Race With a Heart
Chapter 241: Valentine’s Day Special 3

Chapter 241: Valentine’s Day Special 3

Martin decided it was a date, albeit an unofficial one. He was going out with someone close to him to go to the movies, but they would not be flaunting themselves as a couple. Therefore, he dressed decently but without a frenzy of elegance. After all, this is just a movie theater, not a philharmonic. He smiled while putting on his jacket. Speaking of the philharmonic, this one was more suited to Kevin, Jack’s boyfriend. Professor Moore must have looked insanely handsome in his tailcoat.

Of course, tall, slim, black-haired Steve would have looked brilliant in a tailcoat, too, but he looked brilliant in everything. His face was not pretty, it was handsome. The difference was that there was a certain sharpness, predation and strong masculinity in Steve’s face that made it appealing and beautiful, but in a very masculine way. Kevin’s features were softer and had a certain feminine softness. Then again, so were Martin’s features, who had morphed from beauty into his mother, who was at one time the vice miss of the country.

Martin was wildly excited about going out together, but he tried to hide it. He didn’t want anyone to pay too much attention to them. After all, they were public figures in a sense, and more and more people recognized his face as well. Fortunately, Valentine’s Day kept couples mostly occupied with each other, so no one paid much attention to the two casually behaving guys. Buddies also went to the movies.

Their seats were in the last row. It may not have been the ideal place to watch a movie, but it gave them a sense of some security that no one from the rows behind them would take their eye. People busy watching the production or each other wouldn’t be unscrewing their teardrops to see if someone famous had appeared somewhere behind them. It might be different if they had someone famous in front of them. Well, and it was noticeably darker in this part of the theater.

The screening began and Martin tried to focus on the movie, which turned out to be even interesting. Scarlett was stunning, but for some reason it was her screen partner with hazelnut-colored hair and unusually blue eyes that caught Martin’s attention[1]. The guy had something magnetic about him and those eyes of his burned like two aquamarine suns . Well, and he was handsome, there was no denying that. The movie would have been really interesting for Martin if he had watched it alone, but he was sitting next to Steve at the moment and his heart was rumbling too hard for him to have his attention devoted to anything other than his guy. Meanwhile, Steve gave the impression that what was happening on the screen was completely absorbing him. Even his black eyes sparkled as he watched the adventures of the handsome young officer.

According to Martin, Steve’s eyes sparkled a little too much considering that they were looking not at him but at another man.

Steve was clearly more interested in the screen than in his partner sitting next to him. This is not how a date should be, thought Martin fidgeting restlessly. Couples don’t go to the cinema to watch a movie, they go to spend time with each other, to have shared experiences of being in the cinema like... holding hands. Martin tentatively extended his hand toward Paxton’s knee, where the latter had his hand placed. If he had reached his fingers that way, maybe Steve would have noticed him and paid attention to him....

The room suddenly burst into laughter and a panicked Martin withdrew his hand. Surprised, he saw that Steve was also laughing.

God, how beautiful he is, Martin realized suddenly and painfully. He was almost a complete contrast to the ethereal beauty of the blue-eyed actor but could boldly compete with him for the title of the most beautiful man in the world. If the two men stood side by side, they would probably break the cosmic law of acceptable beauty per square meter. Surely it would be a violation of some divine law if such two male beauties were in the same place and time. Meanwhile, he, Martin, was such an ordinary guy....

He stopped feeling like it was a date. The movie had lost all charm for him. Steve... Martin sighed heavily. After all, Steve had invited him to the cinema for a movie, not a date, so he wanted to see a movie and, having a free ticket, simply offered Martin the opportunity. Was it because of Valentine’s Day that Martin said too much to himself?

But was Martin too demanding? After all, he knew that because of Hannah, her accident and coma, Steve was not emotionally open. His dating was always in the nature of getting someone into bed, never maintaining a relationship. Maybe Steve wasn’t dating at all?

He sighed again and rested his head on his arm. He mindlessly stared at the screen, where a ruggedly handsome man was just making a romantic confession to a beautiful woman against the backdrop of a red sunset.

***

"How did you like the movie?" asked Steve as they left the theater.

"It was ok," he replied unenthusiastically. "And you?"

Actually, he didn’t need to ask. Steve’s eyes were still shining and his mouth was smiling broadly. Martin felt hurt that they weren’t smiling like that because of him, but because of some movie.

"It was great. Interesting spy plot, good fight scenes, touchingly conducted romance. Well, and the cast was excellent."

"Did you like the actor?" Martin didn’t want to sound like he had a grudge about it, but that’s exactly what he sounded like, which surprised him. Fortunately, Steve didn’t notice it.

"He is visually very interesting and has something attractive about him. He’s not tall, he is slim and has beautiful eyes, only the color doesn’t quite suit me. I prefer green."

"Uh, but you’re picky," Martin didn’t associate that after all he himself has green eyes.

"Uhm... maybe. In any case, he’s a great actor, although he’s still very young. So what, will you come with me to this place?"

The trip to the cinema turned out not to be as much fun as he had expected, and Martin felt disappointed to the point that he didn’t really feel like accompanying Steve, but he had sort of promised earlier, so....

"Sure. Which way are we going?"

"We’ll be driving a block from your neighborhood," he said.

"Then let’s stop by the package store. I have a package to pick up." That package contained the fickle trinkets he’d ordered online yesterday, including the lingerie that had so tempted him, but he doubted he was in the mood today to show his purchase to Steve. He had a feeling Paxton had another man on his mind right now.

"All right."

Steve’s car was parked a little farther away, so walking toward it Martin felt uncomfortable in the silence that followed. To avoid thinking about how much the blue-eyed actor was liked by Steve, he asked:

"I heard that you had an argument with Karl today. Will you tell me what it was about?"

"About nothing, actually."

"I thought you two were best buddies."

"We are. Friends sometimes quarrel."

"We don’t argue," Martin stated grimly.

"Really?" Steve smiled crookedly. "Don’t you remember how we argued then in front of the bar? Don’t you remember how you insisted that I watch out for myself?"

"Right," Martin felt a little better. But only a little "People say you’ve been arguing with him more often lately. I didn’t know that."

"No, not more often than I used to, just... We used to get together more often outside of work. You know, some joint events. When some dispute arose, we usually resolved it outside the stable. Now we don’t have such occasions to go out, so more happens in the stable itself."

"Ah, ah..." nodded Martin recalling how right in his first days on the job Martin was practically dragged to a party with Martin, Karl and the girls. Why did that happen? I think they were missing one guy. They never got together again. Hm, back then Steve was leading a really lush life.

"Do you have regrets?" Martin asked before he had time to think.

"Like what?"

"Well, that you don’t go to such parties anymore..."

"Why should I regret it? After all, if I wanted to, all it takes is one phone call and in twenty minutes we rock the party. Or maybe you would like to be at something like this?"

"Oh no, no!" Martin felt a jolt of heat at the mere mention. "Once is definitely enough for me. I prefer... intimate gatherings."

"I thought so," smiled Steve with satisfaction.

For some reason, the evening was shaping up awkwardly for Martin. When he picked up the package a few minutes later, he had no idea what to do with it. Even before that ill-fated trip to the movies, he REALLY wanted to test the contents of the order, but now his mood had gone so far downhill that he just wanted to lie down and sleep to make sure that his ill-fated Valentine’s Day was over as soon as possible. But he had promised Steve that he would go with him, so he couldn’t back out. Besides, the whole trip probably wouldn’t last long, because if that was to be the case, Steve would instruct him to prepare somehow.

However, the trip took almost an hour when Steve finally stopped the car.

"Well, we’re almost there," he informed. "Come on."

It was February, so the sun had long since set behind the horizon, but the sky was not dark. Millions of stars shone down on them from above as Steve led them to the top of a small hill. The path was not steep or winding and required no effort to climb, especially since the orange glow of a lamppost lapped at them from somewhere nearby.

It took them no more than three minutes to climb to the top. Once they were there, Martin felt Steve embrace his hand.

"I’ve always loved this place," he announced. "I often came here as a teenager when I needed solitude. But one day I decided that I would visit this place with someone through whom my loneliness would cease to exist... Martin, I apologize for my selfishness, but this Valentine’s Day I wanted to fulfill my dream and see this place with someone I love. I wanted to see it with you. Look at this view..."

[1] The actor playing in this film is Dominik Śliwiński, whose fate and circumstances of this film you can learn about in my novel Love Lives in His Eyes [BL].