Hank laughs, but I can see how pleased he is. “Fine. Thank you for coming to the press conference in consideration of me. You can touch my?—”
I reach across and grab both of his cheeks, squeezing and rubbing my thumbs over his skin. “So smooth!” I drag my fingers down. “And your jaw is so square,” I say, cooing. “And those lips…”
Hank laughs and pulls his face back. “Okay,” he says, dismissing it. “I see you haven’t shaved. I remember that you’ve never grown a beard before.”
I rub my fingers in my beard. It’s scratchy, but kind of comforting, too.
“I’m already in this far,” I point out. “I think I like the way it looks. A nice beard and nail polish, can’t beat that combo.”
He chuckles. “A classic, certainly.”
I note that Hank isn’t thrown at all by my style now that I’m back to my regular fashion.
“Now my turn,” he says. “I want to see one of your illustrations.”
I light up, delighted by the question. “Totally,” I say as I quickly pull a few up on my replacement phone, Marko’s old one. I access the folder with some of my classics, and hand it off to Hank. “These are the hits,” I say.
As I watch, a broad smile fills his face. His eyes roam the screen, taking the images in detail by detail. Hank zooms in on an illustration, chuckles to himself, and zooms out again.
“This dragon anatomy,” he says, impressed. “It’s spectacular.”
“Thank you. I spent a lot of time reading about lizard biology when I first got started.”
“It shows.” He scans some more, humming to himself. “They’re even better than I imagined.”
Deeply satisfied, I beam at him. “Thank you.”
Hank hands the phone back. “I’m going to have a million questions for you later.”
“You know I’ll have a million answers.”
He casts his eyes around the Unicorn. “I haven’t been to a club in ages.” He sips the soda water. “It feels strange. But being back in the city, everything familiar is unfamiliar. Is it that way for you, too?”
“I flipped a light switch on and off for about twenty minutes the first night.”
“My espresso machine seemed like a miracle of technology.”
I laugh. “This is the club that has the techno night I told you about. You should join me sometime, if you want.”
“Going out together won’t be an option for us,” he says. “Not if we want the attention to die down.”
“Right. Some day in the far future, maybe. With my backlog of work, I shouldn’t be doing anything but drawing, anyway. But the drag rally that Marko is organizing happens next week. No way I’m going to miss that.”
“I’m sorry you can’t take any time off work.”
“I’ll make magic happen,” I tell him, projecting confidence. I want Hank to see the guy who helped build fires and forage food, not the confused kid who forgot to check his end of the island. “After what we’ve been through, this will be easy.”
“That’s one way to look at it.”
Our feet bump together under the table. I lean in a little closer, and Hank holds my eye.
The desire to kiss him surges through me. I feel the spark in him, too, and I tilt my head slightly to the side, inviting and hoping.
“Elliot,” he says, voice soft.
I settle back. “Right. Sorry. It’s just really nice to see you, Hank.”
“I feel the same way.”
