Something Beautiful (17 page)

"Story first, then milk."

"Cruel and unusual punishment." Dune made a face at him. "Micah and I had sex last night."

Jamie did an actual double take. "What?"

"Sex was had," Dune said. "By us. And then after, we argued."

"That sounds like Micah."

"Hush. He still wants to live with me, and while I do want to live with him I don't think it's time yet. He -- let's say he took umbrage with that and took off for Santa Cruz to see his sister." He shrugged. "And that's that."

Jamie shook his head. "Madness. So now what? Have you lost your shadow?"

"I hope not," Dune murmured. "He should be here tonight."

"Jamie!" Ben called from the living room. "Has the timer gone off for the fish?"

"Not yet," Jamie called back. "So what are you going to do when he gets back?" he asked Dune.

"Snog his brains out," Dune said without hesitating. "Make him promise to never run away from me again and then shag him stupid."

"Ah, the addiction to Micah shaggage," Jamie said woefully. "You're hopeless already."

"When the sex is good," Dune pointed out, "you hang onto it." The timer on the oven went off, and Jamie put on oven mitts and carefully took out the pan from the oven. Dune closed his eyes and inhaled the scent of lemon and salmon. "That smells so good. I just had peanut butter for lunch -- I feel like I haven't had a real meal all weekend."

"Thanks." Jamie set the pan down on the oven top to rest and said, "Dunie. Love. I don't think you should get too attached," with no teasing in his tone.

"You're just saying that because it went so badly for you. But he's not a kid anymore. Maybe he's actually getting to the point where he can handle a real relationship."

"Perhaps," Jamie said, "but are you?"

Dune's shoulders twitched. "That's not the point."

"It takes two to make a relationship, Dunie. Sleeping with him, living with him -- that's going to make him think you two actually have something. And if you don't --" He shrugged, opened the lid of another pan on the stove top, and sniffed the rice cooking there. "Benjie! I think this is finished."

"And if we don't?" Dune said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Do you really want to be the one to break his heart?" Jamie said quietly and then grinned at Ben as he ambled back into the kitchen and looked around with approval. "I did good, right?"

"You did good." Ben kissed the top of Jamie's head. "Tris and Laird are here, and they brought Gavin."

"No," Dune muttered and peeked into the living room. Yes. Gavin had taken the corner of the sofa and was listening politely to Vijay, who spoke with many hand gestures and an accent as melodic and gentle as the music he played. "Maybe I should go," Dune said gloomily.

"No," Jamie said. "Absolutely not. He's not going to scare you away from your friends."

Dune took another look at Gavin -- smiling a little at the sight of Laird and Tristan cuddling at the other end of the couch -- and sighed. "Right. I'm going to have fun, as usual, and eat too much, as usual, and not dwell on the fact that the one person I really wanted to see tonight isn't here."

"You could try calling him," Ben said, looking up from the fish he was garnishing with sliced lemon and dried parsley.

"I did that already." He sighed.

"I'm going to break out the wine," Jamie decided. "I need a drink." He called to the living room, "Tris, can you have wine, or do you want sparkling water or fruit juice instead?"

"Fruit juice, please," she called back.

"Fruit juice for the lady. Right-o." He poured her a glass and took it into the living room.

Ben said, "So who's the person you really wanted to see tonight? Jamie said you and Daniel were through."

"We are. It's Micah."

Ben stopped plating their dinner and looked at him like he'd sprouted another head -- or lost the one he had. "Micah."

"Jamie already lectured me about it, so I don't want to hear it from you, too."

"No, I think you need to hear another lecture because I don't believe for a second that you want to date somebody who's still in the closet," Ben said. "Or that you'd want to date somebody who falls into bed with anybody who looks at him the right way."

"Stop it," said Dune, frowning at him. "He doesn't do that."

"Oh, you think? Ever asked him why Lucas left him? Ever think it had something to do with Stuart? Because I do."

"Don't be absurd. Micah wouldn't sleep with Stuart -- he's old enough to be his father."

"Jamie did," Ben said pointedly. "And he was still a teenager."

"You're overreacting just because you don't like Stuart or Micah," Dune said. "Micah's grown up a lot in the last couple years."

"I like Micah just fine. I like Stuart just fine. I don't like that both of them screwed my boyfriend over and I don't like the idea of either of them hurting more of my friends."

"He's not going to hurt me," Dune muttered. "I just don't want him thinking we're anything more than -- than what we are."

"Which is," Ben prompted.

"Which is...who knows? He's a high-strung little twink and I'm..."

"You're Dune Bellamy," Ben said. "A class by itself. Not always a good thing, since everyone who loves you has to figure it out on their own."

Dune looked at him, perplexed. "There's really no mystery to me," he said. "I'm just a guy."

Jamie had come back into the kitchen during this and stood in the archway, his head tilted thoughtfully. "Oh, the many things I could take from that statement," he said. "I've been thinking over your dilemma and I have a solution."

"Oh?"

"Yep. You know what you're getting into with Micah, right?"

"I...think it's not as clear as it was before," Dune said slowly.

"Well, you know his patterns. He'll get distracted by someone else before long. So if you want him, just enjoy it. Take it for what it is: a good time with a pretty boy, and establish from the beginning that that's all it is. That way you'll part with no hard feelings and you can move on to the next without guilt."

"Hm," Dune said. He patted Jamie's back. "Thank you for worrying, but I think I'm going to muddle through this one on my own."

"Well," Jamie said with a sigh. "As long as you know what you're in for."

"I think I can handle it." As long as there was sex involved he could take anything else Micah might care to dish out. "And I'm sure he can handle me."

"I hope so." Jamie said to Ben, "Come on, we've got hungry people salivating over the still lifes. Feed us, Benjie."

"Yes, sir. Dunie, would you do the honors?" He picked up a bowl of tossed salad and a plate of garlic bread to carry them into the sun room, and Dune took the plate of salmon and followed him.

"Come on, time to eat now," Jamie said to the others, herding them to the table. "Dune, should I leave the place for Micah or remove it, do you think?"

"Let's give him a little more time," Dune said, carefully setting the platter on the table.

"Micah?" Gavin said as he took his chair. "That little guy?"

"Micah," Vijay said, sounding pleased, "our very young friend. I had not heard he was back from Europe."

"He came home just before Labor Day," said Ben, holding the back of his chair. "It seems to have agreed with him."

"Europe agrees with most visitors, I believe." Vijay spread his napkin in his lap. "You have done very well, Ben."

"This is mostly Jamie's doing," Ben said, smiling proudly, and Jamie laughed as he tugged on the cork in the wine bottle.

"I can spread butter on fish with the best of them. Benjie, one-up me, please? This is stubborn."

"Here." Ben took the bottle and began twisting the corkscrew. "There we go." He grinned in triumph and put the cork on his plate.

Dune held out his glass. "Fill 'er up, please," he said, and Ben obliged, giving him a concerned glance as he did so.

"I went to Italy once," Duncan said, "the summer between graduation and law school. It was amazing -- it was so tempting to stay in Tuscany for the rest of my life." Vijay was smiling at him in a way that made Duncan blush and duck his head. "But I came home, of course," he muttered. "I bet you've seen every major city there is."

"I have seen many," Vijay said with a nod.

Gavin said in a bored tone, "What's it you do, Veej?"

"I play flute," Vijay said mildly.

"He plays it beautifully," Tristan added, and Vijay smiled and bowed his head in thanks. "He's with the city symphony now, and I think we're lucky to have him."

"You are too kind."

"Are you enjoying the pop and metal tribute nights?" Gavin said, still sounding bored as he drank a swig from his wine glass.

Laird gave him a pointed look. "I guess I'm glad I'm driving tonight."

"I guess you are," Gavin muttered into his glass.

Vijay said, with the air of someone trying to head off something unpleasant, "Our symphony is not like that of other cities, and I enjoy the atmosphere. It's good not to be bound by -- what would you call it, Dune? You're our man of words. What is the word for only dead white males?"

"Canon," Dune said. "Accepted canon."

"Exactly. Accepted canon. Though I wait for the day when our guest conductor is someone like Trip Dog or whatever they are called now. It may be too much for our settled patrons."

Gavin said, "So you don't consider it a disgrace to go from playing the masters of Western music to playing An Evening Of Metallica?"

"I consider whatever our artistic director chooses to be what we will play," Vijay said, placid. "I do not see it as a disgrace of any kind. We are lucky to have such freedom."

Gavin snorted and drank more wine, and Dune smiled into his glass. He knew this mood: Gavin was uncomfortable, and that made him pick fights.

Ben served up dinner and the conversation drifted, from the symphony to places you had to see in Florence to the latest pick from Oprah's book club and how this affected Tristan's parents' bookstore, and Dune watched the empty place setting and wished Micah was there.

He nearly jumped to his feet when someone rang the front bell, but managed to say, "I'll get it," calmly and walk steadily to the front door. He collapsed on Micah once he'd opened the door. "Hi," he said into Micah's neck.

"I'm sorry I ran away," Micah whispered, arms tight around him.

"It's okay. I've missed you." He lifted his head and took a deep breath. "You're late."

"I had to go home and reassure the parents I didn't die, and they wanted to hear all about Bonnie and what I've been doing since last night, and it took a while to tell them in a way that wouldn't make them freak out." He was a far cry from the Micah from the night before: clean-shaven, the curls tamed out of his hair, a polo shirt, sneakers and faded jeans, not a speck of body glitter, not so much as a pride button on his denim jacket.
This,
Dune thought,
is the son Spencer and Ivy think they have. I like this Micah, too
.

He kissed Micah's forehead. "Hey. Laird brought Gavin. It's not that bad," he added when Micah narrowed his eyes.

"I can't help it. I just don't like him. He's -- I dunno. It's probably just me being clingy. Do you want to stay?"

"Yes," Dune said with a firm nod. "This is about spending a night with friends."

"Right." Micah tugged Dune's hands, pulling him back to the sun room. "Feed me, then, Dunie. I'm a growing boy -- I need nourishment."

"I'll be happy to feed you," Dune said, allowing himself to be led.

***

After the Wim Wenders but before the Bruce Lee, Dune excused himself and went to the kitchen to pour himself a glass of water. The evening had not turned out to be a complete disaster, which gave him hope: Micah went out of his way to be polite to Gavin, and Gavin had apparently decided it wasn't worth the effort to annoy anyone else.

It helped, too, that when they sat down to watch the first movie Micah declared, "This is my spot," as he plopped on the floor beside Dune and made himself comfortable at Dune's side the same way that he had the previous spring, pulling Dune's arm around him and resting his head on Dune's shoulder.