Page 7 of Refraction

“Who’s Marge? Your beard?” Calvin winked at him and hooked a hand behind his neck for balance.

“My agent. She’s this amazing, wild, wonderful woman—I’ve known her since I was a kid.”

“Oh, cool. She’s back home?” His heart had finally stopped pounding, but he wasn’t sure that warm feeling was going to go away any time soon. He could listen to Tucker talk all day—that rich, confident voice, the way he just said “wonderful” in his smooth accent. “Michael is this short little nerdy Jewish guy from Queens.”

“She’s here. She was my granny’s roommate in college. Granny went to Texas to work in Lady Bird’s gardens and met my Pappy at the Broken Spoke. She never left.” Tucker had told that story again and again, Calvin could tell, and he seemed very proud of it too.

So Calvin wouldn’t insult him. He’d just pretend for now like the whole story wasn’t completely lost on him and google it later.

“So you do know someone here.”

A voice came over the PA system—overly loud and completely unintelligible as usual—but Calvin knew it meant they had two more stops. Another short little walk in the snow and then his place… and then?

“Sort of. She’s a bit of a barracuda. Everyone says that’s important in an agent.”

“Oh, yeah. Definitely. As long as you remember you’re the boss.”

“I’m just a man that wants to work. She deals with the rest.”

That was sweet, that Tucker just wanted to work. It sounded so much more relaxing than the whirlwind that was modeling. Calvin shifted and leaned in to kiss Tucker’s cheek. “Almost home.”

Tucker’s eyes closed for a second, the black eyelashes casting a heavy shadow. “You smell good, honey.”

“Thank you.” That was all he could really say, because just like that, his heart was at it again, beating hard, knocking against his sternum. He wondered if Tucker could feel it.

The train pulled into the Twenty-Third Street station, and Calvin stood up. “Your tour of the MTA is just about at an end, Mr. Williams.” He hooked his fingers around a pole and swung himself in front of the doors.

“Look at you. I never met a man quite like you.” Tucker was right next to him, right in his space, hand on his lower back.

Like it wasn’t already hard enough to breathe. Calvin clucked his tongue. “I’m not that special. You just like to make me blush.” But Tucker was something else. And warm too. He just had to lean in.

“Uh-huh. You pink up pretty, but it’s not that. I want to draw you.”

“Oh.” The doors opened, and he led Tucker onto the platform. Draw him? No. Nope. That little sketch of him was plenty scary. And it didn’t even have any of Tucker’s demons in it.

“So do you know what you want to eat? There’s Mexican and cheesy barbecue and Italian… burgers… pretty much anything you want.” They headed through the turnstiles and up the stairs, and Calvin zipped his coat higher against the snow. The wind was fierce in Chelsea.

“Surprise me. What’s your favorite?” Tucker winced and pulled his ball cap down. “Lord, it’s colder than a witch’s tit in a brass brassiere.”

“Than awhat?” Calvin laughed. “You do have a way with words, Texas.”Brass brassiere. God. In this weather? That would totally hurt.

Dinner was a thing, though. Assuming they made it back out the door. Maybe the tapas place. That was all shared plates, so he could fake it. He could even eat some of the veggies, maybe. “Tapas. They have fabulous margaritas.”

“Olives. Shrimps. Tequila. Fun cheese. I’m in.”

Calvin grinned. Good choice, then. Tucker made it sound like an adventure instead of just dinner.

He took Tucker’s hand and pulled him around the corner at Twentieth Street, then gave him another tug about halfway down the block as he headed up a set of steps into an unremarkable-looking building. He keyed through two sets of double doors, making sure the second set closed behind him. That was a habit, but it almost seemed absurd given he was bringing home someone he’d known for maybe three hours.

“It’s two floors up. No elevator, sorry.” He didn’t give it a second thought, but it always seemed like people visiting New York were confused by all the walkups.

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