When I woke up, Theo’s blanket offered a comforting warmth, but he wasn’t around. The bedroom door stood wide open, and I heard clacking and clicking in the other room, letting me know he was still there, likely working on his computer.
I hauled myself out of bed, needing two attempts to sit up. The moment my feet touched the floor, Theo appeared in the doorway. He had switched to black sweatpants—ones that actually fit him—but he was still wearing my gray shirt.
“Good morning,” he announced, contradicting the clock on his nightstand, which proclaimed it was shortly past one in the afternoon.
“Mm-hmm,” I grumbled, forcing a smile. Every muscle I moved ached, making it difficult to maintain the expression even though I was happy to see his face. Somehow, I felt even more tired after sleeping than before. “I’m getting too old to stay awake all night.”
“Don’t say that. You’re not old.” Theo jumped onto the bed and crawled toward me.
“Older than you.”
“Like, what, five years?”
“Five years can make all the difference.” I stared at my hands, the wrinkles cutting deeper than I liked.
Theo wiggled closer and wrapped his arms around my waist. His hands settled over mine, trying to interlace our fingers. While I let him do so with my left, I took his right hand and turned his palm up to compare. His fingers were slightly longer and thinner than mine. His skin seemed firmer, but in comparison, he had no fewer wrinkles, neither on his palm nor on the back of his hand.
“Those years are nothing. At least at our age,” Theo said. He stretched his legs out on the sheets, the crown of his head resting against me. “Once you turn thirty, age doesn’t matter anymore. You’re not thirty-four or thirty-nine; you’re just in your thirties. Didn’t you know? We are the same age.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that I feel utterly destroyed.”
“You sure that’s not just me stuffing your ass last night?” Theo said, pressing his face into my lower back, his words muffled.
“If anything,” I replied, “then that’s the thing that made me feel younger again.”
“Then there’s your solution! Just let me be your Botox.”
“Oh my?—”
We both burst out laughing. He rolled onto his back and pulled me on top of him, our chests shaking together. His hands searched for my back, holding me secure, feeling my chest tremble with laughter that didn’t want to end. It took us a minute to calm down, but even then, we kept beaming at each other.
“Brian?” he said, caressing my shoulder blades, infusing them with warmth.
“Theo?”
His hands stopped moving. The apartment’s air conditioner whirred, filling the silence as he took a deep breath. “I like you.”
Instinctively, I closed my eyes. My brain needed to shut off every sense in order to process what he had just said. This was no casual remark; it was an invitation to something more.
I blinked my eyes open again. The smile on my lips reflected in those eyes of his that couldn’t stop looking at me, that couldn’t stop seeing something in me that I couldn’t even see in myself. Whatever this was between us, it no longer felt temporary.
“I like you too.”
His beaming face lit up the room. I pressed a kiss to his cheek and nestled my head against him, tucking my chin into his collarbone.
“I’m not sure anymore if I had said it last night already, but…” Theo mumbled into my shoulder. “Thanks for saving me. Without you, I would still be clinging to that bush.”
“You’d never have been in that situation if it weren’t for me.”
“Not true. I insisted on going up there, and I ran after the backpack when you tried to hold me back.”
“I should’ve known to leave while it was still safe, or spotted the overflowing river sooner, or realized that waiting things out in the clock tower would’ve been the safest choice from the get-go. But… I’d save you any other day too.”
His hand pressed deep into my back. “That’s one of the reasons why I like you.”
“Still, I promise that from here on out, I’ll take our safety even more seriously. If you ever want to join me again.”
“Of course I want to.” His fingers dug into my back as he lifted his head and buried it in my shoulder. “Damn. That just reminded me that my camera is still out there.”
