Page 44 of Candy Hearts
“The surprise when they end up on your Instagram. Because, Benji, those are amazing. If you want to share them with the world, you should. You could be a—what’s it called?—an influencer? An Instagram model. An Instagay? That’s art, baby.”
“You’re too old to say Instagay,” Benji said. William, disappointingly, didn’t take the bait. Benji glanced down at the phone. “You think?”
“Yes.” William’s voice was self-assured. It filled Benji with sudden confidence.
“This one first?” He held up his phone, flashing the pic of him in the white briefs. In the image, he was in profile, giving a perfect view of the high cut of the briefs’ sides and a coy peek at the shape of his ass. He had his arm on the wall in front of him, partially obscuring his face.
“Oh. I mean, yeah. If you’re sure. Don’t let me pressure you.”
“You’re not.” Benji sucked in a breath, opened the photo in his app, gave it a simple caption (“Getting cheeky”) with the designer tagged and a few hashtags, then tapped on the share button. He let the breath out.
William grabbed Benji’s chin, turned his face, and kissed him. Hard. All teeth and tongue and intensity. Benji melted toward him, falling over the middle console and banging his elbow on the dash.
William pulled back. “Come on, before I sex you up in the Kum & Go parking lot.” He gave Benji one last kiss and got out of the car. Benji followed him in a daze.
They got gas station coffee, which Benji had to admit was better than the stuff he made at home, along with a box of donuts: cinnamon buns with pink frosting, heart-shaped bear claws, and cake donuts with candy hearts on top.
Once they were back in the Alfa, Benji picked a conversation candy heart out of a glob of chocolate icing. “Be My Valentine,” he read. “No question mark. Very commanding. I like it.” Benji reached over and popped it past William’s lips.
William sucked on the candy and smiled. “It’s true, isn’t it?”
“What is?”
A blush spread across William’s cheeks, even pinking up the tip of his nose. “That we’re valentines. Real ones.”
“Secret valentines,” Benji said. “Secret real valentines.” He didn’t trust that this wouldn’t crumble apart at the first sign of trouble, didn’t trust that William would want him for longer than a weekend, but he certainly wasn’t faking it.
William let loose that adorable smile that absolutely slayed Benji and said, “I can work with that. For now.”
When they got back to the lake house, Wren and Robin were doing a stretchy workout on the deck, but they abandoned their efforts for donuts.
William phoned the electric company, and they told him the electricity would be restored by early afternoon, so he informed the remaining guests that the party was back on.
“What do you normally do during this Valentine’s Day house party?” Benji asked.
“Watch horror movies, set off fireworks, play beer pong,” Wren chirped from her seat on the sofa.
William laughed. “We haven’t played a drinking game for years or set off fireworks since that time the cops were called.”
Benji had to reevaluate. “You throw ragers.” He’d been assuming this was going to be a sedate, mature affair.
“We usually drink, watch movies, play games, and drink some more. We’re not wild any longer,” William explained.
“I can’t imagine you being wild ever,” Benji said frankly.
Both Robin and Wren cracked up at that.
“Oh, he has you pegged, Willie,” Wren said.
William flushed and fumbled his bear claw, and Benji smothered his laughter into his third donut.
Because they didn’t have the ability to watch movies, and no one felt like playing a game, the four of them went on a hike around the lake. By the end of it, Benji had not changed his mind about it being kind of ugly.
Lots of dead grass and mud and a handful of old lake houses, but as the sun glistened through William’s dark hair with its silver stripe, Benji could see the appeal. William seemed in his element here—he was wearinghiking boots—and a William in his element was a vision to behold. Benji wondered what William was like at a nightclub with strobe lights flashing in his eyes. He probably wore suits and looked magnificent.
When they returned to the house, the power should have been back on. It wasn’t.
Benji wasn’t worried though. Power companies never got this stuff exact.
