Rentboy

suspected the smile was an automatic response to everyone
    Godfrey dealt with. It was probably meant to reassure them, but the only thing that would reassure
    Fox at that moment was an AK-47 and free rein to use it. “Sit down and join us for dinner, and then
    we’ll talk.”
    “No, thanks. I’m a vegan.”
    “Is that like a vegetarian?” Gemma asked.
    “Erm, yeah,” he said vaguely. “Actually Godfrey, I don’t think this can wait. I’m really
    concerned about…” He glanced at Gemma, who was piling food onto her plate. “You know.”
    “There’s plenty of chicken here.” Gemma hefted a large platter loaded with chicken portions.
    “I don’t eat meat, but thank you.”
    “Yes, I know, you’re vegetarian. But do you eat chicken?”
    “Why does everybody say that? Chicken is meat.” Catching himself, Fox apologized quickly.
    “That sounded really ungrateful. Thank you, Gemma, but I’m not hungry, and my mind is on other
    things.”
    “That’s all right. We’re on the Atkins diet. Protein and no carbs. No bread or spuds on this
    table.” She smiled at Fox.
    “Does that mean no bikkies and cupcakes?” Fox asked.
    “Absolutely not. We haven’t had cake in weeks, have we, Godfrey?”
    His cheeks growing pink, Godfrey said, “No, darling.”
    With a grin at Godfrey, Fox tapped his left nostril with his forefinger. He wasn’t the only liar.
    Gemma grabbed her knife and picked up her heavily laden plate. “I can see whatever you have
    to talk about is urgent and private. I’ll go and watch a bit of telly while you chat with Godfrey.” At
    the kitchen door she stopped. “It’s a girl, isn’t it? The problem.”
    Fox found the woman’s Rubenesque girth very artistically attractive. He wondered what she
    would look like in the nude. “No, it’s a bloke. My boyfriend.”
    “Jolly good.” She closed the door behind her.
    “Sit down, Fox. Tell me all about it.” Godfrey tucked into his sausages and ham.
    “This is like confession, right?”
    “Just you and me,” Godfrey assured him.
    For the next fifteen minutes Fox told him about Eddie and the pesticide, Mr. Maputwa, and why
    Fox had been pretending to be a prostitute. He told him about William Baillie and how he supported
    his family by waging war on innocent civilians. Though his plate was still half-full, at some point
    Godfrey stopped eating to listen. “This whole story is extraordinary.”
    “It’s true. I swear to God, I am not a nut. It’s all true,” Fox said.
    Godfrey reached across the table to pat Fox’s hand. “I don’t doubt you. I saw those men trying to
    grab your boyfriend. And you say he is a scientist.”
    The relief that someone sane believed him about the insanity in his life brought Fox to the verge
    of tears. “Dr. Edward Atherton. Yes.”
    “This is international terrorism. We have to talk to someone about this. Dr. Atherton is clearly in
    danger, and you are too, by the sounds of it.”
    “My dad has kicked the shit out of me many a time, but I don’t think he’d let anyone else do it.”
    Fox shook his head. “I don’t have anything they want. They think my dad controls me and that I
    wouldn’t dare tell anyone what he’s up to, and in the past I wouldn’t have. But I love Eddie, and it’s
    Eddie they want. I can’t let him get hurt, and Eddie, being the bloke he is, would be just as hurt that
    his pesticide was being used to harm people as he would if they waterboarded him.”
    “He sounds like a lovely man.” Godfrey smiled.
    “Yeah, he is.” Tears finally broke free to roll down Fox’s cheeks. The tension he had been
    holding on to ever since he realized he was in love with Eddie could no longer be contained. Fox
    rose and crossed the room to tear several sheets of kitchen paper off the roll, and leaning against the
    sink with his back to Godfrey, he wiped roughly at his face. When Fox turned around again, Godfrey
    stood a foot away, reaching for him.
    Fox allowed the other man to pull him into a tight embrace. All the paternal love he had never
    got from William Baillie flowed from the vicar into his body, healing him. Parts of his soul he did not
    realize were injured began to melt and loosen up. Gently Godfrey patted his back. “We are going to
    get help with this. It’s bigger than either of us can manage.”
    “What about God?” Fox asked. “Can God help?” He had no idea why he was asking except that
    he was desperate.
    “God’s helping right now.” Godfrey