Anthony lifts a brow. He had seem Gabriel’s anger and frustration ripple beneath the surface before, and he has a sense of the emotion that the boy hides behind his easygoing nature. But still he lets so much wash over him without comment, and Anthony had let himself be convinced, despite the tension, that he would do the same for the last few weeks.

He does feel guilty about disappearing; that is, in large part, why he came tonight. But some part of him rebels against the idea that he owes this boy an explanation for his movements. Why? Because they have shared a bed half a dozen times?

“I should not have forgotten our appointment,” he says, because it is easier to apologize for failing to do something he had explicitly promised—that is only polite—than it is to acknowledge that Gabriel deserved some communication about what was happening, some tiny part of his life or his heart, after the time they had spent together.