Page 103 of Back Room Host

“What? No? What makes you think that?”

“He has a boxing glove in his profile picture.”

I laughed. “Those are kickboxing gloves. And no, he has nothing to do with it.”

“I don’t believe you.”

The thoughts of Luca had been much more soothing in bed last night. Now they were just stirring up the storm inside me, which Noé also noticed.

“You lived with that guy for a month. What did you do there all the time?”

“Well … When he wasn’t around, I earned a bit of money with sex chats. Otherwise, I killed time with a photo blog and did some photography.”

“Show me! I like your photos.”

“The edited pictures are on my laptop, but …” I opened the photo app and scrolled back to the evening with Clé, Sandro, and Kevin. Noé knew the three, but he hadn’t seen them since he got sober. I scrolled through the pictures a bit and enjoyed hanging out with Noé and doing nothing.

“I like this one. This turned out really good.”

“Yeah, Clé is pretty photogenic,” I said. But then the pictures I had taken in Luca’s apartment surfaced. When the first photo of Luca appeared, I swallowed hard.

“Is that him?”

“Hmm …”

“That’s the guy you were with at the Olé-Olé-Bar, right?”

“You were so wasted back then, but you remember him?”

“His hair.”

Seeing Luca hurt my heart, and I hastily scrolled through the pictures until a few shots from the lakeside promenade came up.

“And what did he do to make you ignore his messages?”

“He broke a promise.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m the idiot here,” I said, shaking my head. “He made me break every one of my rules.”

“He made you? Then he must have pushed the right buttons. Or … you have feelings for him.”

“That’s why I’m telling you: I’m an idiot.”

Noé put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me close. “Why does a world always have to collapse before we can spend some time together again?”

“I don’t know,” I answered, enjoying his closeness. “But it sucks.”

34

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Juri

“Are you doing alright?” Noé asked, concerned, as he packed his backpack for band practice in the afternoon.

“Yeah,” I replied.

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