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boy!”
    “You’re the most real thing in my life,” Zach blurted, and the sudden silence was worse than hot coals and pincers. They weren’t even alone in the elevator. This was supposed to be a Jace and Quent day—and the little old lady with the poodle was there too. But the elevator had died at the nineteenth floor, and they’d all hopped into the next car, and suddenly, hey, Jace and Quent and old-lady-with-dog, meet Sean. The only one who cared, actually, was Zach. The rest of them had listened to Sean and Zach’s banter with half an ear, probably submerged in the white noise of their own thoughts.
    “Oh,” Sean said, like the entire world made sense to him right then.
    Ding!
    The doors opened and the little old lady with the poodle got out, and Jace and Quent went after her. Quent turned an anxious glance behind him and Jace grabbed his arm, hissing, “Leave him alone!” before dragging his boyfriend into the San Francisco morning.
    “I, uhm….” Zach stopped the door from closing and gestured for Sean to precede him. He followed him out of the elevator and prayed, just prayed that he would keep walking through the glass doors and into the city. Zach realized he didn’t even know which direction Sean usually turned. He always slowed his steps just enough to make sure their time in the elevator was their only time.
    Sean didn’t do that this time. He waited for Zach to come out and walked shoulder to shoulder with him.
    “You were early today,” Zach said into the silence.
    “Yeah.”
    “I usually come down with Jace and Quent, or I come down with you.”
    “So you choose?” They were at the glass doors now, and Zach, again, gestured him to go first.
    “I have to hop at the nineteenth floor to see you. And I made friends,” Zach said with dignity. Then, because it was honest. “But, I, uhm, I still like it when I see you in the morning.”
    They got outside and Sean angled his shoulders left, toward the Muni stop probably, while Zach’s office building was right. They paused, awkwardly, and foot-traffic swirled around them on the crowded sidewalk.
    “I’ll, uhm, see you in August,” Zach said, trying not to sound wistful.
    Sean turned toward him fully, lifted himself up and kissed his cheek.
    Time stopped. The world stopped. There was only Sean’s rain forest smell, his warmth, the freckles across his nose, and the feel of his soft lips on the arch of Zach’s cheekbone.
    “We’re having a party tonight,” Sean said. “Apartment 1409. Beer is always appreciated.”
    Then he turned and time zoomed him away to be lost in the crowd, and, dammit, Zach didn’t even have a chance to tell him that he had an event that night to attend for his family, and that he couldn’t get out of it.
    He made a stop on his way home anyway, and on his way down, while dressed in his tux and everything, he stopped at the fourteenth floor. He hesitated before knocking on the door, but while he was standing there a couple came up behind him.
    They were young—Sean’s age—and dressed casually. The young man had nice jeans and a dress-up shirt, and the young woman wore a pretty summer dress in lime and turquoise. Her hair was platinum blonde, and if she hadn’t been wearing bright-green contacts, he never would have recognized her as Sean’s roommate.
    “Uhm, Wendy?” he said hesitantly, and her eyes widened in recognition.
    “Yeah, uhm…. Yeah. You’re the guy—the one from the elevator Sean’s obsessed with. What can I do for you?”
    Zach fought off the urge to dance—obsessed with? Really? Because Zach planned his entire day around thirty seconds in the elevator. “Here—uhm, Sean invited me, but I didn’t have a chance to tell him I couldn’t make it.” He thrust the two six-packs of expensive microbrew beer at Wendy and her date, and gave a nervous little head bob. “Tell him it sounds like fun though!”
    And with that he turned and fled for the elevator.
    He’d just gotten in and the