30-year-old BOYS

Chapter 3 - In.Fat.Tu.Ation.

Chapter 3 – In.Fat.Tu.Ation.

Why do I feel like I want to hurt that man you’re with!? Why are you doing this to me? You’re not supposed to be with anybody else other than me because I am … I … s**t! I think I have feelings for you.

~ Huang Lau

Huang is sweating. And he’s sweating not because it’s hot, for he already is hot. But he’s sweating because it’s been days that Daniel hasn’t returned his calls nor sent him a text message.

He is swearing. And he’s swearing not because he’s angry with Daniel. He’s swearing because he’s mad with himself for feeling something he should not be feeling. It’s a feeling you feel inside. It’s fat. It takes two people to feel it. And it perfectly summarizes his situation right now.

In.Fat.Tu.Ation. Infatuation. Yes indeed. He feels it inside of him. It’s getting fatter by the minute. And it’s a feeling he shares with Daniel. A situation he is not ready to admit to himself.

“Come on,” he mutters as he pinches the bridge of his nose, his phone by his ear as he awaits for Daniel to pick up the god damned call, “Ta ma de,” he curses with a restrained gasp because he’s sitting solo, at a Starbucks, surrounded by people who are less than tolerating of the curse he just spoken.

He sighs. He sighs a big fat sigh as he swivels the phone in his hand. Worry is at its all-time high as it looms over his head like a dark nimbus cloud. And then, like a piercing melody, his phone rings.

“Hello Daniel?”

“Huang Lau??”

“Daniel is that you!?”

“Aw, you forgot me.”

“What? Who’s this?”

“It’s me, Wei Yuen, from Grindr. You remember?”

“Oh, um, of course, yeah, hey, um, how are you?”

“I’m good. I’m not busy. Do you want to meet??”

Huang’s heart sinks. He doesn’t understand the feeling why his heart feels the way it feels. All he knows is that his chest feels tight for some reason, “I’m busy right now. I’m uh, working.”

“Oh, okay,” Huang perceives the subtle drop of disappointment in Wei’s voice but doesn’t give mind to it. He is too hung up thinking about Daniel, and why the exclusive 30-year-old hottie is not returning his calls, “Maybe we can hook up some other time, yeah?” Wei reconfirms and Huang replies with a dry and tasteless ‘will do.’

Huang ends the call and whispers “s**t…” as he feels a slight pinch of panic attack. He realizes that he just turned down one of his best contacts. One who is also loaded but not as loaded as Daniel Cheng. But it doesn’t matter. Because in his heart he feels something warm and fuzzy about Daniel. A feeling he doesn’t have with anybody else. Only with Daniel. Only with him.

He stands to leave and is about to go do some work in construction when he sees his beacon of light, wearing a pristine tailored suit, put together as always, sliding into his car with ease while fingering something on his mobile phone, “Daniel…” he murmurs his name as he paces to where Daniel’s car is, but he is too late because it speeds to its untold destination, “Ta ma de! Aargh!”

Huang hails a taxi and climbs in, pointing for the driver to follow the black Audi, which is a magnificent shiny black star in the radiance of a beautiful Monday morning, “I’m not letting you go,” Huang mumbles under his breath, thumbing his phone to pull up Daniel’s number. He calls him and Daniel’s phone rings but Daniel drops it.

“f**k,” Lau curses, and this time it’s in English.

The meter on the taxi is going up like Lau’s blood pressure. He is adamant about pursuing Daniel, because days after they last met they’ve been texting sweet nothings bordering on sexting. Huang realized the many quirks that Daniel has about relationships due to the fact that he never had one. This interesting factoid is something that Lau took a liking to. He likes the fact that Daniel is a virgin. He likes the fact that Daniel doesn’t know about vibrating c**k rings. He likes the fact that Daniel laughs at his jokes. And he adores that Daniel is like a thirteen-year-old.

Huang is thirty-two, but the more he interacts with Cheng—even if only by phone—the more he feels like his younger self again. He feels giddy. He feels butterflies. He feels fucktastic! All the good things a man needs to feel when at the vestige of a promising relationship. But he’s stupid. Stupid because he mistakenly replied a message meant for an old friend on Grindr to Daniel, stating that it’s okay to meet up for a chat and have a “coffee” which, in today’s mainstream language, means banging the back entrance boom-boom-plow style. So yes, Huang is an i***t.

Daniel’s car stops in front of Lotteria, also known as Chinese McDonalds. It’s a small commercial establishment with two floors, sharing the colors of red and yellow, just like McDonalds, duh.

Huang tells the driver to park across the street, a few meters away from Daniel’s Audi. He pays the cab driver his fare then strides to Daniel, who is about to enter Lotteria but stops to converse with another dude.

Lau’s blood pitches like a boiling kettle that’s about to explode. His hands clench into fists as he stomps to where Cheng is talking to another man, probably a grinding grinder because he looks like one, “Daniel!”

Daniel snaps his attention to a fuming Huang, whose eyes are ablaze like licks of black fire, “Huang…” he startles in response, his mouth opening and closing like a guppy as he thinks of an appropriate response.

“You,” Lau points to the man Daniel is meeting, “Get out!” he shouts and the man looks to him with a pointed stare.

“And who might you be?” the dude menaces, his jaw c*****g to the side, his gaze unrelenting, which tells you he’s not backing down, “Daniel,” the grinding grinder addresses Cheng, “Who is this piece of trash!?” he points a finger and the same finger gets slapped as in a flash everything becomes a brawl. The grinding grinder and Huang Lau tumble into a heated frenzy. Punches and kicks get exchanged with Daniel looking at the two grown men with a mortified expression.

Daniel snaps his fingers and two of his bodyguards pull the two middle-aged brawlers away from each other, “You,” Cheng points to the grinding grinder dude, “Go home … and YOU!” he points to Lau, “Come with me.”

Huang sticks his sexy tongue out to the dude and wipes the blood from his lips, spitting at the foot of the grinding grinder who is about to throw a punch again but stops when the bodyguard reveals the pistol tucked in his pants’ pocket.

“Daniel! Call me!” the grinding grinder bellows as he gets taken away against his will, bitching and moaning as he gets manhandled.

“You. Inside. Now.” Daniel orders Huang, and Lau obliges, climbing inside the car with a bitter, petulant, adolescent grimace.

“What is wrong with you!?” Daniel starts, “You don’t have the right to cause a ruckus. You’re a grown man for Buddha’s sake!”

Lau flares like an active volcano, “That man is going to use you! Why can’t you see that!? Aargh. You make me wanna … dammit~!” he squeezes his fist in an act to control his raging temper but fails as he punches the window.

Daniel starts snickering, the kind of laughter emanating deep from one’s belly, a jovial, unpretentious, therapeutic laugher.

“What the hell,” Lau reacts, “I got into a fight. Got beaten up protecting your honor. And then you just laugh at me? You’re unbelievable,” he shakes his head and punches the leather cushion.

Cheng laughs as he observes his brawling 32-year-old loverboy, “We need to get you new clothes. You look like a boy band,” he ridicules with bouts of laughter which makes Lau self-conscious, “Seriously,” Daniel stops laughing, straightens up, and snaps his fingers for the driver to take them to do some shopping.