22. Gabe
22
GABE
“ W ait, wait, who wants to interview us?”
I switched the phone to my other ear as I walked out of a little bakery in Savannah with my box of cupcakes. The guy who’d sold them to me promised they would blow my mind, but even if they were only half that good, I’d be satisfied. Brooklyn had been so stressed recently, and I was hoping a sweet surprise would put him in a better mood. But Aiden had called on my way out of the shop with news that pushed everything else out of my mind.
“ Stars Today . You know, that entertainment TV show. They have a magazine too.” Aiden’s dry voice pulled me back to the present moment. “Seriously, how big is that rock you’re living under?”
“Shut up, I know what Stars Today is,” I said as I set off down the street. “I was just surprised, that’s all. Why the hell would they want to interview me and Brooklyn?”
“I don’t know, maybe it’s a slow news day. You’re gonna say yes, right?”
I frowned. “I don’t know about that, Aiden. Brooklyn’s not always the biggest fan of publicity. Besides, he’s been so busy with his dissertation and interview stuff recently, I’d feel bad putting something else on his plate.”
“Tell him how good the exposure would be for Human Nature. If you did an interview, I bet donations would come pouring in.”
“Tell me about it.” They already had, ever since Jeff had agreed to implement some of the suggestions in my business plan. We’d had a Donate Here button up for a week and we’d practically doubled the amount of money Human Nature had to work with.
“I am telling you about it. Your job is to tell him.”
“Right, right. Got it, boss.” I laughed. “So have you just stopped trying to be an actor now and devoted yourself full-time to managing my social media presence instead?”
Aiden snorted. “No. But auditions are so sucky these days that if you offered me a salary, I’d probably say yes.”
“I’ll bear that in mind. Listen, I’m almost home, so I gotta go, but I’ll let you know what Brooklyn says soon, okay?”
“You’re my favorite big brother in the whole wide world.”
“I’m your only big brother in the whole wide world.”
“True. But even if you weren’t, you’d still rank in my top five.”
“I’m touched.”
I rolled my eyes after Aiden hung up and was about to slip the phone back into my pocket when I saw a text from Niya.
NIYA: You there? Call me when you get this
Weird. I’d told her I’d be offline for a bit, and Fridays weren’t usually a day for work crises. Something unexpected must have come through. I dialed her number, and it only rang once before she picked up.
“Gabe?”
“Yeah, what’s up?” I crossed the street to a bench underneath a live oak that dripped with Spanish moss. I was only a couple blocks from Brooklyn’s apartment, but it was nice enough that I didn’t mind sitting outside for a minute.
“What are your feelings about Paris?”
“Paris?”
“Yeah, you know, Eiffel Tower, old buildings, lots of dead poets.”
“I’m generally pro-Paris. I’ve never been, actually, but it’s definitely at the top of my list of places to visit.”
“What if you got to do more than visit? What if you got to live there?”
“What?”
“Turns out BHT really is looking for international managers. And the guy they were looking at for the position in Paris fell through. Winston asked me who I would recommend to fill his spot. And I knew you’d said you wanted to visit, so I told him I thought you should get the job.”
I didn’t know what to say. Getting promoted and moving abroad, in one fell swoop? It was too good to be true.
So, of course, it was. The reality of the situation sank in immediately. Moving to Paris would mean saying goodbye to what I had with Brooklyn.
Fuck.
“This is a good thing, right? You’re freaking me out with your silence,” Niya said. “Please tell me you don’t secretly hate Paris and just say nice things about it to avoid being called a Francophobe. You don’t actually loathe croissants, right? Oh God, you don’t call them freedom fries , do you?”
“No, no, it’s—no, none of that. It’s just a lot to take in all at once.” I paused. “It’s not that I’m not flattered. Because I really, really am. But I’m just not sure Paris is something I can do right now.”
“Gabe, this isn’t the kind of offer that’s just going to wait around until you’re ready however many years from now. It’s a take it or leave it deal.”
“And there’s no way I could take the job but work from home?”
“Why would you even want to? It’s Paris!”
“It’s kind of hard to explain.”
“Well explain something , because I am completely perplexed.”
“It’s complicated,” I sighed. “There’s so much to explain that I don’t even know where to start. But I guess it boils down to one thing: there’s a guy. Who I’m with. And for a lot of different reasons, I can’t just pick up and move to Paris and leave him behind. And for a lot of other reasons, he can’t just pick up and move with me.”
“Oh.” Niya was quiet for a minute. “I don’t suppose it would help for me to say things about how this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I think it’d be a huge boost for your career, and I’m not sure they’ll consider you for the New York promotion or anything else for a while if you say no to this one?”
“Probably not. But you can consider those things said anyway.”
“Wow. So it’s really serious with this guy, huh?”
“You could say that.”
“I didn’t even know you liked guys,” Niya said with a laugh. “I guess I didn’t know you as well as I thought.”
“No, don’t say that,” I protested. “Trust me, I didn’t even know I liked guys myself until recently. There’s just…something special about Brooklyn.”
“So do you want me to tell Winston no, then? Because I can. But if you’re not one hundred percent sure, then I think you should at least talk to them. Do the interview. You can always turn them down later, but you can’t undo it if you turn them down now.”
“I don’t think I’m going to change my mind, Niya.”
“ Don’t think isn’t the same thing as a hundred percent. Just do the interview, Gabe. Please?”
“Niya—”
“You don’t even have to say yes now. Just don’t say no, okay? Think it over. I can stall Winston for a while and say you’re too busy on a project for him to bother you now.”
“Fine.” I sighed again. “I do appreciate the thought. Any other time, any other guy, and I’d say yes in a heartbeat. But not Brooklyn.”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it. You’re in love.”
“Dude, I didn’t say that.”
“Gabe, you’d better be in love with this guy if you’re turning down living in Paris for him. Just think about that.”
I did. I thought about it for the rest of my walk back to the apartment, turning Niya’s words over in my mind. Did I love Brooklyn?
It felt like the thought should scare me more than it did. Instead, it made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Was that what love felt like?
I was almost to the door to his building when a noise at the other end of the block made me lift my head. Brooklyn was tearing down the street on his bike, jacket flapping in the wind as he pedaled like his life depended on it.
“Inside,” he gasped as he dismounted in front of the building. “Now.”
“What?” I blinked, confused. “Is there a gaggle of ten horse-sized ducks chasing you down the street or something?”
“Worse.” He threw a glance over his shoulder in the direction he’d come from as he turned his key in the lock. “Teenagers. Quick, get in before they see us.”
“Wait, seriously?” I turned around and looked back towards the street as he pushed me inside. “You’re running away from teenagers? What did you do?”
“Existed? Apparently that’s enough.” Brooklyn relaxed a little as the door clicked shut, but he still mounted the stairs in a hurry, hoisting his bike over his shoulder, rather than waiting for the elevator in the lobby. “I made a couple of last-minute changes to the discussion section of my dissertation and I had to get them to my committee in hard copy. I made the mistake of passing a high school on my way back.”
He looked back at me to make sure I was keeping up. I nodded at him to keep going as we headed up to the third floor.
“And out of nowhere, this group of kids suddenly starts screaming, ‘It’s him, it’s him ,’ like I’m the Pope or something.”
“I don’t think teenagers get that excited about the Pope.”
“Well, insert your favorite popstar in that slot instead. The point is, they started literally chasing me down the street, asking me for pictures. Some of them followed me for three blocks.” He shuddered.
“So this is probably not a good time to bring up the fact that Stars Today apparently wants to interview us for a segment on their show?” I asked as we climbed the stairs.
“Seriously?” Brooklyn shot an incredulous glance over his shoulder. “Since when are we that interesting?”
“What can I say? People recognize our inherent hotness. It’s just our cross to bear.”
“I’d rather not bear any crosses, if you don’t mind. I’d prefer to be average-looking. What’s with the religious metaphor anyway?”
“You’re the one who brought up the Pope.”
He snorted, shoving his key in the lock of the apartment door. “Fair enough. Anyway, promise me that if we ever decide to become famous again, we pick something that only octogenarians will care about. It’d be easier to outrun a group of people who use walkers to get around.”
I laughed and waited for him to wheel his bike into the apartment before walking in after him.
“I don’t know,” I said, locking the door behind us. “Some of them are practically bionic with all the replacement joints they have. Could probably outrun a horse.”
“Did you know that humans actually can outrun horses, over a long enough distance? We’re much more efficient at sweating, so over the course of a marathon, say, you could—”
“Brooklyn?”
“Yeah?”
“You’re supposed to be teaching Gay 101. Biology 101 doesn’t start for you until next semester.”
“If I actually get a job, that is. What if this is my only chance to recite factoids at you?” He leaned his bike against the wall by the door and ran a hand through his hair.
“Babe, I promise, if no one hires you, I will let you pity-fact me.”
“Better than a pity fuck, I suppose.”
“Is it, though?” I grinned, pushing any lingering thoughts about my phone call with Niya out of my mind. We were home. Brooklyn was home. With me. That was what mattered right now. “I got us cupcakes, by the way. Do you want to eat them now, or wait until something depressing happens so we can justify it?”
“Now, please.” Brooklyn sighed. “I’m pretty sure my entire life is going to qualify as depressing for a while now, anyway.”
“Aww, honeybunch, what’s wrong?” I was happy to concentrate on his problems if it meant ignoring my own for a while. I took his arm and started pulling him towards the couch. He snorted but let himself be dragged.
“Redwoods College wants me to come out and do an interview in person.”
“How is that a bad thing?” I pushed him onto the couch and then lay down on my back, head in his lap. This felt good. It felt right. I couldn’t imagine leaving this, even for Paris. “If they’re gonna fly you across the country, they must be pretty serious about you.”
“Yeah, but they want me out there the morning after I defend my dissertation. So I’ll basically be working straight through to get my defense ready and then hopping on a plane to get out there in time for a nine a.m. interview the next day. Apparently the department chair has to leave town that afternoon so that’s the only time they can do it.”
“Oh, shit. That sucks.”
“Yeah.” Brooklyn exhaled slowly. “I don’t know, maybe I should just tell them I’m not interested. Thanks but no thanks, you know?”
“Wait, what? Why would you do that?”
“It just seems like so much work. And am I really gonna go out there, if they want me?”
“Well, wouldn’t you? I mean, it wouldn’t be that bad, right? At least you’d have me to hang out with.”
Brooklyn was quiet for a long moment. I watched his chest rise and fall from my position on his lap. I took one of his hands in mine, meaning to squeeze it, but my fingers brushed his wrist and I noticed his pulse was racing. What was he so nervous about? The longer the silence stretched, the more my pulse began to match his.
“Brooklyn?”
“Yeah?”
“You do want me to come with you, don’t you?”