Page 44 of Due Dilligence (Takeover)
Todd stopped. “Youhavedated other guys, right?”
“Yes,” Fazil said. “More women, but I’ve dated men, too.”
“You’ve never been affectionate in public?”
“I have.” He’d held hands. Touched a knee. Hugged. “I’ve just neverkisseda guy. In public.”
Todd took a breath. “Is Pittsburgh that repressed?”
“No. No more than anywhere else in the northeast.” He shook his head. “It’s my weirdness.” His fear.
“Did you like kissing in public?”
“Oh fuck, yes.”
Todd stepped in and kissed him again. Deeper this time, and with his tongue, erasing any thought that doing this wasn’t absolutely fine. Todd pulled back and whispered, “Good.” After a moment they were walking again.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Todd said. “There are places we’d get serious side-eye for holding hands. But I don’t tend to go to those locations if I can help it.”
“So notentirelyan LGBTQ utopia?”
Todd laughed. “Is anywhere?”
Not yet.“It’s getting better every year.” Fazil shrugged. “I’ve gotten the stink-eye for PDAs with girlfriends, so who the hell knows?”
“People,” Todd said. “So weird.”
Wasn’t that the truth? He twined his fingers in Todd’s. But this was wonderful.
***
Beneath the streets of Seattle, Fazil paused on a wooden walkway when the couple in front of him stopped to take a better look at the arched brickwork above them. Those arches held up the sidewalks and had survived earthquakes. If the guide was to be believed, where they stood was one of the safer places to be in an earthquake. The lingering of the couple gave Fazil time to catch his breath. Todd stole it away with a casual press of his hand into the small of Fazil’s back.
“Enjoying yourself?” Todd spoke close to his ear and kissed his neck.
The couple moved and they continued down the path to the room where the tour guide waited. “Yup.” Fazil glanced back and caught a glimpse of Todd’s grin.
The little touches, the quick kisses—they were doing nothing to drop Fazil’s desire or temperature. Nor was the tour. They’d been climbing up and down stairs and over wooden walkways and uneven floors for a half hour, and the history was absolutely fascinating. The reasons the city was raised, the corruption that built the place, the Yukon gold rush, and all the shady dealings that took place in the underground spaces where they now walked. Glass blocks were set in the sidewalks above so light could filter down into the old streets below. Dim though that sunlight was, ferns grew from the brickwork nearby. Life still found a way.
The skylights were a reminder that the “ground” above wasn’t solid. Neither was the earth beneath them. Seattle was built on a tidal beach. Not the smartest move, but what did pioneers from the Midwest know?
They listened to their guide talk about the history of the “seamstresses” of old Seattle—more women than needed to mend twice as much clothing as worn by the city’s men—and then the guide let them wander for a time. Fazil took Todd’s hand. “This is a little like a live D&D session, except without the monsters.”
Todd touched the brick wall of a building facade. “Do you still play?”
He was going to have to admit that, wasn’t he? “Yeah. There’s a group I game with. Sometimes D&D, or when we can’t spend weeks on a campaign, board games.”
“Sounds like fun.” Todd looked almost wistful.
“You still game?” Bet Todd wanted to, if he didn’t.
“Sometimes.” They wandered to an old bank teller cage the guide had pointed out. “Not for a while, though. My group imploded when two of our friends—who were married to each other—ended up divorcing.”
Fazil twisted his face. “That sucks.” Hit close to home, given his breakup with Kris.
Todd dragged a hand through his hair. “Happens. Especially when you’re the guy who discovers the husband lip-locked with a dude at a bar.”
Wow.“Ouch.”
