Chapter Twenty-Six- Our Set-Up

“Lookie here!” Dougie pulled open a cupboard door in the club. “Seven Minutes In Heaven, much?”

I grinned, moving in to peer inside with him, “Wow… We’re going with full American customs… That’ll be a prime location for an illicit fumble in the dark.” I turned my head to look at him, “Will the birthday boy be making use of it?”

He looked up at me from under lowered lashes, “Now, Thomas, that would be telling…”

“Can I warn Harry of his fate, or are you just going to ambush him?”

“Let me put it this way…” he mused. “Tell Harry, and I’ll be dragging you into that cupboard, and you may only come out again if and when the police find your mutilated remains. Understand?”

I pouted, “You know, a simple ‘no’ would have sufficed.”

He offered me a smile more charming than I had thought his personality allowed, “‘No’ doesn’t have the same effect.”

“Okay. Fine. I won’t tell him,” I remarked, leaning back into him playfully before moving away.

Now his grin was bright, “‘Course you won’t.”

My own smile was as strained as it was sarcastic, “Let’s just get this party set up, okay?”

*****

“So how are things with you and Danny-boy?”

“Don’t call him that.”

He giggled, “I’m sure he’s heard it before.”

“Oh. Yeah. Definitely. It’s just that it makes you sound even camper than usual when you say that.”

He giggled even harder, “Well, we all have different ways of revealing our sexuality… I’m just more obvious about it- you used to like that about me.”

“I love you as you are,” I admitted, trying to shake the last of a packet of crisps into a bowl. There was a clatter, and my head snapped up.

Dougie was knelt on the floor, picking up sandwiches from the platter he’d managed to somehow drop. His face was flushed, his eyes wide. I moved over to him, “You okay, Doug?”

He shrugged, “My grip slipped.” He looked up at me, a confident and cocky grin on his face and all traces of panic gone from his eyes, “So, you love me?”

“I’d have to to put up with you for this long…” I teased, but he had concerned me for a moment there. What had just happened?

*****

The party was in full swing. Girls were getting drunk and hitting on everyone in sight, and the vain, dim-witted males among us were taking full advantage of that vulnerability. It was gone eight, and I hadn’t seen Danny, yet. He’d said that he was coming, and this club was basically just one room, two bathrooms and a bar, so I couldn’t have missed him that easily…

Hands slid over my eyes from behind, “I hope that’s me that you’re looking for.”

My lips curved at the breathy voice in my ear, “Well, I was looking for my lover, Steve… But since you’re here…”

“I’ll do.”

I grinned as I turned to face him, “Your words, not mine.” He took my mouth firmly, and I rose up on my toes to meet the power of his kiss. He broke away with a smile.

“How did the set up go?”

I shrugged, “It was a set-up. We put out stuff, and Dougie made fun of me. I made fun of him, and so on. Why? Did you think you were missing out on something amazing?” He only grinned and kissed me again.

“Whoa! Lover boys!” Harry cut into our bubble of passion, “Sorry to interrupt, but have you seen Dougie?”

“Last I saw he was still doing the rounds,” I told him, hooking my arms around Danny’s waist even as I broke away from him. “Did your dad get off okay?”

“Fine. Mum was just doing her neurotic bit.” Harry laughed, and slapped me on the shoulder, “See you later.”

“Later.”

Danny watched him off, “Did it ever unsettle you that he and Dougie got together?”

I frowned, “What?”

“Sorry. Random question. I was just wondering.”

I tipped my head back in consideration, “I guess it did a little at first, but then I just thought to myself that I had no right to hold them back. I’m glad I told him to go for it. They’re really good together.” Danny nodded, his eyes flicking back to where Harry had gone. I squeezed him slightly to draw his attention back to me, “Why do you ask?”