“What’s wrong?” Jase asked.
Luis didn’t answer; he couldn’t. He was sobbing now and his chest was heaving.
“What happened?”
Luis took a quick breath and said, “My uncle.”
After that, he collapsed into Jase’s arms. His body simply wilted and he stopped fighting.
Jase carried him to the bed and placed him gently on top of the fluffy white duvet. Luis turned on his side and crawled into a fetal position. He wasn’t moaning anymore, but he was still sobbing and his chest was still heaving. Jase thought about getting into bed with him and holding him.
Seeing him this distraught caused a sharp pain in the pit of Jase’s stomach that wouldn’t go away.
But Jase took a step back and rubbed his jaw. As hard as it was to turn away, this wasn’t his place anymore. Luis had rejected him for Melvin, he was running off to Vancouver, and it was Melvin’s job to console Luis now.
So he left him there on the bed and walked back into the living room. Melvin was still standing in the same place, wringing his fingers and shaking his head. The poor little dog was under the loveseat cowering. His entire body trembled and his tail was down between his legs.
“What happened?” Jase asked. “What did you do to him?” When he’d seen them in the hall, Luis had been smiling and joking around. It didn’t make sense for him to go berserk for no reason.
The old man shrugged his stooped shoulders and pointed to Luis’s iPhone on a table beside the door. “I don’t know,” he said. He had one of those shaky, trembling voices some old people seem to acquire in their eighties. “We came inside and he looked at his phone to check a text message. I don’t know how to text message. I don’t even know what a text message is. I’m not a fan of those new computerized gizmos.”
Jase frowned at the word gizmo and picked up Luis’s iPhone. He didn’t understand people like Melvin who wouldn’t take the time to learn new things like basic text messaging. It wasn’t rocket science, after all. In Jase’s eyes, it was just a poor excuse for sheer laziness. And age, unless there was a valid physical problem, was no excuse.
When Jase opened Luis’s most recent text message, he saw it was from Dr. Barton, Jase’s ex-partner in Tennessee. Jase pressed his lips together and closed his eyes for a moment. Then he exhaled and read the message aloud to Melvin. “So sorry. Your uncle passed away this afternoon due to HIV-related complications. You can call me for more details. Love, Ken.”
“Oh dear,” Melvin said. He pressed his palm to his mouth. “Did you say HIV-related complications? I’m not sure I can get involved with this sort of thing. My family is very well known back in Vancouver and I like to keep a low profile.”
Jase put the phone back on the table and ran his hand down the back of his head. Jase was a prominent billionaire and he wasn’t worried about his reputation. He was worried about how Luis was going to deal with this news. He looked at Melvin and frowned again. Then he wondered why insignificant people like Melvin were always so worried about what everyone thought of them. “I don’t think this will hurt your reputation,” he said, clenching his fists.
“Unless there’s a law against grieving for a lost uncle, you’ll be fine and so will your family in Vancouver.” Then he reached forward with his right hand and opened the door.
“Was he close to his uncle?” the old man asked.
“Very.”
“Are you leaving?”
“It’s your job to console him, not mine,” Jase said, walking into the hall. “You’d better get in there now.” Then he stopped and turned back. “Take good care of him.”
Chapter Fifteen
By August, Luis had begun to move on with his life. He was planning a move to Vancouver to be near Melvin. Though he wasn’t in love with Melvin and their relationship was based on companionship, Melvin had helped him get through one of the worst ordeals of his life.
He’d given Luis money to refurnish his apartment with a combination of expensive French antiques and modern leather furniture, he given him a bank account to buy anything he needed, and he’d arranged for Luis to live in a wonderful new loft in Vancouver. Melvin had even offered to pay for his uncle’s cremation. But Luis’s ex-partner, Ken, had insisted on doing that himself.
Though it would take him years to get over his uncle’s death, not to mention the guilt he felt for not being with his uncle when he died, Luis was finally in a position where he didn’t have to worry about money anymore. He stopped meeting all of the other older men he’d been escorting and started focusing on his move to Vancouver. He stopped selling his dirty socks and used underwear as well. He now had time to sit and read Elena’s blog on a brand new laptop that Melvin had given him, and if he wanted to go downtown to the Internet café, he could sit there for hours without having to worry about making his appointments. At night when he wasn’t with Melvin, he watched movies on his brand-new flat-screen TV. He’d even enrolled in an online university to work on a college degree in art history. He had to take electives. He loved learning how to speak French. He sat for hours every night listening to a man’s deep voice recite French phrases, and then he’d repeat them until he’d memorized them forever.
Luis was ready for the move to Vancouver. It was time to leave New York and make a fresh start somewhere else. But he couldn’t help feeling as if he still had one last piece of unfinished business. He hadn’t seen Jase since the night he’d learned about his uncle’s death, and he wanted to set things right with Jase. He wanted to leave New York on good terms with Jase and he wanted to make sure Jase didn’t hate him. Though it shouldn’t have mattered one way or the other, he cared about what Jase thought and he didn’t want to leave town wondering whether or not Jase still hated him because he’d chosen to be with Melvin.
Jase was the sweetest man Luis had ever met. The day he’d told Jase he was accepting Melvin’s offer to move to Vancouver had been the worst day of his life. If they couldn’t be lovers and partners, at least they could always remain good friends.
The only problem was Luis couldn’t locate Jase. He’d left New York and disappeared without saying goodbye. Luis knew Jase still had his apartment next door. Luis had peeked into his window and he’d seen Jase’s apartment hadn’t been touched, so he knew Jase was coming back eventually. He just wasn’t sure when he was coming back. For a while, Luis was worried he’d never see Jase again. He so desperately wanted to talk to him before he left for Vancouver.