“I was kind of hoping you’d ask.”
Ramin blinked. “You were?”
“Yeah.” Noah swallowed. Ramin shivered at the memory of his lips on Noah’s neck.
God, he was like a horny teenager.
He liked feeling like a horny teenager.
“I don’t want to cramp your style, but if you’d have me… I’d love to stay with you.”
“Really? What about Jake?”
“I need to show Jake that love is worth chasing. That it’s worth fighting for. Worth sacrificing for.”
Ramin reached for Noah’s hand, twined their fingers together. Every time he thought he knew Noah to his depths, he found new layers.
Noah was a revelation.
“I can’t stay as long as you,” Noah continued. “Not with my job, not with Jake’s school, not with all the changes about to happen. But Idohave more vacation days I can use. If you like… if you’ll have me… I could stay until the end of the month? And then I can go back to help get ready for Angie’s move.”
“Thenwecan go back.”
Noah was right. Lovewasworth sacrificing for. But Noah couldn’t be the only one making sacrifices.
“I’m not going to stay without you.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Noah said.
“I know. But being with you made me realize something.”
“Oh yeah?”
“I’m okay. Just the way I am. I’m not boring, and I don’t need to reinvent myself. I’m happy with who I am, and I’m happy when I’m with you. I want to be where you are. So if we go back, we go back. Simple as that.”
“Simple as that? What about this place?” Noah gestured around the apartment.
“Francesca and Paola won’t mind. They’re rooting for us.”
Noah laughed. “Are those your—”
“My lesbian landlords, yeah.” Ramin squeezed Noah’s hand. Just like that, they’d figured things out. Made a plan. Together.
It felt fake. It felt like a movie. It felt like a dream, one he was destined to wake up from.
“Hey. What’re you thinking?” Noah scooted closer, rested his hand on Ramin’s thigh.
Ramin couldn’t believe there was a time when he was afraid to let Noah touch him.
“I don’t know. It’s like… I don’t know how to explain it. But it’s like, it all feels too easy.”
Noah’s eyes were so kind, Ramin wanted to drown in them.
“Life’s hard sometimes,” Noah said. “Yours more than most. Is it so wrong to enjoy something being easy for once?”
Was it? Ramin wasn’t sure.
But he’d told Noah, once, that he was living for his parents, too. For their dreams. And for the dreams of his queer elders, too.
