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It was the middle of July, and it sure as hell felt like it. The sun beat down mercilessly, making the very thought of stepping outside a nightmare, and yet, Mark was on the boardwalk with Leo, hiding beneath a parasol and downing more water than the Atlantic contained.
“Leo, could you tell me what we’re here for?” Mark asked as Leo scanned the several booths on the boardwalk. There were the carnival games, clothing vendors, and the oases that were the food vendors, who were going to run out of lemonade and every other cold beverage by the early afternoon.
“Jason said he’d be performing around here. I wanted to come see him,” Leo replied. Mark bit back his complaints of the heat immediately. Leo’s cousin Jason meant the world to Leo, and if Mark had to endure temperatures that even Satan would consider too hot just for Leo to see the guy who’d practically raised him, he would. “You remember Jason, right?”
“Of course. He told you I looked like I glow in a black light room when he met me,” Mark replied as they passed a bottle-ring toss stand. “Is it just him today?”
Leo laughed and leaned against Mark for a moment, long enough for Mark to press a kiss to his fiance's forehead. “I think it’s just him and Layla. He said he’s supposed to be between a taco truck and a bar.”
“It’s still weird that he named his guitar after his ex,” Mark said.
“Actually,” a new, deep voice replied, right behind them. “I named the guitar before I met Layla.” The two turned around to see a man with a guitar case slung over his shoulder, and a sly smile. “Leo, you gonna give your cousin a hug or just stand there?” Leo left Mark’s side to hug Jason, while Mark stood back, adjusting the parasol to keep the sun out of his eyes.
After Jason and Leo talked back and forth in Spanish with Mark only catching a few words, Jason switched back to English to greet Mark. They shook hands, and Jason gave him a smile.
“I don’t get why you walk around under an umbrella, you should let the sun give you some color,” Jason laughed. Mark shrugged off Jason’s comments. “Anyway, thanks for coming out to see me, both of you. Follow me, I’ll show you where I’m setting up, since I got moved.”
They followed Jason into a café, where the AC was kept at a heavenly 67 degrees. Mark sighed in relief when the blast of cold air hit him, and Jason told them to sit at a table near a small stage. Jason came back with two tall glasses of lemonade before setting up his guitar on stage.
“Lemonade make the heat worth it?” Leo asked. Mark shook his head and reached out, taking Leo’s hand and running his thumb over Leo’s engagement ring.
“You’re always worth it, darling.”