“Thanks.” He met David’s eyes again. “See you.”
“See you,” David said, cracking a small grin.
Farzan scooted out, swept a glance across the restaurant—everything seemed good—and retreated back to the kitchen. He checked the fesenjan, added a bit of salt, then retreated to his office and closed the door.
Farzan collapsed onto his seat, breathing hard, like he’d just chaseda kickball halfway across the outfield. Bad enough to get ambushed by David and his family, but in front of his mom?
This was a disaster.
Had they played it off okay? David had seemed alarmed but not upset by the whole thing. At least they’d both panicked together.
Farzan’s knee still burned where David’s hand had rested on it. A friendly gesture, that was all it was.
They were just friends.
Friends who had both lied to their families.
Fuck.
Farzan’s phone buzzed. A text from Navid.
Navid
You told them!!
Happy for you bro!
Fuck.
Sure enough, the Alavi family network had propagated the news. Now they’d be expecting him to bring David around for dinners, and parties, and holidays. Now they’d be asking when he and David were going toget serious.
And when the whole thing ended and David moved away?
Well, they’d besorryfor Farzan. Yet another relationship that didn’t work out. And then they’d all talk to each other, speculating about what went wrong, about why Farzan kept getting dumped, about how all the men he datedseemed so nicebut ended up breaking his heart.
Wondering if maybe the problem wasn’t the other men, but Farzan. After all, he’d been through this before. With Jason, who Farzan had dated for six months, but broken up with because Jason wanted to open their relationship while Farzan didn’t. With Sean, who Farzan had dated for nearly a year, but who dumped Farzan because he found someone heclicked withmore. With Omid, who lied to Farzan about being out to his family, and what a clusterfuckthathad been.
With Brandon, who Farzan had dated for three months, and the whole time, despite Farzan’s many attempts to correct him, he kept calling Farzan and his family Arabic. Not Arab, which was a people, but Arabic—the language.
And the Alavis weren’t Arab anyway.
Fucking Brandon.
And now here Farzan was again, except this time the ending was already written. David was moving to Los Angeles. This all had an expiration date. And everyone wondering if this time he’d metthe onewere going to be disappointed—but not surprised—all over again.
And worst of all: Farzan would be disappointed, too. Because he really liked David. A lot.
Yeah, he told himself he could keep things casual. Yeah, he could say they were just friends who sometimes slept together.
Except they’d slept together their first night, and as Farzan had curled up in bed with David, a knot deep inside of him had finally unraveled. And every time he’d seen David since, he’d felt lighter inside.
He was falling for David. And that was strictly against the rules.
He needed to call this off now, before someone really got hurt.
thirty
David
