After Benson tossed his own empty wrapper, he nodded. “In a way. I wanted to make games. Elaborate games with endless maps that a character could explore for months. Lots of little missions, big ones. I want people to get lost in the beauty of my worlds.”
Luka was staring, and that made him nervous. But when Luka smiled, he was lost totally. All the ways he’d dreamed of making others feel in his fantasy worlds, that was how he felt looking at that simple gesture.
“You could have plucked that right out of my mind.”
“Poor kids. We dream of worlds, I think, to escape the ones where we were stuck.”
Luka’s hand slipped into his suddenly, and he jerked his chin toward the Waldorf. “Let’s get back before they wonder what happened to us.”
“The scandal.”
“I’ve never been part of a scandal. Might be fun.”
“Might be,” Benson said, laughing.
They walked along the sidewalk, no more words between them as people rushed by, barely noticing them, but Benson felt like he was the one on a stage, and all the lights were on him. He felt like a star, and maybe that wasn’t his dream, but Luka…he could become the one dream that Benson would give up all the others for.
So beautiful, his profile as he watched the city around them, was one of nobility. If Benson didn’t know about Luka’s past,he’d think that for sure he was a rich man from Britain or France.
His hair glimmered in the lights of the city; his skin looked fresh and didn’t have even a tiny blemish. Not only did Luka work on his craft, but he worked on his appearance as well. Trim, hair perfectly cut and styled, and everything about him felt like he didn’t do a thing except work.
When they got back to the Waldorf, the elevator was surprisingly empty when they got in to head up to their floor. The thoughts came to him like a magnet in his mind, of all the movies he’d seen where randy couples entered an elevator and let themselves go wild, ripping off their clothes as they sloppily kissed.
He couldn’t help his smile as the two in his mind turned into he and Luka, so he tried to hide it by ducking his head. It was of no use.
“Elevator sex scenes?”
He turned to him, shocked. “Am I that obvious?”
“No, but the red all over your face kind of snitched on you.”
He laughed and admitted, “Yeah, I bet.”
“Maybe we’ll visit an empty elevator when we know each other a little better.”
“I’m game.”
They went back to the party, and Monty was telling one of his infamous stories to a group of wide-eyed people that sadly believed everything he said. He went to the group as Luka went to get a drink. “What kind of bullshit are you telling them this time?”
“Benson! How rude of you to assume I’m not being totally above-board.”
“I’ve known you for a long time, my friend.”
Monty rolled his eyes as he laughed and the group dispersed, causing Monty to drag him off to a quiet corner. “Well?”
“I’m completely in love already. Well, maybe I haven’t fallen that far yet, but he’s amazing.”
Monty smiled knowingly. “Anything…happen?”
“We took a walk. That’s it.”
“Well, he’s glancing over here every chance he gets. Take him to that bedroom.”
“Monty, come on! We barely know each other.”
“One, that is not what you said in college. You were a whore. Two, I didn’t say you had to take him in there to fuck. It’s quiet in there, and you already paid for the décor.”
“I’ll think about it.”
