Only when Gabriel agrees does Anthony realize just how afraid he had been that the young man would say no. Goodness knows, he had every right to. And it might have been better if he had—for both of them.

But Gabriel says yes, and Anthony relaxes just slightly. “I’ll be outside,” he says when Gabriel tells him that he is going to go change. He steps out into the chilly night air to smoke a cigarette as he waits.

Anthony’s mind drifts to the morning months earlier, when Julian had haunted him all hours of the day and night. With Gabriel beside him, he had jolted awake into one of the nightmares that had become commonplace. And when he had dismissed Gabriel’s concerns, the boy had looked at him so gently and said, don’t do that. Somehow, the kind way he had called him a liar just now makes his heart clench in much the same way.