Chapter 2

Eric

 

We were both getting hungry, so Andrew and I left the hotel in search of food. Since this was Italy, I didn’t imagine we’d have to look very hard, and I was right—the street was lined with restaurants on both sides, not to mention down some of the alleys and side roads. There was patio seating everywhere with people kicked back having coffee, gelato, sandwiches, and cigarettes. A few people had dogs lying at their feet.

“Anything sound good?” I asked as we wandered past a place that apparently didn’t open until dinnertime.

“The list of what doesn’t sound good would be shorter.” Andrew paused to skim over a menu displayed beside a closed door. He tapped on it before we kept walking. “We should keep this place in mind for tonight.”

“Definitely.”

At the end of our block, we found a pub, which kind of surprised me. It was an odd little place too. Like someone had opened a restaurant styled after the bastard lovechild of a British pub and a coffee shop, then handed it down to his son, who kept most of the décor but added some indie band posters on the walls and had AC/DC blasting from the speakers. It shouldn’t have worked, but it was charming in its own way. And I was hungry and smelled garlic, so they could have wallpapered the place with cat asses and I still wouldn’t have said no.

Andrew didn’t seem quite as charmed by it. “This place doesn’t look very Italian.”

“No, but it has food and beer.”

“Well damn,” he said with a laugh. “When you put it like that…”

They had a few tables outside, and a cute waiter with blue eyes and a black goatee showed us to one that was shaded by a small awning but still had a panoramic view of the street. His English was way better than our Italian, and Andrew and I managed to order a couple of beers in between checking out the way the guy’s black pants clung to his ass.

As the waiter went back inside, Andrew leered at him, then mouthed at me, “Damn.”

“I know, right?” I whispered. “I already love this country.”

Andrew chuckled as he picked up a menu. “Perv.”

“Uh-huh. That’s rich coming from you.”

“What?” He put a hand to his chest and scoffed. “I have no idea what you’re—”

Our waiter reappeared, beers in hand, and we both blushed like idiots. He gave me a flirty smile and Andrew a little wink, then went back into the pub.

As I watched him go, I said, “Think he’d be down for a threesome?”

“If you can figure out how to ask him in Italian, go for it.”

I grimaced. “Eh. I’d probably accidentally insult his mother or something.”

“Translator app?”

“Do we have Wi-Fi here?”

He turned his menu around and showed me a small Wi-Fi icon, and under that, a password. “I dare you.”

I just chuckled as I picked up my own menu. “Nah. You wear me out enough.”

“Damn right I do,” he said with a big grin.

We both laughed and continued perusing the menu. As much as I second-guessed having him along for the next two weeks, I was glad he was here. I liked his company. The easy banter. How not stressful it was to find a place to eat, relax, plan our outings. If this trip had been my honeymoon after all, I didn’t imagine flirting with waiters, joking about inviting him back for a threesome, or just feeling this at ease. Chris and I would have found something to stress each other out about. Andrew and I… didn’t.

Because this thing is still shiny and new and we haven’t gotten on each other’s nerves yet. Don’t overthink it.

Yeah. Me. Not overthinking something. That’ll be the day.

God, why was I suddenly so cynical about what we were doing? I’d all but begged him to come along with me, and I’d been beyond relieved when he had. Why couldn’t I just enjoy it and not overthink it? Besides the fact that overthinking was sort of my thing?

Mercifully oblivious to my inner hand-wringing, Andrew did a double take at the menu. “What the…”

“What?” I skimmed my own, trying to find what had caught his eye.

A laugh burst out of him. “Is it weird that I’m in Italy, land of amazing food, and I suddenly really want to order this?” He turned his menu around and pointed at an item.

I leaned closer and read the text: Barbecue Chicken Nachos. I blinked a few times, then laughed. “Should we order it?”

Andrew grinned. “Want to?”

“Hell, why not?” Okay, so it did kind of seem like sacrilege, coming to Italy and ordering something like this. A buddy of mine had once spent an overnight layover in Paris and wound up eating at McDonald’s, but he’d had an excuse because nothing else had been open. Right now, Andrew and I couldn’t have spit without hitting an Italian restaurant.

But goddamn—when our incredibly hot waiter brought the gigantic plate to the table, it turned out those nachos were fucking amazing.

“We have to make a pact right now.” I used one chip to pile some barbecue sauce and melted cheese onto another. “When we get back to the States, we tell no one about this.”

Andrew laughed as he tugged a chip free from the cheese. “Deal.”

We chuckled as we continued pulling apart the nachos and indulging. Less than six hours in Rome, and we’d already sworn each other to secrecy over a culinary sin.

Who are either of us going to tell, though?

The thought sobered me a little. Aside from tagging each other in incriminating social media posts, it wasn’t like either of us could exactly broadcast this to our respective social circles. Because we had completely different social circles. In completely different states.

Oh right. We come from different worlds, don’t we?

I kept forgetting that. Not just letting it slip from the front of my mind, but actually forgetting. He’d fit himself into my life so well it was hard to remember he hadn’t existed in it until two weeks ago.

The cheese and barbecue sauce-smothered chip in my hand didn’t seem so appetizing anymore, and I wasn’t sure why.

On the ship, when I’d all but begged Andrew to join me in Italy, it had seemed like a good idea. The thought of our time together ending so soon had been too much, and spending two more weeks with him had been a no-brainer. As relaxed as we were together, as easy as we bantered, as low-stress as every outing had been so far—why wouldn’t I want another two weeks of that? Especially if it meant we could make this thing fly for real?

But had I really thought it through?

Not… not really, no.

The thing was, though we’d spent most of our waking—and not—time together, there’d always been easy escapes if we’d needed them. He could go to dinner or on an excursion with his family. I could bow out and go to the gym. He had his cabin if he didn’t want to stay in my stateroom. We’d very rarely used them, and in fact the one time I’d asked for a night alone, it hadn’t been long before I’d gone looking for him.

But the option had been there. I didn’t want to be away from him—I just wasn’t sure how I felt about effectively being handcuffed to him. And that made me feel guilty as fuck.

Andrew nudged my foot under the table. “Hey. You’re about to lose your cheese.”

I shook myself and looked at the chip, and sure enough, the cheese and sauce were about to slide off the edge. I saved it by tilting it, then popping the whole thing in my mouth where it belonged.

“You okay?” He scooped up some more chicken and sauce. “You were kind of zoning out.”

“Yeah, I’m…” I shook my head and focused on scraping some cheese off the plate with another chip. “Thinking about what to do while we’re here.” Eh, close enough. “I kind of wish we’d done more while we were on the boat, but man, those excursions seemed more stressful than they were worth.”

“I know, right?” Andrew scowled. “It’s not as fun when you’re constantly checking your watch to make sure you have time to get back to the boat.”

“Exactly. And besides, I like exploring on my own. Going off the beaten path. That’s tough to do when you’re on a timer.”

“Well.” His scowl morphed into that sweet smile that still made my toes curl. “Now we have all the time we need. You’re the one who planned this trip, so I’ll follow your lead.”

“I wouldn’t say I ‘planned’ much of it.” I inclined my head. “But even though you’re joining me, you’re on this trip too. If there’s something you want to see, or something you don’t want to see, just say so.”

His smile turned shy—God, that was so fucking adorable—and he nodded. “I will. I just haven’t spent much time figuring out what I want to do in Rome. I, uh…” He blushed. “Wasn’t planning on visiting until a little while ago.”

I chuckled, though my insides tightened at the reminder of our last-second change of plans. Well, only time would tell. In the meantime I had every intention of enjoying both Rome and the man who was exploring the city with me.

“For what it’s worth,” he said after a moment. “I kind of wish we’d seen more during the cruise, but I wouldn’t say we wasted our time on the ship. Going out would’ve been fun and all, but you won’t hear me complaining about staying in and being lazy.”

I laughed. “Or staying in and screwing until neither of us could walk?”

Andrew shivered. “That too. I assume we’re going to see a bit more of Rome, though.”

“Oh yeah. Still plenty of staying in”—I winked—“but yeah, I’d like to see the city.”

“Me too. What did you want to do first? That bus tour?”

“I was thinking that, yeah.” I nodded toward the roundabout at the end of the road. “The buses pick up right over there. First one leaves around nine-fifteen. The reviews said they get kind of full this time of year, so it might not be a bad idea to get on at the first stop when they’re just starting out for the day. So we make sure we grab a good seat.” I paused. “I’m thinking we do the whole loop first. Like I said—get the lay of the land. On the second time around, we can get off at whatever we want to see.”

Andrew nodded. “Okay. That works.”

I lifted my eyebrows. “Does it?”

He cocked his head. “Why wouldn’t it?”

“Well, I…” I hesitated, then put a hand on his forearm. “You’re on this trip too. I’ve got a big long list of things I want to see, but seriously, if there’s something you want to do, speak up.”

“I will, don’t worry.” He covered my hand with his. “Honestly, I don’t really know what’s here besides the Colosseum and the Pantheon, but if something catches my eye, I’ll tell you. Promise.”

“Okay. Just don’t let me drag you all over the place without—”

“Relax. You’re not.” His smile made my heart flutter. “And I won’t. I promise.” He gestured down the road. “Think we should walk around and see what’s here?”

I smiled back. “I’ll get the check.”

After I’d paid, we left the pub and started down the street. The sidewalk was full of people, but it wasn’t too bad even with the aggressive street vendors. I had no compunction about forcefully telling someone to back off. Andrew wasn’t quite so in-your-face, but he was quickly getting good at body-swerving people and just ignoring them when they called after him. Even when we stopped to look at some souvenirs laid out on a table, he just ignored people when they tried to get in his face. That approach was a little passive for my taste, but it seemed to work for him.

He picked up a plastic replica of the Colosseum for his nephew and a glass flower for his mom, and we kept walking. Occasionally we stopped at other shops or to snap a picture, but mostly we strolled along the busy street and took in Rome.

I couldn’t believe I was finally here. I’d always wanted to come to Rome, and now I had. Not with the person I’d expected, either. Hell, just this morning I’d been getting into my cab and fully intending to explore the city alone.

But I wasn’t alone. I was with Andrew.

We weren’t moving too fast, were we? It wasn’t like we’d been hooking up via Tinder and suddenly decided to take off to Europe together. We’d started out on vacation. We were just extending that vacation by a couple of weeks. Just because this trip had originally been my honeymoon didn’t mean Andrew and I were eloping or something, so obviously I was just overthinking everything. Story of my life, really.

Stealing glances at him as he drank in our surroundings, I made a conscious decision to stop analyzing everything and worrying about anything beyond right now. The next two weeks would be amazing. I was bound and determined to enjoy Rome, to enjoy Andrew, and to enjoy Rome with Andrew.

I’d just try not to think about what would happen when it was time to go our separate ways.