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“Did you know Auggie was eighteen when we met?” Theo’s smile was more of a grimace. “And my student.”
“I saw this episode ofTo Catch a Predator.”
That startled a laugh out of Theo. “That’s what it felt like, honestly. I was in a bad place, and Auggie was…Auggie.”
Alive, North thought. It was the first word for Auggie; maybe not the best word, but the first. Vibrantly alive. And happy. Funny and fun. “A hot little pocket rocket.”
The smile seemed wry this time. “That too, which didn’t help my situation. We ended up becoming entangled in each other’s lives. And then, after a couple of years, we started dating.”
“Did he have one of those terminal diseases and then, against all odds, he was cured, and by then it was too late for him to back out?”
“And it was easy, actually. Surprisingly easy. Because I loved him. And because I wanted him. And it was easy right up until it wasn’t. We don’t fight much, but when we do… We were in the middle of one of those awful fights, and he said something to me like ‘It’s never going to change, is it?’ I can’t remember the exact words, but it was something like that. ‘We’re never going to be equals.’ And, of course, that was throwing oil on the fire because he was right. As usual. It had been easy because we hadn’t been equals, and because I hadn’t been interested in changing that. So, after I cooled down, I realized that we’d both changed from where we’d been when we met, and if we were going to stay together, if we were going to make it work, our relationship had to change with us.”
“Get to the part where you kept him tied up in your basement, Grampsie.”
Theo gave him a look. “Am I making my point clear?”
“Yeah, yeah,” North muttered.
“I couldn’t hear that.”
“For the love of fuck, yes,” North snapped.
“You are not the same person you were in college. Shaw isn’t the same person.”
“Jesus Christ, is this what you’re like in a classroom? I said I get it.”
Theo pushed his hair back again, studying North with that look that seemed to demand an answer.
“And for the record, I think I’m starting to get it.”
“Get what?” Theo asked.
“This whole daddy thing. It’s working for me.”
“Ok,” Theo said with a sigh. “We’re done here.”
“What’s the runt’s policy on loaning you out?”
“Goodbye, North.”
“Like, are the spankings mandatory? Those aren’t a hard no for me, but I want to know in advance.”
Theo moved like he might get up, but North caught his arm. He let go almost immediately, but Theo sank back down. They sat there again. A breeze washed them in the hot, syrupy air, and Theo moved the hair off his neck again. North fanned himself with his shirt.
Then he let his head thunk back against the bricks. “Growing up fucking sucks.”
“Is it any consolation if I tell you that you aren’t particularly grown-up?”
North flipped him the middle finger. But he couldn’t quite meet Theo’s eye when he asked, “Do I have to apologize or something?”
“Now why,” Theo said with a giant smile, “would you go and ruin everything by doing that?”
North opened his mouth—he had something in mind about Theo fucking himself on his own cane—but before he could, an urgent whisper came from around the corner of the building.
“Now hug!”
Theo let out a tiny groan.
