Justin showed up at the hospital the next afternoon with a bouquet of white lilies and a face arranged into exactly the right shape of worry. He'd chosen the lilies deliberately, standing in the flower shop for nearly fifteen minutes looking over the different arrangements before landing on the whitest, most unassuming bunch on the shelf, the kind of flowers that photographed well and said nothing incriminating. Arlen was still propped against the pillows, color mostly back in his face now, the swelling reduced to a faint puffiness along one cheek, enough that he looked like himself again, tired but recognizably Arlen. He glanced up when the door opened and something in his expression eased, relaxed and happy, the way it never was for anyone but his boyfriend."You're here!" Arlen said, like a kid who just saw Santa."I'm sorry I wasn't here last night," Justin said, setting the flowers on the windowsill with the kind of care that looked, to anyone who didn't know better, like real t
最後更新 : 2026-08-20
