Rentboy

attention.
    “Is this your boyfriend, Nicoletta?” Of course they’d think that.
    “No, Gran, he’s Eddie mate.”
    Bounding forward like an excited puppy, Edward introduced Fox as his friend from London. To
    avoid confusion he said, “This is Alder and Arden. Alder is a boy, and Arden is a girl. They don’t
    speak.” He said it all so naturally, as if it were perfectly normal, that Fox wanted to kiss him. Eddie
    introduced his Dutch grandmother, his grandfather, and his father’s father. Fox shook hands with each
    one, not taking in the names. What was the point?
    “Hey, bro.” Nik threw her arms around Eddie. “Happy thirtieth.”
    “Thanks. Nik. This is Fox.”
    “Yeah, we met in the hall,” Nik said. She threw Fox a look as if to say, Happy?
    “Let me get you both a sherry.”
    “I’d rather have a Stella,” Fox said.
    “And so you shall,” Eddie said. “I’ll be right back with it.”
    The dinner offered just as much meat as the lunch, a large roast goose with pâté de foie gras to
    start. The twins had been strategically seated on either side of Fox so he could help them with their
    food preferences without drawing too much attention to them.
    “So Edward, my boy.” Everyone looked at Edward’s grandfather. “What happened to your eye?
    Did you walk into the kitchen cupboards again?” A little titter circled the table. It seemed Eddie had a
    reputation for damaging himself.
    “Of course he did. Edward was covered in cuts and scrapes his whole childhood, and nothing
    much has improved.” Annika looked affectionately at her son.
    “No he didn’t,” Fox said firmly. The desire to defend Eddie and show them he was not the
    buffoon they all thought him would not be repressed.
    “It was like this.” With all eyes on him Fox set the scene. “We were in Russell Square, sitting on
    a bench having a natter.” The look on Eddie’s face went from curiosity to dread. Fox continued
    quickly to reassure him he was not going to expose their relationship. “I attract a lot of unfortunate
    attention. You know, the eye makeup, the clothes, the hair.” Eddie looked much calmer. “So a couple
    of ASBOs, three in all, came over—unprovoked, naturally—and started harassing me.”
    “What are ASBOs?” The Dutch grandmother’s accent was still thick.
    “It’s an acronym,” Eddie began as if teaching a class. “That’s when a word is made out of the
    first letters of a group of words.”
    “I’m not stupid, Edward. I’ve been in this country for fifty years.” She raised a carefully
    penciled eyebrow at him. She was not the apple-cheeked granny type, more like an ex-Nazi
    collaborator.
    “ASBO stands for Anti-Social Behavior Order, and it’s used as a generic name for
    disenfranchised youth who commit crimes and collect the dole instead of working for a living,” Fox
    said.
    The smile Eddie threw him held genuine surprise. But then the bloke thought he was a street kid
    as opposed to a good student who had got nine GCSEs and three A Levels before being accepted into
    the Wimbledon College in the University of the Arts London.
    Without pause Fox continued. “So Eddie told them to fuck off.”
    A gasp from the end of the table caused Fox to bite his lip. “Sorry, Annika. He didn’t actually
    say those words as I’m sure you know. I was paraphrasing. He said, ‘Look here, you young
    scoundrels. Clear off or I shall have to deal with you, and it won’t be nice.’”
    Everyone laughed at his imitation of Eddie’s accent. But he had them enthralled. “Then the
    biggest of them, shaved head, muscles in his spit”—Fox raised both his skinny arms, flexing his small
    biceps—“he smacks poor old Eddie in the eye.” Everyone looked at Eddie’s black eye, then back at
    Fox, who continued, “Without a thought to himself, Eddie jumped to his feet and went after all three
    of them with karate chops. He felled the biggest bloke and then kicked the arses of the other two.” Fox
    spread his hands to indicate that that was it, and wasn’t Eddie a hero. “Case closed.”
    Clapping her hands together, Nik jumped up and ran round to Eddie, plopping a kiss on his
    cheek, “Well done, you.”
    “It was nothing.” Eddie shrugged, his cheeks pink at the praise spontaneously bursting forth from
    everyone present.
    “I knew those karate lessons would come in handy one day.” Dr. Atherton raised his glass to his
    son. “Well done, Edward.”
    With undisguised love, Eddie looked at