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“Are you inviting me over for dinner?”
Diego’s eyes widened in surprise. Frankie could actually pick out the varying shades of brown in them. There were at least four, maybe five different colors.
“I... do you want to come over for dinner?”
“Yeah, why not?” Frankie asked, even though he could name nearly a dozen reasons why not. The first and most pressing being that he was developing a very inappropriate boner the longer he stood nearly pressed to Diego’s chest.
“I mean… now that we’re not studying for class, I wasn’t sure if…” Diego trailed off and looked off to the side.
Frankie took a step back, but not far enough that Diego might accidentally glance down and notice his little problem. Okay, it wasn’t little, but it was definitely a problem.
“You weren’t sure if I’d still want to hang out? Didn’t we literally just spend the past two days together?” Frankie asked.
“Well, I suppose I didn’t know if you would still want to hang around my apartment, or if you’d rather, I don’t know, be out doing things. You seem to like doing things.”
Frankie wouldn’t mind doing Diego – damnit. Food. They were talking about food.
“I’d love to hang out at your apartment, D. Especially since you’re cooking me carnivorous—”
“Cruciferous.”
“Carnivorous bone marrow.”
“Oh my god. You’re not allowed over ever again,” Diego groaned, stepping around Frankie and walking towards the bus stop right as their bus rounded the corner.
“You love me,” Frankie called and he could practically hear Diego’s eyes rolling… but he didn’t deny it.
Dinner consisted of ramen with soft boiled eggs, since Diego hadn’t gone grocery shopping during the week with the craziness of graduation.
“The next time you come over for dinner, I promise I’ll make you something with cru-ci-fer-ous vegetables.”
Frankie couldn’t help but think he would eat ramen for the rest of forever if it meant he could keep coming over for dinner. Annnnnnd now it was time for a subject change.
Frankie brought up Diego’s cafe idea, and they spent the next four hours, fueled by increasingly more and more alcoholic cups of coffee, brainstorming ideas.
That was the first of many nights Frankie crashed on Diego’s couch.
Over the next several months, Diego and Frankie went on scouting missions across the city to all of the independent coffee shops and tiny cafes they could find. Diego had gone back to working full time at the bar and had also picked up occasional weekend shifts at the cafe he’d worked at during grad school. This was one of the cafes too small for even a single table. On the plus side, Diego had become an exceptional barista and Frankie often visited him at work to sample his expertly crafted drinks.
Frankie managed to find a food delivery job, which gave him ample opportunity to try coffees all over town. At first, he only ordered from cafes and bakeries, but slowly he began to branch out and order coffees at the international restaurants he delivered food from. He quickly realized his love of studying other languages, cultures, and religions translated into a love of multicultural food and drink. Anytime he sampled a particularly delicious dish, he would grab takeout there the next time he and Diego had a brainstorming night, which had begun happening at least once a week, if not more.
At first, Seth would make himself scarce on nights he knew Diego was coming over so they could have “alone time.” Frankie informed him, rather sadly, that he was just a friend, his verybestfriend, but just a friend, so Seth began to stay in and hang out with them, sometimes joined by Obie.
Naturally, Obie and Diego hit it off immediately, something about their growly sides recognizing kin. Frankie obviously did not say this out loud, but he privately shared it with Seth later and they shared a good laugh at the others’ expense.
As summer turned into fall, Obie and Diego began discussing real estate and some of the more 501 and 601 level business topics Frankie didn’t know so well. When these conversations started, he and Seth would go and cook dinner for the four of them. Frankie found he liked cooking well enough, but helovedto bake. He began bringing home pastries one at a time, spending weeks perfecting a copycat recipe or sometimes a copy-with-a-twist recipe. His absolute favorite was a guava pastry calledpastelitos de guayaba,which originated in Cuba. The reason they were his favorite had nothing to do with the fact that Diego got a soft look on his face every time he ate them. Absolutely nothing.
Another reason he found he loved baking, and spending time with Seth in the kitchen (while the other two men poured over documents and business plans at the table) was that he could almost pretend they were on a double date. He knew this was a pipe dream, though. While Diego had come out to Frankie as gay almost two years prior in the back of their classroom, one night earlier in the summer, Diego had also come out to Frankie as demisexual. He described it as needing to feel safe with a person before he could feel true attraction for them. Frankie figured he hadn’t made the cut… yet.
An unfortunate side effect of Obie and Diego becoming best-business-buddies was that Obie became increasingly growly every time Frankie brought home a hookup. At first, Frankie wasn’t sure what the problem was since he was having his visitors change into one of the three mumus he kept by the door, and he often sent home with them after their fun.
One morning, after he’d had a particularly loud guy over the night before, Obie stomped into the kitchen and said, “Is Diego not good enough for you or something?”
Seth had scurried out of the bedroom and apologized for Obie’s bluntness, but Frankie had sort of appreciated Obie’s loyalty and thought it warranted an honest response.
“If Diego gave even the tiniest hint that he wanted me, I would drop every single one of these losers – no wait, they’re actually all really nice people. What I mean is, I would stop hooking up, cold turkey, immediately, right that very moment. But, he doesn’t. I know he hooked up with a few people while I was gone, and he could still be hooking up with people I don’t know about, so I’m not going to pine over him. I just… I can’t.”
That had been a really hard pill to swallow when, a few nights after he’d come out as demi, Diego admitted he’d slept with two separate men, multiple times, while Frankie had been in Europe. Frankie didn’t know either of them, but apparently they’d been in Diego’s classes and he’d formed pretty strong bonds with both.
