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Evan was fairly certain of what he’d heard when loitering outside the living room door, but it seemed so far-fetched he needed to hear it again. The looks of shock on Frankie and Zach’s faces were priceless, which was almost confirmation enough.
‘I thought you were in Brighton,’ Frankie said.
‘All the trains are cancelled, fatality on the line.’ Evan took off his coat and hung it on one of the hooks in the entryway. He took one of the chairs from under the tiny dining table for two and placed it across from the sofa, in the traditional position for an interrogation. ‘If you knew I wouldn’t be here, why did you come to the flat?’
Frankie squirmed slightly. ‘I wanted to talk to Zach—’
‘I had no idea he was coming,’ Zach interjected. ‘He just showed up.’
Evan saw Frankie shoot Zach a look of disdain. ‘What was so urgent that you had to race up to London to talk to him? Couldn’t you discuss it on the phone?’
‘I thought you’d got the gist,’ Frankie said, beginning to get testy.
Evan turned to Zach. ‘I did, but I’d like to hear it from you.’
Zach pulled his feet up on the sofa and wrapped his arms around his knees, no doubt some subconscious defence posture.
‘I guess I should have told you,’ Zach began, ‘I didn’t think it was that big a deal.’
Evan stayed silent; a tactic he’d seen his mother employ many times to get a full admission of guilt.
‘It’s not like I’ve been throwing orgies or anything. Nobody would even know it was your flat, I don’t give out the address. I needed the money. My Ma’s cut me off, my spends have run out. I thought of asking you guys, but you’re already letting me stay here rent free, it didn’t feel right.’ Zach let his feet slide back to the floor, and hugged his waist instead.
Evan wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep up the pretence. ‘And you, Frankie, you knew all about it and said nothing.’
‘I only found out yesterday.’ Frankie was full of indignation. ‘Rupert told me on Saturday at Queen Quest, but I didn’t understand what he was going on about. I mentioned it to Derek, he admitted that’s why he recognised Zach when they met, he’d seen him on the website.’
‘Oh, really?’ Zach grinned. ‘I was going to ask you how you knew. I hope he gave me a good tip.’
Frankie was crimson. ‘That was all some time ago, before we were together. He doesn’t do that sort of thing now.’
‘If you say so.’
‘I do.’ Frankie shifted in his seat to face towards Evan and away from Zach. ‘So now you know, what are you proposing to do about it?’
Evan shrugged and the smile he’d been holding in began to break on his face. ‘What do you expect me to do? Throw him out on the street? It’s the 21st century, Frankie. He’s a grown man, he can make his own decisions.’
Frankie stood up. ‘I thought, as a friend, you had a right to now. I can see now that you have no need of my protection.’
Evan felt bad for Frankie, he was only trying to help. It wasn’t his fault that things had changed so drastically from his day. Only the oldies got this worked up about sex. He got up and gave Frankie a hug. ‘Thank you, I know you were trying to do the right thing.’ He let Frankie go. ‘I do think it was classy, coming to talk to Zach first.’ He turned to Zach. ‘Don’t you agree?’
Zach’s head bobbed about, settling on a half nod. ‘Sure.’
Frankie appeared to have recovered some of his dignity. ‘I suppose I better go back to Victoria and wait for the trains to start again.’
‘Why don’t you go over to ours? Nellie’s there, I’m sure she’d love to see you. Stay for dinner too, Scott’s doing fish and chips.’
Frankie thought about it. ‘I don’t want to impose.’
‘I insist. I need to finish up some work here. Maybe best not to mention any of this to Scott, I’ll tell him later.’
Frankie turned to Zach. ‘I hope this won’t make things awkward between us.’
‘Nope,’ Zach said. ‘I get why you did it.’
‘And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell Derek I mentioned him. No need to drag him into all this. He told me not to say anything, I should have listened.’ Frankie walked out of the room.
Evan heard him putting on his coat, the door opened, and he was gone. ‘Poor Frankie.’
Zach stood up. ‘Are we good?’
Evan nodded. ‘If I were ten years younger, I’d probably be doing it too.’
Zach smirked. ‘Are you kiddin’ me? You would clean up. Gee, if we did a show together, I could probably retire.’
Evan thought about it for a split second, flattered, but was happy to have missed that boat. ‘I’m a respectable married man. I very much doubt my husband would approve.’
‘Yeah, you know he’d watch it.’ Zach laughed. ‘Heck, we could make it a threesome.’
‘Scott would never do anything like that. Enough of this nonsense. How did you get on with that list of US college radio stations?’
‘It’s on my laptop.’ Zach picked it up off the coffee table. ‘Are you really going to tell Scott? About the camming?’
‘I think I should, we don’t keep secrets from each other.’ Evan saw a look of concern cross Zach’s features. ‘Don’t worry, he’ll be fine about it, I’m sure. You wouldn’t know it to look at him, but he’s quite liberated when he wants to be.’