Angela nods, and I quickly vacate my seat, making my way toward the duo. Isaac’s eyes lock on to mine, wide but grateful as I approach. His dad stops talking the moment I’m near, seemingly taken aback as I slip a hand around to Isaac’s back.
“Thought you got lost,” I say, aiming for light.
Isaac gives me a relieved smile. “No, just talking to my dad. This is Trevor,” he says to his father. “My boyfriend.”
He barely stumbles over the word. I tuck him closer to me as his dad’s head rocks back ever so slightly.
“Your what?” the man asks.
“My boyfriend,” Isaac repeats morefirmly.
Mr. Newport shifts his gaze to me, blue eyes hard in a way Isaac’s never are, not even when he’s in abitchy mood, as he calls it. There’s calculation is his father’s gaze, there and gone again. “You didn’t tell me you were bringing someone.”
The statement is clearly directed at Isaac, even as his eyes never leave mine.
“Didn’t know I had to,” Isaac says.
His father’s mouth pinches into what might pass as a smile. “I wouldn’t have given the Howards false hope if I’d known you were bringing company.”
Isaac scoffs. “Maybe you shouldn’t have tried setting your gay son up with a girl to begin with.”
Mr. Newport’s eyes flash to Isaac, warning there. “There’s nothing wrong with being polite and welcoming to esteemed guests.”
“And your son?” Isaac retorts. “Do his feelings not warrant a passing thought?”
“Isaac,” his dad says coolly. “You agreed to come tonight. I expect you to remember your decorum.”
“My decorum,” Isaac repeats flatly, his voice small. “I’ve decorated myself enough for you. I’m not doing it any longer.”
Isaac snags my suit jacket in his grip, pulling me away from his father. He’s quiet on the walk back to our table, and I’m somewhat surprised when he retakes his seat instead of offering polite goodbyes to the others.
Finding the hand still twisted in my suit, I gently pluck it free and hold it between my own beneath the table. “Do you want to go?”
Isaac shakes his head, his stare on the stage. “No. I said I’d be here tonight. So I’m going to be here. Like I promised. With my boyfriend by my side. And then I’m not doing this again.”
I give his hand a squeeze. “Your stare could burn the world, Red.”
His eyes shift to mine, softening. “If that’s true, it’s because I have you giving me oxygen.”
The statement nearly winds me, his words a close mirror of those I gave him long ago. Isaac doesn’t look away from me. Not until his father’s voice blankets the room.
With a small sigh, Isaac returns his focus to the stage, where Mr. Newport gets into a demonstration on the company’s new pocket-size virtual assistant, funded primarily by those in attendance today. True to his word, the presentation is brief, allowing the guests to return to their chatter and enjoy the desserts now being walked around the room. There are gift bags waiting near the exit for all.
“Do we really need devices to replace human work?” I ask Isaac.
He snorts, finishing off his glass of champagne with a small wince. “Pretty soon we’ll all have mobile computers in the palm of our hands, able to do our bidding.” He leans closer to whisper, “And then people will be able to watch you anytime they want right from their phone’s internet browser.”
I raise an eyebrow. “You think if people have the internet at their fingertips,that’swhat they’ll choose to do?”
Isaac laughs. “Have you met people?”
Fair point. “Will you and I still meet at the library? If phones take over the world?”
Isaac’s smile is soft, his eyes casing my face slowly. “There won’t ever be a time I won’t want to meet you at the library.”
“Even when you’re a professor? And I’m…” I mouth the final words, “A porn star.”
“Even then,” he answers. “No matter who you become, you’ll always be the person I met at the library, Trevor. Theone who loves to read and has the heart of a poet. The guy who’s observant and calm and knows what he wants out of life. You’re vast and large and…”
