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Stan Meyers looks over the car that Sonny’s just spent the past two days repairing. “Wow, she looks good as new! Thanks, Sonny. And thank you for noticin’ the oil needed changed, I’ve been so busy lately I completely forgot about it.”
“My pleasure. Here’s the keys.”
“And your check - sorry, I don’t have the cash for the oil change. Can I bring it by on Monday?”
“A’course. You drive safe now.”
Sonny waves goodbye as Stan pulls out of the garage, and then heads over to the next car in the queue. Before he can so much as touch it, he hears the phone ring.
“Luverne Auto Body.”
“Hey Sonny, it’s Karl.”
“Heya, Karl. …I thought you were at a big lawyer meetin’ today. Where are ya?”
“I’m just outside Heron Lake. My car crapped out on me, it’s this damn below freezing nonsense. I stopped to get gas and my car wouldn’t start up again. I’m so sorry, Sonny, I called the local shop but there was no answer. I hate to putcha out, but is there any way ya could come and get my engine runnin’?”
“A’course, Karl. I’ll be right there.”
Karl sighs in relief. “Thank you. I owe ya.”
“It’s no problem. Don’t worry about it.”
“No, I mean it. I’m gonna take you out for a nice dinner - or somethin’, doesn’t have to be that.”
The idea of the two of them at a fancy restaurant makes Sonny’s heart skip a beat. But he doesn’t know the first thing about fine dining - there’s so many different forks - and Karl just said he could do something else to repay him. It would seem kinda weird if they went out together, anyway. “- I’d better get goin’, the sun's gonna go down soon. Where exactly are ya?”
“Oh, yeah. I’m at the Shell just south of Heron Lake, on 60. Thank you again.”
"Got it. See ya soon." Sonny smiles as he hangs up the phone. Maybe he’s a fool to enjoy getting to come to Karl’s rescue, the same way he enjoys driving him home when he’s had too much to drink. But he’s always liked helping people - this doesn’t have to be any different.
He’s almost halfway there when he comes across an accident blocking the road, and has to sit and wait for the state troopers to finish up before he can pass it. Sonny looks anxiously at the clock and the setting sun, and wonders if Karl is getting worried that he changed his mind about coming for him. He hopes Karl knows he wouldn’t leave him stranded like that.
Sonny finally gets past the accident, and he speeds a little faster than normal to make up for lost time. When he pulls into the Shell, the sun is getting dangerously low. As soon as he steps out of the car, he knows that he won’t be able to work on the car in this cold without the light of the sun.
“Thank you, Sonny, really, I can’t thank you enough for this. I can get you a coffee for while you work - you need me to hold the flashlight or anything?”
“Yeah, well, with it bein’ this cold I don't know if I can do it. We should just wait til tomorrow - paper said it’s supposed to warm up a little. I know there’s a motel in town, we can stay there and I’ll fix ya up in the morning.”
“No, no I don’t wanna put you out. Why don’t we just drive back to Luverne? I’ll figure somethin’ else out.”
“It’s no trouble, Karl. It’s Friday, no need for me to be at work tomorrow.” And I wanna stay in that motel with ya. Sonny purses his lips and furrows his brow. Shouldn’t be thinkin’ like that. We’ll get two separate rooms anyway, that’s the normal thing to do.
“Okay, but I’m payin’ for your room. I insist.”
When they walk into the motel lobby, the young woman behind the desk smiles at them. “How we doin’ this evening?”
“Doin’ okay,” Karl replies. “We’d like two rooms for the night.”
She sucks her teeth. “I’m sorry, we only got one room left.”
“Are there any other motels in town?”
“No, sorry. There was one, but they went outta business a few years back.”
Karl pinches his forehead. “Crap. Whaddaya think, Sonny? We could keep goin’ to the next town, there’s other motels.”
“Karl, your car wouldn’t start in this cold, you wanna take the chance that mine won’t either? We should just stay here til the morning.” Sonny feels his face flush. He knows there’s just as good a chance his car won’t start tomorrow morning as it would tonight, it doesn’t matter whether he tries turning it on again. And he knows he replaced the battery and alternator belt at the beginning of winter, so he’s confident he wont have any trouble in the first place. But Sonny does so much for other people - he can do this one thing for himself, right?
“Does it at least have two beds?” Karl asks.
“I’m afraid not. It’s a single king.”
“Do ya have a cot? Or a couch in the room?”
“Fresh out, sorry. We got a construction crew stayin’ here the past month, they’re installin’ new telephone lines, and usin’ everything we got around here.”
Karl looks to Sonny. “We can see if your car will start, and go back to Luverne.”
“That’s okay.” Sonny’s heart races as he imagines Karl laying in bed, holding out his arm to beckon Sonny in with him and pull him close. “We’re already here. I really don't mind.”
Karl sighs as he pulls out his wallet. “Alright, we’ll take it.”
While Karl is paying, Sonny thinks about how easy it was to imagine snuggling with Karl in their motel room. Thoughts like that are never far from Sonny’s mind, but he’s usually able to keep them at bay - he doesn’t want to indulge in them, it will just make it hurt more when nothing happens between them. Sonny blinks and takes a deep breath to reset himself as Karl turns to him, keys in hand.
“Well, there’s a diner next door. I’m famished.”
Sonny feebly nods in agreement.
During dinner, Karl regales him with the hoops he had to jump through earlier that day finding the room he was supposed to meet the other lawyers in. “It’s because I’m from a small town. They’re hazing me, like I’m back in my fraternity.”
Sonny notices that Karl doesn’t order a beer, despite it being a Friday night after a long and trying day. He knows that if they were at the VA, Karl would be well into his second can of beer by now.
The two finish their dinner and return to the motel. Karl unlocks the door to their room. “Alright, well - you should take the bed, you’re the one doin’ me a favor.”
Sonny’s heart sinks a little as he steps inside. “Where are you gonna sleep?”
Karl pokes his head into the bathroom. “The tub, maybe?”
“It’s a big bed, Karl. There’s room for both of us.”
“…You’re sure it’s okay?”
“A’course.” I’m comfortable with you, Karl. Sonny gulps.
It’s only 8pm, so Karl turns on the TV. There aren’t any chairs in the room - construction guys must have all of them - so they both sit at the foot of the bed to watch. After the first show ends, Karl complains that he can’t sit unsupported for much longer, so he relocates to the top of the bed and leans back against the headboard. Sonny is glad he has something else to focus on, and that Karl can’t see his cheeks flush.
Neither of them have pajamas since they weren’t expecting to spend the night, so when it’s time for bed, they each dress down to their undershirts and boxers. Sonny pointedly avoids looking at Karl, and he can tell that Karl is doing the same. He thinks back to locker rooms in high school and the bunks in Nam - no one batted an eye at a guy in his skivvies, but this is different because it’s just the two of them. Sonny’s heart races as he pulls back the covers and climbs into bed.
“G’night, Karl.”
“Night.”
As Sonny tugs the thin motel covers up to his chin, he actually thinks about what would happen if he allowed his fantasies to play out. If he rolled towards Karl and looked into his eyes, but Karl balked and pulled away. But if Sonny is being honest, he doesn’t think that would happen. He sees the way Karl looks at him, the way he sometimes looks away as soon as Sonny glances towards him. The way he clears his throat as if to keep from saying what’s on his mind - and God knows Karl usually has no qualms about expressing himself. If Sonny wanted to, he could kiss Karl, and Karl would kiss him back.
…But what would happen after that? Sonny has never been with a man. He doesn’t have the first clue how that’s supposed to go, and… and what would the car ride be like tomorrow? And after they got back to Luverne? It’s not like they could be together. He sighs and rolls onto his side, facing away from his friend.
The rickety heater is turned all the way up, but it’s no match for the biting cold trying to get in from outside. Sonny knows that if he fell asleep, he’d be drawn towards Karl for warmth. I bet he’s really warm. He squeezes his eyes shut, and tries to occupy his mind with something in order to keep himself awake - something besides the older man laying beside him.
Despite drifting into a half-sleep a few times during the night, Sonny always manages to wake himself back up. He pries his eyes open to stare up at the ceiling and forces himself not to yawn, not to change his position into something more comfortable. He worries he’ll be too tired to fix Karl’s car in the morning, but he knows that if he falls asleep and wakes up in Karl’s arms, their friendship will never be the same again. Sonny’s eyes well up at the thought, that he could ruin the best relationship in his life without even being conscious he was doing it. He sniffles, and hopes that if Karl hears it, he’ll assume it’s the cold that is affecting Sonny.
At some point during the night - it’s too dark to see the clock, so Sonny has no idea how long they’ve been laying here - Sonny hears Karl sigh. It’s not a sleeping sigh, or half-asleep sigh. Karl’s awake. He knows that Karl has trouble sleeping sometimes, but Sonny can’t shake the feeling that he's is keeping himself awake for the same reason he is.
As the first light of dawn starts to illuminate the room through the thin curtains, Sonny’s eyelids grow heavy and his breaths deepen. Before he breaks under the weight of his exhaustion, his final thought is wondering whether Karl knows that he could roll over and kiss him if he wanted to.
When Sonny wakes up, he feels the warmth of Karl’s chest underneath him, and he smiles.
“Good morning,” Karl says. His voice is husky, and Sonny’s breath catches as he looks up at him. Karl’s fingers are tangled in his hair, and as if by a magnet, Sonny feels pulled to his lips. He wraps his arms around Karl’s shoulders as he kisses him again and again, he never wants to let go. Karl’s hand moves to his cheek, caressing him but not holding him down, encouraging him but not forcing him. When Sonny pulls back, it’s only so that he can catch his breath, and look Karl in the eye. After a moment, though, he’s not sure if he should regret it. He supposes that he only needs to if Karl does.
“Was that okay?” Karl’s voice is barely above a whisper.
Sonny nods, and can’t contain his smile. “Yeah, it was - it was really okay,” he laughs.
Karl doesn’t smile. It looks like he could cry. He ghosts his thumb over the coarse hairs starting to poke out of Sonny’s cheek. “I love you.” His voice almost falters as he speaks.
“I love you, Karl.” Sonny leans down to kiss Karl again. He lets his mouth fall open and feels a jolt of electricity shoot through his body as Karl’s tongue slides against his, and Sonny whimpers. It’s unlike anything he’d ever felt kissing Ruthie, it feels like they’re a part of each other, but still not close enough.
And suddenly, Sonny is awake, blinking his eyes open. He feels empty, alone - Karl isn’t curled up with him.
Dangit. Sonny can feel that he’s aroused, and he looks down at his lap. Luckily, the way he’s laying on his side is concealing him, but it doesn't matter - when he looks back up, he’s staring at the empty spot where Karl had been laying. He hears the shower turn on in the bathroom, and sighs. He can take a cold shower when Karl gets out.