Chapter 22

After a little while he said, “Changed. No. That’s not it. It’s like, a feeling of—” he made a gesture with two hands, “of something inside me having snapped, like a twig.” Then he looked at me, puzzled and appealing.

I nodded. “Okay,” I said. “But how does that feel? Good? Bad? Something else?”

He considered. “It feels—strange.”

“Okay, but strange how?”

He considered again. Then he looked at me and shook his head. “You know, I don’t know. Funny.” He paused. “But not—bad. Not exactly.”

“Good?”

“Huh.” A pause. “I don’t—know.” He looked at me and suddenly pulling me into a hug, held me for a while. I put my arms around him, and savored the sensation of being physically close. And I felt his hard-on too. And my own.

We said nothing more, but when we went to bed and turned out the lights, after a minute or two he climbed into my bed and we lay together, spoon fashion, him behind me.