“You want some stir-fry?” Andre offered.
“No, thank you,” she said. Andre’s eyebrows lifted at her uncharacteristic civility.
“These are brilliant, Martin, truly. Bravo.” She turned to Andre. “Nice work.” He nodded, perhaps afraid to say anything to ruin her good mood.
She replaced her sunglasses and headed for the door, pausing to say, “You should be very proud, Martin. We’re on our way.”
And then she was gone.
“Intense,” Andre said.
“No kidding.”
A little while later, I was upstairs getting ready for work when Andre called up to me, “Can I take a picture of this?” I glanced over the loft railing. He had the phone aimed at one of the paintings.
“Yeah, sure.”
“Cool.”
A minute later I heard him laughing.
“What is it?” I came downstairs.
“Nothing.” He shook his head, still smiling. “Can I take a picture of you to send to my brother?”
“Yeah, okay.” I came over, and Andre took a selfie of the both of us, then sent it. When his brother replied, he started laughing again.
“What?” I asked. “You’re making me paranoid.”
“Nothing,”
“What did he say?”
“My brother thinks you’re cute. He wants to know if I’ve hit that.”
“What? Me?” He had this incredible ability to make me feel like a schoolboy.
Andre nodded, his smile taking up his whole face, dimples shining brighter than the sun.
“What did you say?” I asked him. My face felt like it was on fire.
“I told him not yet.”
I was too embarrassed to speak. He made me so tongue-tied. “So, your brother is cool with… everything.”
He nodded again. “He said you were a lot hotter than the other guys I’ve been with, which is true.”
It was interesting to me that Andre sought his brother’s approval in guys, though I hoped there was more to me than a hot body. I also wondered how many guys Andre had been with… like a whole Abercrombie catalog? But I didn’t ask. Andre showed me a picture of his brother, Demarcus. He looked a little bit like Andre, but he didn’t have Andre’s dimples or high cheekbones or open, trusting face.
“So he knows you’re gay, then?” I asked.
“Yeah, he’s the one who found my magazines.Men’s Health, you know?”
I smiled. “Yeah, I know all aboutMen’s Health.”
“Demarcus covered for me, more than once. Got into some fights because of me.”
“People beat you up?” I was horrified. Andre was like the nicest, funniest, most generous person I’d ever known.
