Farzan had finally managed a trim and a shave, too, but his stubble had already come back.
“Yeah.” Farzan pulled David into his apartment and let the door close behind him. “I missed you.”
He pressed his lips to David’s; he tasted like mint and orange and vanilla, smelled like vetiver and amber and heaven. He could feel David’s smile against him.
“I missed you too, babe.” The last week had been intense for both of them. Taking a Saturday off was hard in the restaurant business; takingtwo in a row was basically asking for fate to knock you on your ass. Farzan’s to-do list was going to murder him.
Still, now that David was in front of him, all Farzan wanted to do was drag him to the bedroom. They weren’t due at Maheen’s for another half hour, and that was before taking Persian Standard Time into account, but David looked perfect, in dark-wash jeans and an emerald V-neck sweater so soft Farzan wanted to rub his face against it. They couldn’t risk showing up looking freshly fucked.
But damn was it tempting.
“This is a great color on you,” Farzan said instead, following the V of the collar, letting the pads of his fingers trace David’s collarbone. “You look perfect.”
“Mm, so do you,” David said, running his hand through Farzan’s exposed chest hair. “You sure we don’t have time for a quickie?”
“I wish.” But Farzan was so nervous, his arms quivered as he rested them at David’s waist. He wasn’t a hundred percent certain he could even get hard right now. “But I better get ready and go.”
David pouted. “Fine. But what about after?”
Farzan waggled his eyebrows as he backed into his bedroom. Once he was dressed, he grabbed the glass container of sholezard—sweet saffron rice pudding, decorated with almond slivers and pistachio crumbles and cinnamon in the shape of a flower—out of the fridge, slipped his shoes on, kissed David one last time. “Let’s go.”
Farzan offered to drive, but David insisted. “Sorry, but I get carsick if I’m the passenger.”
“All good with me.”
As soon as they were on the road, David laid his hand on the console, palm up, and Farzan wound their fingers together. “Thanks for coming tonight. I know you’re busy.”
“Hey. Not too busy for something this important.”
“My family’s going to love you.”
Farzan bit his lip as soon as he said it. They hadn’t even saidI love youto each other, so why had he stuck his foot in his mouth and said that about his family?
But David just shrugged. “If not, I brought some wine to bribe them.”
“I hope it’s nothing special. My parents still think wine shouldn’t cost more than ten dollars a bottle.”
“Shit, really?”
“Really really.”
David sighed. “Inflation’s a bitch. There used to be tons of bottles under ten dollars that were amazing. Now you’ve got to go to fifteen for most of them.”
They made it onto I-35, heading south toward Leawood. David clicked his thumb on the steering wheel, turning up the music just a bit. Farzan recognized the piano right away.
“Howl’s Moving Castle?”
“Yeah. You mind?”
“I love Joe Hisaishi.”
“Okay. Best Ghibli film. Go.”
“Ugh.” Farzan frowned. “Okay, but best and favorite are separate, right?”
David laughed. “If you insist. Best and favorite then.”
“Okay, favorite isCastle in the Skybecause I used to have a huge crush on James Van Der Beek and I liked the robots. Best isPrincess Mononoke.”
