“Hey, Paps! We’re here.” A man in his mid-thirties looks up and an open, warm smile spreads across his face. He’s really young for having a seventeen-year-old son, or maybe he just doesn’t look his age thanks to his curls and freckles. He quickly clicks something on his laptop before shutting it down, then stands up, holding out his hand to me. “Hello David, it’s nice to see you again. Please call me Philipp. If this house is to be your safe space, it’s not the place for formalities.” I’ve only seen him up close once before, when Louis introduced me, but the lights were dimmed back then. Now, in the bright of day, I have to say that Philipp Delfosse is an attractive man. Tall, slim but athletic—maybe Louis inherited his curls from him. But Louis’s hair is dark brown, so maybe not?
“Are you editing a new video?”
“Just finished. Do you want cupcakes?”
“No, let’s watch the video first.” Without a shred of consideration for his father’s privacy, Louis opens the laptop again. No one would dare do that in our house, but Philipp just grins. “Come on, watch this, it’s totally awesome!”
“If it’s private, I really don’t want to...”
And I mean it, but Philipp interrupts me with a laugh. “By tomorrow morning, probably a hundred thousand people will have seen the clip. Since we’re not posting as regularlyanymore, every video goes through the roof.”
There’s Philipp on the screen with a dark-haired woman, probably the same age as him. Slim but athletic. The two are dancing to a melancholic song that I don’t know.
“Oh, wow, Paps, that’s beautiful. What’s the name of the song?”
“’Lost Without You’ by Luca Fogale.”
I hope to remember the title, but right now I’m staring spellbound at the two people who let go and hold on, leave and find each other again, telling a story of a complicated love. I just hope that they don’t lose each other in the end.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” I nod, still staring at the screen, fascinated, watching Philipp and the woman intertwining their bodies to the last beats of the music.
“Wow, how long do you have to practice for something like that?”
“No practice at all, it’s improv. But Nika and I both started dancing in our early childhood and we’ve been dancing together for almost twenty years now.”
“Isn’t your husband jealous?” Philipp laughs again. How can someone be so friendly and nice? So open?
“Adrien? No. Nika and I were dance partners before we even met. He and Nika’s husband are best friends, and they’re almost always in the studio with us when we dance.”
“Who’s dancing?” A second man enters the room, equally tall. Why the hell is Louis so short? It must be his mother’s genes, just like his eye color, because his other father doesn’t have brown eyes either. “Is that ‘Lost Without You’? That was damn beautiful. Let’s see.”
As he walks by, he puts a hand on Philipp’s back and kisses him gently, then he ruffles Louis’s curls. “Hello, big guy,ça va bien?”
“Hey, Papa, this is David, my boyfriend.” With these words,Louis wraps his arms around my waist and snuggles up to me, looking up at me with sparkling eyes full of pride and warmth. I love how he’s completely himself, letting me see into his heart, and I can’t help myself, I don’t even think about it. I smile and kiss him. Just like that, as if we were alone.
“Papa eats all the cupcakes by himself.” Philipp shouts out and Louis recoils in shock while his fathers burst out laughing.
“That always works. I’m Adrien Delfosse.” With a smile reaching his eyes, he reaches out his hand to me. He has a French accent—it’s surprisingly weak, but he’ll probably never lose it completely. “Please, call me Adrien.”
My gaze wanders, and I’m fascinated by his arm, completely tattooed with geometric shapes that wind their way up in fine, intricate patterns and disappear under his T-shirt. I know that he is a senior electrical engineer in development at a large French manufacturer, but I always imagined people in senior positions to be different somehow, stiff and wearing suits. Not looking like they’ve just come from a rock concert.
“David?” Louis nudges me in the side, and I flinch in surprise.
“Sorry, I... I was just a little distracted. I’m David, thank you for having me.” His handshake is firm, and he radiates a calmness that takes away even the last trace of my uncertainty. I’m a little jealous that Louis gets to grow up like this, in a house with so much love and mutual trust, not in a cold place like mine.
I don’t even blame my father; he’s just never there and has high expectations of us. But at least he cares, in his own way. Why my mother decided to have children in the first place is beyond me.
“I heard something about cupcakes. Was that a diversionary tactic, or did you bake for me, baby?” A large, tattooed arm wraps around Philipp’s narrow shoulder, and he leans into his husband.
“Apple with walnut topping.”
“Ah, you know me too well!” Adrien kisses Philipp passionately and he laughs. There’s so much laughter here, and I laugh along as this big grown man storms into the kitchen like a little kid, Philipp close on his heels.
“Sometimes they’re embarrassing, but they’re cool.” The boyish computer voice behind me comes out of nowhere, making me flinch. “Oh, he’s jumpy. Cute.”
A tall blond boy is standing in the doorway. With his shoulder-length curls, he looks like an angel, but his sharp tongue somehow doesn’t match his appearance. He strolls leisurely past us. “Are you coming? Knowing Papa, half of the cupcakes are already gone.”
Louis grabs my hand, laughing and pulling me along. So that must be Jannis.
