“I don’t have to hold anything back,” Ben said. His upper lip was covered with sweat. “Man.”

“Sure doesn’t feel like you are.”

“Am I too rough?”

Ronny laughed. “Oh, man. No. Not a bit.”

Ben laughed, too, looking at Ronny’s face. “What a shit-eating grin you’ve got. Did we get down here on purpose or did we fall off the bed?”

“I think it was a little of both.”

“Man. Any other time that would have cracked me up.” He picked up Ronny and the mess of sheets and carried him back to bed. “Even if it is May it’s too fucking cold to be on the floor. You warm enough?”

“I’m fine. Oh, man.”

“I guess I’m doing my job up here,” Ben said, flexing his arm and grinning.

“Don’t look so smug. You were there, too.”

“I know.” Ben chuckled. But he looked happy, and calm. “You want to change any of what you said before? About this thing we do not lasting too long?”

Ronny looked thoughtful and turned his back to Ben, pressing back against him at the same time.

“What?” Ben waited for a moment. “What?”

“Maybe you’re right.”

Ben rested his head, said nothing, breathed out slowly against Ronny’s ear. He whispered, “So, what?”

“So we do what we want and the world finds a way to fuck us big-time.”

“You’re so full of it.”

Ronny shrugged. “Not really. I mean, so what if it does. I can take a fuck.”

Ben cracked up, had to lean off the bed for room. He laughed and reached over to turn off the lamp. They lay in darkness with only the streetlight pouring in. Ben was still chuckling. “Yes, you can,” he said.

“Sweet man.”

“The fuck I am.” He bumped Ronny’s butt with his hips, hard.

Ronny turned around and, as soon as he did, knew what would happen again. Easily and gently, rocking back and forth on the bed.

“You don’t get tired,” Ronny said. “You’re not even out of breath.”

“Conditioning. And fucking gut checks.”

“The torture drill things?”

“Not torture. You got to weed out the weak little runts who can’t cut it.” He grinned to show he meant nothing by it.

“I know I’m a runt.”

“Nice runt. Right now you’re my runt.”

“That sounds nasty.”

“Don’t it?”

Ronny mussed his hair, touched the curls. Ben pressed against the fingers. “This is sweet,” Ben said. “But you can’t expect this part to last. The getting lost while you’re screwing because it’s so good part. The fucking over and over again part. It goes away after a while. That much I do know.”

“Who was your best girl?”

He studied for a moment, poked out his lips a bit. “At this point it could be you.”

“I’m not a girl. Don’t talk about me like that. Really, who?” By then he’d heard something about them all.

He sighed. “Kathy, probably. She was a good kid. Two months was a record for me, right? I fucked that up.”