Under_The_Whispering_Door_by_TJ_Klune

Hugo shrugged, fingers twitching on the railing. “You were married.”
Wallace sighed. “It was over a long time ago.”
“Mei said she was there at the funeral?”
“I bet she did,” Wallace mumbled. “Did she tell you what was said?”
Hugo’s lips twitched. “Bits and pieces. Sounded like quite the show.”
Wallace laid his head on the backs of his hands. “That’s one way of
putting it.”
“Do you miss her?”
“No.” He hesitated. “And even if I did, I wouldn’t have the right. I messed
up. I wasn’t a good person. Not to her. She’s better off without me. I think
she’s still screwing the gardener though.”
“No shit?”
“No shit. But I don’t blame her. He’s pretty hot. I probably would have
done the same if I thought he was interested.”
“Wow,” Hugo said. “I didn’t see that coming. You contain multitudes,
Wallace. I’m impressed.”
Wallace sniffed daintily. “Yes, well, I do have eyes, so. He liked to work
in the yard shirtless. He was probably messing around with half the women
in the neighborhood. If I looked like that, I’d do the same.”
Hugo looked him up and down, and Wallace fidgeted uncomfortably.
“You’re not so bad.”
“Please, stop. You’re far too kind. I can’t stand it. How on earth are you
still single with ammunition like that up your sleeve?”
Hugo squinted at him. “You think that’s what I’d say?”
Abort. Abort. Abort. “Uh. I don’t … know?”
“Multitudes,” he said again as if that explained everything.
He glanced at Hugo, relieved he was ignoring Wallace’s awkwardness.
“Is that a good thing?”
“I think so.”
Wallace picked at the peeling paint on the railing, barely realizing he was
doing so. “I’ve never been very surprising to anyone before.”
“There’s a first time for everything.”
And maybe it was because the stars were bright and stretched on forever
across the sky. Or maybe it was because he’d never had a conversation like
he’d just had with Hugo: honest, open. Real, all the bluster and noise of a
manufactured life falling away. Or maybe, just maybe, it was because he was