An Imaginary Garden with Real Boys in It

Commerce City had a ton of interesting restaurants, but they were all too expensive, and besides, they were on a schedule. Valentine led them to his favorite taco truck, instead. It was parked just by the train station, perfectly positioned to catch commuters on their way home.

“I don’t have cash, though,” Lalo sighed, pointing to the “Cash Only” sign.

Valentine looked at him askance. “I can’t believe this is the person who offered to write me a check. How do you have checks and not cash? What kind of eldritch abomination are you?”

“I don’t carry checks,” Lalo said. “I just said that to annoy you.”

Valentine’s heart squeaked happily in his chest. He liked a guy who could pull off petty.

“I’m buying your lunch, anyway,” he said.

“Are you?”

“Yes.”

Valentine placed his order with less grace than usual and then waited for Lalo to add on whatever he wanted. Once they got their tacos, he led them to a scruffy little greenway tucked behind the warehouses that he’d never seen any other people use. It was too close to the overpass, and there were no benches, but he didn’t mind as long as it wasn’t raining. He liked to have his own private little corner of nature to appreciate during his lunch breaks.

“This is cool,” Lalo said as he wandered toward the chain link fence that lined the boundary between Commerce City and the cityscape behind it.

Bind weed vines wound through the wire, creating a bright curtain that mostly shielded them from view. The ground was a mix of faded grass, brown moss, and crumbling bits of concrete. The best part, though, was the stunted little maple tree that had managed to grow in this place, twisting up as it reached for whatever sunlight it could get.

“I hope you don’t mind sitting on the ground,” Valentine said, sitting at the foot of the maple.

“Not at all.” Lalo settled next to him, close enough that their shoulders brushed together, sparks bursting between them at the contact.

Valentine’s attention narrowed down to Lalo’s lopsided little grin, the sunlight filtering through his mop of curls. He could feel the hair on his arms standing on end, the burning ember of desire flaring brighter in the pit of his stomach, warming his heart. He leaned in, just the slightest press of shoulder to shoulder.

Their eyes met.

The moment expanded, infinity contained within each second that ticked by. Valentine looked down at Lalo’s mouth. His very nice mouth, with the mustache stubble above and that patch of tiny hairs underneath his lower lip that he’d forgotten to shave. He marveled at how charged the space between bodies could feel in a moment like this one...

Lalo was still smiling when Valentine kissed him, but then he kissed back, a lingering press of lips that ended far too soon.

“Valentine, you know I’m trans, right?” Lalo asked, his voice low, just for the two of them.

Valentine arched an eyebrow. “It takes one to know one, darling.”

“Hah.” Lalo flashed him another little grin. “That’s what I thought, but I didn’t want to assume.”

“I appreciate your thoughtfulness. Glad we have that out of the way.”

“Me, too.” Lalo looked down, picking at the seam of his jeans where it bunched up at his knee.

Valentine watched him, curious about how shy he was all of a sudden. Maybe he hadn’t liked the kiss? Maybe it had been too rash? Valentine thought he’d read the situation correctly, but maybe he’d been wrong—

“Will you go on a date with me?” Lalo asked, the words running together a little bit.

Valentine didn’t have much experience with dating. If he got lucky, then sparks would fly, one thing would lead to another, and sometimes he’d get a boyfriend or a girlfriend or a date for a while (or too long, in one case) and sometimes they’d only hook up the one time, but either way... Dating. Not really his thing.

That being said, he was pretty sure they were on a date now. Or, at least, that had been his intention.

“We’re having lunch together, aren’t we?” he asked.

Lalo looked up at him. “This is a date?”

“I’m not an expert by any means, but that’s why I paid for your lunch.”

“OH. Wow. Cool.”

Valentine imagined Lalo at his place reading manga, but it was one thing to imagine it, and another to consider it for real. His apartment was his sanctuary. He never invited anyone to his place. The one time he’d broken that rule, it had been with someone who didn’t understand or appreciate the enormity of the gesture. He could tell that Lalo was better than that, but he wasn’t ready to take the leap.

“What do people do on dates?” he asked.

“Eat tacos and kiss under maple trees, obviously,” Lalo said.

Valentine rolled his eyes, grinning like a fool. “Yes, but other than that?”

Lalo laughed. “Whatever we want! It doesn’t have to be formal. It can be silly, or ridiculous, or frivolous, or whatever sounds fun.”

Valentine had no idea what anyone did on real dates, but he knew what he wanted to do right now.

“Can I kiss you again?” he asked.

“Yes.”

This second kiss was more intense. Valentine could feel his smiley piercing grinding against his gums. It wasn’t an entirely unpleasant sensation. Lalo’s arms wrapped around his waist, pulling him closer. They collapsed back against the tree in a tangle of limbs, and the branches shook with the impact, bright green propeller seeds fluttering down around them.

Valentine crawled into his lap without a second thought, straddling him, ignoring the sensation of concrete-sprinkled grass and moss under his knees, fingers digging into Lalo’s scalp so that he could tilt his head back and deepen the kiss, swiping the bead of his tongue piercing against Lalo’s bottom lip. Lalo gasped. He felt the scrape of teeth and then a warm tongue. The kiss swelled, an ocean wave building until Lalo broke away, breathing heavily as he looked up at him, his curls all mussed up.

“Wow, Valentine. Holy shit.”

Valentine didn’t want to break the spell by talking. He pressed another kiss to Lalo’s lips, instead. Things meandered on from there, less urgent, lingering more, with time to breathe in between. Lalo held him close, hands running up and down his sides, tangling in the hair at the nape of his neck.

“Valentine?” he asked, sounding a bit breathless.

“Yes?” Valentine nipped at the edge of Lalo’s collarbone where it peeked out from his t-shirt. He pressed him back against the tree, kissing up his neck, along the line of his jaw, relishing the sounds he got in response. He understood this part of dating, at least. He knew how to make someone he liked feel good, and he enjoyed doing it.

“Ungh.” He felt Lalo take a shuddering breath. “We should probably stop.”

“Why?”

Lalo huffed out a laugh. “Because you’re on your lunch break and you haven’t eaten yet?”

“Ugh. Good point.”

Now that they’d stopped, it was impossible for Valentine to ignore the pain in his knees. He slid off of Lalo’s lap, wincing, and turned his attention back to his food. They scarfed their lunch in companionable silence, and then Valentine laid back, staring up through the branches of the maple, feeling relaxed and sleepy with his full stomach. Lalo stretched out next to him, tucking one arm behind his head.

“This is really nice,” he said.

Valentine rolled onto his side, draping an arm across Lalo’s stomach.

“It’s better now,” he said.

They ended up making out a little bit more, and Valentine didn’t even care that they both had food breath, and that he was probably ruining his blouse rolling around on the ground like an idiot. After a while, though, he had to concede that Jonny had waited long enough for his return. They spent some time picking propeller seeds and other debris that was probably better left unexamined out of each other’s hair, and then headed back into the bowels of Commerce City.

Just as they were climbing the stairs to the second floor, Valentine was reminded of something he’d always thought sounded fun, but had never admitted it to anybody, not even Charlotte.

“Build-A-Were,” he said.

Lalo blinked. “What?”

“For our next date. Take me to that Build-A-Were place to build a monster. I’ve always wanted to go, but it’s so cheesy that I never wanted to admit it, but dating is supposed to be cheesy, right?”

“Uh, I’m not sure. It doesn’t sound cheesy to me. It sounds fun!”

What a ray of sunshine. Valentine felt like he might get sunburn if he spent too much time around Lalo, but maybe that was okay. Maybe he needed a little sunlight in his life, after all.