Pictures of You

Chapter Twenty-Five

I got ready and went back to Piccadilly Circus a few hours later to meet Ben. He gave me the name of the place to meet and he was already waiting when I walked in. He stood up as I approached him. He opened up his arms and gave me a hug.

'Had a good day?' he asked me.

I told him about everything that had happened since I last saw him; dinner with Walter, the man standing outside window again and my breakfast at Oscar's. I then started to tell him about the day I'd had and all the places we'd been.

'We?' he said. 'Am I missing something?' Before I could answer, he gasped and said, 'You haven't met Alex have you?'

I laughed. 'Don't you think that would have been the first thing I told you if I had?'

'I guess so,' he said. 'So you went out with Gladys or Walter?'

'No,' I said. 'I went with James.'

He looked shocked. 'James is here?' he asked.

'Yeah,' I said. 'I carried him around in my phone all day.'

'Oh,' he said laughing, 'right.'

'So where are you taking me tonight?'

'No solid plans. I thought we could have a few round here then head off into Soho.'

'Cool.'

From the moment I'd first met Ben, it was quite obvious how good he looked it a T-shirt and a pair of skinny jeans. He clearly spent a good amount of time in the gym and wore clothes that showed that off. I appreciated that, of course. He put the work in and my eyes got the benefit. It was a selfless act.

Tonight's outfit was no different. His plain white tee clung to his body, showing off every ripple in his chest and stomach. His thick (but not too thick arms) seemed to squeeze out of sleeves that were too small for him, putting his muscles on display and framing them. Tonight he wore faded blue skinny jeans, with turn-ups and red hi-top trainers. He looked amazing, as always. In a way I wished he didn't. After the way I had thought about him the previous night I couldn't help noticing these things even more so. It was a complication I didn't need.

We finished our drinks there and moved on to the next place. He was always the one who went to the bar, as I was too scared get ID'd.

'So you've known James for like ever?' he said.

'Yeah,' I said, ever since we were little kids.'

'Do you remember me from Uncle Pete's wedding?'

I remembered the wedding he was talking about. It was James' uncle and I was allowed to go with him, as there weren't many other kids there and his parents didn't want him getting bored. We would gave probably been about eight or nine at the time.

'You were there?' I asked. It seemed like a stupid question as soon as I asked it. They were related. It was more likely he would have been there than me.

'Yeah,' he said. 'It didn't click at first when we met. But I just thought about it the other day. You'd only have been really young then.'

'Yeah it was ages ago.'

'I was probably about twelve or thirteen at the time. I hated the fact that I had to be there. All my friends were hanging out together that weekend, and I had to dress up and be there with my family. It was the last thing I wanted to do.'

'I don't really remember much about it,' I said.

'Me neither to be honest. It just occurred to me that you might have been there.'

'You and James must be really close,' I said. 'Was it good to have someone else who was gay I'm your family?

'Not really,' he said. 'I mean, we get on okay. I love him and everything, like you're meant to love your family. But we never really hang out or anything. I'd already come out to my family before it was probably even a thought in his head. There's more than three years between us, so we had different groups of friends.'