Page 14 of Outside the Veil
Mitch sounded tired, out of reserves. It was a familiar pattern, Mitch losing his temper and going away to brood, only to return to him later depressed and exhausted. And Diego was always the one who apologized.
“I thought we could meet for lunch. To talk. Like you wanted to. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss you. It could work. It still could. I just need you to work on a couple things for me and everything would be perfect. Shit, Diego…”
Tears filled the disembodied voice. Diego squeezed his eyes shut and thumped his head against the wall. Mitch stretched out, cat-lazy and naked on the bed. Opening his arms and taking Diego in a hard embrace. That beautiful body dusted with fine, golden hair.
“Call me, love. Please.”
Diego scrubbed a hand over his face, the other poised over the phone.
“You’ll go to him?” Finn’s voice yanked him into the present. He leaned against the counter, arms crossed over his chest.
“I don’t know yet. This isn’t really any of your business, you know.” Even as he said it, he felt petty and ridiculous.
Finn shrugged. “Perhaps not. But did you listen to what he said? Truly listen? He wants you to crawl to him and make concessions. He gives you no promises, but expects you to make them. Some men long for another who will control them. Are you one of those?”
No. Yes. Sometimes.
“We have groceries to bring in. You feel up to giving me a hand?”
“His new lover has probably tossed him over the fence and that’s why…”
“Let it go, Finn. If you’re trying to help, it’s not helping.”
“Fair enough.”
He brought up the shoes and the bag of clothes first so Finn wouldn’t go out to the car in nothing but the pajama pants he’d taken to wearing around the apartment. Finn picked through the clothes and pulled on a pair of tight black jeans and a chamois shirt of deep burgundy which Diego had to help him button. The transformation astonished him, from half-wild asylum escapee to brooding bohemian.
I could just about take him out to dinner…
He squashed the thought as he watched Finn struggling to shove his feet into the sneakers without socks and without untying the laces.
“Here, wait, you’ll hurt your poor feet.” Diego knelt by him and took the right foot in his lap. The burns had faded to seashell pink. He ran a thumb over a line crossing Finn’s instep. “How do they feel?”
“Quite comfortable at the moment,” Finn answered, a soft husk to his voice.
Diego cleared his throat and shoved on the tube socks. He showed Finn how to open up the laces, and then had to demonstrate how to tie them.
“Bloody nuisance,” Finn muttered, as he stood rocking from heel to toe, staring morosely at his feet.
“Better than stepping on a stray piece of glass, or worse.”
At the car, Finn hefted one of the bottles easily enough but Diego passed him on the stairs once, twice and then a third timewhen Finn collapsed on the top step, his breaths reduced to short, desperate wheezes.
“And I thought I was out of shape.” Diego crouched by him and nudged his arm. Finn’s constricted breathing took on a whistling note, and Diego feared his asthma attack might deteriorate into a panic attack. “Hey, easy…”
Finn waved a hand, curling the fingers inward from little finger to index as if to snap further discussion off in his fist. Diego helped him back inside to the sofa, put the perishables away and wrestled the bottles into the bathroom.
“Do you want some of this heated?”
“Just as it is will be fine, simply—” Finn called back from the sofa, before a fit of coughing stopped him.
Strange man. Diego would have preferred to put him in a hot bath but it only took four bottles to fill the tub. He had plenty in reserve to boil if necessary.
Shedding his clothes as he came, Finn staggered to the bathroom. He sank into the water in a boneless heap, his hair a thundercloud halo around his head when he submerged completely.
Diego watched from the doorway with anxious visions of nine-one-one calls and ambulance crews assailing him. After a moment, though, Finn resurfaced and flashed that disarming Cheshire-Cat grin.
“No need to hover. I promise I won’t drown. Or did you want to join me?”
