Extraits

- Ça va ?

Une vague de tendresse le submergea et son sourire chancela. Il laissa tomber la lettre sur le sol et attira Eli dans un câlin.

- Oui.

Ce dernier le mit en place en souriant.

- Pourquoi tu souris ?

- Comment tu le sais ? s’étonna Caspian.

- Ta respiration change.

“Just take my gay card.”

Eli lurched from his seat, nearly toppling a mug of steaming coffee. “Caspian!”

Caspian slung his snow-flurried coat and rucksack over a vinyl chair and produced a card from his wallet. “I spent six hours in a ride-share with a possibly bisexual Aquarius quizzing me on everything LGBTQ-plus.” Plastic clicked on the table between them. “What is our theme song?”

“Hello to you, too.” Eli opened his arms and Caspian moved like a magnet; they collided, murmuring how much they’d missed each other. He matched Eli’s tight squeeze, absorbing his firm, graceful strength and familiar oaky scent.

Ice-blue eyes met Caspian’s pointedly. “We don’t have a theme song. But, ‘Born This Way’?”

Caspian pulled off his wool-knit hat and ruffled his hair. “Not Kermit the Frog’s ‘Rainbow Connection’?”

“Works too.”

Caspian sank onto a rickety chair. Their respective college campuses sat at opposite ends of the state; it’d been four long months since they’d met face to face. They had to meet more regularly, no matter the imposition. Nothing beat the sensory jumpstart those hugs gave his life.