“No,” Benji said. “I wanted to focus on school.”
“Totally understandable,” Katee said, scribbling something down. “So, what happened next?”
“Uh, we started seeing each other. I kind of… I don’t know, it took me a while to trust him. To make things serious. And I know it should have been the other way around—everybodyassumesit’s the other way around because of the money.”
“Benji was always uncomfortable about the money,” Noah agreed. “I had to talk him into keeping gifts. When he moved in, he wanted to pay rent.”
“It made you uncomfortable?” Katee repeated.
Benji shrugged. He suddenly wished he were wearing his collar. The comforting weight of it was much like the chastity cage—a constant pressure reminding him that Noah had him. Noah holding his hand wasn’t enough; he needed it around his throat.Claiminghim.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Benji said. “It’s nice. Like, I’ve been working since my sophomore year of high school. I’ve been taking care of a kid on my own for years. It’s not like I was gonna turn down a car if Noah really wanted to give it to me. But whenever he gave me a gift or took me to a restaurant where the napkins were real fabric, and the menu didn’t have prices, or whatever—I don’t know. Kinda made me feel like I was waiting for something shitty to happen to even it out. That was my whole thing with Noah, actually. He just… He kept being sogood. Sweet and kind and attentive and so understanding. Ikept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it turns out he’s just perfect like that.”
Noah chuckled. “Notquiteperfect.”
“Right,” Benji said, eager to get to a joke after so much naked sincerity. “You have all those weird health-food smoothies that stink up the kitchen. Everybody has to have something.”
He turned back to Katee, who was watching him with a smile so soft it made his hackles go up. Like she not only believed their love story but was touched by it. Byhim.
This is good,he assured himself as the panic climbed.You’re meant to be showing people your gooey side! Who cares if you feel like you’re showing them your dumb fleshy heart on a plate?
Katee cleared her throat, her smile returning to normal parameters. “I heard you’re going up in the art world, Benji. After Mrs. Presley bought your painting for an unheard-ofsum of money—for community college, anyway—everybody’s been buzzing about your sudden rise. How did you find that?”
“Baffling,” Benji replied. “I keep expecting to seize up in an art block, with all the new pressure. It’s easy to paint when the only person who cares is your teacher, right? But now everyone’s looking, I get emails from these foreign galleries. It’s wild.”
“But no art block yet?”
“No,” Benji replied, thinking of all the golden paint he’d used since he got home from Bali. “I’ve been very inspired.”
Noah’s thumb rubbed over his knuckles. He was watching Benji with that same look he’d been wearing when the photographer snapped those photos days ago, the first official photos they’d ever taken together. Some of them would even be in this article. It made Benji’s teeth itch, knowing that everyone would see Noah looking at him with such bare affection, knowing that they’d see Benji looking back at him just the same.But if that was what it took to make the vultures shut the fuck up, he’d take it.
He’d promised Noah he’d open up. He could do it for the camera, if that’s what it took.
“I’ve been told your relationship with your dad is complicated,” Katee started.
Benji snorted. “You could say that, yeah. We hadn’t talked in years before he started showing up and yelling at me for the cameras. He doesn’t know anything about my life.”
“He’s been saying some very volatile things,” Katee said. “Insisting you’re unsafe for Max, who you have custody of.”
“Ever since our aunt died,” Benji agreed. “She took care of us since we were kids.”
“Your parents couldn’t?”
“I don’t know about couldn’t. They didn’t. When she died, I had no idea where my parents even were. So obviously, I got custody. Chet—Dad—never fought for it.”
“But now he’s back?”
“Yep!” Benji grinned bitterly. “Anything for money and attention. Before he showed up at the art show, the last time I saw him was at Aunt Nat’s funeral, asking for a loan. He sold stolen cars out of a shop in Missouri.”
“Fun,” Katee said. She lifted her notebook paper to read from the next page. “I do have here that he’s been arrested multiple times on charges of petty theft, breaking and entering, and fraud.”
“But he’s never sent to prison,” Benji confirmed. “He’s very proud of it. One time, he escaped the cops after a car robbery, and he took me and Mom out to McDonald’s as a celebration. The day before my birthday, which he forgot.”
Katee laughed. “And now he’s back, yelling that his eldest son is a sex worker!”
“That’s what he says,” Benji said, skin prickling. “I mean, the internet says it. So, it must be true.”
Katee put her pen down and leaned forward. “Noah has always insisted this was false. That your classmate who blew the whistle on you several months ago was only trying to get attention. You’re saying your dad is the same?”
