“Oberon,” he said. “I can’t. I can’t. I will be here for you every day and every night for the rest of your life, if that’s what you need, but I don’t think I can be a new mandolin.”

“We are saying the same thing,” Oberon said gently. He extended his hand again, his voice soft. “Come to me. Let’s go to sleep,” he urged. “We can argue another day. Tonight, come and sleep, and don’t be afraid. Sleep, and I’ll keep you safe. Tomorrow you can make coffee and explain Christmas carols to me.”

Ángel nodded and went into his arms.

Chapter 24

“Welcome to The Oberon Podcast,” said Oberon into the microphone the next morning. “I’m Oberon, the cultural envoy from the Otherworld. Joining me, as always, is Ángel Cruz.”

“Hi,” said Ángel.

They had reversed the usual format of the podcast for this episode: Oberon was interviewing Ángel. Oberon had slightly mimicked Ángel’s speaking cadence, possibly not enough for anyone but Ángel to notice.

Ángel grinned at him.

He was warm and full of coffee. He’d taken a long walk in the snow after breakfast, and when he got back Oberon had kissed him. He felt young and strong and in love, and the fears and insecurities of the night felt insignificant. He loved Oberon, and Oberon needed him and liked him and enjoyed him. Everything else was semantics. They were together. For as long as it lasted.

“So, Ángel, what do you do for a living?”

“I’m a session musician.”

“Can you tell us what that means?”

“Well, I sing and play guitar. Usually acoustic. If you’re recording an album, or doing a show, and you need a good guitarist, you can hire me. Or maybe you’re producing a TV show and you want some nice interstitial music; you can hire me to play it. Or if you’re an ad agency and you want someone strumming a guitar in your commercial, you can hire me for that too.”

“You’re based in Miami?”

“Yes. I think you used to have to be in New York or LA or Nashville if you wanted to do this for a living, but the music industry has really decentralized. So usually I’m in Miami, but I’ve gone up to Nashville to play a lot too.”

“What else?”

“In between that kind of gig, I like to play live music. I never want to give up live performing. It’s what I first loved about music. I’ve toured with musicians, and I’ve played a lot of bars and things around Florida. I don’t make a steady income that way, but playing live is fun. So if you’ve ever sipped a beer in a hotel bar in Fort Lauderdale or Sanibel Island, and there was a guy in the corner playing Cuban songs on the guitar, that might have been me.”