“For how much longer?”
He shrugged. “As long as I keep working. When this guy cuts me loose, there’ll be someone else. There always is.”
“Have you saved anything?” I started to reach for one of the business cards Wills had had printed up for me, Theo Bascopolis, Accountant at Large. I’d offer to do Connor’s taxes for him, look over whatever finances he had.
“You’re sounding like an old worrywart.”
“Maybe, but I’m an old worrywart who won’t have to peddle his tail when he’s sixty-five.”
Connor flinched.
“I’m sorry.” Not for what I’d said, but for the fact that he might very well be on the streets in forty years, if he was still alive. “So, uh…Are you planning to come back to DC?”
“I don’t think so. I’m…happy…in the Big Apple.”
“You always did like the bright lights, if I recall correctly. Why are you here then?”
“For the Valentine’s Day Ball, darling. But what else?”
“You never came to any of the other Balls.”
“No. Dan didn’t want me to. Since we’re not together anymore, I thought I’d come down this year, touch base, see what’s going on. Are you going to be there?”
“Not likely. Since I’m out of the business, Le Roi doesn’t think I belong.”
“Who got voted in this year?”
“Grand Prix.”
“Grand Prix? Grand asshole you mean!”
“You’ve got that right. I was hoping Kory would take the crown, but—”
“Who?”
“Kory? He’s in the same stable as Geep.”
He shook his head.
“There was talk of the election being rigged.”
“No shit! Damn, maybe I should move back. I miss all this good stuff.”
“Hey, that’s life in the Capital.”
“Yeah. Well, maybe I’ll just check him out for myself.” He looked at me through his lashes. “You sure you don’t want to come? I would have thought the boys would all be dying to meet your man.”
“They did meet him. At the Halloween Ball.”
“Huh?”
“I was Zorro, and he went as the Lone Ranger.”
Connor’s eyes widened. “That was him?”
“Yes.” I was pleased that he was so impressed.
“Oh, wow! There was some stir the next day. We even heard about it in New York. That costume…”
“Yeah.” I laughed. I didn’t think Wills realized it was actually a stripper’s version of the Lone Ranger’s outfit.
“You left before it was time to unmask.” Connor’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”
I shrugged. “He had work the next day.”
“Is that what you told everyone at the ball? Did they believe you?”
“I don’t see why they shouldn’t have. It was the truth.”
“Was it the whole truth? Or were you afraid one of the boys would make a play for him and take him away from you?”
“Of course not.” If only out of professional courtesy. “Besides…” I started to tell him about the New Year’s Eve Ball.
“You know it will happen one day.”
“What will?”
“He’ll leave you.”
“He won’t. He loves me.”
“Y’know, we always thought that was just a fairy tale, one of us being rescued from ‘the life’ by Prince Charming. What’s his name, anyway—the boyfriend who took you away from all this?”
I hesitated.
“Fine. Don’t tell me, but face it, Sweetcheeks. You’re used goods. We all are. And one day he’ll realize that and—”
“Excuse me. If you’ll sign the slip, sir?” The sales associate handed me the merchant’s copy and a pen and placed the maroon velvet jeweler’s case with the Pegasus logo on the glass counter.
I scribbled my name on the slip, pocketed my copy, and took the case that held the chain and the charm.
“Can I see?”
I had to check it anyway, so I opened the case. The chain and the charm had both been buffed.
“He’s a Virgo?”
“Yes.”
Connor turned over the charm. “Love always, Theo?”
Even after all this time, I still couldn’t say those three words to my lover. In spite of the fact that I’d managed to say it twice—on his birthday and on mine—my original admission had been, “because I don’t love him!” referring to Mark Vincent.
I’d wanted to have something special engraved on the charm, and I’d thought about it a long while, trying to come up with something clever and eloquent that would let Wills know how much I cared, how much joy and pleasure he’d given me in the nine months that we’d been living together, how much it meant having him in my life. Finally I’d given up and settled for the banal, Love always, Theo, even though it was heartfelt.
“Who’s Theo?” I gave him an exasperated look, and he bit his lip. “Sorry. That’s your name, Sweetcheeks?”