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“All right. I understand.”
“Thank you.” With herculean effort, Daniel tried to change the tone of the conversation, forcing lightness into his tone. “Tell me about your day. What are your plans for the week? What’s it like out in the land of the living-normal?”
I confessed that I’d told Minty about us being together-together, and Daniel laughed about Minty’s various threats. Then I told him about Marta giving me the hours in the darkroom, and our conversation took a different turn.
“Describe them to me.”
“I can’t. I’m in my kitchen. My parents could walk in at any second.” I flashed back to a memory of Adam demanding phone sex, and the frustrating way I’d given in to him.
“Ah, too bad.” He sighed. “But your asshole, yeah? It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?”
I laughed. “Yeah.” Heat roared into my face. “It’s nice.”
“So lickable.”
“Daniel…”
“What?”
“Don’t make me break my promise already.”
“Which one?”
“If you talk about licking my ass, I’ll get in my car right now and drive over there tonight.”
He laughed again. “You like getting rimmed, huh?”
“Um, Danny, are you okay?”
Another long laugh. “Peter?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m falling so in love with you.”
“New rule.”
“What’s that?”
“You’re not allowed to say anything like that again until you can say it to my face.”
Daniel hesitated, but when he replied he was serious. “Deal.”
Maybe by then, I’d be ready to say it back.
***
I breathed inthe smoke and forged through the room of dancing men and a handful of grinding lesbians to find my friends. I’d arrived late, having talked to Daniel for a lot longer than I’d expected.
But after getting off the phone with him, I’d pulled on some black jeans, a sleeveless black tank that I’d gotten a few weeks before at Repeat After Me and left a note for my parents not to wait up for me.
Tilt-a-Whirl was the same as it ever was, and my heart sang with the vibrant queer joy of it all. I’d brought my camera—a point-and-shoot so I wouldn’t sweat leaving it with Barry behind the bar so I could dance—and I used it now to take a few photos. Now that I had access to a darkroom, I’d be able to fix up some of the limitations of the camera via the developing process.
“Hey you,” a voice said in my ear.
I turned to find Millar and a tall, broad guy with the kind of all-American looks seen on movie stars. He was, as it turned out, the pre-med boyfriend Millar had mentioned earlier. I agreed to share a drink with them, but I stuck to soda water because the guy behind the bar wasn’t Barry. Not that he’d serve me anyway.
Billy was nice and seemed protective of Millar, putting his arm around him whenever a guy seemed ready to make a move. It was sweet. But after a few minutes of yelling pleasantries at each other over the music, I was ready to move on.
