Crow could have stayed in that rest stop and written an entire album in an hour, all he had to do was sit across from Ethan and listen to him speak the entire time. The man had a voice that encapsulated the essence of a muse. Even over the din of the conversation that surrounded them. Crow had never felt so inspired. He wanted to jump on the table and break out into a song about sapphires that fell from the sky and heart beats that painted a mural. Crow wanted to raise the roof off of the place, all in the name of Ethan Winter.

Instead, he remained seated and tried to bottle up all that inspiration for a later time. He focused instead on the crispy onion rings and decent burger. He had to look away from Ethan’s sexy lips before he accidentally drooled all over the table. “Where’s the one place you’ve always wanted to go?” Crow asked, wanting to dig deeper into who Ethan was as a person.

He chewed on his bottom lip, thinking of the answer and simultaneously sending a fireball straight to Crow’s crotch. Ethan looked so damn sexy when he was thinking about something. Crow had noticed that during the card game. He would sometimes bite down on his lip, revealing a set of pearly whites that Crow immediately wanted to lick and then have biting on his own skin. “Hmm,” Ethan said. “In America?”

“Anywhere.”

“Paris.”

“Nice, any special reason?”

Ethan smirked. “I’m into museums and The Louvre is one I’ve been wanting to go to since I could remember.”

Crow recognized that glint in those sapphire blue eyes. He could tell Ethan was being genuine about liking museums, and—somehow—that was even sexier than the lip bite. “I love an evening spent in a museum, and the Louvre is definitely one of my dream visits,” Crow said, squeezing his thighs together under the table. “But I also really love the small, weird ones. The side-show museums. Those are always a blast.”

“Those are great too. Have you been to The Museum of Jurassic Technology back in LA?”

Crow chuckled, remembering a good time in that museum. “Love it. It was so weird, and half the exhibits make you wonder if they’re even real, which is such a cool way to experience a museum. And the rooftop tea garden is somehow weirder than the entire place put together.” He smiled, not looking away from Ethan now. The man somehow made the fluorescent rest stop lighting look like a professional setup, ready for a photo-shoot. “There aren’t any museums, I think, but I’d really love to go to Santorini. I could be a huge beach bum when I have free time, so I really want to check out the black and red sand over there. Plus, I love those buildings with the bright blue roofs.”

Ethan looked down at the crumbs on his tray. Crow couldn’t exactly tell, but he had a sense that Ethan was no longer smiling. Crow looked over his shoulder, wondering if maybe Ethan spotted someone he knew, someone that made him retreat from the conversation like he had.

“You ok?” Crow asked.

Ethan didn’t look up, but he did nod. He grabbed his soda cup and sucked up nothing but air through the straw.

“I’m going to get a refill.” He got up and reached for Crow’s cup. “Need one?”

“Thank you,” Crow said, watching Ethan walk to the soda machine, a crowd of kids running around him toward one of their field-trip leaders.

Was it something I said?

His phone buzzed in the pocket of his gym shorts. He pulled it out and saw it was a message from Jordan. He was about to respond when he felt someone sit back down at the table. He looked up and was surprised when he didn’t see Ethan.

“Oh, Jordan,” Crow said. “I was just about to text you.”

“It’s ok. I get it. You don’t have to explain why you’re ignoring me.” Jordan mimed rubbing away tears. “I have enough confidence to know that no one can replace me.”

“Of course not, Jordan,” Crow said, clearly joking with him. Jordan knew they weren’t anything romantic, he was simply having a little fun, and Crow wasn’t going to refuse to play along.

“Seriously though,” Jordan said, swirling his coffee cup with one hand before holding it with both. He looked put together for someone who had been on a bus all morning. Most of them were wearing casual athletic wear since it was the most comfortable, but Jared opted for a dark gray polo and designer jeans with some serious tan leather shoes. He was definitely the PR guy out of the group, that was for sure. “You’re not seeing anyone are you?”

“Why are you so interested?” Crow asked.

“Because I’m picking up on a few cues lately and I wanted to confirm it straight from your mouth.”

“I don’t know what ‘cues’ you’re talking about, but I’m as single as can be.”

“So… you don’t have a secret ten-year relationship with this new doctor, like some kind of soap opera story line?”

Crow laughed at the outrageousness. “Yes, that’s exactly what it is. How do you read people so well?”

“Years of watching Oprah.” Jordan took a sip of his coffee. “Years.” He emphasized.

They were both laughing when Ethan came back to the table. Jordan looked up at him but didn’t move down the booth, which didn’t leave him any space to sit back down.

“Here,” Crow said, scooching down before Ethan turned to go back to the bus.

Ethan took the offer. He sat down, looking a little less taken aback than he was a few minutes ago. Crow still had no idea what he had said, but he definitely wasn’t going to bring it up in front of Jordan. He was already acting a little weird, he didn’t want to dig into Ethan’s psyche while Jordan watched.

“Sorry,” Jordan said, his voice taking on an odd tone. “Was I interrupting anything?”

“No, not at all,” Ethan said, a little too quickly. If Crow was being a hundred percent honest, then yes, yes Jordan was interrupting something.

“Ok,” Jordan said, not seeming to be accept the answer fully. He started looking around the room, making Crow wonder if maybe his flirty jokes were a little more serious. Was Jordan getting jealous? He had to know that it wasn’t like he had dibs on Crow. Sure, they never talked about it, but Crow didn’t think he had to have a discussion about it. He thought he made it clear in the multiple times Crow shut down Jordan’s more forward advances in the past. He was sort of used to it. The same thing had happened with both Angela and Troy, too. Angela had made a move on Crow before she knew he was gay and Troy did the same thing, except both of them seemed to have taken no for an answer just fine. Crow thought Jordan’s persistence was playful, but maybe not…

“So, doctor Winter,” Jordan said, still looking around the room. “What’s your story?”

“Excuse me?”

“Yeah, your story.” Jordan was looking at him now. “What kind of baggage are you carrying? What’s underneath those deep baby blues of yours? We’re going to be traveling together for the next three months, we might as well know the best and the worst of each other.”

“There’s no need to go that deep,” Crow interjected. He saw what Jordan was doing, and he didn’t like it. He was trying to get Ethan to air out all his dirty laundry, probably in hopes of detracting from Crow’s attraction toward him.

As if.

Ethan didn’t look bothered by the question. He looked much more composed than when Crow was talking about visiting Santorini.

I wonder why?

“I wanted an adventure,” Ethan said, “that’s all.”

Jordan cocked his head. “Eh, I’m not buying it. You seem like someone that’s carrying something big on their shoulders. You’re not as easy-going as you sometimes put on, I can see that. So what is it? A rough divorce? A—“

“A ‘none of your business’, Jordan.” Crow was getting upset now. He could feel Ethan next to him, only inches away, and he wanted to reach out and put an arm over his shoulders. Then, he’d draw him in and tell Jordan to go fuck off.

“No, that’s ok,” Ethan said. He could feel some of the tension growing in the air. “He’s partially right. I am running from something.”

Crow turned in his seat, looking at Ethan, watching his jaw tighten and flex, cutting a sharp outline on his face. He was looking across the table at Jordan, who’s eyes went back to drifting around the rest stop, as if he wasn’t the one who opened up this can of worms in the first place.

“See?” Jordan seemed to puff his chest up a little, as if finding pride in discovering something. “Usually it’s Angela that get’s all ‘Miss Cleo’-like and shit. She’s the one that can read auras and tell what people are hiding. Remember when she cancelled her first wedding because of one of her dreams? The night we had to bunk in the same hotel room. The one with only the queen-sized bed.”

Crow took a deep breath. He was seeing what kind of game Jordan was playing, and he wanted it to end. “Yes, I remember,” Crow said, hoping it would end the conversation. He did remember that night. Angela had cancelled her wedding hours before because of an intense dream she had. To her credit, the guy ended up going to jail two months later for drug trafficking and attempted murder. She never had that great of taste in men but at least her dream didn’t seem to steer her wrong.

He could also see how Jordan was trying to imply that they spent that night fucking away because of cancelled plans and a tiny bed, which was the farthest thing from the truth. Crow had kept close to one edge of the bed, moving to the couch at some point during the night when he grew tired of throwing Jordan’s leg off of his own.

“Oh my god!”

The yell was loud and sudden and came from the booth behind Jordan. The voice belonged to a girl, her big hazel eyes growing even larger the second she spotted Crow sitting across from her. She looked around the rest stop, which had gone deathly quiet for a second, before people realized nothing terrible had happened and they were free to go on about their day. Except for the kids close by, they all realized the same thing as the girl, and they all jumped out of their seats and rushed to Crow’s booth.

That was normally what happened. He saw it all the time when he was out with Red. Once one person recognized Red, an entire group would follow, even if they weren’t exactly sure who he was. Suddenly, Crow’s table was surrounded by high schoolers, asking for selfies. The teachers and chaperones tried to calm the crowd and regain some sort of control over the star struck bunch. Crow, for his part, smiled in as many selfies as they could take.

Finally, the crowd dispersed, all of them happy with their souvenirs.

“Wow,” Ethan said, letting out a breath. “That was crazy.”

“Never happened before,” Crow said, also feeling a little overwhelmed. He had been approached by one or two fans before when he was out in public, but this felt like the entire place was suddenly asking for his attention. It was weird. He enjoyed it, but also couldn’t help but feel a dose of nerves during the moment. His normal level of anxiety was climbing higher and higher with each new fucked up letter that landed on his doorstep.

“We should head back to the bus,” Crow said, looking at his watch and noticing the time.

“You know what’s weird?” Ethan said as they started getting up with their trays of burger wrappers. “No one asks for autographs anymore. I remember when we were kids and didn’t have cameras in our pockets, an autograph would be the only thing we could take away from an encounter like that.”

“I never thought about that before,” Crow said. Jordan walked ahead of them, throwing out his trash and speed walking toward the bus. “I guess a selfie is going to get way more likes on their Instagram.”

“I can’t tell if that should make me sad or if that’s just me not understanding kids.”

“Probably both.”

“True.”

They walked past the sunglass stalls, past the racks and racks of brochures advertising a rainbow of different vacation stops. It was outside when Crow brought up what he thought was on both their minds. “Sorry about Jordan, he’s normally cool. He must be having an off day.”

“It’s fine.” Ethan said it in a way that made Crow feel like it wasn’t.

“I’m here for you whenever you want to talk.” Unlike Jordan, Crow was in no way going to force Ethan into digging up the skeletons in his closet. As they reached the bus, Crow couldn’t stop himself from reaching out and wrapping an arm around Ethan’s waist. He pulled him in for a side hug that lasted seconds, but left a warmth that lasted for days.

“Thank you,” Ethan said, smiling in a way that made Crow feel like everything was going to be ok.

No, no. Better than ok.