sweater you’re gonna love.”
“Thanks, Marie. But today I’m shopping for Romeo. My boyfriend.” The last part was unnecessary, but it felt really good to say. He imagined cherubs flitting through the air and blowing trumpets.
“Boyfriend!” She looked Romeo up and down approvingly before grinning at Teddy. “No wonder you’ve been making yourself scarce.”
While Marie interrogated Romeo, Teddy prowled the aisles in search of something perfect. He found a lot of things that were acceptable, but that wasn’t good enough. This was Romeo, after all. Then he caught sight of his prey and pounced, although he felt a little apprehensive as he carried it to Romeo.
“Okay,” Teddy said before Romeo could speak. “Full disclosure—this is supposed to be a woman’s blouse. The buttons are going to be backward and the sleeves too short. But I bet you can handle the button issue, and we’re going to give you a nice gray cardigan anyway, so your cuffs won’t be obvious. These colors are going to be amazing with your skin tone.”
He waited for Romeo to object to wearing a woman’s shirt. Instead, he took the hanger and held it in front of his chest. “Yeah?”
“Oh, yeah,” Teddy breathed, and Marie said something in Haitian Creole that sounded approving. The shirt was seventies vintage and made of good-quality silk in a basket-weave pattern of emerald and cobalt. It was generously cut and would hang a little loosely on Romeo’s frame, which was fine. He could wear it with the tight jeans he had on now.
“I guess we’ll take it,” Romeo said.
They ended up spending thirty-two dollars, so technically Teddy lost the bet. But since that total included the sweater Marie had saved for Teddy, the overage didn’t really count.
For lunch they finished off the pork chops and cornbread, and then Romeo put on his new clothes. “Wow,” he said to the mirror.
“You like it?”
“I’d never in a million years have chosen it for myself, but yeah. I love it. Wearing it makes me feel...interesting.”
“You’re fascinating, in fact.”
That conversation led very rapidly to Romeo removing the shirt in question, along with the rest of his clothes, and Teddy followed suit. The apartment was having one of its arctic days, but that hardly mattered because the two of them worked up a respectable sweat and then lolled in bed under piles of blankets.
“I like your place a lot,” Romeo announced. His arm was around Teddy’s shoulders, and Teddy was pressed up tight against all that wonderful naked man.
“It’s tiny.”
“But you’ve chosen every aspect of it with such care. You should see my room. My decorating style is Stuff Mama Bought on Clearance When I Was Fifteen.”
“I bet you have a lot of games and books, though. And at least three generations of outdated electronic gadgets.”
Laughing, Romeo held him even closer. “You got me.”
And that was the truth of it, wasn’t it? Teddy got Romeo, and Romeo got Teddy, and that was the most perfect equation Teddy could think of. He was about to say so, and to assess whether they had the energy for a second round, when his phone buzzed.
He glanced at the screen. “It’s Gram.”
“Want me to give you some privacy?”
“How? Are you gonna stand on the fire escape naked in twenty degree temps?” Teddy kissed the tip of Romeo’s nose before taking the call. “Hi, Gram! Back from New York already?”
“No, we have two more days here. We’re seeing The Book of Mormon tonight. I hear it’s very good.”
Imagining his grandmother’s reaction to some of the song lyrics, Teddy stifled a laugh. “It’s great, Gram. You’ll love it. Are you having a good trip?”
“I am. We’ve been seeing shows and eating up a storm. The only problem is that everyone on this tour is so old.” She sniffed disdainfully, and Teddy decided not to point out that the trip was organized by her senior center and that she herself was eighty.
“Maybe sometime you and I could go together,” he offered. It was sort of an empty promise, considering his income was about to evaporate, but his heart was in it.
“I’d like that. And what have you been up to, dear? Still working those long hours?”
“Yeah. Just got back from an impromptu business trip to Seattle, in fact.”
She clucked her tongue. “You need to take it a little easy. You’re young! You should be out painting the town red.”
Romeo, whose head was close enough to hear both sides of the conversation, seemed fascinated and a little amused. Teddy realized that this was the