So good.
“I have a brother too,” Dorian explained. “He’s the reason I fell in love with Drag Race. He is a drag performer in New York; when I still lived in the city, I’d pop in and see him perform.”
“Have you ever designed anything for him?” Murry asked.
“For him, no, but we’ve worked together on a few projects he drew up and had an amazing time creating the looks,” Dorian explained. “He’ll be at the next show, so you’ll get to meet him.”
“Sweet!” Murry said.
“It’s cool that you guys are so close,” I said. “Is he older or younger than you?”
“Older. My sister is the youngest, and I got the privilege of being stuck in the middle.”
“Was it fun?” Murry asked. “When I was younger, I wished I had siblings. It was just me and my gram, but after she passed away I was glad I didn’t have any siblings, because there was no other family to take me in, so I landed in the system.”
“Is that where you two met?” he asked.
I nodded, scowling at my plate now, hoping he wouldn’t ask my story because it was way more complicated than Murry’s.
“I got the brother I always wanted and then some when we landed in the same group home together,” Murry said. “We’ve been together ever since.”
“I’m glad you guys were able to find one another.”
“So are we,” I replied, raising my head enough to flash a grin across the table at Murry.
“Slight subject change,” Mr. Dorian began, to which the inner voice in my head screamed thank you, “but did you guys have any plans for the rest of your day?”
“Not a one,” I replied. “We don’t have to be back at the club until Tuesday night.”
“In that case, would you be interested in spending the day with me?” he asked. “We could lie around watching movies, relax, order in a platter of mini lobster rolls, and veg out until we pass out. No work talk, just pure and utter laziness.”
“I’m so down,” Murry replied. “That’s exactly what we’d be doing at home, only now we’ll get to do it with you. In case we haven’t made it clear enough, with how busy we’ve been, we enjoy spending time with you.”
“It’ll be nice to just chill and enjoy lazing around together,” I added.
“Yes, it most certainly will,” he replied.
A short time later, after we’d worked together to rinse the dishes, load the dishwasher, and cut up the strawberries and kiwi he had in the fridge, drizzling sweetened lemon-lime juice over them before popping them in the fridge to chill as a treat to go with our lobster rolls, we lay sprawled across the couch. Murry stretched out on one side of Mr. Dorian with me on the other, our heads in his lap as he scrolled through the options on the streaming service. He’d looked pleased when we arranged ourselves that way. His free hand, which rested on my head, occasionally stroking and playing with my hair, had a soft, grounding effect, the same as when Murry did it. Our hands were joined between his knees, because we couldn’t not be touching each other somehow.
“Hmm,” he muttered, “what are you feeling today? Drama, action, rom-com, or straight-up comedy?”
“What about action-comedy?” I said. “Like, buddy cop movies?”
“They’ve got all three Rush Hour movies,” Murry pointed out.
“Rush Hour it is,” Mr. Dorian replied, clicking on the first before laying the remote on the table and settling his hand on Murry’s hair, stroking it the same way he was doing to mine.
We lost ourselves in the action and antics playing out on the screen, chuckles and giggles mingling together. I found myself melting against the couch in pure, blissed-out enjoyment, because he never stopped touching me.
“I can’t remember the last time I felt so relaxed,” Mr. Dorian remarked halfway through the movie.
“This is so nice,” Murry replied, his voice sounding a bit slurred. “Is it wrong to say we deserve this?”
“Not in the slightest,” Mr. Dorian replied. “Breaks are important, or people burn out. It wouldn’t do any of us any good to reach that point.”
“It sucks that we can’t do this more often,” I muttered, because I was truly enjoying myself.
“Why can’t we?” he asked.
