Chapter 11: What Was Seen Cannot Be Unseen

Carter was chewing the nail on his index finger like a Duracell rabbit at a carrot tasting. The initial shock was gone, but he still held Simon’s phone in his hand, not wanting to let go. But it was not like those offending pictures were going to disappear by magic. There, on the shiny screen, Alex Ruskin was locked in a heated embrace with the guy currently sitting across from him, in the poshest cafe Carter had ever set foot in.

And that was not all. If anything, it was just the peak of the iceberg. What lay under water was much, much worse. Apparently, the two clandestine lovers had had no qualms with taking pictures in all sorts of compromising positions. Carter was certain that he had seen enough dick and man on man sex to last him for a century. And Simon, the dickhead, was right; in all the x-rated pictures, Alex was the one with the other’s cock in him. Now that was plenty of ground for divorce, right there.

Eventually, he unglued his eyes from the man’s phone and handed it back to him. There was no point in trying to erase them and then blame it all on a slip of the hand. Simon surely had copies lying around, on his computer and whatnot. He could not be that stupid.

“So?” Simon looked at him with a small, knowing smile.

Some people. They just liked asking for a punch in the face. Alex Ruskin was a damn cheater and a two-timer, and Carter had to deal with it. Should Aron learn about it? It was painful but necessary. But he was not going to find it from Carter. Not like this. And there was maybe still time to save Aron’s marriage. Regardless of what he thought of guys marrying other guys and whatnot. This was not about him and what he wanted to believe of Aron. There was a marriage at stake and he needed to do everything in his power to save it. After he and Alex were going to swap back, it was completely up to Alex to decide. And Aron was going to find out. Eventually. There was no way in hell to tell what kind of thing was going to set that off, but it was going to happen.

Right now, though, Carter was in a terrible conundrum. What was he going to do? Tell Simon off? He wasn’t putting it behind that guy to blackmail him, to keep quiet. There was no way he was going to sleep with Simon, to maintain the wordly order in Alex’s life, either. So he just needed to grab the bull by the horns.

“What do you want?” he asked, frowning and playing with his thumbs, for lack of anything better to do, until he decided to just let his hands flat on the table.

Simon looked at him with a mix of confusion and angst. Carter shook his head. The idiot was a real charmer, with those dark caramel eyes. He preferred darker, black eyes. Like Aron’s.

“Do you really need to ask?” the man asked, and the pain in his voice was real. “I want us to be together. As you promised. You said that you were going to leave Aron, walk away from him, and be with me.”

Simon made a move to capture one of his hands, but Carter was quick enough to pull both of them away and hide them under the table. His eyed remained on Simon’s hand, still half open, until the man flexed his fingers, curling them in, and withdrew.

“Look, if you want to blackmail me, just tell what will take for you to keep quiet,” Carter spoke, looking at Simon.

“Blackmail you? I have no intention to do that!” Simon protested.

Ugh, now that was a relief.

“But I don’t intend to leave you alone, even if that’s what you’re asking. I don’t care that you say that you don’t remember! I don’t know what game you think you’re playing, and, if this is your idea of testing me, don’t worry, I won’t quit!”

Carter frowned and took a look around. Simon’s heated speech was starting to draw attention.

“Calm down,” he hissed at the other and then smiled affably to a woman wearing cat-eye sunglasses who was already stealing glances their way.

Simon seemed to have a bit of difficulty to rein in his emotions, but, eventually, he chose to shut his mouth. His dark complexion made him look even more upset, with the frown and the pursed lips and everything. He was making Carter think of a character from some Gothic tale. Simon did look like he was ready to turn to the dark side.

“What are you going to do, Alex?” Simon asked, straightening up in his chair and looking straight at Carter.

Yeah. What the fuck was he going to do? He had never two-timed in his life, and he was not going to start now. It wasn’t only for Aron’s sake. He had his own dignity to think about.

“I’ll think about it,” he said, a bit too brightly while trying to force out a smile.

Ugh, to think that he already knew how this guy looked naked. He had nothing against naked bodies, per se, but, right now, he felt like he was sitting across from a porn star or something. Simon did have a nice body.

“Is this all you have to say? Do you mean that none of this sparks any memory of us?” Simon pointed at the phone lying on the table.

“Nope, nada, zilch,” Carter shrugged.

The problem was that he might not be able to forget what he had just seen. Now that was the kind of thing people used to say about that what was seen could not be unseen.

“I cannot believe it,” Simon murmured and leaned back in his chair, shoulders slumped in defeat. “I...”

The way the guy pressed his fist against his mouth was a bit too theatrical, and he was playing the hurt lover card too much, but Carter had to say that he kind of felt Simon’s pain. Kind of. Alex was still a cheater, and Simon was no better.

“What the fuck are you doing with a married man?” he blurted out, as usual, without thinking much.

Simon’s eyes narrowed.

“Really, Alex? You seduced me,” the man accused. “Did you really expect me to resist you? Who could resist you? Tell me, please. Tell me that this is not a game.”

“It’s not a game,” Carter shot back quickly.

The situation was getting more and more uncomfortable. Alex was a damn fucking douchebag. Carter had been right all along. He could, after all, get Alex divorced from Aron, while the body swap continued. But no, that was not an alternative to consider. Aron loved Alex, and maybe their damn marriage could be salvaged, somehow. He had no idea how, but whatever. He was not going to break Aron’s home, even if his husband was a fucking cheater.

Hmm, maybe after they swapped back bodies, he and Alex, he could just send Aron an anonymous message to let him know of his husband’s straying habits. Nah, too cheap, too sleazy.

No, he was just going to maintain the status quo until Alex was back into his body, and ready to sort out the mess his life was. Until then, Carter was just going to be neutral. Switzerland level of neutral.

“Why are you nodding?” Simon asked him.

Great, he had been caught up in his mental verbalization so much that he had no idea he was making faces.

“I’m going to be neutral,” he claimed right away.

“Neutral?” Simon questioned, making a confused face.

“Like Switzerland,” Carter said with determination.

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Simon sighed.

“Look, man, I’m amnesic, all right? Until I remember everything, let’s just be ... err, co-workers?”

“You couldn’t even bring yourself to say that we should be friends,” Simon huffed. “Don’t worry. I know what this is all about.”

“You do?” Carter could feel his eyebrows arching at a perfect angle. All that manscaping could not go to waste, obviously.

“It is about how you think that I don’t deserve you. You seduced me, and I was too easy for you.”

“Whatever,” Carter shrugged.

Were all relationships this complicated? Or only the gay ones? He was the most agreeable boyfriend, as far as he could remember. One girl had even told him once that he was really easy to break up with. That was him; the most accommodating ex in the history of relationships.

“I know what I will do,” it was Simon’s turn to show his determination. “I will win you back. I will be the one to seduce you,” he pointed at Carter.

Damn, this guy was an idiot. Not an agreeable ex, that was for sure. Although agreeable, as far as his physical appearance went, that he was.

“There’s no need for that,” he replied.

“Oh, yes, there is. There is plenty of need for that,” Simon smiled, his dark face finally lit up with a smile.

The guy was smitten. A smitten idiot.

“Look, Simon, take a breather. Don’t annoy me,” Carter spoke.

“Have I not been passionate enough?” Simon questioned.

“I’ll strangle you,” Carter said quickly. “If you don’t stop, I’ll run you over. With a car. I’ll find one,” he said with conviction.

“I don’t mind getting run over by you,” Simon grinned. “You look really sexy behind the wheel of that car of yours.”

“Wait? Do I have a car?”

Simon looked at him like he was a lunatic.

“The Spyder? Do you not even remember that?”

“Spyder? Like in Porsche Spyder?” Carter was certain his brain was slowly coming to a halt.

“I wondered why you didn’t come to work in it. But I assumed it was because of the accident.”

“I drive a car. That kind of car,” Carter said only to confirm it to himself.

“Yeah. You used to say that whenever you feel hungry, you only need to think of that car, and it’s the best diet tip ever,” Simon smiled at him.

Carter shook his head.

“Let me take you someplace nice tonight. Out of the city. Somewhere private. Where people won’t talk. Come up with something so that Aron won’t suspect a thing.”

Carter groaned and let his head on the table, making the little teaspoon tremble against the porcelain saucer.

“Simon,” he spoke from there, “stop being a fucking idiot. Tonight, I’m going home, and I’m fucking my husband. And you should better stay away.”

“Or else?” Simon asked, a bit aggressively.

“Or I’ll think of some terrible way to make you regret it.”

“I see. You’re playing hard to get. I can deal with it. But, as I said, I won’t give up.”

“Whatever,” Carter murmured.

Yeah, now he was certain. Being gay was complicated. Being gay and a two-timer even worse. But this had nothing to do with being gay. It had all to do with Alex being a fucking asshole.

He had endured Simon squeezing his knee shortly before getting out of the guy’s car. This was going to get tough. The languorous looks Simon had thrown at him all the way back to work had given him the willies. The fuck was he going to do? Damn Alex and his idiotic two-timing habits. Just thinking of Aron was making his heart clench.

He went through the day, being pretty much a wallflower, but Yolanda had managed just fine as he stood there, looking pretty.

At the end of the workday, he felt emotionally exhausted, if that was a thing. He had no idea how he was going to fend off Simon’s amorous assault, and he had a gay husband at home who was not going to be denied conjugal rights forever. Talking about being between a rock and a hard place. More like being between a hard cock and another hard cock, if the pictures he had seen of Simon and Alex earlier were any proof of the guy’s sexual prowess. As for Aron’s cock ... yeah, that was, ugh, pretty much a challenge, too.

The only silver lining in all this was that he was going to drive a fucking Porsche Spyder. Yeah, he deserved that after everything he had to put with for the entire day. He needed that beautiful car, if only for a single ride. How come the fucking douchebag could earn that kind of money? In retrospect, having his asshole waxed and stripped bare along with his dignity was maybe worth it. Yeah, from a douchebag’s point of view.

Just thinking about it made him want to grind his teeth. At least, he was going to get home and relax. He could barely wait.

“I’m off,” he told Mark, as he grabbed his phone and headed for the door.

“Boss, did you forget about the interview? The New Entertainment show?”

“Show? Isn’t it a newspaper or something?” he asked, intrigued.

“A media company,” Mark promptly spelled it for him. “You’re going to be on TV tonight, boss.”

“Stop basking in my misery,” he moaned. “When is this interview scheduled?”

“You have to be there at 6 pm, and it starts at 6.30,” Mark supplied the information. “They need to prepare you,” he added.

“What? Do they let me know the questions in advance?” Carter asked.

“No, they prepare you with the makeup and everything,” Mark explained. “Don’t worry, boss, I’ll be there with you.”

“I’m not worried,” Carter protested.