“I want you to be happy, too,” Ramin said. And to his surprise, he found he meant it. He wanted Todd to have a good life. Just not with him. “I better let you go.”
He set his phone down and stared at the dark screen, his heart hammering like he’d just climbed another lighthouse. He thought he might feel relief. Or sadness. Or vindication. But all he felt was impatience. Todd was his past. And Noah was his future.
So when would—
Knock. Knock-knock.
Ramin frowned. No one knocked on his door. No one could even get in the gates without a key. Maybe Paola and Francesca needed something.
He shook his head, fumbled with the twelve different locks, pulled the door open—
And froze.
It couldn’t be.
“Noah?”
forty-two
Noah
Ramin stood before him, surprise and delight written across his face. Noah’s shoulders relaxed.
He’d worried Ramin wouldn’t be happy to see him.
He clutched a bottle of wine in one hand. Nonna had helped him pick it out—a red wine similar to Nebbiolo called Ruchè.
In the other hand, he cradled a bouquet of red roses. Ramin’s lesbian landlords, who’d let Noah in, had nodded approvingly before pointing him toward Ramin’s door and hiding around the corner.
Noah held his breath. Did Ramin even like flowers? Was he allergic?
A smile blossomed over Ramin’s face, and relief washed over Noah. He’d buy a million flowers if they made Ramin smile like that.
“Hey,” he said. “I’m back.”
“Come on in.”
Ramin closed the door behind them. Noah wanted nothing more than to push Ramin up against it and kiss him until he couldn’t remember his own name. But they needed to talk first. He knew they did.
Noah had never been good at talking. For Ramin, though, he’d try.
“These are for you.”
Ramin laughed, a tinkly thing, and took the roses. He smelled them deeply, his smile turning softer.
“You know, every week my mom was in the hospital, my dad brought her a dozen roses.”
Noah’s heart clenched. Crap. He was trying to be romantic, but instead he’d dredged up bad memories.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t…”
“My mom loved flowers. And every time Baba showed up with a new bouquet, it was like she forgot all about the chemo, and the surgeries, and all the other treatments. She just knew that Baba loved her, and she loved him, and that’s all that mattered.”
Noah had a hummingbird in his chest. No, that was just his heart, beating faster than it ever had.
Did Ramin mean…
Noah swallowed.
