Scott held up two fingers. “Two inmates. The whole time I was there, and I only did it to get enough money to buy a pencil set. A proper one, smuggled in from the outside so I could draw something good for you.”
Thomas opened his mouth as if to retort, then closed it again. He stared at Scott. It wasn’tthe glare. It was as if Thomas was trying hard to work him out.
“You like to draw?” Carly asked.
Scott nodded. “I did when I was inside, but I haven’t since.”
“That’s a shame…”
Thomas found his voice again. “It is. He was really good.”
Scott ducked his head when he felt a blush building in his cheeks.
Carly squeezed Scott’s shoulder, then moved away. “We’ll make enough food for both of you.”
The chefs continued preparing meals as if they weren’t there, and Thomas joined Scott at the table.
“A month…” Thomas growled.
“You’ve spent three years in a cell with me.”
Thomas’s nostrils flared. “Yes, but I had no choice.”
“I can find somewhere else –”
“No. Stay here. On the first floor.”
Scott’s stomach sank. He’d sleep on the first floor, away from Thomas. Why did that feel like a slap to the face?
“When you’re finished, I can show you the pool.”
Scott raised his eyebrows. “You have a pool?”
“I’m loaded. I obviously have a swimming pool…”
Thomas had a swimming pool, a sauna, a Jacuzzi, a tennis court and a gym.
There was only one room he hadn’t let Scott see, and he called it his personal room and warned Scott that he had to control the curious cat inside him and not try to enter the room.
The plaque on the door read ‘KEEP OUT’, but there was no lock on the door.
Scott teased him, asking whether a tiger was in there, but Thomas only glared and told him that if he went into that room without Thomas’s permission, he’d throw Scott out onto the street.
The curious cat inside Scott had widened his eyes and pricked up his ears, but he shooed it away. Thomas was letting him stay for a month. He wouldn’t break his trust.
Whatever mystery lay beyond the locked door would stay a mystery.
The last part of the tour was a stroll around the gardens. Neither of them spoke. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence; it was a peaceful one. They’d spent lockdowns in their cell together, and falling into content silences with someone was something Scott had only experienced with Thomas. If a client was quiet, that was bad, and if Scott didn’t feel like making the effort to talk to someone who’d spent money to be with him, that was even worse. Silence in his line of work wasn’t a good thing, but he wasn’t at work.
He hadn’t been paid for.
He was just him.
Rarely could hejustbe him.
They sat down on the same bench as the day before and listened to the fountain. Scott closed his eyes, stretched out his neck, lifted his chin and sighed at the sun on his face.
For three years, it hadn’t touched his skin. The minuscule window in their cell didn’t let enough in, and their yard waspermanently in shadow. There had been no grass, or flowers, or birds or insects, only cold stone. Scott never would’ve described himself as an outdoors person, but then he’d spent three years in prison, and he was grateful for the fresh air in his lungs every day he was free.
