Page 13

Spencer hadn’t heard from Ian since they’d confirmed for Friday.

He couldn’t tell if that was weird or not.

They weren’t ... well, anything, really.

They’d been on one date.

And that sort of breakfast date.

And whatever the night in the basement had been.

But now Spencer was standing in front of the Brown Street house watching Cat’s crew ripping down the siding, and he wanted to talk to Ian, and he didn’t see why he shouldn’t.

He quickly snapped a photo of the front of the house, which was mostly covered in peeling sixty-year-old Tyvek, before the crew could wonder what the fuck he was doing and sent it off.

It was around noon, and Spencer had come by to see if there was anything salvageable behind the vinyl siding, but there wasn’t, so he had to go home and order all-new wooden siding.

That left him plenty of time to worry about whether Ian was panicking about how shit the house currently looked.

He’d seemed perfectly fine with the progress the previous week, but maybe now he was regretting hiring—and fucking—Spencer.

Spencer knew his renderings had been great, and he knew Cat could make the house look exactly like that, but sometimes clients had a hard time looking at the shell of something and imagining the end product.

He didn’t want Ian to think Spencer couldn’t handle the responsibility of his grandma’s house.

He didn’t even know if Ian would want to hear from him, whether he was one of those people who hated texting, whether any number of terrible things had happened.

Spencer considered texting Cat for her opinion, but he could already hear her laughing at him from across town, so he gave up on that idea. He took Norman on his evening walk, ate, and was at his desk sketching when his phone buzzed around nine.

Great progress! I think . . .

Spencer released the breath he’d been holding basically all day and smiled down at his phone. It actually is! Though I know it looks a little underwhelming.

A minute later: Just so you know I’m a terrible texting partner because I can’t text at work. But I’m happy to hear from you. And I certainly haven’t been underwhelmed by you yet.

Spencer could feel his blush all the way up to his scalp. So Ian was definitely into him. Cool. I’m happy to hear from you too. Whenever you can text back. Oh god. Spencer realized that was startlingly true.

I’ll keep that in mind. Then, I’m looking forward to seeing you on Friday.

Spencer knew his face was doing something embarrassing, but it was only Norman around to see, so he didn’t bother to stop it. He wondered if Friday night would go the way their previous date had, but he also wasn’t really sure he was ready for thirsty texting, so he said, Me too.

And for someone who said he was terrible at texting, Ian was happy to tell Spencer what he was having for dinner (a quinoa bowl from the café down the street from his apartment) and his favorite color (blue) and that he was definitely a dog person but his grandmother had had cats (which made sense with how dusty that carpet had been) and all manner of other things until around eleven when he seemingly fell asleep.

———

It took Spencer a minute to get downstairs when Ian rang the doorbell because he was trying to put on his shoes while dealing with Norman and also carrying two tote bags full of supplies. So he sort of stumbled out the door and locked it, and when he turned around, Ian still had his arms out like he expected Spencer to fall. “Can I help with anything?”

“Yeah, can you . . . ?”

Spencer handed him one of the tote bags, and he slung it over his shoulder, then leaned down and kissed Spencer gently. The Ray-Bans he had pushed up into his hair tipped down, and he slid them back up as he stood to his full height.

“Hi.”

“Hi.”

In his enthusiasm, Norman had tangled his leash around Ian’s legs, and Spencer had to walk around him several times to free him. “So this is going well.”

He took a breath to center himself. “I hope you don’t mind Norman is here. I try not to leave him alone when I’m going somewhere that dogs are allowed.”

“Not at all.”

Ian laced their fingers together and followed when Spencer started leading the way down the street. “Norman is my friend.”

His face got suddenly serious. “I hope.”

As though he understood the conversation, Norman looked affectionately up at Ian.

“Oh, Norman is your friend,”

Spencer assured him.

They made it a few blocks before Ian asked, “Do I get to know where we’re going?”

“Well, we’ll literally be there in a second, but the city does movies in the park in the summer. I’m pretty sure it’s for children, and I have no idea what they’re showing tonight, but when it’s nice out, my friends and I like to bring wine and snacks and make a night of it.”

They rounded the corner to the park and picked a spot in the back so children who were actually watching the movie didn’t have to move to see over them. Spencer looked inside the bag he was carrying.

“I think you have the blanket and all Norman’s stuff.”

They spread out the blanket, and Ian filled Norman’s travel bowl with water from the bottle in the bag, which endeared him to him even more. Spencer took the opportunity to lay out his snacks. He had a bag of popcorn and a box of M&M’s, a thermos full of rosé, and another bottle of water because they didn’t need a dehydration situation.

“Be careful with that.”

Spencer handed Ian the popcorn. “Norman will eat it right out of your hand.”

Ian looked down at Norman, who was already napping, and laughed. “Okay.”

“Can I pet your dog?”

A child who was just young enough to not understand how to control the volume of their voice was standing at the edge of the blanket with their parent, looking earnestly at Spencer and Ian.

Spencer didn’t love children, but Norman did. “Sure. He’s very friendly.”

The child launched themself at Norman, petting much too close to his eyes, but he just panted happily and withstood it. After a few minutes, their parent reached out a hand. “Alright, Sadie, let’s go find Mommy.”

Sadie popped up and followed, and the adult waved over their shoulder. “Thank you.”

Spencer waved back.

“He’s good at that,”

Ian said before tossing some popcorn into his mouth.

“Clearly he loves attention.”

Norman did seem overjoyed, sitting between them and looking back and forth as though he expected more praise.

A few more kids came up with their parents to pet him, and Spencer even let one feed him the treats he’d brought because the kid had been equal parts excited and terrified, and they squealed any time Norman licked a treat out of their hand. But finally the sun went down, and the movie started, and the kids were all occupied with their own snacks.

“You’re always like that, aren’t you?”

Ian asked, quietly enough that no one around them was bothered.

“Hmm?”

Spencer asked.

“Effortlessly kind to strangers.”

Ian ran his hand absentmindedly over Norman’s back between them.

“I don’t really think of it that way.”

Spencer popped an M&M into his mouth. “I just feel like if I can make someone happy at no cost to me, there’s no reason not to.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“What?”

When Spencer looked up, Ian was watching him intently, half of his face illuminated by the glow of the projection screen.

“I like that about you.”

Ian reached his hand over and set it on top of Spencer’s.

Spencer knew he was blushing, and he looked down to where Norman had rolled over onto his back to have Ian rub his belly.

“When did you get him?”

“He came with the building, actually.”

Ian looked confused, which was fair given that dogs didn’t often come included with purchases of real estate.

“The owner of the building was leaving town and couldn’t take him for some reason. I had never really thought about having a dog, but . . . I’d never lived alone before. And, I mean, I realize he’s a dog. But it made things feel a little more manageable.”

Norman’s tongue had lolled out of his mouth, and Spencer loved his stupid face.

“It sounds like you found each other at exactly the right time.”

Ian was smiling gently, his eyes soft.

“I guess we did.”

Spencer reached over to grab a handful of popcorn, and Norman’s paw managed to knock everything everywhere. “When I decided to bring Norman, it didn’t occur to me that he’d be this in the way.”

Ian laughed and helped pick up the errant popcorn, tossing it into the bottom of one of the tote bags to throw out later. “I think we can make it work.”

He turned toward Spencer and rested his hand on Spencer’s thigh. “Is this okay?”

he whispered, inches from Spencer’s mouth.

Ian’s hand was high enough to be on Spencer’s shorts, not his bare skin, but low enough for plausible deniability. “Yeah.”

Ian leaned in and brushed his lips against Spencer’s. The angle was a little awkward because Norman was sleeping between them, but it was dark enough that they weren’t fully putting on a show, so Spencer leaned into it. Ian tasted like all his favorite movie-theater memories, and his lips were so soft. Spencer snaked his hand up into Ian’s hair, pulling him as close as possible with Norman between them.

He could hear Ian’s breath speeding up, feel his hand tightening around Spencer’s thigh, and he didn’t know where this was going, but it probably shouldn’t go there in public. He was already going to be conspicuously hard in his shorts when he stood up.

“Should we get out of here?”

“Yeah,”

Ian said breathily.

They cleaned up, roused Norman, and made it back to Spencer’s apartment in record time.

Spencer unclipped Norman’s leash, and he ran to lap water from his bowl like it had been days rather than minutes since he’d had any. Spencer dropped the tote bags in the corner to deal with later.

“Can I get you anything?”

Ian shook his head.

“Then come on.”

Spencer took Ian’s hand and led him over to the couch, pulling him into his lap. Ian’s hair was a bit wild from being outside and from Spencer playing with it earlier, and his pupils were blown wide. He licked his lips.

Spencer ran his hands up Ian’s sides over the soft fabric of his T-shirt. “What is this made of? Angels’ tears?”

Ian buried his head in Spencer’s shoulder to hide his laugh. “Pima cotton, I think.”

“Sure.”

Spencer slid his palms down the expanse of Ian’s back to feel it again.

Ian wrapped his hands around Spencer’s neck and leaned down and kissed him. Spencer grabbed Ian’s hips, partially so he didn’t fall off the couch but mostly because it felt nice to have his hands on him. Spencer let himself slip into the sensation, not worried about what came next. It was so hard to worry when Ian was around. Ian’s lips were warm and gentle, and his tongue was moving leisurely against Spencer’s. Ian seemed to like to lead, so Spencer relaxed back into the couch cushions, tipping his head up to meet Ian’s lips. He felt calm, like he always did when he was with Ian, a warm pleasure suffusing his body.

Suddenly something wet was shoved between their torsos. “Oh my god, Norman.”

Spencer extended his arm and snapped, trying to distract Norman as far away from them as he could reach. “Go the fuck away.”

Ian’s whole body was shaking with laughter. He looked beautiful, cheeks flushed, eyes bright, and Spencer got distracted by it until Norman nosed back in.

“I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

Ian ran his thumbs over Spencer’s cheekbones. “He’s just encouraging moderation. I could have kept kissing you all night.”

“Norman has never enjoyed moderation in his life.”

Spencer tried to look at the dog sternly, but his big, dopey eyes disarmed him like they always did. “I’m not sure what your plan for the night was, but if we get in bed and start, uh, other activities, he’ll leave us alone.”

“Yeah, that sounds nice.”

Ian kissed him one more time, slow and sweet, then slid off his lap.