“And if she hadn’t forked out for those tickets, you wouldn’t have become an actor, and we would never have met. So, I owe her big time.”
Dídac laughed.
“OK, you’ll meet her. She’ll be coming to the opening. You can take her out to dinner afterward. But I warn you, since my last couple of movies, she’s developed a taste for only the best cava!”
“Well, she deserves no less! It would be my honor to invite you both, and your brother if he’s around.
“Don’t worry about him, he’s doing OK, earning good money as an architect. He’ll be at the opening too, with his girlfriend.”
Kim stopped walking. Dídac turned and faced him.
“So, is this where you present me to your whole family? My nerves are going to go through the roof that night, but not because of the play…”
“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. They don’t bite. My cat’s the one who bites. Dragon. When you meet her, you’ll need to be on your best behavior.”
“Can she be brought or bribed? Fresh tuna, maybe?”
Dídac smiled.
“Many have tried. Few have lived to tell the tale.”
“Catnip. Catnip and fresh tuna. No cat has ever resisted those twin charms.”
“You don’t know Dragon.”
Kim cupped Dídac’s face in his hands.
“I’m beginning to know you,” he said, “and liking what I know. It’s amazing: we’re from such different places—Australia and Sp—Sorry, Catalonia—yet we have so much in common!”
“You have a cat called Dragon too?” Dídac quipped.
Kim laughed.
“I wish. I couldn’t. The last year has just been non-stop travel—five different cities, and an average of two months in each one.”
“But what’s your… What was your life like back in Melbourne? Did you leave… Is there…”
“Anyone?”
Dídac nodded, without looking at Kim, keeping his gaze centered on an orange and black carp that was sitting waggling its fins in the pool nearest him, under the shade of a clump of fern.
“I…” Kim sighed, staring at Dídac’s collarbone, wanting to run his fingertip along it, lick it… but now wasn’t the time, not if they were havingthisconversation. “There was…” He thought of Tony,the Port Philip barracuda. Did he count as… whatever Dídac was asking? “I was seeing someone… up to a year before I came overseas…We broke it off. He was… I was… I’m not the easiest… Plus, I was really focused on making a success of what becameThe Swan, and I….”
“Wow,” Dídac breathed, “you just took inarticulacy to a whole new level. And I thoughtIwas tongue-tied.”
Kim laughed. Dídac had an amazing way of undercutting his pompousness. He grounded him—as well as making him feel years younger, reminding him of the person he used to be a decade ago, before he started worrying about stage productions and opening nights and budgets and coaxing what he needed from his actors… before he became so serious, when he could just relax and enjoy life more. Be in the company of a gorgeous, charming, endlessly smiling, sweet, witty, young guy whose smell captivated him, whose endless confidence astounded him, whose bravery before life seemed to be a lesson specifically fashioned to teach him to relax, open up, and trust that life can be a good thing. That things can go well. That life is not always a war campaign to be waged against the hostile forces of other living beings arrayed against you.
“So, yeah,” he laughed, “in my incredibly articulate, directorial perspective, that was a succinct summary of my past emotional history.”
“Revealing,” Dídac breathed, smiling as Kim threw his arm around him and kissed him.
“So,” Kim went on when they finally broke apart, “I think I’ve quite clearlynottold you about the skeletons in my closet; what about yours?”
“My closet,”—and as if that reminded him where he was, Dídac looked around, but they were alone in the shade house—“is roomy, very roomy, but it’s still a closet.”
“Are you not out?” Kim asked, slightly shocked.
“Well, I’m not out, but I’m not exactly in, either. I mean at drama school, there were a couple of guys… nothing serious, just playing around. I mean I’ve always known I was gay, and I’m not trying to hide anything. But you know, when I got the first movie part, I decided to be discreet… To be honest, the level of attention they started aiming at me… the press, fans, even just people on the street… Suddenly I felt as if people were watching my every move. And then, just by neither confirming nor denying, you find that you’re veering more to the side of denying… I mean not denying, but just not confirming, letting people assume you’re straight, as they generally do.”
