Love on Stage by Neil Plakcy Page A

carried the used condom to the bathroom. He returned with a warm, wet washcloth, which he used to clean up Miles’s chest and groin.
    “I could get used to this kind of service,” Miles said, smiling lazily.
    Gavin tossed the cloth toward the bathroom floor and jumped back on the bed. He and Miles rolled around, ending up cuddled together.
    “We should get to sleep,” Miles said. “I have to make an early start tomorrow morning.”
    Gavin leaned over and kissed the top of his head. “I know you have a lot of packing still to do. You want me to help you?”
    Miles yawned. “I can manage. Just gonna close my eyes for a minute.”
    “You do that,” Gavin said. He watched as Miles’s eyelids fluttered, and then his breathing became regular as he slid into sleep.
    Looking at Miles, Gavin couldn’t imagine that anything could go wrong. They would work their asses off at Starlit Lake and be a big success at the Dells concert. Gavin was going to hit all the right notes—with the group and with Miles. He knew it in his heart, and his heart had never lied to him before.

The Adventure Begins
     
    Gavin crept around Miles’s bedroom, picking up his stuff, and then stopped in the living room to scrawl a brief note. Then he let himself out of the apartment. It was after midnight, and yet the streets still pulsed with energy. Cars with neon undercarriages cruised slowly down Collins Avenue, past the bodegas where you could send money overseas, buy unlocked cell phones, and Latin delicacies made by somebody’s abuela in a back room.
    He turned west on a side street of Art Deco apartment buildings. Heavyset women in tank tops sat in folding chairs on the lawns, and rap music competed with reggaeton. In front of one building, an elderly man held a little girl up by her hands and taught her the intricate steps of a dance.
    There was construction at Alton Road, even that late at night, harsh spotlights focused on men digging up the pavement, and Gavin had to detour around the orange cones. By the time he got home, he felt that he’d walked through several foreign countries.
    Manny and Larry were sprawled in the living room, watching some reality show.
    “Sup,” Gavin said.
    “Hey, I know you,” Larry said. “You’re Gavin. You used to live here.”
    “Very funny, dude,” Gavin said. He shoved Larry’s shoulder. “Push over. You’re hogging the whole sofa.”
    “Where’s your magical mystery boyfriend?” Manny asked. “You didn’t break up with him, did you?”
    “Of course I didn’t. He has to get an early start tomorrow for Nashville. I’m going to meet him in Wisconsin on Wednesday.”
    “Is this a record for you?” Larry asked. “How long have you been dating this guy?”
    Gavin crossed his arms over his chest.
    “There was that senior,” Manny said. “Our sophomore year, remember? It was our first year living at Three Lambs, and Gavin was hot and heavy with him for, like, weeks.”
    “You guys are real comedians, you know that?” Gavin said. “You could go on one of those shows, do stand-up together.”
    Manny was persistent. “What was his name?”
    Gavin gave in. “Lazaro Hernandez. And we dated for nearly four months, until he graduated and moved to Atlanta.”
    “You weren’t too broken up,” Larry said. “I remember you were humping that big football player like the next day.”
    “That was charity work,” Gavin protested. “Warren Updegrove was so deep in the closet he was about to find Narnia. I helped him along.”
    “That’s our Gavin,” Manny said. “Mother Teresa with a dick.”
    Gavin held up three fingers to Manny. “Read between the lines.”
    He got up and stalked to his bedroom. He couldn’t believe his roommates were being such assholes. Didn’t they see the change in him? He wasn’t that old Gavin—the one who slept with anybody with a dick. He was in love.
    He slept in Saturday morning, and by the time he woke, there was a text from Miles. He was already on the