Afternoon delight?
Whatever. It didn’t matter. It wasn’t happening.
“You look sharp too, buddy.” Jake was in a white polo shirt of his own, with jean shorts and a pair of Spider-Man socks peeking above his sneakers.
“Thanks.”
Noah finally spotted the bright yellow brick sign for the Lego Store at the end of the block; Jake saw it a moment later and took off running.
“Jakey! Wait!”
But Jake had too much of a head start. And besides, Noah realized who he was running to: Ramin stood beneath the big yellow brick, waiting for them.
He wore an azure button-up short-sleeved shirt and white shorts that definitely hit below the knee but somehow still made his legs and behind look absolutely delicious.
Before Noah could stop him, Jake ran up and threw his arms around Ramin’s waist. Ramin’s eyebrows popped up above his sunglasses, and he looked toward Noah for a second before wrapping Jake in a hug. Apparently they’d moved past fist bumps.
Noah thought he would melt into a puddle on the spot as Ramin hugged his son.
“Hey,” Ramin said. He let go of Jake and pushed his sunglasses up into his hair. His eyes sparkled in the sun.
Noah wanted to reach for him and pull him into a kiss hello, but he didn’t know if they were doing that yet and he didn’t know if they were doing that in front ofJakeyet. He hadn’t dated since the divorce, and asfar as he knew, Angela hadn’t either, so they’d never really talked about how to introduce new partners to Jake.
A thrill ran up his spine.Partners.
Him and Ramin.
It could happen, couldn’t it? Maybe. If the stars aligned. If they figured all this out.
In the end, Noah settled for a one-armed hug, and if his lips happened to graze Ramin’s cheek, well, that was just how Italians did it.
“Come on. Let’s see what they have!” Jake said, grabbing Ramin’s hand and dragging him into the store.
Ramin gave Noah a look that either meantThis is hilariousorHelp me!—he wasn’t sure yet.
Noah half expected Ramin to get impatient as Jake slowly went from shelf to shelf, admiring Lego sets he’d admired a hundred times before, at the Lego Store back home. But if Ramin was annoyed, he didn’t show it. He nodded sagely as Jake explained which sets he already had and compared notes about the Lego themes he’d had when he was a child himself.
“What about you?” Ramin asked.
Noah blinked. “Me?”
“Yeah. Did you have a collection growing up?”
“Not really.” He’d had a few sets, but his mother always complained about finding stray bricks, and his dad thought Noah should’ve been playing with G.I. Joes or He-Man figures instead. Even though, looking back, He-Man was pretty homoerotic. “But Jake lets me help him build, sometimes.”
“Dad’s a good assistant,” Jake said. “He’s good at sorting out the pieces.”
“A man of many talents,” Ramin said, though when Noah caught his eye, he could’ve sworn Ramin wasn’t just talking about sorting bricks anymore.
Jake managed to spend a good thirty minutes browsing, and to Noah’s surprise, he didn’t even ask to buy anything.
“Sometimes it’s just nice to window shop,” Jake told Ramin.
“Yeah. Thanks for letting me tag along.” He glanced Noah’s way. “So what now?”
“I thought maybe, if you both wanted, we could take a tour of the Duomo? But only if you want.”
“I’ve heard it’s beautiful,” Ramin said. “What d’you think, Jake?”
