Page 6 of Karma Kitty Christmas
“Definitelyhamburgers or chicken sandwiches,” Isaac told him, eyes twinkling, “as long as there’s fresh lettuce and tomato or avocado on it.”
“I can see that,” Luca said, and then watched appreciatively as Isaac ladled the soup into each of their bowls and sliced thebread, then handed Luca a piping-hot slice on another plain napkin.
After a shy moment of acknowledgment of the simple human ceremony of breaking bread, they both dug in, and Luca had to work hard not to moan with absolute decadence.
“Oh man,” he said, after a few bites of both soup and bread, “this isamazing. I mean, I try to cook for myself a couple times a week, but this iswonderful. Thanks so much for inviting me over!”
Isaac gave him a quiet smile and took his own bite. “I guess I was feeling the need for comfort food,” he admitted. “Cooked a ham last week and wanted to use the bone, so….” He shrugged.
“What’d you do with all that food?” Luca asked. “I mean, feed an army?”
“My friend Roxy and her husband are just crazy stupid busy,” Isaac confessed. “They’ve got three kids in diapers, and Roxy’s at her wits’ end. I mean, she’s a great teacher—the kids adore her—but she’s… you know.”
“Busy,” Luca said, appreciating how much work that had to be.
“About every two weeks I’ll cook a giant family-sized meal and then bring the bulk of it to her house. She only lives a few blocks away. We have prep together—lots of gossip happens by the copy machine, you know?”
“I did not,” Luca confessed. “But now I do. So you figure out when she’ll be excited about food, then?”
“Yup.” Isaac shrugged. “See, when I cooked for me and Todd, it was always so… so involved. Small calorie-appropriate portions of things like braised salmon in honey sauce and risotto, or margherita chicken with lime yogurt sauce. And I’d be cooking for what felt like an hour or so, and then we’d eat, and that would be it.” Isaac took a blissful bite of his soup. “I spent Sunday night cooking ham, potatoes, and green bean casserole,saved a couple portions for myself, and Roxy and her husband and kids eat for a week on the rest. It’s almost the same amount of time, but itfeelsmore important, you know?”
“And you’ll have leftovers here too,” Luca said. “Good system.”
“Well, I can send some home with you,” Isaac said with another one of those happy smiles. “And I can be Gay Uncle Isaac to Roxy’s kids, and her husband, Brian, can have me over to watch hockey, and….” His eyes darted around his plain, boring, large house. “And anyway, yeah, it’s a good system.”
Luca was hit suddenly with a terrible sense of loneliness. Not just from the aftermath of his husband’s death, but from the void the man seemed to have left before.
Tread carefully, Luca. This isn’t some guy you dragged home from a bar and then decided to keep seeing.
“So what plans you got for the place now?” he asked, and Isaac’s eyes went from his all-in-neutrals kitchen and living room back to Luca’s face.
“I don’t know,” he said softly, thinking about it. “I…” He glanced into the living room again, at the prissy little couch up on peg legs and the two not-so-comfortable wingback chairs. Everything was done in ecru, and underneath a couple of different yarn-project baskets, the table looked like it was made of glass and mirrors.
“I guess I could go shop for some more comfortable furniture,” he said, sounding surprised at himself. “And maybe an area rug that….” Suddenly his eyes went dreamy again. “They come in some lovely colors. I wouldn’t mind something like a traditional Persian rug, with deep reds and blues, and maybe some blue-gray couches and a love seat—nobody likes wingback chairs, right? And… and one of those coffee tables that pops up so you can eat dinner on top and keep magazines or crafting stuff inside?”
His smile at Luca was no longer dreamy—it wasintense. “Oh wow. Where did that come from? It was like IforgotI could order stuffIlike now.”
Luca gave a happy little shrug. “But I guess no time for Allegra’s blanket—”
“Oh no,” Isaac said. “No, don’t think that at all. Blankets take a couple of weeks. It’s the sort of thing you do when you sit down to watch television or listen to music or podcasts. You pull out your knitting. So if I plan now, I can purchase the yarn after school tomorrow, depending on what you want, and get a start on it. It’ll be great to have a project between this year’s hats and scarves for the students and next year’s.”
“And no more brown sweater?” Luca asked hopefully.
Isaac frowned. “I… you have to understand howexpensivethat yarn is. And for brown, it’s very pretty—there’s lots of blues and reds and greens in the fibers in the sunlight. It’s just that there’sso muchof it. I….” He shook his head. “I’ll have to ponder it for a while,” he said with some resolution. “I don’t believe in throwing away perfectly good wool—it’s bad karma—but Idobelieve in repurposing it. That’s what that wool needs. A new purpose.”
Luca couldn’t have agreed more, but at this point he thought it was best to dig into his soup and nod appreciatively.
HIS NEWLYresolved quiet lasted about half an hour.
He offered to do the dishes since Isaac had cooked, and while he was loading the dishwasher and finding his way around Isaac’s orderly kitchen, Isaac ran to organize his yarn bins. After Luca had wiped the last crumb off the counter and packaged the leftovers in the containers Isaac had provided, he walked past the staircase that started in the front room and down the hallway, where, he saw, there were two guest bedrooms, a bathroom, and a den.
The yarn bins were in the den—the smallest room of the house.
But this, Luca thought, taking in the accent wall in shades of royal blue and magenta, the brilliantly colored wall hangings, and a truly delightful stained glass piece capturing moonlight over a pond full of lily pads, was whereIsaaclived.
“Oh wow,” he said quietly, feeling like he’d just fallen through an IKEA catalogue to land in a fairy grotto. “Isaac, this room—”
“I know it’s terrible,” Isaac said, ducking his head and keeping his attention on the contents of one of the big plastic bins absolutely full of the fiber Isaac loved so much.
