Page 38 of The Heartstrings of Harry
“Follow me.” Claudio clicked his fingers, and we chased him as he strutted quickly across the floor of his store to a glass cabinet on the far wall. Between the Christian Dior and Calvin Klein displays, a backlit poster came into view. On it was an over-saturated, over-stylized image of Dean, shirtless and lying on the steps of a spiral staircase, clinging to the wrought iron balusters like they were prison bars. His expression was sultry, desperate, yearning—a look of unbridled passion that made me hard almost instantly.
I shifted my walk to accommodate it, trying not to let my bulge show as we stepped in front of the cabinet.
“This is the one you want?” Claudio asked.
“That’s him.” I nodded a little too emphatically, ogling the poster. “I mean, that’s the fragrance, yes.”
Claudio unlatched a set of keys from his belt like a jail warden, jangled his way through them and slotted one into the lock of the glass cabinet to retrieve the one and only bottle ofDeanoff the shelf beneath the poster. “You’re in luck, this is our last bottle.”
“We were actually aftertwobottles,” said Madeline. “One for him and one for me.”
Claudio gave her a quizzical look. “YouwearDean?”
“No,” she answered. “Although I don’t see why I couldn’t. I’ve smelt it and I rather like it. But no, it’s not for me. I want to buy a bottle to give tohimfor his birthday.”
She gestured to me and Claudio looked more confused. “Then why doesheneed a bottle if you’re already going to give him one.”
I quickly jumped into the conversation. “Because I need to replace a bottle that belonged to… someone else.” I wasn’t about to tell him that “someone” was the young hottie on the poster in front of us. “I broke it, and I need to replace it.”
“Well, as you can see, I only have the one bottle, so one of you will have to miss out.”
Madeline and I looked at each other. She inhaled and her shoulders rose in a shrug. “I suppose we could take all the sentiment out of it and treat it like a mathematical equation. If I buy the bottle and give it to you, you then have a bottle to replace the broken one. It’s not exactly teeming with tenderness, but it is the only logical thing to do.”
She was right, it did make sense.
“Then let me pay for it,” I said. “I’m the one who broke the bottle in the first place.”
Claudio looked from me to Madeline and back again. “Let me get this straight.Youwant to buy the bottle to give toher… soshecan give it toyou… soyoucan give it back to somebodyelse?”
Madeline and I both nodded.
“Uh-huh.”
“Yep.”
With a wink, Madeline added, “And would you mind gift-wrapping that, please? A blue ribbon would be nice if you have one.”
Claudio rolled his eyes. Cologne bottle in hand, he strutted like an angry bird back to his counter.
* * *
On the way back to Mulligan’s Mill I asked Madeline, “Are you sure you don’t mind me regifting this to Dean?”
“Of course I’m sure. Besides, you paid for it.” She paused a moment. “You really like him, don’t you?”
I felt my stomach drop and in a strangled voice I asked, “What? Who?”
“Dean. You think the world of him, I can see it.”
“He’s a good kid. Andy’s my best friend.”
“I get it. You’ve known Dean all his life. You’re like an uncle to him.”
The word put my mind into a spin.
An uncle?
Is that what people thought?
