Chapter Six #3
Leonora pinned him down with an unimpressed look. “I am fifty-seven years old and very happily married to my fourth husband. Nothing you can show me will be something I have not seen before.”
“Right.” Still blushing, Breezy pulled off his Henley and loose jeans, leaving him in pink boxer briefs with little geometric line drawings of ice cream cones in teal.
Leonora surveyed him once again before turning to Luca. “He is adorable. And gorgeous. Is he on your hockey team?”
“Again, he understands everything you’re saying,” Luca said. “And yes.”
She waved him off. “What’s your name, beautiful?”
“Um, Chris.”
“All right, um, Chris. What do you look for in a suit?”
Breezy turned to Luca for hints on the correct answer.
“What fabrics do you like to wear?” Luca tried, but he had a sinking feeling that was verified as soon as Breezy opened his mouth.
“I think my favorite one is polyester. It’s comfortable? And not all stiff.”
Leonora patted him on the cheek. “You are very lucky you are so handsome, child. What about color?”
“Oh, um, I have one in tan—”
“Terrifically hideous,” Luca cut in. “It doesn’t fit him at all, and it doesn’t travel well either.”
“Tan.” Leonora shook her head in consternation. “Absolutely not. You’re a winter, dear. You need richer tones. Let’s try an easier question. Do you run hot or cold?”
“Hot,” Breezy said.
Luca would have guessed as much. He’d been warm before, when he hugged Luca.
If he did it more often, maybe Luca wouldn’t need to wear sweaters all the time in their apartment.
If Luca were his sex coach, he could keep Breezy in his bed as a human space heater— No.
He viciously booted the train of thought from his mind.
“Mhm.” Leonora rifled through fabric samples. “I think we should keep it classic for the suits. Maybe one in black and one in charcoal to start, yes?”
Luca nodded.
“And we’ll use jewel tones for the shirts. They will make you shine.” She gestured for Breezy to get up onto the stand. “Now, materials. Your hockey season lasts until spring, yes?”
Again, Luca nodded. Breezy seemed to have accepted his input was no longer necessary. He was very coachable, always went with the flow during practice, and he seemed to have adopted the same stance here. Luca wondered how coachable he would be in other areas. If he—
Luca took a deep breath and imagined a pool of acid in which he could drown his inappropriate thoughts.
“Hm, so lighter fabrics are not such a good idea, but you need something that breathes. I think we’ll go with merino for the black suit and worsted wool for the charcoal. If you have weddings to go to in the summer, you come see me again, and we work out something in linen, yes?”
“Sure,” Breezy said weakly.
“And we say, hm, six shirts to start?” Leonora consulted a book of orders. “Yes, that should do. I’ll add it to your tab, Luca?”
“Of course.”
“What?” Breezy’s head snapped up. “Luca, no—”
“You can always charge me rent.” Luca smiled at him, showing a few more teeth than necessary.
Breezy pursed his lips and said nothing.
Leonora looked between them, but she didn’t ask. Instead, she took her measuring tape and a clipboard and pencil from the top drawer of her desk, put on her glasses, and began working.
This put Luca at the very sudden and stark disadvantage of having nothing to do except look at Breezy, standing obediently still and naked apart from his underwear.
He did his best not to look at him in the locker room, since it was terrible manners, but here, with Breezy standing quite literally on a pedestal, he couldn’t avoid the sight.
Dark hair sprinkled Breezy’s broad chest, his pecs a soft-looking swell, though Luca knew they were extremely muscular.
He’d watched Breezy use the butterfly press before, and manfully, he hadn’t salivated all over the floor.
If he could just rest his head there— No.
Into the pool of acid with that concept as well.
Breezy’s arms hung at his sides as if he didn’t know what to do with them.
The swell of muscle was unmistakable all the same, and Luca wanted to count the moles dotting his forearms. He’d long ago catalogued the one at the left side of Breezy’s jaw, which matched the deep brown of his eyes, as well as the one by his thumb joint.
The only soft part of Breezy was the layer of fat covering his abdomen, a testament to his summer weight. He would lose it soon enough when the season really kicked off, and Luca would mourn its absence.
Maybe Luca had it wrong when he tried to suppress his more lustful thoughts.
Breezy didn’t have much interest in sex anyway by his own admission.
Maybe it was his own uncharacteristic desire for soft touches and romance that kept Luca tripping down the same well-worn mental path over and over.
When Breezy was all hard muscle, Luca could return to wanting him carnally instead of fantasizing about cuddling.
It wouldn’t be an improvement, but it would be more normal.
“Now, young man, do you always wear this type of underwear?” Leonora sank to her knees in one smooth motion to measure around Breezy’s hips. She then made a note on her pad.
This time, the blush didn’t start on Breezy’s cheeks. First his chest flushed pink, then his neck, and finally, the rosy heat reached his face, highlighting the sweet roundness of his cheeks.
“Um, I…” he stammered. “Yeah, I… They’re, um, comfortable.”
“Perfectly fine,” Leonora said, running her tape measure up the inside of Breezy’s leg. “When my father taught me his trade, we used to ask men if they dressed left or right, but these days, most do neither. Much cleaner lines on the suit pants if you ask me.”
She made another note on her pad, set it aside, then stood and took her glasses off again. “I don’t mean to be indelicate, but I am familiar with the brand. Is it right to plan for a little, ah, breathing room in that area?”
Growing redder by the second, Breezy stuttered out an agreement.
Luca wondered if he would be as bashful completely naked and aroused.
Did Leonora have a spray bottle somewhere on the premises so he could train himself out of these thoughts?
Leonora nodded. “Much better to have the conversation now than to have an awkward bulge later.”
Miraculously, Breezy laughed. Luca had never known anyone to overcome embarrassment with such speed. “I’m so excited,” he told Leonora. “I have such a hard time finding pants that fit.”
She eyed his jeans with revulsion. “I can tell. Once you’ve tried, you will have to let me know what you think. Luca can bring you to his next fitting if you’re convinced.”
Breezy turned his million-watt smile on Luca.
“Of course,” Luca said.
He couldn’t stop himself from watching as Breezy pulled his clothes on again, hiding miles of skin under what Luca could see now were hideously ill-fitting clothing choices.
On their way home, they stopped for smoothies and sandwiches at a far-too-expensive shop near the BART station.
They found a bench by a fountain comprised of stones arranged in geometric shapes, where they sat to eat.
The team nutritionists said it was important to take time over meals and not rush them, and Breezy always did what they told him.
He was very coachable. Everyone said so.
Between bites of his turkey on rye with avocado and pomegranate jus—the most Californian sandwich Luca could have imagined—Breezy enthused about Leonora and how neat her shop looked, how interesting she was, and what it must be like to be a woman in a trade so dominated by men.
“She made fun of you the whole time,” Luca pointed out while he unwrapped his sandwich (roast beef with mustard, mozzarella, and pesto). “I apologize.”
Leonora didn’t mean anything by it. She was sharp-tongued by nature, one reason why Luca got along with her and kept going back after she’d made his first game-day suit for the big leagues last November. But he didn’t want Breezy to be uncomfortable.
“Nah, she did it the way you do it.” Breezy smiled at him, big and luminous. “I don’t mind people making fun as long as I’m in on the joke.”
He took a sip of his smoothie, his cheeks hollowing as he sucked on the cardboard straw.
“I could help you,” Luca said with no input whatsoever from his brain.
“Huh?” Breezy licked a hint of blended berry off of his upper lip.
“With sex. If you are in the market for a coach.”