He found the shirt from dinner in a wrinkled heap on the floor and pulled it back on. “Should I… say hi?”
Ramin knew Jake knew about them, but he didn’t know how much. Did he know they were sharing a bed, and not out of necessity?
Noah smiled. “I bet he’d like that.”
Noah had pulled on a plain white T-shirt. Ramin already missed the all-access pass to Noah’s chest. They sat together against the headboard, shoulder to shoulder, as Noah called Jake.
Jake’s face popped up on the screen right away.
“Hey Dad! Hey Ramin!” Jake seemed to be in his own bed, wearing a plush white robe over his Spider-Man pajamas.
“Hey, buddy. You ready for bed?”
Jake shrugged. “Almost.”
“Did you brush your teeth?”
“Not yet. We’re getting gelato from room service!”
Noah laughed, but Ramin suddenly wondered if their own hotel had room service gelato.
He’d already brushed his teeth, though.
Noah asked Jake about his day. Apparently, he and Angela had gone to Turin, which it turned out (a) had a Lego Store and (b) was where Nutella was made. It was everywhere, even in their hotel lobby.
“There was this thing with a big spike on it, and you could stick your croissant on and pull the lever and it filled it with Nutella!” Jake explained. “It was the best thing ever.”
Noah laughed. “That sounds great.”
Ramin mostly listened, jumping in with a “Wow!” or “Cool!” at the appropriate point. He desperately wanted to rest his head against Noah’s chest, feel the rumble of his voice, but even this, just this, was nice. He loved the way Noah’s voice sounded when he was talking to Jake. The tenderness. The boundless joy. The soft laughter. The unconditional love.
Ramin’s heart swelled. It made him miss his own parents. But he was grateful to share in this moment.
Jake sat up straighter in his bed. “That’s the gelato! Gotta go!”
“Okay, good night, Jakey. Love you.”
“Night.”
“Night, Jake!” Ramin added.
“Night, Ramin!”
The phone went dark. Noah sighed.
“Good luck to Angela. He’s never going to sleep if he has gelato this late.”
Ramin laughed. “You’re a good dad. You know that?”
Noah shrugged. “I try.”
Ramin blinked. Noah was just being self-effacing, right? “Really. You are.”
Noah shifted to pinch at his cross. Ramin put his hand over Noah’s.
“Sometimes I don’t feel like it.”
“Why?”
