For a moment, Sammy seemed stunned. Then he started shaking his head vigorously. “Oh no. I’m not going to piss in an ancient monument. No chance.”
“Why not? Granted, there’s no water running below to transport it away, but it’s just piss. The next rain will wash away whatever hasn’t soaked into the ground. Don’t you want to know what it feels like?”
Sammy hesitated. “I guess it would be like a living history experiment…sort of. Still, it feels wrong.”
Dre smiled at Sammy encouragingly. “I can take you somewhere else if you really don’t want…”
Sammy stared at the holes in the bench. “You need to wait outside.”
Dre’s face fell. “But I wanted to know what it’s like,” he whined.
“And I will tell you, but you won’t stay here while I…I obey my biological needs. Whatever this thing between us is going to be, we’re not yet at the stage where I don’t care about matters of the bathroom. So out with you!”
Dre chuckled but obeyed. He stepped through the gap in the walls where the entrance had once been, and kept his back to Sammy. “Satisfied?”
“Promise you won’t turn around.”
Dre held up his pinkie finger. “Pinkie swear.”
He got an almost hysterical laugh as an answer. “You’re insane.” Then Dre heard the rustling of clothes, the zing of a zipper being pulled down, a shriek when Sammy’s naked ass connected with the cold stone—there would be no way he could hit the small hole accurately—then the trickling of fluid. Another rustling told Dre that Sammy was getting up and back into his pants.
“Can I come in?”
“Yes.”
Dre turned around to go back into thelatrinae. He found Sammy standing there with his eyes wide open. His hands were shaking at his sides.
“I can’t believe I did that. I took a leak in an ancient building with my date listening. Oh my God, what have I done?”
Dre hurried to take Sammy in his arms. He sounded as if he needed it.
“You did a historical experiment, and if it’s any consolation, I think the sound of you taking your clothes off is highly erotic.”
Sammy looked up at him. Slowly, he opened and closed his eyes, reminding Dre of an owl. “I’m not sure if it’s a good thing that you bring out my daring side. I’ve never done something like this before. Never. I’m the good boy, the silent nerd who reads books and doesn’t get into any trouble. I donotpiss into ancient toilets.”
Dre raised a brow. “How was it?”
Sammy shuddered. “Exciting. Cool. Terrifying. And you listened!”
“So mostly it was good, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah…mostly. I’m just not sure if I want to do it again.”
“You don’t have to. Let’s stroll around a bit more until the adrenaline in your system wears off. Then I’ll take you home.”
Sammy didn’t protest when Dre led him out of thelatrinaeand back onto the cobbled, weed-covered streets of Ostia Antica. They walked around for thirty more minutes, visiting the theater and the temples before Dre took them back into Sammy’s kitchen.
“Thank you, Dre. It was a fantastic evening.”
Sammy looked up into Dre’s eyes, so sincere and beautiful. Dre simply had to lean down and kiss him again. And again.
“It was my pleasure. How about we do this again, tomorrow?”
“You want to go back to Rome?” Sammy sounded breathless and not at all taken aback by the idea of seeing Dre again in such a short time. One glance at the clock on Sammy’s oven told Dre it was even the same day.
“We can do that, but I was thinking we could go skiing in Canada.”
“I don’t know how to ski.” Sammy seemed a little dejected.
