When do you get back?
Thanks for everything last night.
And this morning.
Ramin
I get back later today. Glad you made it. And I was happy to help.
Ramin bit his lip. Hewashappy to help them find a place to stay.
He was also very happy to give Noah a handjob, but he couldn’t just say that. What if Jake was borrowing Noah’s phone or something? He typed and deleted and finally settled on:
Ramin
With everything
There. That was subtle and had plausible deniability. Right?
He waited, fiddling with his studs, but Noah didn’t answer. Which was fine. Noah was busy. And Ramin had lost signal again.
He sighed, locked his phone, and watched the Lombardian countryside fly by.
Francesca caught him as he stepped off the elevator. She wore another power suit, maroon pinstripe this time. “Ciao, Ramin! You’re back! How was Lago di Como?”
“Good. Beautiful.”
“I hope the rain didn’t catch you.”
Ramin shrugged. His sodden clothes from yesterday were at the bottom of his backpack. Along with Noah’s white T-shirt. Which he had only sniffed a few times before jacking off in the shower.
“Francesca, dov’è la—Ah, Ramin!” Paola stepped out of their apartment in a slinky blue dress, a mascara wand clutched in one hand. “Your luggages came!”
“Really?”
“They said you didn’t answer your phone, so we just signed for them.” Paola disappeared for a moment, then came back with Ramin’s two purple suitcases. “Here. We got you this, too.”
Paola handed Ramin a black plastic card with a stylized blue A on it.
“What’s this?”
“An ARCO card. For the clubs!” Francesca said. “So you can go have fun tonight.”
Ramin slipped the card into his pocket. He wasn’t sure how much fun he’d be having at a club. But Noah still hadn’t answered him. What if it was just a one-and-done thing? What if Noahdidn’twant him, just a warm hand, any hand.Any hole in a storm, little devil Arya whispered into his ear. Ramin waited for little angel Farzan to offer a rebuttal, but he just whispered,Get in, get off, get out—those are the rules.
Great. The cartoon versions of his friends that lived over his shoulder might’ve been cute, but sometimes, they gave absolutely useless advice.
Ramin was loading his dinner plates into the dishwasher when his phone buzzed. He sprang up, stubbed his toe on the kitchen table with a hissedfuck!, and hobble-ran to the living room.
Finally,finally, Noah was getting back to him.
Except it wasn’t Noah calling.
It wasTodd.
On FaceTime.
Ramin slumped onto the heinous red couch and stared at the screen. At some point someone (probably Arya) had changed Todd’s contact toFucking Toddand his photo to the poop emoji. Ramin was tempted to ignore the call, but on the off chance Todd had left something at the house, or had some other inane question about the logistics of breaking up, he answered.
