In clothes, Nick looked skinny but naked, Bill discovered, he was slender, elegant rather than awkward, long-limbed, wasp-waisted and with a surprisingly plump butt. He claimed his only exercise was walking to classes but he was as muscled as Bill, though Nick’s muscles were lean and long, a gift of genetics and youth, rather than weights and workouts. He had three wiry chest hairs—he called them Larry, Moe and Curly Joe—and light aureoles of hair around his nipples which Bill soon discovered were extremely sensitive. His lower legs were shaggy but the hair ended at his thighs and, except for his pubic patch, he was otherwise smooth. His cock was long and thin, uncircumcised and purplish against the lighter skin of his thighs. It dripped threads of precum when Bill grazed it with his fingertips. His puckered hole was dark too, and the first time Bill entered him, slowly and only after he had readied it with copious amounts of lube, it sent a shudder through both their bodies that was, for Bill, greater than pleasure; it seemed to Bill, when he thought about it later, that he had fucked Nick’s heart. They moved in a single wave, Nick on his belly, his face in the pillow, Bill pressing down on him, chest to back, nibbling those delicious ears. Nick yelped and came without touching himself, smearing the sheet beneath him with semen. When, a moment later, Bill emptied himself into Nick, tears oozed from the corners of his eyes, streaked his face and splashed Nick’s back. Bill wiped them away before Nick could see them, unable to explain even to himself where the tears had come from or what they meant.

Late one night, Nick nestled against Bill in bed and said, “My mom wants us to come to dinner on Sunday so you can meet my family.”

“You told your mom about me?” Bill asked, startled.

“Uh-huh,” Nick replied sleepily. “She asked me if I was dating anyone.”

“Who’s coming?” Bill asked uneasily.

“My brother Tom and his wife, Sara, and Sal and his girlfriend—this is a new one, I don’t remember her name, Betty or Bonnie or something like that—and my sister Izzy and her daughter, Lila, my niece. Izzy’s divorced, I liked her ex-husband Joey but he doesn’t come anymore. And me and you. Oh, and my mom. That’s all.”

“Do they know about me?” he asked, unable to keep the harshness and worry out of his voice.

Nick, now fully awake, replied slowly, “If my mom knows, everyone knows.” He raised himself up on an elbow and forced Bill to meet his eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“That’s a lot of family to meet all at once.”

Nick, grasping Bill’s reservations, replied, “They’re not like your family. They’ll love you.”

“You don’t know that.”

“They love me, so they’ll love you too,” Nick said, with syllogistic certainty.