Rentboy

with Eddie. Fox drew stares from ordinary people at the best of times,
    but holding hands with a geek made him stand out even more. He’d tell Eddie later after they’d made
    out in the park. After he had kissed him and held him one last time.
    “I think Nik really likes you,” Eddie said. “She’s phoned or texted me every day this week
    asking if I’ve seen you.”
    “Yeah? I like her too.” Fox had turned off his phone when Nik would not stop calling and texting
    him, asking when he was going to talk with Eddie. She would not lie for him any longer.
    On any warm summer evening in London the Royal Parks were abuzz with tourists and locals
    alike. They reached Regent’s Park and headed for Queen Mary’s Garden, wandering through people
    sitting on the lawns chatting, children playing, parents videoing their kids. A large group of young
    teenage boys began catcalling when Fox and Eddie walked past them hand in hand. “Look at the emo
    queers.” One of them walked up and down in an effeminate way, waving limp wrists.
    “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, dude. He’s a karate black belt,” Fox said, but he didn’t
    actually give a shit what they did. He was used to it. The kids didn’t threaten them in any real way,
    and Fox was too happy with Eddie to care.
    “You know, one in ten of the population is gay.” Eddie pointed at them. “That means one of you
    is gay.”
    The boys looked at each other before screaming with laughter and accusing each other. “It’s
    you.”
    “No, it’s you!”
    Shoulders shaking with laughter, Fox led Eddie across the park toward the Inner Circle and
    Queen Mary’s Garden. Without warning, Eddie stopped to watch a short, stocky man walking away
    talking on a mobile. “Fancy him?” Fox asked.
    Looking distracted, Eddie said, “I thought for a minute it was my boss, but it can’t be. Why
    would he be here? I just said good-bye to him. And as for fancying him, I can’t stand the man.”
    “Oh, right. You were talking about him at your birthday dinner with your dad. Come on. We’re
    going in the bushes.”
    His forehead furrowed with worry, Eddie said, “I don’t think we should do this here. Remember
    what happened in Russell Square. The police caught us, and that was late at night.”
    “They almost caught us.”
    “You can’t almost catch someone. You either catch them or you don’t. And they did. They just
    didn’t get their hands on us that night.”
    “Will you stop analyzing everything, for fuck’s sake! Shut up and enjoy.”
    The scent of roses hit Fox like a bucket of water in the face when they walked through the big
    ornamental gates of the rose garden. Thankfully pedestrian traffic was relatively thin inside. Drawn
    by the splashing of water, Fox wandered toward the Triton Fountain. The heavy aroma of roses,
    together with the gentle sound of running water under a dusky sky on a warm summer evening, was
    made all the more perfect because a man who was as innocent as he was brilliant stood beside him.
    And Fox was nuts about him. “Utopia.”
    “An essay by Sir Thomas More.” Eddie threw his arm around Fox’s shoulders.
    “No, Eddie. This is Utopia.”
    “Utopia refers to a perfect political, social, and religious structure.”
    “Eddie.” Fox looked up into his warm, gentle eyes. “This moment with you here in this garden is
    Utopia. Utopia is perfection, and this moment is it. Now stop fucking with my head.”
    There is no future and no past. We live right now in the bubble of this moment. Me and Eddie,
    forever and ever.
    Utopia cracked down the middle when a harsh voice called out, “When you’ve finished, lover
    boys, the garden is closing in a few minutes.”
    “The park closes at half past nine,” Fox called back.
    “But the rose garden closes at half past seven.”
    “No problem,” Fox called. He took Eddie’s hand and began to walk back in the direction of the
    gates. The moment the park keeper was out of sight, he drew Eddie away from the gates and into the
    bushes.
    “Fox, no! That man will lock the gates; then we’ll be stuck till morning.”
    “Don’t be a doofus. We’ll climb over the railings.”
    “They’re eight feet high, and I can’t climb,” Eddie protested. “I was hopeless on the monkey
    bars when I was little. Too awkward. I broke my ankle twice, broke my arm once, dislocated my
    shoulder, and that was all just in the school yard. I ended up in a neck brace for two months when my
    parents