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“I bet he’s, like, a hipster with a giant beard,” Sam was saying when Olivia returned to the library table. “Grows only organic shit on his farm.”
“He has a kid, right? He must be like 30 years old,” Kevin added.
“Who are you talking about?” Olivia asked as she plopped back down in her seat, sipping at her vanilla latte.
“Adam’s BF. Roman? No, Ronan. Adam asked if his boyfriend could stay in our room for the weekend,” Sam informed her.
“Ah.” Olivia had speculated quite a bit herself about what Adam’s boyfriend was like. She often wondered about what Adam was really like. Even though Olivia had been friends with Adam for a couple months now, she still felt like she had barely scratched the surface of who Adam was.
She knew that he came from a small town in Henrietta and had friends called Blue and Gansey. She knew his boyfriend was named Ronan and owned a farm and had a kid. She knew that Adam didn’t like to spend money, but always had something new in his room every time she visited.
Once, it had been a drawing of two men holding hands, a little girl with what looked like hooves, and a black bird as big as the girl. Olivia had never seen Adam smile as hard as he did when he looked at that drawing.
Another time, he had a new framed photo of a farm on his desk and the objects in the photo literally moved. The birds in the photo flew across the red-orange sky, the cows lazing in the pasture breathed shallowly, and the grass waved in the unseen wind. When Olivia asked about it, Adam had just shrugged and said that it was a digital picture frame. Olivia sensed that Adam was lying, except she didn’t know what else it could be.
“Ronan must be loaded. I’ve never even heard of half the shit Adam gets from him,” Sam said. “Like, those flowers that light up and just float around the room? Cool stuff, but I can’t find anything like them on the internet.”
“Yeah, and that awesome waterproof coat he has. It dries in like one second,” Kevin said.
“I like the lotion that Ronan gets him. That stuff works miracles,” Olivia commented. “Who writes messages to their boyfriend in Latin, though?”
“What if,” Kevin said in a stage whisper, leaning over the table conspiratorially, “He was like, his stuffy Latin teacher and he’s actually married and Adam is his side piece?”
A sudden huff of laughter came from behind Olivia. Olivia turned her head to see Adam pull out the chair next to her and sit down. “That’s definitely it.”
“Adam! Hey!” Kevin shouted with an unnecessary level of enthusiasm and volume. ‘We were just, uh, um.”
Olivia rolled her eyes. “Adam, we are pretty excited to finally meet your boyfriend.”
“Oh, yes. I am sure you will get along well,” Adam said with a gleam in his eye. Olivia narrowed her eyes at him.
“Why does that sound like a humongous lie?” Olivia asked. Adam just flashed a smile at her. Olivia rarely saw Adam like this, handing out smiles so easily. It was nice to see and made her even more eager to meet Ronan.
“SQUASH ONE, SQUASH TWO…” Adam’s phone suddenly rang out with the unholy cacophony of a song that only meant that Ronan was calling.
“Speak of the devil,” Adam said as he pulled his phone out of his pocket to answer it. As he did, he got up and walked toward the exit. Kevin immediately got up to follow.
“Come on,” Kevin hissed at Sam and Olivia over his shoulder as he followed Adam out the door. Olivia and Sam quickly shoved their books and pens into their bags and trailed after Kevin.
“Woah,” Kevin said as soon as he pushed open the door and caught sight of Ronan. Olivia shoved Kevin out of the doorway to take look for herself. Olivia quickly glanced at Kevin’s stunned face before seeing Ronan and stopping short. Ronan certainly did not look like a stuffy Latin teacher. The man Adam was walking toward looked like he ate stuffy Latin teachers for breakfast.
Ronan was leaning against a stunning black BMW, a leather jacket worn over a black muscle tee and expensive-looking dark blue jeans tucked into steel-toed boots. He had the savage smile and relaxed yet imposing posture of a predator that knew that he had the universe at his whim.
“This guy’s a dad?” Kevin whispered with disbelief.
“And a farmer?” Sam added incredulously.
“Hoh,” Olivia contributed.
Though Ronan looked unapproachable, Adam approached nonetheless, ambling toward Ronan with the ease of an animal trainer approaching a wolf that he had been training for years.
“Well, you’re a sight for sore eyes,” Adam said as he stopped in front of Ronan, a smile playing on his face. It was a soft, secret smile that made Olivia feel like she was seeing something meant for closed rooms.
“Yeah, I missed your ugly mug, too,” Ronan said before pulling Adam into a slow, tender kiss. The kiss made her feel even more like a voyeur than Adam’s smile did. She looked away.
When she looked back, they had stopped kissing, but they had not moved apart. Both of their eyes were closed as they rested their foreheads together and their hands on each other’s hips. They just breathed.
“Kerah!” Olivia startled at the sound. Adam just huffed a laugh and they finally broke apart.
“Alright, calm your shit, Chainsaw,” Ronan said as he turned back to his BMW, reaching into the car to pull out…a raven?
The raven ruffled its feathers until Ronan opened up his cupped hands and it escaped, flying to Adam’s shoulder.
Adam finally turned to them and waved them over. “Come on.”
The full force of Ronan’s stare turned to them. It said, I dare you. Sam and Kevin hesitated. Olivia took a deep breath and marched forward.