Something prickled the back of his mind. “How many gay people have you met before?”
Bazel looked at him like he was crazy for a second. “One. And we have sex because I not know when I know someone else. So I know him and we have sex. Friend find out and tell family. It bad.” Bazel lowered his gaze once more, and Atlas could only imagine the kind of inner turmoil he was going through.
“I think I get it. But you don’t need to act that way. You can meet a lot of other people who are like us here, and you can find someone who you like… maybe someone you love and who will love you back. You don’t have to just be with the one person you met who was gay like you.” God, he hoped that Bazel understood what he was telling him. Atlas’s heart beat at a frantic pace, not just from what he was trying to say, but from the fact that he had the full attention of this beautifully handsome man sitting on his sofa.
“I can choose? Where I go to make choice?” He seemed so excited. Like there was a buffet of guys just waiting for him. Sometimes Atlas wished that had been true, especially when he was younger.
Atlas chuckled. “There isn’t necessarily a place, thought there are some gay bars and clubs in Harrisburg. But you meet people, and maybe someone you meet will be the one for you.” How did he describe dating and all that it involved? “Just be patient and you’ll meet someone. But right now, we have to get you settled and find the people who brought you here.” And why that damned man had been in his backyard. Something was going on, Atlas knew it in his bones. He just wished Bazel could help him more.
“I see. And you don’t want me… like that.” He lowered his gaze.
Atlas’s heart soared, but he pulled it back to earth. “I didn’t say that. Just that you need time to decide what you really want.” And it would be foolish of them to just jump into bed. “That you have a lot going on, and sex and relationships can be complicated.” To say that least. “Give yourself time and a chance to breathe and figure things out. A lot has changed for you in just a few days, and I want you to be able to make the right decision rather than a fast one.”
Chapter 6
ATLAS’S WORDSrang in Bazel’s head all night. He was gay, and that meant that there were more people in the world like him besides Rashad. That was an eye-opener. For his entire life, he had thought that he was the only person on earth who had feelings like his, and then when he met Rashad, he figured that there were so few of them that he had to hold onto the one other person he found. Things between the two of them had been strange. Not like things between his parents. They were both afraid of being caught, so they were never together for very long, and Rashad was always very bossy and demanding. Bazel had not liked that. Also Rashad had not liked to talk… about anything. They were always quiet and sneaky.
Now he knew there were more like him, maybe lots of them, and that he might get to choose and not have to just accept. But the thing was, he liked Atlas. He was a good man; Bazel was sure of that. And Atlas was handsome and kind and strong. He smiled as he lay in bed thinking about him, getting warmer and more excited by the minute.
He closed his eyes as the images came of Atlas in bed, blue eyes deep and inviting. But then he pushed it away and rolled over. All his life he had been taught that people like him were bad, and that thoughts like those that he was having right now were bad.
Evie came in the room and right up to the bed. He reached out to pet her, and then she left again, her footsteps going backthe way she’d come. What Bazel wished he had was someone he could talk to about this stuff other than Atlas, because he got Bazel’s head all spinny and made his belly flutter. He just wished he knew what that meant. What all of what he had been told meant.
He had so many questions, but they all got bottled up inside like they all wanted to get out at once, and he didn’t know how to make them behave. He closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep. It took a while, even though Bazel was really tired. Eventually he fell asleep but startled awake a little while later.
Bazel sat upright in bed, listening. Someone was downstairs. He listened some more, wondering if it was Atlas. He got out of bed and tiptoed down the hall. Atlas’s door was open a little, and he could hear him breathing inside. Evie came awake, and a creak sounded downstairs. Evie jumped up and hurried out of the room and down the stairs. Two seconds later, she began barking. He had heard her play barks when they threw the ball in the backyard. This was not like that at all.
“Bazel,” Atlas whispered as he came out of the bedroom with a gun in his hand. “Go back to your room, close and lock the door.” He slowly went down the stairs as Bazel did as he was told. Evie continued barking and snarling as he closed the door. He went to the window that overlooked the backyard, watching to see what happened.
Finally the barking ended and a man, at least that’s what he thought it was, stumbled across the backyard, nearly falling as he reached the gate. He scrambled to his feet and managed to get out as Evie took off across the yard. She stopped there, growling and barking before finally returning inside.
“Is it safe?” Bazel asked as he cracked the door open.
“Yes,” Atlas told him, and Bazel hurried down the stairs, almost falling before running to where Atlas and Evie stood at the open back door. “Take her inside. I’ll close the gate.” Hecautiously went through the yard, gun ready, before closing the back gate.
“Is Evie okay?”
Atlas joined them. “She’s a good girl. When I got downstairs, she had already ripped part of his leg open and tore into his arm. This guy is going to be in a sorry state for quite a while.” Atlas pulled out his phone and made a call. “I need officers at my house. Someone broke in. Evie did a real number on him, but I need to make a report. They came through the backyard, and I have video.” He hung up. Bazel put a kettle on the stove. “What are you doing?”
“Making tea.” It was what you did when things got crazy in the middle of the night. Or at least that was what his mother did. “We need it.”
“Okay.” Atlas sat at the table with Evie, petting her head while Bazel heated the water. “You are an amazing girl, protecting us.” He gently soothed her, and Bazel found some tea. He opened the package, smelled it, and wrinkled his nose.
“This all you have? It stinks.”
Atlas chuckled. “I don’t have anything else.”
Bazel kept looking, going from cupboard to cupboard. “Yes,” he said triumphantly. “This.” He showed it to Atlas.
“I got that from one of my coworkers at Christmas. It was a gag gift.”
Bazel stopped. “What is that? A gift to make you… bluh?” He mimed being sick. Sometimes Atlas had the strangest sayings.
“It’s supposed to be a funny gift. Cops drink coffee by the gallon, so one of the guys put in fancy tea as their gift, and I got it.”
Bazel grinned. “You wait. This not make you gag. You see.” He went back to what he was doing as policemen arrived and started asking questions. They also took what look like dirt from Evie’s paws, and then they asked Atlas a ton of questions. Bazelput the tea in mugs and handed it to them. “This not gag tea.” He waited while the policemen sipped, and Atlas smiled at him.
“You win.”
