“And jump off a boat?” Bill laughed. “Or stick your head in the oven? No way. I’m not letting anything like that happen to you.”

With a shy smile, Nick said, “You’re not?”

And just as it had once before, when he’d stood at twilight on Polk Street in front of City Hall and come out to himself, for a split second, time froze, allowing him to study every detail of Nick’s face. He glowed as if his skin were illuminated from within, and a strand of his dense, dark hair fell forward, grazing his cheek. His full, firm lips formed a small, questioning “O” making a shallow dimple in his chin. But there was no question in Nick’s eyes, only a happiness that made Bill’s chest swell protectively. It would be so easy to love you, Bill thought.

“What did you say?” Nick’s question startled Bill out of his trance and the world moved around him again.

“What?” Bill repeated.

“You said something about loving me.”

“I did?” Bill said, realizing too late that he had spoken the words aloud.

Nick offered a puzzled, “Yeah. Um, I mean, I thought that’s what you said.”

Bill shook his head. “We just met, Nick, and like I said the other night, you’re really young.”

“You’re not that old,” Nick countered.

“Twenty-eight.”

“So, when you’re a hundred, I’ll be ninety! What difference will it make then?”

“But you’re not ninety. You’re eighteen,” he said, adding, with more bitterness than he’d intended, “What do you know about life?”

“Not so much, but you could teach me.”

“Life’s not college. Life’s hard. It roughs you up.”

Nick said quietly, “Is that what happened to you, Bill?”

“You think I’m rough?”

Nick scooped a handful of sand and let it run through his fingers. “I did hear you. You said you could love me. I know I could love you.”

“I don’t even know your last name,” Bill said.

“Trejo,” Nick said. “T-R-E-J-O. Nicolás Alejandro Trejo, but everyone calls me Nick.”

“That’s a beautiful name,” Bill said. “I have to get back to work now. Let me drive you back to school.”

Nick got up, dusted the sand from the seat of his pants, and said, “I’ll walk back to the dorm, it’s not so far.”

Bill reached up and grabbed his hand. “Are you okay?”

Nick nodded. “I just have to think.”

“About what?”

“About you.” He bent down and kissed Bill’s mouth. “How I can make you not be afraid to like me.”

Bill stood up. “You’re just so young.”

“Stop saying that!” Nick snapped. “I can’t help being eighteen, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know what I want. I want to date you. There, see, it’s not hard to say. Why can’t you say what you want?”