Raphael /BoyxBoy/

||Twenty-Six||

Raphael was busy wiping down a table when I stepped into the tea shop.

"Hey."

He glanced up and threw the rag he was using over his shoulder. "Hey, sit down. Coffee?"

I took a seat, twisting a napkin between my fingers, and watched him retreat to the counter.

The sun was setting behind the tall city buildings, and some other guy in an apron stopped to tell him something. Made him smile, casually speak back, casually brush shoulders. I wondered. But then his hand touched his arm and it was no longer just a jealous theory.

Half a fuck.

Whatever.

Raphael came back with my mug and slid it across to me. "I spoke to Dan."

He plucked out the pen behind his ear and snatched the napkin between my fingers.

"Hey, I was using that," I spoke out.

"You were tearing it apart."

"Same thing."

He glanced up and raised his eyebrows. "I got him to talk. Are you interested or not?"

"Of course I am."

Then pen in his hand flew over the napkin. "He got into some trouble with a bunch of people, owed them some money..."

My eyebrows knit together. "Are you sure?"

"You know him better than I do. Would he lie about this?"

I shrugged. "I really don't know him at all. Not well enough to be certain."

"Then what do you make of this?"

"I think he's trying to cover up for something more."

"Correct," he said. He set the pen down and lifted his chin. "I knew he was lying, so naturally I confronted him about it."

I waited. "And?"

He shook his head. "He refused to say anything to a stranger."

I leaned back in my chair with frustration. "He won't speak to me either. I might as well be a stranger to him."

"No, he agreed to speaking to you."

"Really?"

Raphael nodded. "But I did get something out of this."

"Yeah?"

"It's about a girl."

I sat up again. "You're kidding."

He shrugged his shoulders. "He could have been lying about that too, who knows? It might explain the whole roses thing."

"Roses?"

"As in plural," he affirmed. "When you left, they sent in a few more."

"Romantic."

"Extremely so."

We didn't say anything as I thought it over, but I couldn't come up with a better explanation. "So, what? He knocked a girl up, her father found out, and sent a gang over to beat him up?"

"Maybe he's gay."

I scoffed. "Are we talking about the same guy?"

"Just thinking out loud."

He pushed the napkin over to me, and I glanced down to see a sketch of what looked like my lips.

"Raph," I said. "Keep it."