Page 92 of Two Marlboros

I smacked his hand and pushed him away playfully. “You’re a maniac, has no one ever told you that?”

“Just a great guy who drives me crazy.”

He brought his lips to mine again and filled them with little kisses.

“Alright, let’s go eat.”

We stopped at a fast-food restaurant and Harvey began to tell me about the fact that he had recently moved back to Manhattan. He had found a small one-bedroom apartment for a fairly modest sum, but he planned to find a nicer place and move there together when the time came. He told me that he had found that place because of a friend we had in common, and quite unexpectedly, we discovered that it was indeed Ryan, whom he had met on one of his recent trips around United States.

“So you two know each other?”

Harvey nodded as he attacked his chicken burger with a bite.

“That’s a good one. That’s why you said hello to each other earlier,” I added.

He swallowed his bite and wiped his mouth. “Earlier?”

“At the entrance of the university.”

Harvey thought about it for a moment, which soon became two, three.

“Ah, yes. You’re right,” he merely replied.

“Have you known each other for long?”

He chuckled and leaned close to my ear. “What? Are you being a jealous boyfriend?”

“I’m the one asking questions now.”

Harvey gave me a defiant look, which soon turned sensual. Who knows what he had imagined.

“Great, go ahead and give orders.”

He bit into his burger again, chewed well and swallowed. I watched him with crossed arms.

“Have you known each other for long or not?”

He blew out the air in annoyance, then rolled his eyes thoughtfully.

“Yes and no. He’s a friend of friends, so we kind of knew each other and kind of didn’t, you know? Eventually you just talk to each other one night and it feels like you’ve known each other all your life.”

No, actually I didn’t “know”, and it wasn’t the answer I expected, but I was tired of asking questions and especially of really coming across as the jealous, obsessive boyfriend. I thought, though, that maybe Harvey could provide me with some details about Ryan that had eluded me up to that point; I could have even asked him explicitly, but I wasn’t sure that was a wise move, at least not at that moment.

“Anyway, how do you feel about our life project together?”

“Interesting,” I answered casually.

“So, we can watch as many movies together as you want, like in the old days.”

I huffed. “I saw more movies in that time than in my whole life.”

Harvey laughed and took a sip of Coke. “See, the fights with your father were good for something.”

To make me a cinephile, yes.

“Does he still think you’re a ‘shitty deviant’?”

My throat suddenly closed, and I almost choked on my saliva. The bite I was chewing became too much to swallow.

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