Erwin stepped outside to the front patio, clutching to the thick glass of another Montauk Espresso Martini, a drink that had been made famous by one of the Montauk's outposts of a posh Manhattan restaurant a couple of years before. Recently, it held an unchallenged title of a local signature drink, served in all the venues all over the End, the alternative name of the town Erwin had just learned, proud of himself. He had been blending in.
Sheltering his drink carefully, he sort of flopped on the picnic table's wooden bench.
Was it his third? Fourth? Fifth?
He took a deep breath of the salty air coming from the ocean with a high noon breeze. Weathered garden umbrella sheltered him from the scorching-hot light of the cloudless sky, and he squinted, his eyes fixed on the target he had been spying for a while.
The familiar Ford Explorer had been parked across the road, outside a low building, looking more like a shack than a surf shop, how its name claimed to be. Next to a worn and cracked sign, 'Surfboards, Paddle Boards, Surf Lessons,' several colorful longboards, similar in shape to the one Erwin'd been using during his classes with Jean, were leaned against the wall. Levi had to be inside, but Erwin hadn't seen him yet, and he had been watching the Explorer for almost an hour.
Erwin took a long sip of his Espresso Martini and forced himself to take a long breath and relax. He hadn't seen the fine surfer since the other night at his beach stairs, but he couldn't stop thinking about him. After a couple of strong drinks, he had set up his mind on talking to Levi. Still, even though Erwin's determination had been growing with every drop of vodka he'd sipped in with his Martini's, his ability to do so coherently diminished in direct proportion. He shook his head.
What was it about the small guy that had him so hooked?
Erwin's patience finally got rewarded, and Levi showed up, carrying a big, board-shaped package covered in a brown wrapper. He opened the back of the car and carefully positioned the object that looked like a surfboard inside. The moment he'd pulled the hatch down, Erwin rose to his feet, waving, and yelled so loudly that several voices from the lunch crowd occupying other tables hushed him.
"Leeevvviii! Hiii!"
Levi turned slowly in his direction and sent him one heck of a killer glare of his gray eyes, his palm moving up and down with a shushing gesture.
Not discouraged by the reactions, Erwin shouted again.
"Come over here!"
Levi looked around, and shook his head, then scurried to the other side of the road, and Erwin, pleased with himself, offered him his best version of a cat-that-got-the-cream smile. Frowning at him, Levi got close, grabbed Erwin's arm, and forced him back down on the bench.
"Jesus," he said with a hiss, "how much did you already have to drink, Erwin?"
"Not enough. But it will be if you'll join me for the last one." Erwin downed the remains of his Martini Espresso and flagged the bartender for another one. "What do you want?"
Levi rolled his eyes, and a pout puckered his mouth.
"You never give up, don't you?"
"If it's worth it, no, I don't," said Erwin with tipsy honesty. He might have been mistaken, but a little sliver of a grin slid for a moment over Levi's lips. "Join me, please."
Levi huffed with a loud "tsk" sound but pulled a nearby patio chair in and sat down.
"I'll have herbal iced tea," he said when Erwin got served his drink, "and water for the big guy here. Tap."
"Iced tea? I asked you for a drink, and you ordered iced tea?"
Levi shrugged.
"It's noon-day."
"Can I ask you out for a proper drink in the evening, some time, then?"
Levi lowered his head, his gaze fixed on his own, long fingers resting on the wooden surface of the table. After a while, he lifted his eyes and bored them into Erwin's face.
"Just for your information, I don't do 'dating,'" he said with a growl, "no romantic shit."
"Oh."
Wonder if the red-head from the stairs was aware of that fact.
Erwin choked on his drink. Good thing that Levi's iced tea and a glass of water arrived in the meantime. He washed down the bitter taste in his throat.
"You all right?"
"Yeah, just," said Erwin, weighing his words, "wondering how do you call meeting with someone, you know, repeatedly?"
"You mean for sex?"
"I mean… probably, eventually sex," Erwin said and sniggered. "You are—fast. I meant, what do you call going out with someone you like?"
Levi's gray eyes studied Erwin's face while he was stirring his iced tea. His voice sounded somewhat gruff when he spoke again, like caught deeper in his throat, vibrating. Or maybe Erwin was just drunk enough to hear things that weren't there, to begin with.
"That's the thing, I don't," Levi said.
You don't 'go out,' or 'like someone?'
Erwin was about to ask but hesitated for too long, and Levi continued.
"Why not call things as they are. You go out, and you hang out, you have sex. Simple."
"Ah. Enlightening," Erwin said with a little burp coming out of his mouth. "Anyway. Where were we? So do you want to hang out and get a drink…"
"Yeah, all right. Some other time. And somewhere closer to where I live. But you should sober up now, and I gotta go."
"… maybe have sex?" asked Erwin and giggled. One of Levi's eyebrows lifted almost to the line of his hair.
"Come on; I will give you a ride."
"I can walk, I live close."
"Like hell, you can. Come on."
Levi helped Erwin to his feet and steered him carefully to the Explorer parked on the other side of the street.
Erwin settled in the shotgun seat, taking the inside of the 7-seater car in with curiosity. The Explorer had to be like seventeen or eighteen years old, and although it showed the traces of time and intense tear and wear, it was impeccably clean. It smelled like neoprene and sunscreen; a couple of wetsuits hang out on the racks in the back, several others neatly folded along with towels in the backseat. Erwin's gaze skimmed over beach parking permits displayed on the windshield and some additional direct beach access permits on the dashboard, mixed with printed-out photos of teenagers, but before Erwin took a better look at them, Levi cut in, pulling out from the parking lot.
"What are you staring at?"
"That's a lot of permits," Erwin said and reached out for the green laminated ones, "'Stargazing Permit,' seriously? I get this 'Four Wheel Drive Beach Vehicle Surfing Permit.'" Erwin read out loud, pronouncing every word slowly, and threw it back at the dashboard. "But 'Stargazing Permit'"?
"Yes, if you want to access certain places after dark."
"I didn't take you for a much of a stargazer." Erwin shot a side glance at Levi. It became painfully obvious to him why he would have needed this permit.
Levi shrugged.
"It's useful if you live here. Now, where do I take you?"
Sure, useful as hell for you.
Erwin thought about the infamous night again while giving Levi the address. His head started spinning, so he closed his eyes, and his head fell back to the headrest.
They drove the remaining distance in complete silence until Levi stopped the car in front of Erwin's house.
"Nice place you have here." Levi let out a small grunt through his nose.
"If you want, you could come in," Erwin said without hesitating, and their eyes met.
"I really… I think some other time… would be nice," said Levi, low.
"So, the drink at my house next?" Erwin wiggled his eyebrows.
"Let's talk later." A smirk appeared on Levi's face. "You will be good from here?"
"Yes, thank you, Levi," Erwin said and leaned forward instinctively, his gaze brushing over Levi's lips, but he backed out when Levi hadn't moved in his direction. He got out of the car instead.
Levi watched him disappear at his house entrance. His head fell over the steering wheel, and his forehead rested on the hard vinyl.
Shit. Fuck. 'This' was Erwin's house? The empty house on which beach stairs he used to make out and where Nifa had sucked his dick recently belonged to Erwin now? Fucking coincidence.
"Hey, Eren?"
Levi half-opened the door to the house and stuck his head in, calling for Eren. All the kids were in the kitchen, preparing lunch, so Eren showed almost immediately.
"Come with me; I want you to help me with something."
They walked over to the Explorer, and Levi opened the hatch. A short peek into the back, and Eren's face lightened up at the sight of the package.
"Is that…?" He cast a brief look at Levi; his eyebrows inched upwards.
"It is! Come on." Levi smirked. "Let's take this deck to the shed."
Eren picked up the package, and Levi followed him to the outdoor shed, where they kept all surf gear. He closed the door carefully behind them.
The sun barely entering through small windows cast dim, yellowish light over the multitude of boards hanging, some of them vertically, some horizontally, on wooden racks on the walls. With a loud shuffling over the concrete slab surface, Levi dragged two timber sawhorses to the center of the shed.
"Careful with that," said Levi, when they placed the board, still wrapped in the packaging, over the sawhorses, "Let's not ding her before she actually gets to the water."
"I know, I am careful," Eren said with a loud huff but softened his voice when Levi cast him a long glance. "Sorry, I know. I wouldn't want to scrape her or anything."
Levi nodded.
"I know. Try not to take remarks like that personally, Eren; I meant that for both of us, not just you. Now let's unpack her."
They both tore the brown wrapping, revealing a snow-white shortboard with an upturned rocker at the front and a slightly less upturned tail. Eren grazed his palm over the smooth epoxy surface, glistening in the murk of the shed like a glass. A thin black line of stringer ran lengthwise in the center of the deck, and the board had a black-and-white logo of five overlapping dolphins in a semicircle painted near the nose.
"She looks nimble," Eren said, whispering, his eyes shining.
"You think Armin will like her?" asked Levi.
"The Performance WRV? He will love her." Eren let out a gasp.
"You think? Now wait, let's turn her," said Levi with a smirk.
They lifted the board and set her upside down over the sawhorses. The same white dolphins were jumping in the semicircle over the black square, and the same skinny black line indicated the center of the board. On both sides of the stringer, carved under the coating, was a serial number, the dimensions—five feet seven long, eighteen and a half inches wide, and two ten inches thick—and the shaper's signature, J. BRAZIE.
Eren's fingers traced over the uneven surface where the name was.
"Are you serious?! Wave Riding Vehicles board shaped by 'the' Jordan Brazie himself?! That's so dope! How have you arranged this?!". Eren's voice trembled in awe.
"Old friendships. My friend Furlan used to know him. And Armin deserves the best, right?!"
"Right! He deserves everything!" Eren nodded, hyped.
"Let's put in the fins, shall we?" Levi was pleased with Eren's reaction to the surprise. They fixed both of the side-bites first and slid the central one into the channel at the tail. "We will let this one a bit loose to let Armin play around and adjust it himself, as he wants it."
"Cool," Eren said, letting the fin slide into the slit. "Levi? You friend Furlan, the one who died… can I ask you something personal about him?"
Levi tilted his head and gave a curt nod towards Eren.
"Ask ahead."
"Sorry for asking that," Eren's voice trembled, and despite the dim light of the shed, Levi noticed his flushed cheeks. "He was… he was more than a friend to you, right?"
Since his earlier conversation with Historia, Levi had certainly expected this kind of question from Eren, yet it came from a slightly surprising direction. Depending on how deep Eren was going to dig into the matter, the nature of his relationship with Furlan might become slightly complicated to explain.
Damn, time to brace himself.
He sighed.
"Yes, Eren, he was more than a friend."
"Like a boyfriend, right?"
Great, here we go.
Levi reminded himself of his earlier conversation with Erwin.
"Kind of, yes. We were seeing each other."
Ok, let's see where it's going with patience.
Eren's brows furrowed like he was considering something.
"But you also date girls, right?"
Damn. The dreaded 'dating word' again.
With a mental roll of his eyes, Levi composed himself.
"Yes, I am interested in both women and men. I am bisexual," Levi said, leaning against a surfboard rack behind him. "Now, let's play a game. It's my turn to ask you a question if that's all right with you?"
"Yes, right. Okey."
"Do you think you might be bisexual, too?"
Eren's eyes bored into the concrete floor, and he cleared his throat before answering.
"No, I don't… think so… anymore." Eren plopped down on a narrow wooden bench they used to change their clothes on sometimes. "I thought, I liked Mikasa like that, you know, but… when we kissed and stuff, it just felt weird. I think I just like boys."
Stuff, huh?
"Thank you for telling me that; that's great. You know, some of us just like boys, or just girls, and some of us both, and some like more than one person at the same time," Levi said, pleased that Eren had trusted him enough to come out to him, "Is it all right I ask you one more question or you want to go first… if we still play this questions and answers game?"
Eren's sniggered.
"Go ahead."
"You said you don't like Mikasa like that… is there someone else you like?"
Eren's breath hitched, but he nodded.
"Yeah, there is—"
A sudden Sasha's yell cut into his last words.
"Lunch is ready! Lunch is ready!"
Both of them laughed.
"Count on Sasha to let you know food is ready," said Eren, shaking his head.
"Right. You know we could go for a walk or a ride after the lunch and giving Armin the board, if you want to continue talking."
"Can we? I would like that very much, Levi."
"Let's do that," Levi said, opening the shed's door, "Oh. Looks like Historia is already home. I forgot, here." Levi handed Eren a colorful card, with a drawing of two surfboards in the sand, waves in the back and big lettering 'Good luck!'. "We have signed it with Historia earlier, can you get the rest to sign, discreetly?"
