Luis didn’t like talking on the phone. Paolo didn’t know if it was because of his damaged hearing or something else, but calling him felt wrong. So he didn’t. He stared at his blank phone screen for a full hour, and then left the flat, intending to head the opposite direction to Luis’s bedsit.
Fifteen minutes later, he buzzed Luis’s door, shivering in the cold wind that rattled the uncovered porch. There was no answer. Paolo buzzed once more for luck, then admitted defeat and gave up.
Halfway down the road, his phone beeped.
Luis:was that u at my door?
Paolo:yeah
Luis:come back?
Luis:please?
As if Paolo could refuse.
He didn’t even want to.
Hood up against the wind, he spun around and booked it back to Luis’s building. The exterior door was cracked open. Paolo gave it a cautious push and stepped into the dark hallway. There was light at the end. Paolo followed it and slipped through Luis’s open front door.
Luis reached over him and shut it. Bolted it. “Hey.”
“Hey yourself.”
Paolo ran his gaze over Luis, taking in his rumpled hair, unshaven jaw, and bare chest.Man alive, how does he make sweatpants look so good?Not kissing him was impossible. So Paolo didn’t even try. He tugged Luis to him and brushed their lips together, once, twice, three times, with just enough pressure to make himself dizzy. Then he remembered why he’d come and pulled back. “You didn’t answer my messages. Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Sorry. I didn’t get them until just now. My phone was annoying me, so I, uh, put it somewhere else.”
A dozen responses bubbled up Paolo’s throat, but he swallowed them down. Luis had opened the door. That was enough. “So,” he said. “I didn’t actually mean to drop by, but here I am. But I can’t stay. I gotta go see Toni. Are you coming in tomorrow?”
Luis nodded. “Yeah. Definitely.”
“You sure? Take some more time if you need it.”
“I don’t. I didn’t need this time, just figured you wanted me to take it.”
“I did, but not for my benefit.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.” Paolo let his hands slide from Luis’s bare skin. Instinct told him to let it go, to leave Luis alone in whatever he was dealing with. But he turned to leave and his heart rebelled.
He turned back. “You wanna go somewhere with me?”
Luis stared at him for a long moment, then shrugged his glorious shoulders. “I’ll go anywhere with you.”
* * *
Toni had been asking to meet Luis for a while, but Paolo took him to Nonna first, on the bus, half an hour outside of the city. It was a journey Paolo had taken a thousand times, but with Luis squashed against him in a pair of seats at the back, it felt brand new.
Luis sat by the window, gazing out like a child on a school trip. Paolo watched him, fascinated. “Anyone would think you’d never been out.”
No answer was forthcoming. He assumed Luis hadn’t heard him and let it go. Then Luis sighed and turned to face him. “I haven’t been out of the city since the day the police picked me up. I haven’t seen a field since 2014.”
Nice one, P. Could you be any more ignorant?“Sorry, I never thought about it like that.”
“Why would you? You’re not a criminal.”
“Neither are you. You’re reformed, right?”
