Facade

was set for one. His heart sank. He’d hoped that Nicky would join him, but this evidently wasn’t the case.
    “Monsieur Hunter?” a man with a strong French accent asked.
    Jonas nodded.
    “Asseyez-vous, s’il vous plait.” He pointed at the corner table and bowed slightly.
    “Merci,” Jonas answered, wondering what the idea was as he sat down and waited.
    The man returned with a bottle of white wine and a basket of bread. “Monsieur Bryant a choisi le vin, j’espère que ça n’est pas un problème?”
    “J’espère que ce sera parfait,” Jonas answered, as always glad for his language skills. The wine was cool and tasted nice, but Jonas couldn’t help thinking it would taste nicer if Monsieur Bryant was there as well.
    He appeared just moments later in a waiter’s costume, his long hair cut a lot shorter than before and with a starched napkin over his left arm and a plate of escargots in his right. He placed the dish in front of Jonas and retreated without saying a word.
    Jonas, a little startled by what had just happened, took a few moments to react, but then he got up and followed Nicky inside, Façade
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    where he stopped him by placing his hand on the young man’s shoulder.
    “You don’t like snails?” Nicky asked, turning around.
    “Oh, I do,” Jonas responded. “But I would enjoy them more if I could share them with you.”
    Jonas saw the self-confidence drain out of Nicky in front of his eyes. “I came here to talk to you, Nicky, not to have dinner.
    Combining the two would be wonderful, but you said you wanted to talk, so here I am.”
    Nicky sighed and looked away, so Jonas lifted his hand and wiped a stray strand of hair away from Nicky’s forehead. He realized it was a very intimate gesture but was happy to see Nicky didn’t pull away.
    “Are you sure?”
    Jonas nodded. “Three hundred percent.” A shy smile appeared on Nicky’s face. “I organized this whole evening, you know, like a date. Something we’ve never done. And then I chickened out. I thought, what if he doesn’t want that? What if after all we’ve said and after my behavior last time, he doesn’t want to go out on a date with a spoiled brat?” Jonas smiled. “I’ll admit that you hurt me in Paris, and the last time we saw each other… well, that was almost scary.”
    “See! I knew it—”
    “Nicky?” Jonas stopped him from turning away completely.
    “I’d love to go out on a date with you.”
    “Really?”
    Jonas nodded. “It was a great start. The wine was delicious but the snails are getting cold, so we better go back outside and eat them quickly.” He held out his hand and Nicky took it, albeit a little hesitantly.

    140
    Zahra
    Owens
    Hand in hand, they walked back outside. It was a little darker now and the stars were coming out. They sat down together on the curved bench. “This is a very romantic place.” Nicky smiled shyly. “Jacques, the chef, is a friend of mine.
    He’s the guy who posed as the maître d’. He’s the only one here and will stay in the kitchen from now on. I said I’d serve dinner, so….” Nicky stopped and looked up at Jonas as the older man offered him a piece of bread soaked in garlic butter.
    “I better feed you, because you’re not going to eat otherwise, are you?” Jonas teased.
    “I’m too nervous to eat,” Nicky admitted.
    “Don’t be. Everything that could possibly go wrong between us already has, so it can’t get any worse.” Jonas’s hand covered Nicky’s, and he could feel Nicky’s doubt, could feel the young man almost pulling away but then giving in to the touch.
    “That’s what you think,” Nicky said, smiling though as he bit into the bread. A small drop of melted garlic butter trickled down his chin, and Jonas caught it with his finger and Nicky licked it off.
    “We have a lot to talk about,” Jonas acknowledged, fishing one of the snails out of its shell and ignoring the intimacy of what had just transpired. “I have a few things to apologize for.”
    “No!” Nicky almost shouted. “No, you don’t. I was jealous.
    Seeing the pictures of you with your lover, the obvious intimacy you shared and then later with Scott, when I saw it with my own two eyes… I wanted it to be me and—”
    Jonas silenced him by feeding him a snail. “Eduardo and I broke up way before you came along, Nicky,” Jonas admitted, dipping some of the bread in the butter and eating it. “I just couldn’t let him go. I was holding on to a man I