Adrien, having chosen to stay with Theo, relaxed further as they sat with their drinks.
"Could you go for a few nibbles? Cheese, grapes, crackers type thing or would you prefer more of a tapas selection?"
"Tapas has its place when you're sat outside a cafΓ© or bar in parts foreign watching the world go by but otherwise I'm definitely in the cheese camp."
"Anything else?"
"Yeah, well, no it's ok, some other time, maybe."
Nope, sorry, I didn't really get the gist of that," Theo smiled.
"Something an old girlfriend introduced me to but it's not something most people just happen to have in."
"Still in the dark over here."
"Sorry, one of the nearest things to a desert I really enjoy, grapes with mascarpone."
"I'll see what I can do."
Theo picked up a handset from its base on the table beside him,
"Hello, yes that's right, ask chef to put a decent cheese platter together if you would please, with crackers, chutneys, grapes and such enough for two. Oh and ask if there's any mascarpone to be had as well."
Theo waited for whoever was on the other end to reply.
"Thank-you, twenty minutes will be fine."
Adrien marvelled at Theo's absolute expectation that the hotel's room service would extend to the private apartments especially so late at night.
"How did you manage to wangle that?"
"I know the owner, gets me a few perks."
"Huh, some perk."
Right on time there was a knock on the door.
"Merrill! I didn't expect you."
"I'm about off home sir, thought I'd check if there was anything else you need or if you need me to pass a message on to the day-staff," the man Theo had spoken to in the lobby wheeled in a trolley bearing a number of covered platters.
"Everything's good but I'll definitely need more towels tomorrow."
"I'll inform housekeeping, if there's nothing else I'll wish you both a good night," the man gave the barest of nods to them both, seemingly unfazed by encountering two men dressed in only pyjama bottoms, turned on his heels and all but marched from the apartments.
Theo moved the trolley to the dining table which was set end-on to the windows and transferred the plates to it.
"Bring the drinks Ade," he called quietly across the space turning to face the couch but Adrien was already only a couple of paces away.
"What brought things to a head for you?" he asked as they sat, Theo at the head of the table with Adrien to his left both able to look out across the city scape and to the rising hills beyond.
"I was away on business, alone, in a city I'd not visited before, one that takes a far more relaxed view of sex and sexuality. I tracked down where the gay bars were, took me the rest of the week to get my arse through the door of one though."
Adrien huffed a short laugh,
"You did better than me."
"How so?"
Adrien explained about the things he'd done trying to get himself into the bar where they'd met, the way he told the story had them both laughing like drains by the end.
"Even the bloody clothes?!" Theo exclaimed incredulously.
"Do I strike you as the baseball cap and Doc Martens type?"
"Knowing what I know about you now no I probably wouldn't take that for your usual attire but back then how was I to know otherwise? Besides you still looked fucking sexy. Is that really any good?" he pointed at the grape Adrien was about to sweep through the mascarpone.
"Try it yourself," without stopping to think he covered half the grape with the cheese and popped it into Theo's mouth.
Theo had been so surprised by it he'd accepted the fruit without demur. Both men looked at each other in shock, each realising how intimate an act it was and also how easily done. Theo bit into the grape feeling the difference between the firm flesh of the fruit and yielding softness of the mascarpone, he savoured the contrasting tastes nodding in approval,
"Nice," he looked at the grapes then at Adrien his brows raised in expectation.
Again Adrien passed a grape through the cheese and offered it to Theo although not to his lips, Theo gently wrapped his hand around Adrien's wrist and brought them both forward, without looking away from Adrien's face he took the grape between his teeth and held it there . As if mesmerised Adrien leaned forward and bit off half the plump fruit.
"Oi young man that was my grape!" Theo laughed.
"Ok old man here's a chance to get your own back."
This time it was Adrien who held a grape between his teeth.
"You are a temptation," Theo smiled as he moved to repeat Adrien's actions.
The men laughed at what they'd done, not out of embarrassment simply the silliness of it.
"Ade," Theo began.
"Adrien, it's Adrien."
"Better," Theo commented before carrying on, "Adrien if you feel you need it the offer of the guest room's still there."
Adrien looked out of the windows seeing nothing but the night sky. Then tilted his head back ran his hands over his face to his hair and left them there as he had once before, Theo immediately recognised this as something Adrien did when confronting a difficult topic.
"I don't know Theo, I can honestly say I can't think my way through it. Jeez this is going to sound really fucked-up if I don't get it right. Give me a minute to try and unscramble it in my head."
Theo waited breaking off a piece of his favourite stilton to enjoy as he did.
"When I, whenever I've allowed myself to think of myself in terms of being bi or gay it was in the context of sex wondering if it really could or would be better than it'd been before. Taking that one step further to think in terms of a full-blown gay relationship never happened. I've obviously shared a bed with someone else but I was in a relationship with them. It has its own kind of intimacy, actually sleeping with someone. Then again leaving a nice warm bed occupied by a person you've been intimate
with
to sleep in a different one seems not only odd but bloody cold-hearted."
"
Not