And going through it with Perry was fun on its own. I loved his descriptions of people, the little details he’d give, whenever he could.
“Oh! You have to try one of these,” Perry said, reaching onto a tray as a caterer walked past. He held out two little plates with small slices of dark cake on them, complete with cherries on top.
“This looks good,” I said, picking up the tiny fork on the side of the plate.
“I specifically requested this one,” he said. “I love sour dark cherries. I ordered this batch from Italy, macerated it, and put it in my special blend before I brought it to the kitchen here.”
“You’re showing them how to cook?”
“Not exactly,” he said. “I try not to butt in too much on things. But I love these cherries. Mom loves them. Cam and Rachel do, too. So I let myself give input on one small thing.”
I took a bite of the cake, the tart and sweet flavor of the cherry hitting me immediately, rounded out by the dark chocolate cake base.
“Holy hell,” I said. “That might be the single best thing I’ve ever put in my mouth.”
He grinned. “Good, huh?”
“Better than good. What do you mean by your special blend? What are you putting in these things?”
“Nothing terrible, I promise you,” he said. “But I’m not giving away my secrets. It’s a special kind of sugar and a little bit of a certain liqueur.”
I took another bite. “How could anyone live with you?” I said. “I’d never be able to stop eating the things you make.”
“There’s a reason I work out,” Perry said.
“Because it makes you look like a silver fox Hugh Jackman?” I said. “...And three, two, one—”
I saw a blush appear on his cheeks.
“There it is,” I said, unable to keep a smile off my face.
“Oh, shut up,” he told me. “Were you counting down to my blushing?”
“You know it’s adorable when you blush, right?”
“You’re a menace.”
“So are you, in different ways,” I said. “I could eat about thirty slices of this cake. You’re never getting rid of me, Perry.”
He waved a hand. “Nobody would ever want to get rid of you, anyway,” he said.
I cocked my head to one side. “You’d be surprised.”
He glanced back at me, his face serious for a moment. “Really? I would have pegged you for the definite heartbreaker in all your past relationships.”
I shook my head. “Almost never,” I told him. “Maybe a little when I was younger. But people don’t tend to stick around me for long.”
“That seems impossible.”
I bit my lower lip, pulling it into my mouth. “People like the idea of a firefighter, but then they don’t actually end up liking the hours I work. Or they think I’m on the brink of death all the time. Women want to fuck me, but I don’t think I’m exactly ‘hubby material,’ whatever that is.”
Perry eyed me quizzically. “I think you would be perfect hubby material.”
“Oh, really?”
“Why not?” he said. “Your job definitely is dangerous. But you must be irresistible to women.”
“I once mentioned to an ex-girlfriend that I wanted kids one day, and she actually got angry at me,” I said. “Saying no kid should have a father with a job like mine, and that I’d need to get a desk job before I ever thought about kids.”
“That’s rude as hell,” Perry said. “Where are you finding these women?”
“I guess in all the wrong places. Maybe it’s a good thing that I’m trying out being gay for this week, huh?”
He reached out, tentatively at first, and put his hand on the top of my shoulder. He squeezed it, which might have felt awkward from someone else, but I knew this was Perry’s slightly awkward way of comforting me.
And I loved everything about it.
Perry had a way of doing things like that. His awkwardness imbued everything with charm. My buddies back at the station had probably given me similar touches dozens of times, and I’d thought nothing of it. But from Perry it felt like a small gift. Something he felt shy about doing, but did it anyway.
He was quickly working his way into my heart. I hoped that we were going to be friends for a long time, I realized.
We milled around the courtyard a little more. The Golden Goose Inn was definitely one of the most beautiful places I’d seen in Amberfield. It was like a slice out of a movie set in Victorian England, lush and green and kept up perfectly.
Merrilyn was across the way, standing at the bottom of a small hill, heatedly talking with another woman.
“Who’s that?” I asked.
Perry narrowed his eyes. “That would be Aunt Yvonne.”
“Is there a reason you sound like you’re describing a root canal when you say that name?”
“That sounds about accurate.”
“Aunt Yvonne looks like she’s about ready to chew your mom’s head off.”