Marge shook her head. “I have news for you, sunshine. My church is having a sale and I promised them some decent clobber. We can go through those things you sorted out the other week.”
Tito raised his eyebrows. “That’s practically theft.”
“Not if you’re consenting.”
“I’m not.”
He leapt as she pinched his arm.
“Okay, fine. I am. Come on.”
Marge gathered up her things. Tito took a handful of grapes and stuffed them in his pocket.
“The supermarket delivery is late,” he explained.
“Take them all.”
Tito winked and helped himself.
“I’d get changed if I were you,” he said. “If you were hoping to make a good impression.”
Noah still had his tracksuit on.
“Oh, if you could leave a bag of things out for my sale too,” Marge said, patting his arm. “The church would be very grateful. Now best of luck.”
Noah didn’t even bother to reply that he was Carmine’s client. He didn’t need luck. Mercifully, they beat a retreat. Noah dashed around the apartment, making sure everything wasperfect. Of course, Marge had left nothing to chance. Even the cushions were expertly plumped.
A nervous energy ran through him and it wasn’t entirely linked to seeing his potential new home for the first time. Albeit on screen.
The night before, he’d driven out to the plot of land. It was a beautiful sunset without a cloud in the sky. A rarity for Brockton in the winter. Noah had captured some great shots that he wanted to share with Carmine.
“I’ll grab Marge some things,” he said to himself.
After getting a carrier bag from the kitchen, he went through to his bedroom. Tito had commandeered one of the two spare rooms in his apartment as a closet. Noah didn’t need all that. Besides, he kept his rooms free in case Malcolm and his friends wanted to stay. It hadn’t happened yet. Noah remained hopeful. If only he wasn’t so busy all the time. He had no idea how Adam juggled responsibilities of being a captain, a father and a boyfriend.
Whenever he went into his wardrobes, he had pangs of guilt. He might not be a shopper in the league of Tito but he still had an obscene amount of clothes. Most of them were sent for free. That had picked up since he’d outed himself.
Every cloud has a silver lining.
He grabbed a raft of shirts he’d not even worn yet. They might as well go to help Marge’s church as sitting in there. As he selected the garments for the chop, he imagined what his new bedroom would be like.
It was so exciting to be finally making his dream a reality. He only hoped that Carmine had picked up on his whole vibe. Of course there were other architects out there. Yet, Noah wanted Carmine to do it for a ton of different reasons.
He was a normal young man with normal needs. Another area he’d neglected over recent years.
Why shouldn’t I have a love life?
Also there had been a connection between them. Noah was crap at picking up signals usually and it had been obvious to him.
Tito’s words about getting changed came back to haunt him. With a sigh, he rifled around his clothes.
The trick would be in not coming across like he’d made a huge amount of effort. That wasn’t his style. He hummed to himself as he put on the clothes.
He caught sight of himself in the mirror. He had on Tommy Hilfiger jeans and a tight vintage white T-shirt.
Too casual?
I’m at home, for fuck’s sake. I can hardly break out the tux.
