He was still smiling as he sat down and it took everything in me not to lean over and kiss his mouth.
“Hey, sorry I’m late and showed up dressed like this.” He apologized, gesturing at his shirt. “But we had a thing at the shelter, and I didn’t have time to change before coming to meet you.”
“It’s fine. I was running late myself. So what were you doing? If it’s okay for me to know.” He waved his hand, indicating it was okay to ask. I could tell he was happy I wanted to know what he’d been doing. I would never get enough of seeing Camilo’s passion for his work.
“Well it’s this really cool thing we’ve been doing for oh—” he put his finger under his chin and looked up “—a year or so now. We’ve been partnering with this dance group called New York City Bodies, they do these choreography classes. Like each session is just one song, and we practice a set of moves as a group and then do the whole thing at the end. It’s so much fun. Ayako and I have been taking classes at their studio downtown for years. So we talked to them into coming to the shelter and doing a sort of dance therapy class twice a month.”
I nodded, a smile already forming as I was infected by his enthusiasm. “That sounds great.”
“It is. Their whole mission is to offer classes in a shame-free body-positive environment. So any person of any shape or ability can come and do a group class. The instructors are fantastic, too, and will modify the lessons so everyone can participate. I always make sure I can make it, because it’s amazing to see how much our clients love the classes. They also get to pick which song we’ll do each time.” He laughed and shook his head. “Most weeks it’s either Rihanna, Ariana, or Beyoncé.”
I wanted to say something about how great the classes sounded, but my mind was stuck picturing Camilo in those tights and tank top dancing until he was sweaty and flushed. My cock got so hard I had to adjust my trousers. I swallowed a few times before I could speak, while he looked at me like he was well aware of where my mind had gone.
I regrouped and tried to say something at least somewhat coherent. “It’s great you offer some programs that aren’t just the typical financial literacy class or job training.”
He nodded again and gave me a funny look, like he’d expected me to say something different.
“Those things are very important, of course, and we have them, too. But part of our mission at New Beginning is to try to dismantle all these destructive constructs our clients are steeped in.”
I leaned closer as he talked, once again amazed at how effortlessly Camilo commanded my full attention. “Tell me more about that.”
“Like, if you’re poor, or black or brown, you have no right to do something just for fun. That if you spend money on yourself or on something you enjoy, you’re being careless and deserve to be victimized. Part of our work is to walk with our clients as they begin to see there’snothingwrong with them. That the issues they’re dealing with aren’t there because they made them happen, but because they’re trying to navigate a system literally built tonotwork for them.”
By now he was leaning into the table and talking with his hands.
“It’s consciousness raising, you know? We have tomakespaces for them to do things they don’t feel entitled to, like take an art class or dance for an hour. We work from a perspective of understanding the intersectionality of oppression. Gender, race, sexuality, ability, socioeconomic status, country of origin, —” Hewent on excitedly ticking things off his fingers. “—each one of those things cut across our clients’ lives and hold them back.”
Turning, he pointed in the direction of the street. “What they hear out there is, ‘If you’re black or brown, poor and a single mom, you have no right to joy, you haven’t earned it.’Wesay, ‘Fuck that because neither has anyone else.’ So we make a point of doing stuff like the New York City Bodies classes. To reinforce they have the right to moments that are just theirs, that no matter what good or bad decisions they’ve made or how hard things are, they still get joy.”
He stopped talking then eyes like he realized he’d been going for too long. I was going to say something smart and neutral, but my heart was faster than my head.
“You’re magnificent. Did you know that?”
This time his smile was shy and small, and he looked down as if he was a little embarrassed.
“I get a bit carried away sometimes. I don’t mean to lecture people all the time.”
This shyness was so unlike him. I went out on a limb, reached out across the table and grabbed his hand. He jumped when our hands met but didn’t pull away.
“It wasn’t a lecture. I love hearing you talk about your work. Seriously, you amaze me, Camilo. I’m so grateful our paths crossed.” This time it was my turn to look down. “I was talking to my friends about you today.”
“Oh?” That was all he said, but his eyes were wide with expectation, and I knew this was the moment. My chance to say what we’d been tiptoeing around for weeks.
“I was telling them how much I loved our conversations; how much you challenged me.” His face looked a little disappointed at my words, so before I lost my nerve, I said it. “I told them I wanted to ask you to dinner.”
Camilo quickly pulled his hand away like I’d shocked him. The hesitation on his face made all the breath leave my body. Maybe Iwasin this alone. Maybe Camilo wasn’t interested in me like that. I’d forgotten what this was like, the breathless expectation of waiting to hear if the person you wanted felt the same way about you.
Finally he placed the hand he’d pulled away on top of mine and spoke. “I’d love to have dinner with you, Tom.”
The fluttering in my chest was so intense I was sure Camilo could hear it across the table. I knew I was grinning hard, too. I was so glad to hear him say yes though. I couldn’t help it.
“Can we do it now?”
He laughed at my eagerness and shook his head like I was ridiculous.
“Well I’m all sweaty and gross from the dance class and this is definitely not what I’d wear for a first date withtheThomas Hughes, but yeah, we can have dinner now.”
I gave him an astonished look, because he had no idea the effect what he was wearing had on me when he walked in. “I think you look hot, exactly how you are. And so do a lot of the people here, if all the stares you were getting as you walked in were any indication.” He laughed and rolled his eyes.
