Lovers in October

EIGHT

A N T O N I O

Slim fingers got to work detangling cords, the dim lighting of The Kiss deepening the natural shadows of his features, the concentration creating lines in between his eyebrows. His hair brushed against his forehead in tinkling motions but Antonio paid no mind to it, for all his attention was being poured on the impossible mission of pulling apart the big knot of colorful wires he had in between his hands.

"I swear I was careful." Antonio groaned as he sat down, watching Clayton smile at him with cheeks puffed with food.

Clayton took a napkin and rubbed it on his hands and mouth to clean any residue that might have been left before motioning for Antonio to hand over the tangled wires, Antonio gladly doing so with a sigh of relief.

If he spent another minute trying to succeed he would go insane, or throw them out the window.

A sigh flowed out of his body in waves of hot air, his body dropping lower on the chair as his eyes fell upon the clock on the wall. Three hours until dancing bodies filled the space, a space that seemed so much more enormous now that it was empty. The only souls walking around could be counted with the fingers of both hands, something that Antonio strangely enjoyed. The silence of The Kiss was something that was hard to come by, and the space to move around freely was no different. And as much as he enjoyed singing in front of a crowd, the serenity of silence was always a welcomed change.

His eyes traveled towards the ceiling, where above it was his little hideout from the sea of energy emitting from intoxicated souls ready to risk it all. But all his mind could think about was not how he wanted to be alone, but how he felt such peace laying down with Mary-Kate at a place he swore he would only ever go alone. Him and the owner, Bo, were the only two with a key, who took Antonio's occasional need to escape reality with seriousness. Maybe he empathized, or saw a little bit of himself in the man who seeked to be in front of a crowd and yet away from it at the same time.

Antonio never took anyone to the roof before. Not even his friends. And he never told anybody about the vibrations and how he would close his eyes every time to feel them move his bones in the rhythm of someone else.

"There, I did it." Clayton proudly handed over the now untangled wires and smiled before grabbing his fork. "Lost you there for a second. What were you thinking about?"

Antonio tried his best to move his shoulders in an easy-going shrug, abandoning the wire on the floor before grabbing his own fork to finally start eating too. "Nothing."

Clayton raised a questioning eyebrow that Antonio pretended to miss, even though he could feel Clayton's interrogating eyes searching for an answer.

"So. How was your date with Mary-Kate?" Clayton casually threw around the words like they meant nothing, but it made the food that was traveling down Antonio's throat get stuck briefly before continuing their trip to his stomach.

Once Antonio regained control of his body and chugged down some water eagerly, he tried to calm down his mind and heart. Given his reaction, there was no way he could avoid the interrogation, if there was ever any chance.

"It was not a date." Antonio argued, staring at his food, wondering if he should attempt to eat another bite. He had a feeling that Clayton was about to say something that would make him choke again, and he was not in the mood to die because of a piece of stuck chicken from a takeaway plate.

"Why not? You two clearly have a thing going on."

"We don't -" Antonio tried to start his sentence with clear exasperation before realizing that would only make Clayton's suspicions worse, taking a few seconds to calm himself. "Mary-Kate and I are just friends."