Epilogue
By the time the weekend rolled around again, Ru couldn’t wait to have Adam all for himself. He was beginning to believe he had to enroll at Northern to spend more than a few hours with the guy at a time. He and Adam still ran most days after school. It was Adam’s writing for the newspaper that kept him late most days, pushing their training and dinner back. Most nights they ended up sitting on the Corbins’ couch, too tired to do anything other than hold hands and snuggle a little.
But Friday night was their date. Dimitri had cleared out the whole restaurant for them. It would be private and nonthreatening. A cameraman would meet them there to take pictures of the two of them, and Ru had already agreed to answer most of the questions Ryan Hart had sent him ahead of time. What Ru didn’t plan for was date-ready Adam.
Ru appeared at the Corbin’s house just after five, hoping for a leisurely ride to his uncle’s restaurant with a little snogging on the way. But when Adam stepped onto the stairway, all reasonable intelligence left Ru’s head.
Adam wore a bright blue-and-green striped sweater that hugged him just right, showing off his great shoulders and slim waist. Then there were the jeans—pale washed but still darker than what most kids wore. When Adam had tried them on, Ru insisted he buy them. In those jeans, Adam’s long, strong legs and thighs led to a round little butt, all outlined by a perfect cut. His blond hair had been brushed to a silky shine that Ru longed to run his fingers through.
“Do I look okay?” Adam asked. “You have a funny look on your face.”
“Um, wow?” Ru tried and failed miserably to say something intelligent. When Adam stood in front of him, meeting his gaze eye to eye, he had to blink a few times to refocus his brain. “Okay, you can’t have pictures of you taken like this.”
“It’s that bad?” Adam asked, looking alarmed.
“No, you look that good. People are going to try to steal you from me the second they see you.” Ru pouted.
Adam laughed. “Seriously. Are you ready to go? We have an interview with some bigwig writer guy.”
Ru shook his head, finding his boyfriend hard to believe sometimes. “You do know you’re dating a guy who’s won Grammy awards and stuff, right?”
“Yeah, but you’re kissing me. He’s sort of examining me.”
“Better not be. Only I get to examine you.”
Adam blushed. Ru grabbed his hand and tugged him out to the car.
At the restaurant, favorite booth prepared for a big photoshoot, meal, and interview, Adam held Ru’s hand and waited for instructions. Dimitri stood off to the side, beaming at Ru like a proud father. Ru couldn’t help but smile back. His uncle gave him a bone-crushing hug before letting the photo guy take over.
It was going to be Ru’s first shoot ever without makeup, and without the couture that made up his rock-star persona. In fact, he and Adam decided they would be doing this without shoes or socks. Casual and confident as they would have been on a Sunday afternoon in the Corbin’s home.
In Adam’s opinion, this interview was meant to illuminate who they were as people, not a celebrity and his boy next door boyfriend. But two guys who happened to be teenagers and into each other.
He wanted it to be as real as possible. Ru agreed, a bit begrudgingly, worried what the camera would reveal. How many headlines would insult something about him or Adam? But when he frowned, the photos stopped and Adam reached out to hug him, kiss him, or tickle him. Lightening the mood.
Hundred shots, but only a handful would be chosen. Adam did exactly what was asked, even cracked a few jokes to get Ru laughing. “Seriously, did you hear the one about the people putting a fence around the graveyard?” Adam asked, his expression one of utter seriousness. “People were just dying to get in.”
“Wow, that was awful.” Ru laughed, though, because Adam was laughing, and he was sort of infectious that way.
Finally the photo shoot was over, and they got to make their way to the table where Ryan Hart and his partner waited. Adam gripped his hand tightly but smiled freely at the men, even offering to shake their hands.
Ryan motioned them to the table that had been set up for them with flowers and candles and all the things romantic dates were supposed to be. Only, of course, theirs had an interview included.
“Don’t be nervous,” Adam whispered to Ru. “I’ve been e-mailing Ryan back and forth all week. He likes my articles, and he’s really nice. Let’s just eat and let the conversation go where it goes. No more hiding, right?”
Ru stared at his boyfriend, more amazed every second they spent together. “I’ve got nothing to hide. Though I am sort of a jealous boyfriend. Hopefully that little fact can be made clear in your article?”
Ryan smiled. “Of course. How does it feel dating a famous guy?” He asked Adam.
Adam shrugged. “He sings pretty. But he’s just Ru to me.”
“Do you think if you met him in one of your classes things would be the same?”
“I think we wouldn’t be,” Adam shared truthfully. “I think no one would care that we were bullied, or what I had to say in my writing. I think the world would have said we were silly teenagers who had no idea what we wanted.” He squeezed Ru’s hand. “But they’d be wrong.”
“About?”
“We aren’t silly. Or too young to know what we want. Sure, I still have a lot of questions about where my life will go. But the core of what I want is there. Safety. People who love me. A home. A family. I don’t think anyone is all that different. Not even those held up by titles of fame, media coverage, or flashing lights.”
“You are a little silly,” Ru admitted very seriously, but couldn’t help his smile when Adam made a face at him.
They kissed again, a small touch of lips, a shared smile, and they knew they would handle what came their way together.
Continue to book Two:
