“Eh.” Rory considered that for a moment. “Yeah, okay.”
“Neither of us has lost a parent yet. Neither of us has been on a three-month location shoot, either. Anyway, they are dealing with it. They’re both seeing the counselor. I know you love Andy, and Dana especially loves Andy, but I wanted to say, you know, don’t give Victor any more shit about that. He’s giving himself plenty. It’s for them to work out, not us.”
Rory made a muted growling sound, but said, “Okay.” Then she sighed.
“Well, yeah, you’re right. The way they were at ‘Milonga,’ it was pretty clear Andy doesn’t think there’s anything to forgive at this point.”
Vicky changed the subject. “Did you guys ever tell them what characters you want to do?”
“Gaahh, fuck, no! We can’t make up our minds! What are you doing?”
“We did Perdita and Florizel, from ‘A Winter’s Tale.’”
Fuck, Rory thought, because that was one of the pairings they’d considered. “You were Florizel, I presume.”
“Well, sure. They even had a sword thingy for me. It was dope.” Vicky was grinning. “I’m totally getting a print of this thing to hang in the bedroom.
Sharon was so cute.”
“Sharon is always cute. I gotta go, I have a rehearsal over at Dmitri’s for the Halloween thing.”
“Can’t wait to see it. Ciao chica.”
“Ciao.” Rory disconnected. She was home alone with the pack, so she couldn’t tell Dana about that whole conversation. Later, she thought, and meanwhile get over yourself.
Victor was slightly concerned about the whole dinner thing. Not having seen Rory and Dana for so long – five months, leaving aside the brief meetings at Chrome for the Swan Dive, ‘Diamond Dogs,’ and ‘Milonga’ –
had him feeling almost the way he’d felt the very first time they all had dinner together. That had been early in his actual, in-the-open relationship with Andy. After the Year of Maybe was finally over, after they’d said ‘I love you,’ but before Andy’s longtime girl friends had officially approved of him. He wasn’t really trying to conceal his nerves, so he wasn’t surprised when Andy said, “This feels familiar, doesn’t it.”
“Too familiar. I feel like I’m going to meet my parole officer.”
Andy huffed out a laugh. “How do you know what that feels like?”
“Hey, I’ve done my research. Remember how long I was on ‘Vice.’ We had all those LAPD consultants.”
“You ever miss that?”
“Fuck no.” He really didn’t, even though the series had been good to him. Getting that role had been a huge deal. If he hadn’t already been established in it, coming out could have tanked his career. If Victor hadn’t had a good reputation with the production company, they would never have considered taking Andy on; he’d barely even worked in TV before. And the whole reason had been to break the huge taboo about a gay relationship, expressed physically, in primetime. That first kiss had set off an explosion. In a way they were still recovering from it. “I feel like we’re not really done with it yet,” Victor said after a moment’s thought. “Not until we’ve fully processed what happened last fall. Maybe I’ll miss it when that’s all some kind of hazy memory.”
That got a skeptical snort from Andy. “I don’t think anything about that is ever going to be hazy. I’ll never forget what it felt like.” Awful, he thought.
The moment of incomprehension after Stan said ‘Gun,’ being knocked off his feet by Victor at the instant they heard the shot, landing flat on his back with Victor on top of him. So horribly still, for what felt like forever. “You’re talking about that with Robyn, right?”
Victor glanced over from the driver’s seat. They hardly ever talked about it themselves. “Yes. That and a lot of other things. Things about Mama, and John, and what happened with you this summer. We’re making progress there.”
“Good. Well, if Dana and Rory start in on you tonight I will play the diva card and shut them up. It’s my own fault. I went running to them.”
“So did I.”
“But I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry for that, too. I’m a grown-ass adult and I should have known better. Now they’ll always think of that.”
After a moment Victor said, “I appreciate that. Dana did scare the shit out of me.”
“I told her that. She wasn’t very apologetic.” Not at all, actually, but that was Andy’s fault too. Granted, he was still raw from Miami at the time.
Nonetheless, he’d been a little too operatic about the whole thing, given the relatively minor offense. Minor in retrospect, he thought. Should have put him face-down on the bed and dealt with it the old-fashioned way. The
thought made him snicker.
“What’s funny?”
“Thinking I should have never left the room that night. Should have thrown my weight around a little. You wouldn’t have been in any doubt how much I wanted you. How much I always have. I should have backed you up against the wall and said,” dropping into his sex voice, “you know what, you’re right. All you get is me from here on out. Get on that bed and let’s see how you like it.”
“Jesus, Andy.” Victor wriggled a little in his seat, grinning. “This car doesn’t need a stick shift.” They were still giggling about it when he parked at the cottage.
Rory opened the door, registered their expressions, thought Nope, nothing to bitch about here, and said “Hi guys, good to see you. I made cookies.”
“She wasn’t supposed to,” said Dana as they went in. “It’s pot roast, and there’s wine, and cookies mean my ass is back in the weight room in the morning.”
“Your ass is always in the weight room,” Rory said. Victor and Andy exchanged a glance, mutually decided that everything was cool, and went on through to the dining den.
“So did you
