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you’re okay? Cuz you don’t sound okay.”
    â€œIt’s just....” Shep sifted through his options, and was pretty sure he was going to say the less hurtful
so much,
but out it popped. “Enough already.”
    Felix invited elaboration with raised eyebrows.
    â€œWe’re not fancy, Felix. The dinners, the clothes, now this place? You’re rich, we get it. Settle down.”
    Felix removed his arm from around Shep’s waist. “
I’m
rich? What’s that supposed to mean?
We’re
rich, babe, I hate to break it to you.”
    â€œIf we’re spending
my
money here, the Ritz isn’t going to be too thrilled come check-out time,” Shep said. “It’s your money, Felix. All of it. You haven’t even let me buy my mom a cup of coffee. I look like some kind of gold-digging free-loader.”
    â€œHow many free-loaders do you know that work six nights a week?” Felix asked. “Shit, Shep, I wish you
would
free-load every once in a while. Maybe we’d actually get to hang out.”
    â€œI like that job,” Shep said.
    â€œAnd I like mine. So what’s the problem?”
    â€œI just feel like a loser.”
    â€œCuz you’re with me?”
    â€œYou know that’s not what I mean.”
    â€œI think it is.”
    â€œOkay, but that’s not
how
I mean it. Here you are, showing everything off—new house, new car, new job, new money, same old Shep. How long’s it gonna be before you want to show off a new boyfriend? Some Next Big Thing from
Dancing With the Stars
who
is
home six nights a week? I feel like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. If you’re gonna throw me over for younger and prettier, sometimes I wish you’d just do it. The suspense is killing me.”
    Felix opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. “It’s our new house,” he managed.
    â€œIt’s your new everything!”
    â€œ
You’re
my everything!” Felix shouted, startling even himself. He looked around. Lowered his voice. Went on. “Don’t you get that? You’re the key to this whole deal for me. What the hell good is it without you? You don’t really think I want all this for myself? Yeah, I fully intend to enjoy the ride. As long as it lasts. Which in this town could mean anything—I could be on top for ten years or til tomorrow. But I want for
us
to enjoy it, Sheppy. Together. So maybe I have been showing off a little bit for your parents. Why not?” Shep worked up his Angry Retort face, but Felix hurried on. “It’s not because I want them to think I’m some kind of big deal. I want them to know I think
you’re
a big deal.”
    â€œYou do?” Shep’s angry face had fizzled.
    â€œThe biggest.”
    â€œBigger than the guy from
Dancing With the Stars
?”
    â€œWell, he
is
pretty hot,” Felix said. “But considering he’s also imaginary, I’m gonna go ahead and say yeah, you’re a bigger deal. You’re my shoe, Sheppy. There’s not another one gonna drop.”
    â€œYou mean I’m stuck with you?”
    Here Felix raised his eyebrows again. “You could do worse,” he said.
    â€œDon’t I know it?”
    â€œSo....” Felix hazarded. “Jokes mean we’re okay?”
    Unaware that Colleen had stepped out to join them on the terrazzo, Shep leaned in to answer with a good long kiss.
    When his sister did approach, Shep invited her to pull up a chair. “You’re just in time,” he told her. “Felix is gonna order a bottle of champagne.”
    â€œI am?”
    â€œWell, I was going to,” Shep said. “To prove a point. But I’m not mad at you anymore, so you can buy....”
    IT WAS dark when the airplane finally glided in over the twinkling sprawl of the city, and kissed the runway at Sky Harbor a fond hello. The roller coaster afternoon of hopes-up, hopes-dashed,