Rentboy

ready to fill the gap until Edward threw him a look to
    silence him. Even with his hot cheeks and thudding heart, he felt very much in control of the situation.
    His parents had to be told at some point. “I’m thirty years old. I have to live my own life. I’m the
    same person I was five minutes ago before you knew.”
    Yes! Fox mouthed at him, clenching his fist.
    “Of course you are,” his father said. “And I have to say, I have wondered before now. We even
    discussed it at one point, didn’t we, Annika?”
    “Only in passing, dear. But they still can’t sleep together under my roof. Knowing is one thing.
    Having it thrust in our faces is another.”
    “Nobody is thrusting anything in your faces. You’d let Nicoletta sleep with a boyfriend here,”
    Edward said.
    “No, she wouldn’t,” Dr. Atherton said.
    “All right, that’s true,” Edward assented.
    Dr. Atherton washed down another mouthful of food with a large gulp of wine. “But Nicoletta is
    only eighteen, and Edward is thirty. And it’s not as if he’s going to get anyone pregnant. Ever.”
    A momentary standoff followed as his parents glared at each other. His mother was the first to
    back down. “As you wish, but please be discreet.” She looked at the twins. “Would you like more
    cake, dears?” The twins nodded and waited while she served them another gigantic slice each. This
    time she separated the cake from the filling herself.
    “Is there any for me, Mum?” Edward asked hopefully.
    She walked around the table and wrapped her arm around his shoulders. “Of course there is.”
    She dropped a kiss on his forehead and got him a slice of cake. Relief, happiness, and other
    things he could not identify overwhelmed him. Everything was better since he met Fox.
    “Edward, can we keep this from your grandparents?”
    “If I had brought home a girl, you’d be announcing it in the Mitton Monthly Review ,” he said
    quietly. “Mum, why should I keep my boyfriend secret?”
    “I know, Edward. Just give me time.” The desperate look on his mum’s face made him feel quite
    sorry for her. You’d think he had announced he was a serial killer and intended to continue
    murdering. But they were old-fashioned, and they lived a very blinkered life.
    “Don’t worry. I won’t tell them, and neither will Fox. Will you?” He met the young man’s gaze,
    and Fox mimed zipping up his mouth.
    Chapter Seven
    From the window of Eddie’s bedroom, Fox looked down on the gardens at the back of the
    farmhouse. Extensive flower beds filled with myriad colorful flora Fox could not identify lined pretty
    little paths, and beyond those lay fields with two horses grazing. The declining sun cast a golden glow
    on the idyllic scene. They had walked the twins over to visit the horses after lunch, but the animals
    had terrified them, and they had both started screaming when one of the horses snorted loudly.
    From his backpack Fox took a sketch pad and a soft lead pencil and began to draw a galloping
    horse, its muscles strained with effort.
    On the bed Eddie lay stretched out, naked from the waist down, having fallen into a doze after
    Fox had treated him to another blowjob. He should not have made that big thing about telling Eddie’s
    parents they were a couple. They weren’t really, and when Eddie found out all the lies he had been
    told, he would finish with him anyway. Who’d want to date a liar? But just maybe they could carry on
    a bit longer, because the thought of not seeing Eddie again left him feeling hollow and cold inside.
    A light tap on the door made Fox grab the tartan blanket folded neatly on a chair and throw it
    over Eddie’s hairy bum and legs. He tossed his pad on the bed and opened the door.
    “It’s the twins,” Mrs. Atherton said at once.
    Oh, don’t let them be sitting on the floor rocking like they do when they get stressed. Like
    we’re not weird enough. “What are they doing?”
    “They’re cleaning the bathrooms.” Mrs. Atherton clasped her hands in front of her. “Don’t get
    me wrong. They are doing a marvelous job, but why are they doing it? Nobody asked them to. They
    just started.”
    My dad kicks the shit out of them if they don’t clean a room every day. “They like cleaning.”
    He shrugged. “Do you want me to make them stop?”
    “Not at all. I just don’t want them to feel obliged. They’re guests in my home.” She looked past
    him at Eddie, whose big bare feet stuck out from under the tartan