Chapter 3

But that was just the warm up, the pre-show.

He opened his toolbox next, then removed a long, thin screwdriver and sat cross-legged beneath the unit. He worked that way for a while, his head tilted upward, his hand buried deep inside the belly of the beast, offering me a full-on view of his magnificent torso all the while.

Thank goodness I was so poor and my apartment was so tiny because my sofa and the rear wall were only about fifteen feet apart. I could see every bead of sweat that cascaded down his broad chest, could follow the path of his ginger chest hairs as they worked their way down his torso and gradually became a thin line down his rock-solid, six-pack abs, ending, sadly, out of sight inside his tight denim shorts. They reemerged darker and thicker around his tree-trunk-thick thighs and prominent calves. And the pouch in the center of those shorts, well now, let me tell you…

I was suddenly jolted out of my reverie with, “Um, Sean, could you lend me a hand here?”