Brad followed Theo into the space, moving around the few hundred square feet like it was his own, and Andy again wondered what would a future like this look like for him? He bit the tip of his tongue between his teeth.
“You can sit.” Theo pointed toward a lumpy looking couch in the corner before smiling at Brad. “Do you want to get the water going?”
“Yeah.” Brad gave a quick glance at Andy, then he went into the kitchen and poured water into a pot.
“So.” Theo kicked off his shoes and flopped onto his unmade bed across the room from the seat he’d offered Andy. “What kind of things does your man like?”
“I don’t know,” he forced the words out. “I think you know him better than I do at this point.”
“What?” Theo’s brows knit together in confusion.
“You talked with him this morning?”
“Well, yeah.” Theo shrugged. “But for like ten minutes or something was all. He followed you from Europe, right? You don’t do that for someone you don’t know.”
“You do if you’re him,” Brad said from the kitchen.
Andy leveled a sharp glare at his brother.
“Alright. That makes it a bit harder.” Theo grinned awkwardly, scooting back to lean against the wall. “Do you know what kind of things he likes?”
Being on his knees, having his mouth stuffed full of cock, ceramics, wine.
“Brad asked me the same thing,” he said.
“So, is that a no?”
“Let’s pretend he likes everything,” Andy finally decided.
“He doesn’t need to like everything. He only needs to like you.”
Something about that hit him in the chest, and he rubbed absently at his sternum. Brad came out from the kitchen, balancing three Styrofoam containers of Ramen in his hands, passing one off to Andy and taking the other two to the bed. He sat down beside Theo, getting comfortable. They shared another one of those soft smiles, and Brad speared some curly noodles with his fork.
“This was one of our first dates,” Theo said, chewing and swallowing his first bite. “It may seem small, but it meant something to us, so you just need to find something like that.”
Andy forked a tangle of Ramen into his mouth and chewed. That was easier said than done, which was why he was there in the first place. Planning a date shouldn’t be this hard. Andy was halfway through his thirties and Leonidas was not his first rodeo.
Theo was right.
Brad was right.
Leonidas had come to Cherry Creek for Andy and no other reason. That scared him and made his bones feel like they were made of Jello, but a deeper part of him burned with the desperation to be deserving of that dedication. He just needed to figure out how.
24
Leonidas
Leonidas hadn’t seenAndy in two days, and he tried to not be bothered about it. He’d taken the time to settle into the cabin and to get acquainted with the studio space he was renting from Greyson. He had some phone calls with his mom and his sisters, and Aeliana sent him pictures of Yiorgos. He’d somehow doubled in size in the week since Leonidas saw him last, and he found himself looking forward to his next return to Greece when he could hold his nephew in his arms again.
Leonidas appreciated Cherry Creek the way he appreciated any city or town he visited. There was people and architecture and food and drink, and there was Andy.
At least there had been for one night and two days, and then Leonidas checked out of the hotel and Andy had gone quiet. He didn’t know if that meant this trip would be for naught, but he wasn’t on a schedule, so he’d set to enjoying the sun and the studio while he waited to see what played out.
The cabin was nice and quiet, and Leonidas was lying on a small towel on the dock with his eyes closed when a shadow passed over his face. He opened his eyes, blinking his surroundings into focus and finding Andy there.
“There you are,” he said softly, closing his eyes and dropping his hands against the wooden planks of the dock.
“I’m here.”
