Chapter 34
Dídac was true to his word—the restaurant where they ate was amazing, and unlike anything Kim had experienced before.
But before that, they cleared the breakfast things from the terrace, and took them into the kitchen, then went into Dídac’s room and made love once again on the big wide old bed that had once been his grandfather’s.
After that they showered together, under the weak drizzle of water that came out of the shower nozzle.
“It’s on the family’s to-do list of fixer-upper chores,” Dídac informed him as he toweled Kim down. “But when we come up here, we never seem to get much done except go wild mushroom foraging, cooking, eating, and sitting in front of the fire.”
“It sounds like you have your priorities about right,” Kim answered, taking the towel and wrapping Dídac inside it, pulling him towards him.
As their bodies came together, fresh and warm from the shower’s heat, their dicks rose together against each other again.
Their tongues twined together, exploring each other’s mouths.
Kim took hold of Dídac’s firm erection, grasping it in his hand and pulling him slowly and sensually even as his own hard cock ground into Dídac’s stomach.
Then he bent down and took Dídac’s cock in his mouth.
“Mare de Déu!” Dídac gasped, as Kim’s hot mouth worked slowly up and down his shaft, the tip of his tongue tickling and caressing the head.
He sank his fingers into Kim’s thick hair, still damp from the shower.
Kim sucked Dídac in a slow, regular rhythm, unhurried as if they had all the time in the world.
Please let us, he thought. Let us have this time together for now.
Don’t take this man away yet. Kim didn’t seem to be going anywhere, content as he was to be pleasuring Dídac on his knees here in the bathroom.
When Dídac finally came, the third time in less than twenty-four hours, Kim kept him in his mouth.
And when he got to his feet and kissed him again, Dídac tasted his own juice in Kim’s mouth, on his tongue.
It felt like a promise or commitment in some way.
“Wow, thanks!” Dídac breathed. “That was amazing!”
“No, thank you, Dídac, for letting me in, letting me get to know you. I want us to keep what we’ve got here. I know, when we go up that hill and get mobile coverage, all hell’s probably going to break loose. But let’s hold on to this, what we have.”
Dídac nodded. “Yeah, sure. That’s what I want too.”
Before walking up the hill, they walked down and grabbed Kim’s suitcase, which had thankfully remained watertight throughout the storm.
So Kim was able to change into fresh clothes, though he missed wearing Dídac’s, permeated as they were with the other’s smell.
His phone was not so lucky. It was lying in the wet grass, close to the suitcase.
They brought it up to the house, took the SIM card out and left it drying beside the tamped-down embers in the fireplace.
Then the three of them walked up the road toward the old forge, Kim and Dídac hand in hand, while Dragon rode on Dídac’s shoulders.
The forge was an ancient two-roomed stone building, one side of which was open to the road, but barred by two wide iron gates, padlocked shut.
At the back of the structure sat the wide brick bed of the forge itself, with a huge chimney overhead, and rotting leather bellows to one side.
Rusting iron tools of all descriptions filled the space.
“I used to come up here as a kid and watch Grandpa work,” Dídac said. “I wish we could preserve it in some way. It’s all slowly falling apart.” But at that moment, his mobile started pinging with messages. “Laia,” he muttered.
“Call her,” Kim said. “After that I’ll put my SIM in yours and call her too, apologize, and make sure they’ve got stuff to go on with in rehearsal.”
“And Santi?”
“Let’s leave him till the afternoon.”
They were silent while Dídac phoned, the unspoken weight of Dídac’s decision to be made lying between them.
When Laia answered, Dídac wandered a few steps away, while Kim sat on a log, watching Dragon explore the forge, having managed to slip in under the barred gate.
Then they swapped SIMs and Kim phoned Laia, apologizing for not being at rehearsal, and asking about how it was progressing.
He made his excuses for having left the company in the lurch.
Although Kim was sure that Dídac had told her that Kim was with him, Laia was nothing but professional with Kim, even though the glaring elephant in the room was Kim’s clear lack of professionalism at abandoning the production without a second thought.
She told him that Felipa and Domènec had stepped into the breach, organizing the younger actors to piece together a run-through and working on any scenes they felt were weak.
“There’s one actor you’ll need to talk to, however,” she said. There was a pause.
“Who?” he asked, though he suspected he already had a good idea.
“Isard. He’s… He doesn’t seem to be… quite… adapting to the show. He knows… everyone knows that he’s a replacement, not your first choice. Dani and Kiko are also annoyed that one of them wasn’t chosen to replace Dídac, since they know the part so well. I just thought you should know.”
“Thanks, Laia, you’re doing brilliantly, and I’m sorry to have put you all in this position, especially you. You don’t deserve it. Believe me, the production is still very much a top priority of mine, but I had—”
“Just not the top priority, Sir.”
Kim took that hit, knowing he deserved it.”
“You’re right, not the top priority. For the first time in… years. I didn’t take your advice, Laia, and I’m not sorry about that. But I promise you, I will look after Dí—”
“Let’s keep our relationship professional, shall we, Sir? Keep personal things separate.”
“Yes, you’re right. Can I ask a favor though, before you go? Can you tell Santi and Jordi I’ll ring them this afternoon. I have some changes to the production I want to discuss with them, which I need to work out first. And I’ll see you on Monday, the usual time.”
After ringing off, the huge guilt he felt for having bailed from the production like that washed over him.
He was a professional, and had never missed a performance, or even a rehearsal in his whole life—until today.
If it meant winning Dídac back, though, he would do it again in an instant.
He also felt massive respect for Laia, who had acted like a consummate professional throughout this whole crisis (unlike himself), and continued to do so, even though Dídac was her closest friend and she wished to protect him at all costs. He turned to Dídac:
“So, where’s this restaurant you wanted to show me? I’m starting to get hungry.”
“Not possible! We’ve just had breakfast!”
“Sex burns a lot of energy.”
Dídac laughed, his eyes shining. “Well, OK, we should get you stoked up.”
They walked arm in arm back down to the house.
Dragon followed them like a mildly obedient dog, at times trotting at their heels, at others making forays into the long grass beside the trail.
At the house, they shut Dragon inside, and walked around the back of the house to where Dídac’s car was parked.
As he’d said, there was a tar-sealed road that came right up beside Ca n’Amat.
Agreeing not to worry about Kim’s rental car for the moment, they headed straight to the restaurant.
It was a forty-minute drive, up another of those narrow roads winding through the hills.
The slopes on either side of the road were thick with holm oaks, cork oaks, and Aleppo pines.
Then they came to what looked like a residential masia, a slightly rundown, slate-roofed, stone building several hundred years old.
Only a faded sign beside the road advertised it as a restaurant.
They parked on the verge of the road, leaving just enough space for cars to pass by on the road, in single file.
Instead of heading into the masia, Dídac led them around on the lush lawn to the side.
At the back, there was an expanse of grass dotted with mismatched tables and chairs.
A few couples and one family of six were seated there, dining.
But the most impressive aspect was beyond.
The lawn dropped sharply away in a cliff, and then the huge sweep of a lush green valley stretched for miles, with the far ranks of the Pyrenee Mountains closing the view in the distance.
“Wow! What a view!” Kim breathed.
“I told you,” Dídac smiled. “But the food’s even better.”
“Dídac!”
They turned to see a plump middle-aged woman bustling out of the masia, her arms loaded in plates.
“Give me a sec and I’ll be with you,” she called, heading toward the family, who had all turned toward the newcomers at her cry.
As he felt them become the center of attention, Dídac’s face fell.
“Damn, I should have expected this.”
Every single person sitting at that rural restaurant was now watching them, most of them surreptitiously, but the three kids at the family table were pointing and whispering none too quietly. Kim turned toward him and grabbed him by the shoulders.
“You have nothing to be ashamed of, Didi, do you hear me? Absolutely nothing,” Kim said.
“Yeah, but the—”
“Kiss me.”
“What?”
“I said ‘Kiss me’.”
“Here? There are people… kids…”
“You have nothing to be ashamed of. Claim your life, Didi. Claim who you are. Kiss me.”
Dídac looked into Kim’s eyes. Kim was looking at him more seriously than he ever had in the time they had known each other.
He felt tears pricking his eyes and definitely didn’t want to start crying in front of all these people, whose living rooms he entered every afternoon through the TV as their heterosexual leading man.
That would be a really bad look. It was either cry or kiss.
He chose the kiss. Kim’s lips were as soft as ever, and his arms strong around him.
He could have disappeared inside his lover’s embrace.
Were it not for a wolf whistle that cut the silence: the family’s surly fifteen-year-old adolescent.
But then the boy’s father raised an “Olé!” and suddenly everybody was clapping, among more whistles and cheers. And Dídac was crying anyway.
“I love you, Dídac,” Kim said.
And that was the final straw. Now Dídac was sobbing so heavily, he could barely articulate his own “I love you too!” back again. So any attempt to keep things DL, or even discreet, was now out the door.
He laughed through his tears, wiping them away. “This much applause—better than my last curtain call! Should we give a bow, or would that be too much?”
“I think a bow is totally apt,” Kim chuckled.
So they did, to the fifteen or so people gathered on that lawn.
“You see? People love you: gay, straight, or… non-binary. Your career’s not over by a long shot, Didi.
Think about that while we eat.” Kim put his arm around Dídac’s shoulders.
“And now can we eat? All this public performance really burns up my energy!”
The woman who had greeted them earlier came forward.
“Oh Dídac, it’s so good to see you back here! Are you up here with your family? I was really angered by that horrible article they published about you! All that for a silly kiss! Such a fuss! So unnecessary. Can’t they just leave people alone to live their lives?”
Despite all of her questions, the woman kept up a constant monologue, almost a stream of consciousness. It was all Dídac could do to introduce her to Kim as Marta.
“Now here are your places,” she went on.
“This is the best table with the best view, for my darling Dídac, of course. Do you remember the first time you came here? Four years old you would have been. You threw up all over the table, do you remember?” She laughed heartily.
“Didn’t like the goat’s cheese. Everything we do here uses goat’s cheese.
It’s a specialty of the house. We have our own herd, which we milk each morning.
Now here are your menus. I recommend the goat’s cheese salad, and the honey-glazed kid, but you choose what you want.
Gee, it’s so good to see you again, Dídac.
You don’t come up here enough! Tell your mum I want to see her around here more as well.
It’s not good for anyone to spend so much time in Barcelona.
Too much dirt and traffic fumes. I’ll leave you alone now, but I’ll be back in five minutes to take your order. ”
And with that she bustled off to a couple at the next table.
“Wow!” Kim breathed. “That was intense! Is she always like that?”
“Yep,” Dídac apologized. As you’ll have twigged, I’ve known her all my life. Marta’s also the village mayoress—or is that sexist? Should I just say ‘mayor’?”
Kim shrugged. To tell you the truth, I have no idea. Was I such a total asshole when we met?”
“Short answer: yes. But don’t take it personally. You were jet-lagged, and landed in the middle of our Sant Joan fireworks fest. Let’s eat. I’m starving and I want more sex when we get back home, so we need to stoke your energy levels.”
They ended up sharing the goat cheese salad, but Dídac chose a vegetarian cannelloni, while Kim went for the kid. At the end of the meal, as they sat gazing out over the valley, so full their stomachs felt fit to burst, Kim broached the question again:
“So, you’ve seen what your public thinks of that silly scandal. Will you come back to the production?”
“Is it up to you and me? Won’t Santi and Jordi have a say?”
“You and I decide first. Then we sell it to the theater—and to the world if need be.”
“I never wanted to leave that show. I love that part.”
“Then let’s do it.”
“OK.”
They smiled at each other.
“Is it as easy as that?” Dídac asked, reaching for Kim’s hand.
“Of course not, but that’s the first step. And from now on we walk this path together.” He picked up his wine glass. “To the most beautiful swan in my life.”
“To that ugly duckling, who grew up, and really isn’t that ugly at all.”
They clinked glasses.