Uncovered by Noja Lina
General Release Date: 15th February 2022
Word Count: 32,008
Book Length: SHORT NOVEL
Pages: 123
Genres:
BISEXUAL,CONTEMPORARY,EROTIC ROMANCE,GAY,GLBTQI
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Book Description
People keep themselves covered in many ways. But, sometimes, it’s not possible—and someone’s looking.
Jake postpones buying curtains for his new apartment. At one point, he notices that a man from the building across keeps watching him every morning. Jake then confronts the guy, whom he considers a stalker.
Thomas is not actually a stalker and is put off by Jake’s aggressive tendencies. Even so, they continue interacting and a bond starts forming. Jake develops romantic interest in Thomas but refuses to admit it and struggles with getting them to be closer. Along the way, he discovers that Thomas hates aggression because he had dealt with domestic violence in his past.
They both need to overcome their respective fears and change. Will they succeed—or fail and fall apart?
Reader advisory: This book contains discussion of stalking, mention of suicide, descriptions of physical, emotional and metal abuse, and discussion of a main character’s history of abuse.
Jake was nothing less than hell-bent on confronting Thomas—that was, until he found himself in front of Thomas’ apartment. He froze there, not quite sure what to do after Thomas opened the front door. He raised his hand and rang the doorbell before he was finished forming a plan, or even half a plan, so he decided to wing it. Thomas opened the door and his eyes widened after seeing who was on the other side of it.
“Hi,” Jake said with a malicious smirk.
Thomas closed his eyes and sighed. “Did you come here for that beating you promised?”
“Maybe.”
“Well, can you do it in a way that won’t disturb the neighbors?”
“Come again?”
“There’s a family with a baby living right across from me, and there’s an old lady upstairs. I’m asking you to do what you came here to do in a way that won’t cause them any agitation for them.”
It was Jake’s turn to go wide-eyed. His mouth was open, but he couldn’t form a coherent thought to say out loud. That’s his concern in this kinda situation? Is this guy for real?
From inside Thomas’ apartment, the water boiler could be heard as it signaled the completion of its job. Thomas left the front door open and entered the kitchen. Jake followed after a few seconds, closing the door behind him.
“Want some tea?” Thomas asked, pouring the hot water into colorful mugs.
“You think I came here to beat you up and you’re offering me tea?”
“It’s linden tea. It’s good when you’re agitated.”
“You don’t seem the slightest bit bothered, though, despite the situation.”
“I was referring to you.”
Jake opened his mouth to say something mean but swallowed those words back and settled for something else. “Sure. I’ll have some tea. But only after I see you drink from it first.”
“You want me to drink from your mug?”
“Uh… On second thought, just hand that over.”
They sat at the kitchen table in silence, with steam lazily spiraling up from the tea in their mugs. Thomas was blowing into his to help cool it off and he hadn’t spared Jake any glances since he’d handed him the mug. Jake once again didn’t like his current situation, so he broke the silence. “Thomas.”
“Yeah?”
“Do you have linden tea running through your veins or something?”
“Why?”
“Like I said, you’re way too calm for someone who thinks they’re gonna get beaten up.”
“Well, I’m not getting dragged out of my apartment by the collar, at least.”
“That happened before?”
“Yes. That’s why I asked you to do your business without disturbing the neighbors.”
“What did you do to get dragged out by the collar?”
“Stared at someone’s wife.”
“Why?”
“She was beautiful—from far away, at least.”
“Why wasn’t she beautiful from up close?”
“She was cheating on her husband. They used to live on the first floor of the building on the right. Since I was watching her a lot, I became aware of her affair.”
“So, she stopped being beautiful because of infidelity?”
“That’s one reason, but not the most important.”
“What was the most important reason?”
“Her husband found traces of another man in his wife’s life. She knew about me watching her, and to get herself off the hook, she told her husband that I was stalking her and breaking into their apartment. That’s why he came after me and made a huge scandal. However, what was actually happening ended up being revealed. They got a divorce and moved away from here.”
“Did you spill the beans on her?”
“No. It wasn’t my place to do so.”
“Yes, it was. She selfishly threw you under the bus in her place. You totally would’ve had the right to rat her out.”
“If I did that, I would have been exactly like her. I don’t like it when people are mean and selfish like that. That’s the main reason she stopped being beautiful.”
“And me?”
“What about you?”
“Why am I not beautiful from up close anymore?”
“You’re aggressive. You even threw a ceramic flowerpot at me with the risk of hitting someone else’s window. You were ready to start a fight on a crowded bus, not caring how much you’d inconvenience a lot of people around you. But being under the impression that you’re being stalked can make you prone to that kinda attitude, so I can’t really hold it against you. However, I don’t like seeing aggression. So, eventually, I’ll stop watching, even from far away.”
“I see. Good. That is what I came here to accomplish, so…good. Guess I’ll get going then.”
“Okay. Bye.”
Jake got up and slowly headed toward the front door. He froze there, with his hand on the doorknob, until Thomas also came into the hallway a few moments later and asked, “Is something wrong?”
“Uh…” Jake started, turning toward Thomas after being startled by his voice. “You smoke, right? I mean you do, ’cause I see you smoke almost every morning. I don’t usually smoke, so I don’t have cigarettes at home. Can I have one of yours?”
“Okay… But you know there’s a store on the ground floor of this building, right?”
“Yeah, but I don’t wanna buy a whole pack. I’ll end up smoking too much like that.”
“I see. They’re on the balcony, though. Should I bring them here or—”
“No, I’ll just smoke there.”
Jake casually made his way through Thomas’ room and onto his balcony. The layout of the apartment was similar to his, just mirrored. Once outside, he stopped, taking in how visible everything in his room was from that spot. “Oh, wow! You can see nearly everything in my room from here.”
“That’s why I said you’re in plain sight. Here.” Thomas held the pack of cigarettes open for Jake to take one. “Ashtray’s over there.”
“Thanks,” Jake said, as he clumsily pulled out a cigarette from the pack. “That’s still not a good enough reason to watch someone, though.”
“That wasn’t the only reason,” Thomas clarified, taking a cigarette for himself and lighting it before handing Jake the lighter.
“The other one was that I’m beautiful from far away—or something like that.”
“Well, yeah. You are.”
Jake erupted into a coughing fit after inhaling. His body had zero muscle memory on how to guide the smoke into his lungs or how to manage it once the smoke was inside.
“You don’t actually smoke, do you?” Thomas asked calmly.
“I do. They’re just stronger than what I’m used to. And it’s been a while, so that’s why it hit me like that.”
“If you’ve managed to quit, then why start up again now?”
“Oh, you know, stress, school, stalker issues…”
“Hmm… Sorry I’m giving you so much extra trouble then.”
“Why do you watch beautiful people? I mean, besides the natural human tendency to look at visually pleasing things.”
“There’s also another natural human tendency of associating physical beauty with things like health, happiness, capabilities and a lot of other good things. When someone catches my eye through their looks, I automatically imagine that they’re nice and happy people, living perfect lives and getting all the good stuff that the world has to offer. I know it’s an illusion I’m entertaining, but I like imagining it like that. It makes me happy to think such people are out there and among us, that we’re not all miserable, shitty and struggling to survive whatever the world throws our way,” Thomas said, sounding both sincere and detached at the same time.
“Oh, that’s…not what I was expecting.”
“What were you expecting?”
“I…don’t really know what I was expecting,” Jake admitted, scratching his left temple.
“If it helps you understand better, it’s like reading idealistic fiction. Or, more accurately, like looking at art. Specifically, paintings of pretty things. It’s not real, but it doesn’t matter. It still makes you feel good to look at something beautiful.”
“Why don’t you go all Narcissus and just look in the mirror then?” Jake asked, mentally slapping himself afterward for involuntarily letting out what he thought about Thomas’ appearance.
“Thanks for the subtle compliment, but it doesn’t work like that. I know my flaws, my story, my circumstances. I associate my image with all of those, so they come flooding into my mind and distorting the image. The same thing happens when you get to know a person. You become aware of their shortcomings, their sadness, their struggles and so on. They become real people and that can be a good or a bad thing, but they get further and further away from the ideal of perfection, and they can no longer be art that I enjoy watching with no strings attached. Your cigarette’s burnt out, by the way.”
“Oh, shit. Sorry I wasted it.”
“No problem. It’s better if you don’t smoke, anyway. Your phone’s also been buzzing for a while now. Maybe you should answer.”
Jake took out the phone from his pocket, wondering how he had failed to notice it buzzing, and saw that he had three missed calls from Steve. “What the hell? It’s not even close to midnight yet.”
“Midnight? Do you have a fairy godmother with a strict curfew or something?”
“He’s definitely some kinda mother. I’ll say that. I just need to write him a short text,” Jake said, wanting to inform Steve that he was fine, so Thomas wouldn’t go wide-eyed again when opening the front door and seeing the police there.
“Maybe you should go back home now. It’s getting late.”
“Are you trying to become my second fairy godmother?”
“I saw you rushing in a lot of mornings. Maybe if you went to bed earlier, you could wake up faster.”
“Thanks for the advice, but it’s hard waking up, no matter how early I go to bed. Uh…but I guess I’ll get going now, anyway. See you at the bus stop tomorrow?” Jake asked, and the question made Thomas look at him like he had spoken in alien language. “What?”
“Didn’t you come here to get me to stop watching you?”
“Yeah… So?”
“So why are we making plans to see each other in the morning? Doesn’t that sound contradictory to you?”
“Well, yeah, a bit, but…it’s… You know.”
“No, I don’t have the slightest clue.”
“It’s…” Jake started, then snapped his fingers when something occurred to him. “You said that when you get to know a person, they stop being art you like to watch. So, I was thinking that, if I let you get to know me, you’ll lose interest in watching me faster. Doesn’t it make sense?”
“It kinda does, but that’s the most unusual solution someone ever came up with in order to have me back off.”
“Well, I study and work in the audio-video field, so I’m a pretty creative guy. People around me have said I’m pretty unique, but you’ll gradually get to discover that for yourself.”
“I think that process has already begun.”
“Don’t you wanna start off with my name? You said before that you don’t care about it, but that wasn’t just to cover up the fact that you already found it out, right?”
“I really don’t know anything about you other than what I see through your window or on the bus.”
“Well, since we’re neighbors and not each other’s one-night stand, I think it would have been better if you knew my name before you knew what I look like without clothes.”
“Again, I’m not watching you with perverted thoughts. I just happen to catch you during your morning routine.”
“I get that.”
“But you don’t believe it, right?”
“I might. In time. After I get to know you more, too.”
“You know, if you end up having an actual stalker, I hope you won’t use this approach on them, because it’ll definitely get you into trouble.”
“Like I told my other fairy godmother, I’m a good fighter, so there’s no need to worry about me.”
“Since he kept calling you, I don’t believe he fulfilled your request of not worrying. Did you tell him you were gonna visit your stalker?”
“It slipped out, yes.”
“I feel sorry for that guy. Seems like you’re gonna give him a heart problem one day.”
“Thomas Pierce.”
“Yeah?”
“Jake Rose.” He introduced himself with an extended hand, which Thomas shook after a few seconds of hesitation.
Neither of them said anything for a while. They just held each other’s hand and looked into each other’s eyes with a serious expression. Then, Thomas smiled a bit and finally said, “See you at the bus stop tomorrow.”
As soon as Jake entered his own apartment, he bitch-slapped himself with a lot of force. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t come up with an explanation for why he’d acted the way he had, and he couldn’t figure out how he should continue acting from there on out.
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Noja Lina
New writer on the romance block, Noja Lina likes writing uplifting contemporary romance stories. These stories are centered around engaging male characters, usually dealing with personal struggles alongside love struggles.
Noja lives in Romania, specifically Transylvania. When she’s not working at her full-time job or working on one of her stories, she enjoys her one-sided love relationship with various forms of Asian media, enjoys adding another cooking fail to the collection and hanging out with friends over a cold beer.
Find Noja on her website, on Facebook and on Twitter.
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