Breaking Through. AM Hartnett

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СКАЧАТЬ a grown man doing getting his dick sucked in a public washroom? I thought that was something a man grows out of once he gets over the bar scene.’

      ‘Getting sucked off is never something a man grows out of, and he’ll take his cock out wherever he can. When he’s in a nursing home pissing in a bag he’s still hoping some hot nurse will come along and wrap her lips around him.’

      ‘That’s really gross.’

      ‘It’s true. Look, I’m sorry you walked in on it and I’m even more sorry I was an asshole to you about it. It’ll never happen again, at least not in that bathroom.’

      ‘So, you do it often.’

      ‘You know, for someone who made it pretty clear she’s not interested in my dick, you’re doing a lot of talking about it.’

      Miranda shrugged, the plastic around her shoulders crackling as she moved. ‘Like I said, I’m not one for ignoring the white elephant in the room. It just so happens that your dick is the white elephant in the room.’

      ‘Thank you for the comparison.’

      He kept his eyes on the road as they reached the star-shaped intersection at the base of the hill that dominated the downtown, then shook his head.

      ‘What the fuck? Who designed these roads?’

      ‘You’re in the wrong lane,’ she said. He cursed with his merger and made a left. ‘Where are you from?’

      ‘Toronto.’ He shot her a sly look. ‘Go ahead.’

      ‘Go ahead and what?’

      ‘Make some comment about my being from Toronto. Everyone does it. You might as well get it out of your system.’

      ‘I don’t have anything against Toronto. Great shopping and great music scene.’

      ‘Unfortunately I didn’t get to do much of either. I travelled around a lot with my last job. I grew up in Montreal, though. Talk about a great music scene. Am I on the right street?’

      ‘Just keep going straight until you get to the bridge. Why are you here? Kind of a downgrade, isn’t it?’

      He shook his head. ‘I needed the change. My last job was hell, and I’m too old to keep running across the country at the drop of a hat.’

      ‘Let me guess: you were a Bay Street trader falsely accused of white-collar crime, and now you’ve come out East to fulfil your dream of building a boathouse and retiring from the grind of daily life.’

      Simon laughed. ‘That’s pretty good. About as far off the mark as you can get, but pretty creative. No, I work for Michael Roe. You know who he is?’

      ‘The MLA with his office on the top floor?’

      ‘That’s the one. What about you? Let me guess this time – you’re a graphic designer.’

      ‘What makes you think I’m a graphic designer?’ she asked, surprised that while he was off the mark in terms of her career, he had somehow intuited her creative streak.

      ‘You’ve got that way about you?’ He met her scowl with a grin. ‘Artistic types who spend all day in front of a computer have a thin filter when it comes to speaking their minds.’

      ‘Is that your way of calling me an asshole?’

      ‘No, not at all. I like it. I wouldn’t have asked if you wanted a ride if I didn’t think you’d be good company.’

      Miranda hated to admit it, but she was enjoying his company as well. She liked that she could dish it and he’d dish it right back at her. And she liked that they’d been in the car together for almost ten minutes and he hadn’t tried anything funny.

      ‘I’m not a graphic designer. I work at the call centre on the fourth floor, but I am an “artistic type” – I paint in my own time. I had a stall at the farmers’ market when I was just out of high school, but now I sell my stuff on the Internet.’

      ‘Good money in that?’

      ‘Did you miss the part where I said I work in a call centre?’ she retorted with a laugh. ‘It does make a difference, though. One day, hopefully before I’m dead, but right now it’s just a way to make a few bucks on the side.’

      ‘Beer money?’

      ‘Baby money.’ He looked to her with surprise, prompting a bubble of laughter from her. ‘Not mine. My sister’s. She died last year, and so my other sister and I are raising her son.’

      He shook his head. ‘Jesus, I’m sorry, about your sister, and for thinking you were –’

      ‘Some vapid slut who would suck a dick in a public washroom if you bought me a beer?’

      ‘Here we go again.’

      ‘Maybe I am,’ she teased, earning herself another surprised look that tickled her. ‘Even vapid sluts have bills to pay when they’re not sucking dick. What are you doing?’

      ‘You said go straight until I got to the bridge. Now I’m going on the bridge.’

      ‘The bridge that will take us into a completely different city, you mean?’

      ‘Oh, hell, I thought the phone was supposed to tell me where I was supposed to go.’

      ‘It did, but you weren’t paying attention. Just get into the next lane and go down and now we’re on the bridge.’

      ‘See, this is why I didn’t want to talk about my dick any more.’ He laughed as they motored onto the bridge above the shipyards. ‘Sorry, I really am. I told you I don’t know the city. I’ll turn around as soon as I can. Can you fish toll money out of the console?’

      ‘I’ll pay it,’ she said, kissing her coffee money for tomorrow’s break goodbye, and shrugged. ‘It was kind of my fault with the shitty navigation, and you’re nice enough to drive me home in the rain.’

      ‘Will this make you late?’

      ‘No, my sister doesn’t leave for work until nine-thirty.’

      ‘Then have a cup of tea with me before I take you home?’ It was Miranda’s turn to look surprised. ‘You said no handjobs. You never said anything about asking you for tea.’

      ‘I don’t drink tea,’ she murmured, and immediately regretted it. She actually wanted to have a cup of tea with Bathroom Blowjob Guy, Simon, and so she shrugged inside that ugly poncho. ‘I can have something else.’

      ‘Good. Now let’s see if I can find us a real coffeehouse without ending up in the sticks.’

      * * *

      ‘Have you even been here before?’ he asked as he shook his umbrella out on the welcome mat.

      Miranda shook her head, then peered up at him with suspicion. In the last few minutes she’d begun to doubt that СКАЧАТЬ