“For sure.”
He bent over Luka and laid a sweet but deep kiss on the man, leaving him swooning. That was an ego boost and a half, leaving a man swooning.
As he sat, he said, “Have you ordered?”
“Um…no offense, but if some accident befell you, if I’d already ordered even a drink, I’d have to take out a loan for the bill.”
“Sorry. I was…I was talking a friend into taking the plunge to have a kid with his husband.”
“Oh? Why did he have to be talking into it?”
Benson barely heard the question, so involved in staring over at Luka. He was wearing blue, blue that deepened the color of his eyes to sea blue instead of the light steel color it usually was.
And his lips…Luka had the best lips. Full, pouty and wide when he smiled.
“Benson?”
“Huh?”
“You’re spacing out. What’s up?”
He knew he couldn’t lie. There’d be no point. “I was taking in the beauty across from me. That’s all.”
Luka bit his tongue as he smiled. That was possibly the sexiest thing he’d ever seen.
The waiter came over and took their order, then Benson reached across the table for Luka’s hand. “It’s been a very long week. I missed you.”
“Weirdly enough, I missed you too. I don’t think we should move so fast, but…I don’t think either of us can stop it.”
It was strange that he felt the same. It was like they were on a runaway train that was barreling toward some unseen destination, and they couldn’t stop it, no matter how they feared the unknown.
His hand squeezed Benson’s. “Are we being stupid?”
“No. I think we’ve never found someone that knew how the world looked to us. Though sure, we see it differently, we still see most of it as foreign and dangerous.”
“It is. And we know that. We know how painful it is to have nothing.”
“But how freeing it is too, Luka. I have a lot now, and it feels like a weight on me every single day. It did until I met you. Now…I see all this weight as…”
“Something that someone can help you carry.”
“Yes.”
“Well, a couple million would lessen that load for you. Go ahead and send it right over,” he teased. “But really, I know the weight thing. The weight of the jobs we must do to get there are…too heavy. Every day I want to quit.”
“Me too.”
They ate while they talked of lighter subjects, but the night didn’t end when they left the restaurant. They took in an off-Broadway musical and then went for drinks at a nice, quiet bar in Hell’s Kitchen. The entire evening, they could barely keep their eyes on anything except each other.
When it came time to say goodbye, Luka grew bold and asked in the cab, “Take me home with you.”
“Luka, are you sure?”
“Well, I didn’t say we had to do anything. I’d like to see your place. Maybe…maybe a drink, more talking. I enjoy talking to you, and I haven’t enjoyed talking to anyone in a very long time.”
Benson gave the cabbie his address, then sat with his arm around Luka, feeling like he’d finally reached the top of the peak. The money hadn’t done it; it had only taken him up that mountain so far. Having someone for maybe the first time in his life, that made him crest the summit, seeing the entire world around him.
They entered his place, and Luka was in awe at the opulence of the building itself. The mid-century modern that he loved was the décor in his place, with teak floors, sleek lines of the furniture and all of it in soft whites and browns.
