Relieved, Luis took a deep breath of his own and slipped out of bed. He’d left his phone in the living room. It was flashing on the coffee table with a message.
Unknown number: uve fucked me off too many times now bro. real talk comin
13
Paolo woke to cool hands on his face and soft lips on his cheek.
“Go back to sleep,” Luis whispered. “I’ll open the cafe.”
It was too good to be true. Paolo struggled to sit up, but Luis pushed him back, and the jackhammer still raging in Paolo’s head took his side. I don’t want you to go.
But Luis left anyway, and when Paolo next woke, it was light outside. His headache had faded to a dull roar. The nausea was gone, and he no longer felt like he was burning a forest fire under his skin.
He sat up, squinting against the single ray of winter sunshine bursting through a gap in the curtains. His phone was on the bedside table with an empty bottle of water and a box of paracetamol with four broken tabs. Paolo frowned. He didn’t remember drinking anything or swallowing any pills, but then, all he could truly recall was throwing his guts up a hundred times before Luis had appeared in the living room like an apparition. Even stumbling to bed was a haze of warmth and strong arms. God, I hope I didn’t puke on him.
As the thought crossed his mind, his phone buzzed. Paolo reached for it and opened the flurry of messages Toni had sent about Match of the Day the previous night.
Paolo: didn’t watch it, threw up all night instead
Toni: r u ok?
Paolo: totally fine, but can’t visit tonight, home rules, remember?
Toni: i remember not lost my marbles yet boy dont visit Carmela either
Paolo: I won’t
No reply came. Head spinning from Toni’s aversion to punctuation, Paolo dropped his phone on the bed and closed his eyes. Despite sleeping most of the last twenty-four hours, he started to drift and jumped a mile when his phone buzzed again.
Toni: can luis come instead
Paolo: are u serious?
Toni: why not he doesn’t move my things around I like him
It was as good a reason as any, Paolo supposed, but Luis had done him enough favours to last a lifetime. There was no way he was asking him to spend his evening visiting an old folks’ home. It was bad enough that he was running the cafe alone for minimum wage. And you still haven’t paid his rent, remember? It wasn’t due yet, but Paolo knew Luis was antsy about it. He’d left the paperwork in the kitchen a few days ago.
Ignoring the lingering headache, Paolo swung his legs out of bed and trudged to the shower. The hot spray made him feel less grungy, and the blast of cold water when it ran out woke him up enough for him to put himself together and leave the flat.
He took Luis’s housing card to the post office and paid his rent. Then he stopped by the corner shop and bought electricity tokens. Luis hadn’t mentioned running short, but he rarely mentioned much unless Paolo dragged it out of him.
The sun was still shining as he walked to the cafe. Shoppers bustled around, buying produce from the market, and dickhead lads in their shit cars cruised up and down the high street, blaring bad music and honking of weed smoke. A black car burned past and mounted the pavement in front of Paolo. Scowling, he stepped around it and continued on his way. Wankers.
At the cafe, he found Luis running the show with flawless efficiency. Bacon and sausages sizzled on the grill while he cleared tables and took orders at the till. Somehow he managed it without uttering more than two words to anyone, but that was Luis. Quietly beautiful.
Paolo came up behind him at the grill and laid a soft hand on his back, the warning he’d learned to use to let Luis know he was there. “I could go on holiday for a month and come back to find you run this place better than me.”
Luis snorted. “Be my guest. Just keep me away from the paperwork.”
“Speaking of which.” Paolo handed over Luis’s payment card and the receipt for his rent, along with electricity tokens. “I didn’t know if you needed these, but I got them anyway. You’ll need them eventually, right?”
“You didn’t need to do that today. You should be in bed.”
“Fuck off. It’s shit without you. And I’m fine now. Whatever it was has gone away.”
Luis treated Paolo to a searching stare that made him feel stark naked in front of every cafe patron lost in their all-day breakfast. “Are you sure? Cos you said that last night and you were lying.”
“Mistaken. I’d never lie to you.”
“Wouldn’t you?”
“No.”
Luis never wasted words. He nodded and turned back to the grill. Paolo shook his head and marvelled at how a conversation could become so deep so fast. How Luis could flay him open with a simple question. He wanted to rip the tongs from Luis’s hands and shake him. Make him believe that he was worth so much more than how his arsehole family had treated him. But Paolo never wanted to make Luis do anything. If he was ever going to have a little faith, he’d have to find it himself.
Paolo ditched his coat in the kitchen and retreated to the fridge to make a list for the wholesale order. The cool air made him shiver, but after a night of sweltering in his own skin, he welcomed it. His headache ran its course, and by the time Luis brought his vibrating phone to him, he felt halfway human.
“Someone really wants to talk to you,” Luis said.
He started to leave, but Paolo didn’t feel like letting him go so fast. He grabbed his hand and yanked him back in.
Luis let him and crowded Paolo against the racks of produce stacked on the shelves. “You really are feeling better?”
“I am. I meant it when I said I’d never lie to you.”
Luis dipped his head for a kiss. Their lips met in a sweet collision, and suddenly all was right with the world. Paolo slid his hands under Luis’s T-shirt and ghosted his palms over warm skin that went on for days. Heat pooled where he wanted Luis most, but short of dropping his jeans in the fridge, there wasn’t much he could do about that.
His phone was still buzzing. Irritated, he pulled back and glowered at the screen. “Jesus fucking Christ.”
Luis buried his face in Paolo’s neck and kissed a path to Paolo’s collarbone. “Something wrong?”
Paolo swayed on his feet, tipped upside down by Luis’s attention to his throat. “Not unless you count Toni driving me insane.”
“What’s he doing?”
“Celebrating that I can’t go and see him tonight. Apparently, I mess with his stuff too much.”
“Why can’t you go?”
“Because I’ve been sick. I have to leave it forty-eight hours before I go back. Home policy to protect the residents.”
“Makes sense.”
“I know, I just hate leaving him by himself. Nonna’s okay when she’s with it enough to know where she is. She’s made friends. Toni’s not like that. He hates other people.”
“How did he run this place for so long then?”
“Same as me. By shouting at everyone.”
“You don’t shout.”
“You can’t hear me half the time, which is probably just as well. I annoy myself most days.”