Chapter 16
SIXTEEN
Benji used his cell phone’s GPS to find Van’s apartment, while Joshua drove. Familiar roles from dozens of excursions to new places, mostly because Benji hated driving. He only did it when he had to. Passenger and navigator? Cool. Driving to an unknown place? No thanks. Too damned nerve-wracking.
Van had called Benji half an hour ago, inviting them to a late brunch at his place, because Melody was working all day.
Benji and Joshua had eaten a light breakfast, so they agreed to come over at eleven.
They were both eager to see Van again and had no idea what to expect from his invitation, beyond being fed a super-healthy meal.
A door on the second floor landing opened, and Van stepped out, all smiles. “Hey,” he said. “Morning.”
“Hey back,” Joshua said. He climbed the steps first. The way they creaked and groaned beneath him made Benji nervous about both of them being on the stairs at the same time.
They all met on the landing, which was barely wide enough for the three of them.
Van leaned toward Joshua, then hesitated, a question in his eyes.
Joshua answered it for him by planting a firm kiss on his lips.
Benji was a bit disappointed by the innocent kiss, but he suspected Joshua didn’t want any peeping neighbors to get a big show.
Benji mimicked the action, loving how easy it was to kiss Van the same way.
A natural greeting for someone he cared about.
“Please, come in,” Van said. “Mine’s the open door straight ahead.”
They stepped into a very narrow lobby-like area that had three doors close together.
The original floor plan of that story had been chopped up into three apartments, and Van’s door was in the middle.
It opened into a small area that contained a couch, a single chair, a tiny four-person dinette, and a galley kitchen.
Everything in the place screamed mid-century, especially the dinette and avocado refrigerator.
Benji was immediately drawn to the small bookcase in the living room. Full of books, he scanned the titles, finding mostly nonfiction. Everything from healthy eating to Dirk Benedict’s autobiography.
Joshua had gone the opposite direction, straight for the food set out on the dinette. Van stood in the middle, probably unsure of the next step now that they were all three together again and spread out across his place. Benji wasn’t entirely sure, either, but eating seemed like the logical step.
“Book fan?” Benji asked.
“I like to learn about new things,” Van replied. “I borrow from the library a lot, plus I have a tablet, but that’s my keeper shelf. The ones that have special meaning.”
Curious, Benji pulled a random book off the shelf. “Patty Cannon Administers Justice.”
Van chuckled. “That one’s written like fiction, but it’s also based on the true story of a Delmarva legend. Supposedly she murdered travelers who stayed with her and buried them in her yard. She also helped return runaway slaves to their owners.”
“Huh.” He’d never heard the name, but now he wanted to Google her to learn more.
The book in his hand was weathered, the dust jacket falling apart and protected by a plastic sleeve, so he didn’t even consider asking to borrow it.
He shelved it instead, and then drifted to Van. “Fan of local legends?”
“I picked this area to be my home, so I figured I might as well learn some local lore. There are a lot of fascinating stories and places to visit, like a haunted swamp. Patty Cannon’s homestead site is still there with a historical marker. The house isn’t the original, though.”
“Maybe we can visit some of the these places while I’m here. I’d love to see them.” Benji really did, too, and not because the legends were important to Van. He was a fan of spooky stories and scary movies, so this was right up his alley.
Van’s smile widened. “My work hours are nocturnal, so I have my days free. I’d love to show you around.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Both of you.”
“I’m in,” Joshua said. “Are we eating?”
Benji laughed. “He’s always hungry. High metabolism, the lucky jerk.”
“Hey, you weigh less than I do.”
“I’m also shorter than you, genius.”
“Eat away,” Van said. “It’s all good, healthy food, anyway.”
He and Benji joined Joshua at the table, and Benji took in the spread.
A bowl of fresh tropical fruit salad, a loaf of something called Ezekiel Bread, hummus and guacamole, cut veggies, cooked chicken breasts sprinkled with some kind of seasoning, and a pitcher of something orange that was not juice.
“Mango smoothie,” Van said, pointing at the pitcher.
“Good grief, this looks amazing,” Joshua said. “You eat like this every day?”
“For the most part. I don’t eat beef anymore, but I supplement a mostly raw diet with some chicken and seafood. You can eat the breasts like that, but I like to make a sandwich with guacamole as a spread.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Benji dug into what was probably the healthiest meal he’d ever eaten.
The sandwich was divine, and Van admitted to making the guac fresh, as well as the hummus, which Benji scarfed down with slices of cucumber and red bell pepper.
The mango smoothie was velvety and sweet, and he made a mental note to demand that recipe.
Van repeated some of the personal stories he’d told Benji yesterday, for Joshua’s benefit.
“To keep us all on the same page,” Van said.
Perfectly reasonable, too. They really hadn’t defined what they were doing, but treating each other like equals was key.
All points had to be equidistant from the others to create the perfect triangle.
“So that’s my exciting origin story,” Van said with an overly dramatic sigh that was totally adorable. “I know you guys met in college. Tell me about your first date.”
Joshua choked on a gulp of smoothie. Benji burst out laughing, not only at Joshua’s reaction but also to the vivid memories.
Van’s eyebrows arched. “Okay, now I definitely need this story.”
“It’s not that dramatic,” Benji said. “But it was definitely awkward. See, I noticed Joshua the first day of class. It was an elective he needed to fulfill a requirement and something I was taking for fun. Joshua told me later that he noticed me, too, that first day. But I was incredibly shy and after having been homeschooled, a big campus freaked me out, so I bolted every time class was dismissed. Apparently, Joshua’s way of getting my attention was to make sure we worked on an assignment together.
“We met in the commons to discuss it, and we really connected on a personal level. For about five hours we talked about everything except the project, which meant we had to meet again. And again. Two weeks of this, fitting in face time every day, until we turned in the project. After class, Joshua asked if I wanted to go see a movie to celebrate our work, and I figured why the hell not?”
Van clucked his tongue. “Let me guess. Joshua was asking you on a date, but you didn’t realize it?”
“Bingo.” Date hadn’t even been on Benji’s mind that entire evening, not from a casual dinner of burgers at a local hotspot, to sitting in the back row during the movie. “But again, this is me, a guy who’d never been asked out on a date before, much less by someone so incredibly good-looking.”
Joshua had regained his composure and was watching Benji with hearts in his eyes.
“He was so nervous,” Joshua said. “I could tell he was, even though he still denies it. I thought he was the most adorable thing I’d ever seen, and I was hella attracted to him.
I’d half-expected him to turn me down for the date, so I was careful not to be too forward.
Apparently I wasn’t forward enough in making my intentions clear. ”
“He wasn’t,” Benji said with a laugh. “Looking back I can see it, but then I was so fucking clueless.”
“You were perfect.”
“So after the movie we’re walking back to his car, which is this beat-up rust bucket that’s so old it doesn’t even have automatic locks. Joshua follows me to my side to unlock it with his key.”
“I wanted to kiss him so badly,” Joshua said. “Hell, I’d wanted to kiss him since the first day of class, so I think I get points for waiting as long as I did to plant one on you.”
Benji snickered, enjoying the intently amused look on Van’s face as he listened to them tag-team the story. “He unlocks the door, and then pulls the handle, which is so surprisingly gentlemanly of him, that I turn to thank him.”
“I figure I’ll catch him off guard and go for that kiss. So I swoop in right as he turns around.”
“And I’m so startled by him being right there that I react out of instinct and head butt him.”
Van gasped.
Joshua hung his head. “He broke my nose with his forehead.”
“Because he terrified me.” Old fear swamped Benji’s entire being, leaving him chilly and unsettled.
Joshua had no reason to suspect Benji would react so violently to something as simple as a kiss, because he’d never told Joshua that part of his past. He’d admitted to a little bit of it on the drive to the emergency room that night, then told Joshua the full story several months later.
“Hey.” Van squeezed his wrist, and the grounding touch brought Benji back. Worry simmered in his eyes. “What happened just now?”
Benji twisted his wrist until he could hold Van’s hand, palm to palm. “Remembering the past.”
“If I’d known Benji’s history, I never would have tried to surprise him,” Joshua said. “I felt like such as ass when he told me.”
Van didn’t ask, which only encouraged Benji to tell him. To be straight with a guy who respected boundaries unlike anyone he’d ever met before, accepting what he was given without demanding more.