Re: Dietre A./Hugh C.: On the patio
Hugh hummed. "Or maybe even six, if we want to live very wild and haven't yet fallen asleep," there was a half vision of just laying out on the floor in one of the rooms listening to music in the darkness. He'd done that once with friends, and it had been years, and years, really, but he remembered enjoying the feeling of it. "And we'll find the Arabesques then." Hugh realized he might have to start listening to classical with the sort of attention he paid to musicals. He would never know pieces maybe like Dietre did, but he could educate himself enough to recognize some pieces he thought.
Perhaps he was too tipsy to have this conversation, or perhaps it was just the right amount of tipsy, the amount where it didn't seem terrifying to dance into some of the questions that kept gathering in the lobby waiting to be let in. And there were two thoughts lingering, maybe not thoroughly articulated in the past few weeks, but they felt suddenly clearer, the first: Dietre deserved the respect that Hugh being as truthful as he could possibly be in the moment with him offered and the second, Hugh couldn't pretend to be something he wasn't in order to have a relationship. And yes, there was an urge in this moment to play the moment off, to tease, and turn it into a flirt, something about being Dietre's knight in shining armor, maybe. It would have come easily, but doing so felt as if was undercutting them both.
Dietre was watching him, and Hugh swallowed, returning the squeeze of the hand. "It depends on the party," he answered softly. "I mean, there are definitely nights when having a handsome man at my side all night long?" He offered a smile. "Yes please." That was the easy part. The other... He breathed in, glancing down at their intwined fingers. "I'm a social butterfly, Dietre." As if the evening didn't make that readily clear. "I tried to pretend I wasn't for a year, and I think I died a little when I did. So sometimes, yes, it might be. I mean, I want something steady and something that's just mine, but it has to have space for other people, maybe not like, intimately - but friends, and people I care about, and even total strangers that just spark my mind for an evening?" He looked back up, searching Dietre's face.