Derek sighed. “Is he deaf?”
Amit snorted. “No. He’s CODA. Like the worst kind of CODA.”
“Uh,” Derek said.
“Deaf parents,” Amit explained. “Most CODA are chill as fuck,but there are the occasional ones like him that are total dicks. They like to speak where they’re not welcome.”
Derek’s brows rose in understanding. “Like white dudes with black friends who think they can tell other white people about the black experience?”
Amit’s grin widened. “You know those guys?”
“We live in Colorado. Everyone here knows those guys,” Derek said a little flatly, though he was smiling. His grin didn’t last long as he watched the guy and Basil’s signs start to calm down. Their conversation looked far from over, and Basil was looking a little uncomfortable now as he glanced back at Derek a few times. “Do you uh…I mean…would Basil be better with a guy more like him?”
“Like that douche?” Amit asked, his tone surprised and a little offended.
Derek shrugged. “Okay, maybe not him specifically, but someone who gets it. Who grew up around signing and…and everything. I don’t know shit.”
“Saw you talking to him just fine,” Amit replied.
Derek dragged a hand down his face, then drank more beer just to give himself something to do as he tried to find the words he was looking for. “It’s slow, it sucks. It’s like…he has to spell half the words, and I know he’s not using the right grammar because I’m taking ASL right now and the grammar’s still a little confusing. None of it’s natural and it feels like it’s going to be a hundred years before I can even get half that fast. I can’t imagine how tired it must make him.”
“But you’re doing it,” Amit said. “I don’t want to overstep here so I won’t say much, but I do know that the fact that you’re doing this on his terms means everything. Because there have been people who wouldn’t in his past.”
“You mean Chad,” Derek said darkly.
“He told you about that guy?” Amit asked, sounding a little surprised.
Derek snorted a laugh. “Yeah, he fucking did, and I wouldn’tmind flying my ass to DC and delivering an epic beat-down if I knew where to find him.” In truth, Chad was probably in politics right now. A guy like that probably would have gotten along famously with his dad. Hell, he was probably closeted and engaged to someone with high aspirations of visibility in the government. Derek had grown up with too many people like that, and he knew how their lives went.
“You and me both,” Amit said. “But I wouldn’t worry about it. Basil knows what he wants, and it’s not that asshole.”
Derek chanced a look over, and he felt something raw and possessive take over as the guy’s hand grabbed at Basil’s arm and touched the ink there. In the back of his mind, he supposed that was another danger of marking someone he was growing attached to—the idea that the ink was still his, that he had some right to it. He swallowed it down like a bitter horse pill and forced himself to look away.
“You’re good for him, and he knows it,” Amit told him softly. “Don’t let that asshole get to you. He’s going to walk away alone tonight, and you’re not. And you’ll wake up with Basil more times than you won’t over the rest of your lives, and that’s what matters.”
He wanted that. More than anything, he wanted that, but he was still a little too terrified to hope. Before he could reply though, movement out of his periphery distracted him and he turned his head to see the guy storming off and Basil slowly making his way over.
He was still pink in the cheeks, flush and frustration clouding his features, but when he reached for Derek, his touch was soft. ‘I’m sorry,’ he told him again.
Derek shook his head. ‘Not your fault.’
Basil looked just a little guilty, and he shrugged, taking a drink first before he answered in spelling and sign to make sure Derek caught it all. ‘We had a bad date. He saw some guys from your shop at the restaurant and called them trash, so I left him there and never texted him again. Later he tried to apologize, and I let him think Imight give him a second chance. I didn’t mean to, I was just confused.’
‘If you want to think about things,’ Derek began, but Basil quieted him by gently touching the back of his hand and shaking his head.
‘No. I don’t want him. He’s an asshole.’ He spelled it first, then offered the sign, and Derek couldn’t help a small grin.
‘You’re sure?’ Derek pressed.
Basil nodded. ‘I’m sure.’
Amit grinned at them both before replacing Basil’s beer and then lifting his hands to sign at Derek, ‘I told you.’
Derek really didn’t mind that I told you so at all.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Basil let his eyes close for a minute, though it really was near impossible to relax with a tattoo needle tearing into his arm. It was worth it, and the pain wasn’t unbearable, but he was learning quickly he was never going to be the kind of guy who was addicted to the process. He’d never look like Derek or Sage, he couldn’t imagine coming here every week to have a new image carved on his skin.
