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“Yeah It kind of is,” Ian said

Paul let it drop

The next day he , “We should try to come up with a solution”

Ian agreed, but Paul let it drop again

The next day Paul added a new suggestion: “Why don’t you just come stay at my place?”

Ian agreed immediately

It was the easiest “ day” he’d ever been involved in Paul arrived in theon the stoop and s his plaid slacks andjacket with a deer-stalker hat that would have ed man look dowdy O

n Ian, it was a fashion stateoofiness When an ordinary-looking person wears an ugly hat, you assu and beautiful person wears an ugly hat, you assuet it All of Ian’s ireen backpack he had slung over his right shoulder In his right hand, Ian held the fly-eating plant Paul was struck once again by how young Ian was, and how even younger he looked To anyone watching, Paul h-school son for school

The propulsion of their passion had carried hie step he was taking Inviting Ian to est risk he’d taken in his life

What aht drifted away

Ian’s clothes took up only one drawer Son objects in Ian’s drawer, delighting in what their presence represented He would pick up a pair of Ian’s jeans and wonder at the narrowness of the waist He grinned at the unfaos on the orn T-shirts They were a symbol of Ian’s youth—his “otherness”

The extra shaving kit in the bathrooue him the way Sara’s toiletries had when they had first ether She had all those mysterious feminine lotions and potions They were a wonderful sy the azing at s their contents

Ian never bothered to close the bathroo his ears with cotton swabs, poking at a zit on his forehead, or sitting on the toilet, he was co Paul would normally consider to be a distasteful breech of etiquette For some reason, with Ian, he didn’t mind The difference in their attitudes about privacy simply fascinated Paul, who couldn’t even brush his teeth in front of anybody Ian was, in the best way, sha free from shame about his incarnation

Their domestic life soon took on a comfortable routine That hat Paul cherished the most—not the moments of excitement and sexual ecstasy, but the ordinary day-to-day stuff, the things that never make it into photo albu events were the very substance of life, and it was precious to Paul to be living theel

Paul would watch Ian bringing in thelist, or take out the trash Paul did , because Ian couldn’t be bothered Ian put the dishes in the dishwasher, because he liked that, but he didn’t like putting the clothes in the laundry but not taking theot near the toilet with a brush He liked vacuu, but the vacuum usually didn’t quite make it back into the closet when he’d finished He sees away, and ahere Paul liked things to be