“Oh Jesus, stop.”
Andy did not stop. “You of all people should know that fishnets do not provide good coverage. Inappropriate hair situations are instantly public knowledge.” He bit his lip, heroically suppressing a giggle as Victor bent forward, hands pressed to his face, shoulders shaking. “Would you like me to go put some on and remind you of this?”
“God in heaven, yes.”
The first thing Andy and Victor did after taking Loretta to the airport was text their housekeeper Consuelo and give her the rest of the day off. The second thing was to go home, ensure the place was empty, and take off all their clothes. The third thing was to defile some of the rooms they hadn’t defiled for two months. Several hours later, Victor got a hand on the back of the couch and pulled himself out from under Andy. “God almighty. That was epic.”
“Thank you.” Andy wriggled until he was face-up. Victor was sitting more or less upright; Andy’s legs were across his lap. “And thank you. That was epic.”
“Is there anything we have to do for the rest of this week?”
“No.” There might have been, but Andy couldn’t care at the moment.
Victor patted his thigh. Andy smiled up at him. “Maybe dinner with Rory and Dana.”
“Their place?”
“Yeah. Remember she said so, after Milonga?”
“Oh yeah. I was so caught up in the writing gang.” Victor was thinking
about going to the kitchen for a drink. Instead he found himself petting Andy’s legs. “You’ve got quite a tan.”
“You too. We’ve been spending a lot of time outside. I’m trying to remember if I’ve had long pants on during daylight hours, like, at all.” He shifted, enjoying that light touch. If Victor didn’t stop, they were going to be back in business very soon.
Victor didn’t stop. His hand moved to the untanned region, tracing the edges of the tan line, teasing the smooth pale skin. Andy inhaled, made a pleased sound, and parted his legs. Victor found new areas to explore. They were both aroused again. “I knew it would be like this,” Victor said softly.
“It’s always like this. The only thing better than looking at you is kissing you.”
“Get that leg over me.” Victor shifted forward, turning toward him.
Andy lifted a leg and put his foot behind his husband. Then he wrapped his hand around Victor’s wrist and pulled himself up so they were sitting face to face.
A couple more minor adjustments later, Victor was leaning on the back of the couch, Andy was straddling Victor’s lap, and they were kissing. Deep, slow, with his hands in Victor’s hair. Victor had his hands on Andy’s hips, moving in slow figure eights, front to back. Andy broke the kiss for a moment, gazing at his husband’s face, into those hot sleepy eyes. “I love you so much.”
“I love you.”
“Can you believe we still have nine months of this?”
“I bet I’ll feel exactly this same way on the day before we leave for London.”
“What way.” Andy said that with his mouth against Victor’s face, right hand on his neck, letting the Australian ring rasp against that silver chain. His left hand was clutching the back of the couch, because Victor had a hand between them now. Playing with both of them, with his other hand on Andy’s ass. “Jesus, Victor.”
“Exactly this hot for you. Every time like it’s the first time. Can’t believe I’ve got this gorgeous man in my hands.” Victor’s mouth on Andy’s clean-shaven throat now, Andy’s head tipped back. “Loving the taste of you. The scent of you. The way you move, my God, Andy.” They were both moving,
only a little, but they couldn’t help themselves.
Andy was gasping into Victor’s hair now, arm wrapped around his head.
Focused on the hand between them. “Jesus fuck, Victor, get us both and I’ll come, I swear to God, let me feel you. Oh yeah, you sweet thing, you’re close. Tighter. Jesus. Are you going to give it to me, come on, come on baby, yes, fucking hell.”
Victor’s teeth were on Andy’s shoulder and he was breathing hard. He listened to Andy’s breath settle, timed his own to match. Andy shifted, relaxing his arms, bringing his hands back to Victor’s face. Stroking his thumbs over those elegant cheekbones, going in for one more kiss. Victor opened his eyes. “Never. It’s impossible.”
“What’s impossible?” Andy kissed him lightly.
“That there could ever be anyone more perfect than you. I love you.”
“I love you.”
“It’s a good goddamned thing this slipcover is washable.” Victor smiled as Andy slid off to the side, laughing.
“It’s a good thing we have two of them.” Andy managed to get onto his feet. “God. I could use a drink.”
“Me too. Give me a hand up.”
“Since you just gave me a hand up? Sure thing.”
Vicky and Sharon had been reporting back to Rory and Dana with some regularity. Andy and Victor were so busy with Loretta, Jonathan, the photo project, and ‘Milonga’ that Rory and Dana hadn’t actually seen them together since they got home, except at Chrome. “They’re coming over for dinner this week,” Rory told Vicky. “I get the idea everything is cool.”
“Everything is cool,” Vicky confirmed. “I actually kind of apologized to Victor.”
“What? Why?”
“Because I felt like I should. Sharon, too. We were a little hard on him. I mean, we know what it’s like to have one of those moments, when you’re stressed out and tired and the other person isn’t right for whatever reason, and you feel like fuck, could I not have that to deal with too.”
“Eh.” Rory considered that for a moment. “Yeah, okay.”
“Neither of us has lost a parent yet. Neither of us has been on a three-month location shoot, either. Anyway, they are dealing with it. They’re both seeing the counselor. I know you love Andy, and Dana especially loves Andy, but I wanted to say, you know, don’t give Victor any more shit about that. He’s giving himself plenty. It’s for them to work out, not us.”
Rory made a muted growling sound, but said, “Okay.” Then she sighed.
“Well, yeah, you’re right. The way they were at ‘Milonga,’ it was pretty clear Andy doesn’t think there’s anything to forgive at this point.”
Vicky changed the subject. “Did you guys ever tell them what characters you want to do?”
“Gaahh, fuck, no! We can’t make up our minds! What are you doing?”
“We did Perdita and Florizel, from ‘A Winter’s Tale.’”
Fuck, Rory thought, because that was one of the pairings they’d considered. “You were Florizel, I presume.”
“Well, sure. They even had a sword thingy for me. It was dope.” Vicky was grinning. “I’m totally getting a print of this thing to hang in the bedroom.
Sharon was so cute.”
“Sharon is always cute. I gotta go, I have a rehearsal over at Dmitri’s for the Halloween thing.”
“Can’t wait to see it. Ciao chica.”
“Ciao.” Rory disconnected. She was home alone with the pack, so she couldn’t tell Dana about that whole conversation. Later, she thought, and meanwhile get over yourself.
Victor was slightly concerned about the whole dinner thing. Not having seen Rory and Dana for so long – five months, leaving aside the brief meetings at Chrome for the Swan Dive, ‘Diamond Dogs,’ and ‘Milonga’ –
had him feeling almost the way he’d felt the very first time they all had dinner together. That had been early in his actual, in-the-open relationship with Andy. After the Year of Maybe was finally over, after they’d said ‘I love you,’ but before Andy’s longtime girl friends had officially approved of him. He wasn’t really trying to conceal his nerves, so he wasn’t surprised when Andy said, “This feels familiar, doesn’t it.”
“Too familiar. I feel like I’m going to meet my parole officer.”
Andy huffed out a laugh. “How do you know what that feels like?”
“Hey, I’ve done my research. Remembe
r how long I was on ‘Vice.’ We had all those LAPD consultants.”
“You ever miss that?”
“Fuck no.” He really didn’t, even though the series had been good to him. Getting that role had been a huge deal. If he hadn’t already been established in it, coming out could have tanked his career. If Victor hadn’t had a good reputation with the production company, they would never have considered taking Andy on; he’d barely even worked in TV before. And the whole reason had been to break the huge taboo about a gay relationship, expressed physically, in primetime. That first kiss had set off an explosion. In a way they were still recovering from it. “I feel like we’re not really done with it yet,” Victor said after a moment’s thought. “Not until we’ve fully processed what happened last fall. Maybe I’ll miss it when that’s all some kind of hazy memory.”
That got a skeptical snort from Andy. “I don’t think anything about that is ever going to be hazy. I’ll never forget what it felt like.” Awful, he thought.
The moment of incomprehension after Stan said ‘Gun,’ being knocked off his feet by Victor at the instant they heard the shot, landing flat on his back with Victor on top of him. So horribly still, for what felt like forever. “You’re talking about that with Robyn, right?”
Victor glanced over from the driver’s seat. They hardly ever talked about it themselves. “Yes. That and a lot of other things. Things about Mama, and John, and what happened with you this summer. We’re making progress there.”
“Good. Well, if Dana and Rory start in on you tonight I will play the diva card and shut them up. It’s my own fault. I went running to them.”
“So did I.”
“But I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry for that, too. I’m a grown-ass adult and I should have known better. Now they’ll always think of that.”
After a moment Victor said, “I appreciate that. Dana did scare the shit out of me.”
“I told her that. She wasn’t very apologetic.” Not at all, actually, but that was Andy’s fault too. Granted, he was still raw from Miami at the time.
Nonetheless, he’d been a little too operatic about the whole thing, given the relatively minor offense. Minor in retrospect, he thought. Should have put him face-down on the bed and dealt with it the old-fashioned way. The
thought made him snicker.
“What’s funny?”
“Thinking I should have never left the room that night. Should have thrown my weight around a little. You wouldn’t have been in any doubt how much I wanted you. How much I always have. I should have backed you up against the wall and said,” dropping into his sex voice, “you know what, you’re right. All you get is me from here on out. Get on that bed and let’s see how you like it.”
“Jesus, Andy.” Victor wriggled a little in his seat, grinning. “This car doesn’t need a stick shift.” They were still giggling about it when he parked at the cottage.
Rory opened the door, registered their expressions, thought Nope, nothing to bitch about here, and said “Hi guys, good to see you. I made cookies.”
“She wasn’t supposed to,” said Dana as they went in. “It’s pot roast, and there’s wine, and cookies mean my ass is back in the weight room in the morning.”
“Your ass is always in the weight room,” Rory said. Victor and Andy exchanged a glance, mutually decided that everything was cool, and went on through to the dining den.
“So did you reach critical mass with the hair?” Dana asked once they’d progressed to the coffee and cookies portion of the evening. “It really did look hot.”
“Yes it did,” Victor said, doing something to Andy under the table.
Andy stretched elaborately, settling one arm over Victor’s shoulders, and murmured something to him that Rory and Dana couldn’t hear. Then he said,
“It’ll be back eventually. I’m doing our routine for ‘Spy Games’ in drag so the next couple of months will be about less hair, not more.” Victor snickered. “Temporarily, catnip. I promise.”
“Victor, quit molesting Andy, the kids can see you.” Both of the small dogs were on the bench with Rory and Dana. Spike was on a cushion not far away. Dana put her hands over the dachshund’s eyes. “Don’t look, Oscar.
Guys, we may have to ask you to assign us characters for the Shakespeare thing. We cannot get our story straight.” All of them seemed to hear that at the same time. All of them started laughing. After a minute, she said, “Okay
yes. Phenomenally poor choice of words. Could you?”
“If you really want us to, yes of course,” Andy said. “I promise it won’t be straight.” He seemed to lose focus for a moment. Then he blinked and said, “So guess what new craziness we’re launching.”
“Jesus, you don’t have enough to do?” Rory drank some coffee, watching them. Whatever they’d been talking about in the car before they arrived was obviously still on their minds. “And speaking of enough to do, would you like to be excused for a few minutes? Because you could go out back in the bamboo grove and do whatever you’re already halfway doing, and we could get the kitchen cleaned up.”
“And then we could have a conversation in which everyone is paying attention.” Dana wanted to be annoyed but she couldn’t. Victor was giggling, Andy was grinning, and the whole vibe was so ridiculously normal that she finally got over that summer’s scare. It was one too many, she realized.
They’d almost lost Victor for real, could have lost both of them, and not until Victor’s panicked text came in had she really understood how vital that relationship was to her own sense of well-being. “Rory, my darling little cherubim, let’s address some housekeeping. Gentlemen, get out or get yourselves in order.”
Victor and Andy took a second to silently consult, silently agree ‘later,’
and separate, following the women to the kitchen. “Give us something to do,”
Andy said. “That isn’t that.”
Dana laughed under her breath and patted her wife’s ass. “Honey, take a load off. You did all the hard work. I’ll wash, Andy can dry, and Victor can tell us more about how they’re utterly failing at being on vacation.” Rory went to sit in the reading chair, instantly joined by Spike the cat.
Both men were smiling. Victor said, “We are totally failing. Neither of us has ever done it. Maybe by the time we go to Europe we’ll figure it out.”
He thought through the list of projects, most of which their friends already knew about, and remembered what they hadn’t mentioned yet. “On top of everything else, we’re trying to buy the property on the other side of us.”
“No shit!” Rory was fully surprised. “I thought you would have been sick and tired of real-estate shenanigans after you finally got that triplex squared away. I mean, we did that renovation last year for the gang in the big house and I never want to see another contractor again.” Their cottage was on the same lot as a full-sized house, currently shared by two families.
“Well, actually.” Andy wiped a wineglass, hung it in the under-cabinet rack, and went on. “The whole triplex operation was so painless, it’s almost like it never happened. Paige was on it from day one, Sharon was a very capable second brain, we weren’t even there for six weeks, and by the time we were really paying attention the worst of it was over. But Victor had this idea while we were on location.”
“It had to do with a pool,” Victor said, and both women made sounds of instant understanding. “Because we were both loving the hotel pools this summer. And that house is an eyesore.”
Dana said, “Yes it is. And you clearly can’t put a pool in your own backyard. Yours is party central.”
“Right.” Andy hung up the last wineglass. He and Dana had always been good at cleanup duty. “You know Elliott, Vince’s friend, the real-estate guy?
He handled both our other things. Anyway we asked him to bloodhound the situation and see if the owner had any interest in selling.” He eyed the plate of cookies, took one for himself, and offered the plate to Victor. Victor delivered a cookie t
o Rory, handed one to Dana, and set the plate down with a sad look. Andy stifled a laugh and did not say ‘you know we could burn that off later.’
“And?” Dana ate the cookie, momentarily regretted it, decided it was worth it.
“And it’s this older couple, not super old but retired, they’ve lived there for thirty years. They have a kid who lives in Monterey and wants them to move up there, but they would have to build something. And the kid doesn’t have room for them to live with him and store their stuff. So they’re looking at renting in a very not-inexpensive market for however long it takes them to build in a very not-inexpensive market.” Andy took a breath.
Victor finished the story. “So Elliott made the approach and they told him all this. He said, how much would you need, because my client is motivated. And they said, is it the guys next door?”
“Uh-oh.” Rory glanced at Dana.
“No, it was good. Elliott said he didn’t answer straight off, because we asked him not to say it was us. But instead of hanging up on him they said, because if it’s those guys we wouldn’t mind seeing the place go to them. So let us get back to you after we talk to our kid. And that’s where it is right now.”
Dana was impressed. “Do they even know you?”
“Well, we didn’t think they did. But I guess, you know, they’ve been there this whole time. Saw us fix up the Faux Chateau, and then the Sleeping Beauty.” Andy ate the last cookie, because he could see that Dana wanted it and that she would hate herself for eating it.
“Thank you for eating that,” she said. “Are you thinking it’s another rental property?”
“Well, ideally,” Victor said. “Because then a big chunk of the cost is covered. But it would have to be someone who’s okay with us being in the pool all the time.” Rory snorted. “Us and probably all our friends.”
“Probably,” Dana said. “We had a minute of thinking we could put a pool between the cottage and the house. But the logistics were like, oh my God.”
“They’re going to be bad enough if this comes off,” Andy said. “But we’re willing to tear that house down if we have to.”
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