Page 61 of Straight To the Heart

The Loop

“So,” Ari said after towel drying Simon’s hair, “tell me all about your pretty young man.”

Simon sat in a comfortable leather barber’s chair, awaiting Ari’s clever shears. Ben had been whisked away by another stylist, one Ari vouched for to Simon. He’d been going to Ari for ages and had wanted them to work on Ben, but Ari had shaken their head and insisted their colleague work on Ben. Simon hoped he’d left Ben in good hands.

“He’s not my young man,” Simon replied, then thoughtyet.

“Hmm.” Ari started to snip tiny increments off Simon’s hair. “Don’t lie to the person holding sharp scissors and a razor.”

Simon frowned at both his and Ari’s reflections. “You’ve known me for years, Ari—”

“Notthatmany,” they said with a delicate shudder. “Bite your tongue.”

“You’ve known me for a while. Is that better?”

Ari hummed again but said nothing else.

“Why would you now assume I’m gay?” The question wasn’t angry, merely curious.

“Honey, I don’t assume you’re anything. Assuming is never a good idea. But I’ve got eyes in this pretty head of mine and I saw the way you looked at him. You’resmitten,Simon.”

“That sounds like I’m in middle school.”

“It sounds lovely,” Ari insisted. “And if you don’t feel gay, you’re not. You can be in smit with anyone. I don’t see why something as trivial as gender has to dictate your emotions.”

“Smit?” Simon asked.

Ari grinned at Simon’s reflection. “Smit, yes. You are justfullof smit for that boy.”

“He’s twenty-eight,” Simon corrected.

Ari’s grin didn’t falter. “You cradle snatcher.”

“Shut up. I have no idea why I’ve put up with you for all these years.”

They snipped what looked like a millimeter of hair from a strand they held. “Because I make you look yummy.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not it.”

“Hmm. Because I’m the best stylist in Chicago.”

“I just remembered,” Simon said. “It’s definitely your modesty.”

“Careful, Silver Daddy. I’m still holding scissors, and I haven’t even gotten my razor out yet.”

Simon snorted a laugh and was quiet, letting Ari do their work while they chattered away at him. What Ari had said stuck with him. He wasn’t suddenly a new person with a new orientation because of Ben. People would assume he was gay, of course. He thought about how he would feel if everyone he knew thought he was gay, and decided he didn’t particularly care. It would probably bother his mother, but everything bothered her. If Simon let what his mother thought concern him, however, he would be married with children who would carry his bad genetics and wouldn’t have retired before he turned fifty.

Simon decided he agreed with Ari. He could be in “smit” with Ben neither despite nor because of his gender. It was Ben, as a person, he wanted. Anatomical bits weren’t as important as he’d always been led to believe. At least they weren’t to Simon. It was an interesting conclusion to come to at his age.

But, as Hudson often said, you never knew.

Tuesday, December 19

Choi’s Bespoke Tailoring

River North

Ben frowned when the car stopped in front of Choi’s tailoring shop. “Did we forget something?” he asked.

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