everybody) and dessert (for Andy and Reggie) stage. By that time it was very late for the Englishman, and he was fading fast. “You should call it a night,”
Victor said. “You’ve had a long day.”
Reggie said, “You have no idea. Well, of course you do. Your husband is exhausting.”
“Hey. You’re the one who wanted to look at all the pictures.”
“It kills me to wait till next bloody summer to see them on a wall. Yes, all right. It’s been a lovely evening, thank you so much for your hospitality. I shall now retire. Mr. Garcia, I believe Mr. Martin has something to show you upstairs.”
Victor’s eyebrows shot up. That was either unusually clumsy innuendo, or they really had been up to something. What on earth. He glanced at Andy; Andy looked excited; Victor remembered suddenly that Reggie was a painter.
“You know, Mr. Galant, I believe he does have something to show me.”
After sending Reggie to the guest room and doing very minimal cleaning-up, they headed for the stairs.
Andy got there ahead of Victor, stood in front of him, and said, “This is your Christmas present. He hand-delivered. The suspense has been killing me.”
“Are you going to let me go upstairs and see it?” Victor was smiling.
“Kiss me first.” They didn’t rush it. “Mmm. I love you.”
“I love you too.” Andy stood back, and let Victor go up. He followed two steps behind, so he was still on the top stair when Victor stopped moving. “Honey?”
Andy set his hands on Victor’s hips as he stepped up. “Yes, sweetheart.”
“How the fuck?”
“A still from the video. I sent him a few other things so he could get your beautiful face right. Do you like it?” He slid his arms around Victor’s waist.
Victor wrapped his own over the top.
“It’s amazing. I love it.” Victor turned his head a little, enough for Andy to kiss him again. “When?”
“I sent it that last day out in the Catskills. I was thinking about it for a while, but there was a reason I thought, I really need to do this now.”
Victor thought he knew what that reason was. He looked at the painting some more, loving Andy so much he could hardly stand it. “It’s such a strong
shape.”
“Yeah. You know what I thought when I was making up my mind?”
“What’s that, baby.”
“I was studying that and I thought, you had me. We worked that shit out.
It was kind of a mess for a minute, but you never let me fall.”
“I never would.” Victor turned around, put his hands on Andy’s face, stroked his hands through his hair, and kissed him again. They kissed for a long time.
THE END
More from this author:
L.A. Stories Novels
Beat (featuring Sam Lee & Mateo de la Cruz) Exposure (featuring Andy Martin & Victor Garcia) Face the Music (featuring Paula Ross & Mike Borodin) Today, Tomorrow and Forever (featuring Grace Hart & Lucas Gutierrez) Million Dollar Death (featuring Tanith Salazar & Ysidro Palacio) The Ghost of Carlos Gardel (featuring Andy Martin & Victor Garcia) A Few Kisses Ago (featuring Tasha Jefferson & Sandesh Prasad) A Braid of Love (featuring Janis Vaughn, Niall Phelps & Geoffrey Anand) Take Everything (featuring Richard Hollister & Willem van der Meer – coming soon) Lost & Found (featuring Charlotte Montgomery & Sacha Lebedev – coming soon)
Nonfiction
Other Voices: Social Commentary in the Novels of Frances Burney
Drama
What Went Down
This book is inspired in part by Jon Arterton and James Mack. If you like the book, I recommend their album ‘Legally Married … and the sky didn’t fall!’
It’s available on Amazon.
www.thelastories.com
