," Lee replies, duly impressed. "And a Harvard grad. Now I'm even more flattered that you went home with me the other night," he says with a laugh.

"Oh, please," says Connor, rolling his eyes, but he does look pleased all the same. "It's just a college. I got my degree in English Lit - it's not like I'm a brain surgeon or something."

"I went to the University of New Orleans," Lee replies. "Because I got in state tuition there. And my degree was in hotel, restaurant, and tourism management," he adds with a smirk. "You might as well be a brain surgeon compared to that. All I know is wine."

"My parents have money," says Connor, rolling his shoulder in a shrug. It's not a boast, it's just a fact. "I know..virtually nothing about wine, honestly. I just buy whatever's recommended."

"My mother's family is from France," Lee tells Connor. "My mom's parents moved to Louisiana before she was born, but my grandfather was very into wine. My uncle opened a wine bar in New Orleans when I was college and I worked there, then bought into it, and now I own it," he goes on, and he likes to tell this story, since it's the thing he's most proud of in his life. "I know a lot about wine," he laughs.

"Wow," says Connor, genuinely impressed, and he likes a story like that. "I'm Irish on my dad's side, Italian on my mom's, hence the colouring. My dad's in Law, my mom never worked."

"My dad's Irish too," Lee says with a grin, liking that they have that in common. "I like the Italian in you," he says, and it's meant to be a benign compliment, but it comes out sounding a lot more sexual than he'd intended. He clears his throat. "My parents got divorced when I was young. I haven't seen my dad in a long time. Mom's remarried now, and I have three half siblings. They live in Fort Myers Beach, Florida."