Chapter 27
27
DES
I ’ve heard stories about the buildings on the Upper East Side, but still it doesn’t quite prepare you. As Alex and I approach, a guy is standing by a beautiful wrought-iron door dressed in a perfectly pressed uniform and spotless white gloves. He nods his head and opens the door, and the brass surround glints in the sun like a mirror. An intricate floor of inlaid marble with some crisscrossing pattern of green and black runs across the lobby, and gorgeous brass trimmings and polished wood are everywhere—handrails, doorknobs—around the doors. A gold-and-ebony inlaid table sits along one wall under gilt-framed pictures with picture lights, and I raise my eyebrows at Alex as another man in gloves hurries out from behind a desk and escorts us to the elevator.
“I’m getting really nervous now,” I lean in to whisper, and he laughs at my expression and pats my arm.
“Don’t be. Nana is going to love you.”
Alex said his was the poor end of the family, but this building doesn’t scream badly off to me. Will his father inherit this? Maybe some part of it?
“How did this meeting come about again?”
His gaze wanders over my head and he squeezes my fingers. “I mentioned you in passing as a friend, and she’s been badgering me.” He shrugs. “It felt like something I could do so you could see more of my life. She’s always been very involved with us all, especially me. Maybe it’s a boy thing or a youngest child thing. But it seemed easier to go with the flow and let her meet you—you know?”
No, I don’t know. I’m not sure about Alex’s propensity to go with the flow . And also, he mentioned me as a friend to his grandma, but not anyone else? But he’s trying here, and I don’t want to grill him further on this. We’ve already had the family hiccup with Tom, and I’m not going to create another one.
“Youngest children are always the favorites,” I say, and he grins.
Then the grin fades as he studies me, and his forehead creases. “This is a crazy idea, isn’t it?” He bites his lip. “What was I thinking bringing you here? She’s going to realize we’re together.”
Shaking my head, I reach out and squeeze his hand. “It’s done now. I’ll waltz us through it. How hard can it be?” I wave my other hand. “I’ve faked this loads of times. Pretending is my specialist subject, bro.” I punch his shoulder, and he winces then makes a funny face at me. A loud giggle spills out of my mouth.
He holds up both his hands. “Just be careful what you say to her.”
“She’s going to know I’m gay the minute she claps eyes on me, Alex.”
“You think?” He pans down me, lighting a fire everywhere his eyes land. Heat starts to thump through my bloodstream.
I widen my eyes at him. “For the love of God, don’t eye me up like that in front of her.”
This makes him laugh. “I was just looking.”
“You looked like you wanted to eat me.”
Pursing his lips, he nods. “That about sums it up.”
I want to press my nose into his neck, but the elevator pings and the doors open and we step wordlessly into a corridor. A thick cream runner with gold-decorated edges runs up the middle of the parquet floor and we pass gleaming walnut doors and white moldings. Alex stops in front of a door at the end and presses a buzzer, unleashing a cacophony of yapping on the other side of the polished wood.
A sly smile curves his mouth. “I might have forgotten to mention she has a couple of Pekinese.”
I bug my eyes out at him, grinning. “Perfect. You know how much I love dogs.”
The door opens to reveal a bent little old lady with sharp blue eyes and two small dogs, one of whom is down on its haunches, growling. It takes one look at Alex and clearly decides he’s a friend, then launches itself at me with a ferocious snap of its jaws.
“Betsy, Betsy. Oh my God,” Alex’s grandma says in a wavering voice.
Fortunately, the snarling and snapping are all an act, and when I bring my hands to her wriggling body, she just writhes in ecstasy.
“Oh man, she’s like a fake killer dog,” I say, laughing. “If only all women were so easy to please,” I add before I even register what I’m saying, bending down to try to hold on to Betsy who is now yapping and going berserk around my feet. Mrs. Sachs laughs as Betsy switches attention and starts jumping on Alex.
“C’mon, you crazy dog,” he says, going down on his haunches and rubbing her all over. His long fingers comb through her coat, and I need to stop watching what his hands are doing—like yesterday . The other dog, which is distinctly fatter, waddles forward deciding he’s missing out on all the fuss.
“This is Ivor,” Alex says, looking up at me, and it’s far too much like he’s on his knees in front of me for me to hold back the heat rising up my neck. To cover myself I bend down to rub the other dog, who grunts and wheezes in satisfaction.
“I like a guy who sends a woman into a dangerous situation first,” I say to Ivor, who rolls onto his side with a contented whoosh of air. Alex and his grandma laugh.
“Oh my God, they’re adorable,” I say. I know how to ingratiate myself. Admiring someone’s pet is like complimenting them, and, sure enough, when I glance up, Alex’s grandma is beaming down at me.
“They’re getting old like me,” she says, turning and shuffling down the ornate hallway, Betsy dancing around our feet. “Where Betsy gets her energy from is a mystery to me. She’s seventy-six in dog years.”
As we walk past the long windows with pale taupe curtains, I spy a deck outside running the length of the apartment. A gilded piece of art sits on every bit of wall between the window frames.
“It’s always the women causing the trouble,” I say with a laugh, and Alex’s grandma turns, eyes sparkling.
“You don’t strike me as someone who’d have any trouble with ladies at all.”
What’s she’s implying? I’m going to take it as a straight shot. “Damn right. I’m always the one creating trouble in my relationships.”
Alex bends down to fuss with the dogs so I can’t catch his expression.
But his grandma laughs and says, “Yes, I can see that—a gorgeous young man like you.”
“Nana!” Alex says, but she just chuckles.
“I might be old and going blind and deaf, but I can still recognize an attractive man when I see one.” She pats my arm.
Right then and there, I decide that I love Alex’s grandma.
I look back up the corridor at the Persian carpets and the ornate side tables. “This is a stunning home you’ve got here, Mrs. Sachs.”
She blinks watery blue eyes at me and then glances around. “This place has been in the family for decades. I’ve lived here all my life. I grew up here.”
Greenery abounds outside the windows as we head into a corner room, and you’d think you were in the middle of the country if it wasn’t for the beautiful Manhattan skyline shimmering beyond the deck.
“Oh wow,” I say, unable to contain myself. “That’s such a long time to live anywhere. People don’t do that nowadays, do they?”
Ugh. Now I’ve stuck my foot right in it. Where is my filter? But she just beams at me.
“Yes, and is that a good or a bad thing? In the old days, stability was highly regarded because everything was so uncertain. The war, people dying … We lost an awful lot of young men. They went off to fight in Europe and the Pacific and never came back. People wanted normality. But now everyone wants change: change this, change that. I can’t decide what I think about it.”
Oh my God, I think I’m in love with Alex’s grandma.
“Now then,” she says, folding her arms over her round stomach and turning around to the pair of us as Betsy skitters around our feet butting my leg. Ivor waddles over to sit on a rug in front of the fireplace, where a real fire is dancing in the grate. That dog is the smart one of the two of them. “Would you boys like afternoon tea?”
Afternoon tea? “Sounds wonderful,” I say, as if I knew what it was, and she leans over and rings a little bell. I stare at the little brass item. The only other time I’ve seen something like that is in a movie from the 1930s.
Suddenly, a middle-aged woman appears in the doorway beyond Alex’s right shoulder.
“This is Anna. Anna, this is Des, a friend of Alex’s.”
Anna beams at me as Alex steps over to her and gives her a hug.
“How are you?” he mumbles into her hair.
“I’m all right, thanks.” She nods, arms coming up to pat his back.
“How’s Johnny?”
“Doing okay, Mr. Alex. Thank you so much for asking.”
“Could you serve afternoon tea, Anna, please?” Alex’s grandma says.
Anna nods and smiles and heads back through the doorway she appeared through, and Mrs. Sachs shuffles over to the cream sofa in front of the fire and turns around, gingerly lowering herself as Alex rushes to help her, propping cushions behind her back.
“Thank you, dear,” she says, as he sits down on the sofa perpendicular to hers. “Anna’s coping better,” she whispers to Alex.
Some gossip? My ears are flapping.
Alex gestures at me to sit, and I sink down next to him. “Her son Johnny got into some trouble, so Nana helped her out a bit,” he says.
She tuts. “Such an awful court case for that poor boy.”
I have the feeling Mrs. Sachs might be a pushover in a number of things—perhaps with young men? The idea makes me grin.
“He was in an accident. Some driver went after him for damages for personal injury,” Alex adds.
I grimace at this. Having a car in the city is a nightmare.
“So, what do you do, Des?”
“I’m a project manager at a software security company.”
Alex snorts at my side, and I turn toward him with raised eyebrows.
He leans forward. God, he smells delicious.
“He’s the second in command, Nana, and the company’s growing fast.”
His grandma waves her hand. “Oh, I don’t understand all this newfangled computer stuff. But my online bridge is awfully clever. The internet is an amazing thing.” A smile curves across her lips. “By the way,” she adds, patting my arm. “Please call me Ruth.”
“And you’re an absolute babe, am I right?” I say, grinning.
She laughs and pats my hand as Alex groans. “Oh, Alex,” she says. “I like this one. Reminds me of my Nate.”
A few bad jokes and she’s a pussy cat. Alex squints at me, a slight smile twisting his lips. “That’s my grandpa,” he says. “He died six years ago.”
“May his memory be a blessing,” Ruth says, eyes looking suspiciously more watery than they did a couple of seconds earlier.
Anna appears with a tray in the doorway and places it on the gold-and-glass coffee table in front of us. She starts pouring tea from a teapot into delicate china cups with roses all over them. Tiny cakes sit on a rotary cake stack, alongside small white triangular crustless sandwiches.
I sweep my hand over it. “Mrs. S, this is old school.”
Alex gapes at me. Maybe I’m being a bit out there.
“We like to do things properly on the Upper East Side,” she says.
“I can see that.”
And it’s a joy to experience this. Everything is perfect: beautiful petits fours and sandwiches perfectly aligned and artfully arranged. The gorgeous art and furniture here … It’s not modern, but the care and craftsmanship in the whole place takes my breath away.
“These cakes look so good.” I pick up a small scone bursting with jam and cream, and pop it in my mouth, and the cream and jam ooze out onto my tastebuds in a burst of sweetness and crumbly scone. “Oh wow!” I lean back as my eyes roll into the back of my head. When I sit forward again, Alex is frowning at me.
“Des, we can’t just help ourselves! We’re supposed to …”
Laughing, his grandma leans around Alex to pat my knee. “What a sweetheart you are. No one’s ever been so enthusiastic about my cakes.”
I grin at her. “This is heaven on a plate.”
She chuckles. “So, you’ve got an important role in this company you work for?”
I blow out a long breath. “We won a big security contract from Samsung and I’m managing it. They’re one of the biggest phone manufacturers in the world. It’s driving me a little crazy, to be honest.”
I’ve switched into oversharing mode. Too early in this conversation, I’ve decided that Alex’s grandma is a sweetheart who will forgive me anything, even my worst secrets, and that’s a very dangerous thing to think, especially when I’m pretending to be straight and, looking around Mrs. Sach’s apartment, probably Republican.
Actually, complaining about my work is also dangerous. I wave my hand. “Tell me all about Nate.” Glancing across the living room, a hundred pictures are sitting on top of a grand piano in the corner.
“Oh my God!” In a heartbeat, I’m on my feet and over the room. “Look at this!”
A silver-framed picture of a very attractive man in uniform is sitting front and center. “Is this Nate?” I say, picking it up.
His grandma struggles up. Alex stands to help her, but she just waves him away as she shuffles over to me.
“It is.”
“So handsome!” This is where Alex gets it from. The words are almost out of my mouth before I stop them, and a hot sweat breaks out on my neck.
“He was! Oh, he definitely was. When he came over to ask me to dance that first time …” She presses her hand to her chest. “I thought he was coming to talk to the girl beside me, I never thought he’d pick me. I was shocked.”
Inspecting the pictures again, I spot another one of Nate with a young Ruth hanging on his arm. Their wedding day . She’s a knockout.
“Ruth, you’re lying to me,” I say, plucking the photo out of the middle of everything else. “Look at you!”
“Well, I was all done up for my wedding day, of course …”
I examine her face in the picture, and the kind eyes next to me and the twinkling smile.
“I don’t think so. You were beautiful then and you’re still beautiful now.”
She purses her lips at me. “Oh, you are a one! Are you trying to charm me like you’ve charmed our Alex?”
Oh, shiiiiit.
Does she know?
Alex makes some gesture with his hand. “You know all my friends, Nana. They’re always charming.”
And I’m being way too obvious here. I stare down at the photo in my hands, trying to swallow down the rising tide of panic. I don’t want to get Alex into trouble. He’s cultivating this careful picture with his family that I can see is delicate. I can’t blow it all to smithereens by outing him with one visit. I’m an idiot.
His grandma rests her hand on my forearm. “Are you all right, young man?”
Smiling widely, I say, “I’m great.”
Alex studies me as we head out of the elevator. “Did you have to do that?”
“Do what?” I say, stomach churning.
“Charm the pants off my nana. Once we started on the sherry …” He groans. “All that stuff about my grandpa. He was such a scoundrel!”
Cackling, I sling my arm over his shoulder. “Ruth is a doll. I had an amazing time today. Did I do wrong?”
He glances at me sideways, a small smile playing around his mouth. “No, of course not. You’re a charmer, Des.”
I drop my arm as the doorman holds the elevator door open for us and I grin happily at him. That sherry was as delicious as the food and the company. As delicious as Alex. Shit. I’ve definitely drunk too much. Inches away from my mouth, Alex’s lips are ruby red like cherries.
“How about coming back to my place?” I say.
He shakes his head, and I pout.
“You don’t think she’s on to us, do you?” he says, turning and starting down the street. “That comment she made about you charming me …”
I shrug. What do I care? I want to get laid. Lie down on a bed with my gorgeous boyfriend.
As we head toward the subway, I slide my hand around his waist.
“Please come home with me,” I mumble as my hand drifts down to his ass.
“Des!” he says, taking my hand from his pants and squeezing it. He glances behind him up the street.
I look, too, and when I turn back, a worried frown is creasing his forehead. “I’m sorry, I’m still not used to …” he starts.
It’s a completely new experience having a guy who behaves like Alex. Normally, guys are all over me. If I’d done that to any other gay man, they’d have pushed me into the wall and kissed me senseless.
“It’s fine,” I interrupt, but even I can hear the wobble in my voice.
But Alex steps right up to me and runs a soft finger across my lips. “You know it isn’t because I don’t want to, don’t you?”
I nod. His eyes flick to mine, warm and earnest.
“Give me a chance to get better at all this.”
I nibble his finger, smiling. And why am I being so impatient? I’m enjoying slow. “One day,” I say, “I want you to talk dirty to me.”
He laughs. “I’ll try,” he says, “but I can’t guarantee I’d know what to say.”