"So do I. I'll pick you up at seven. Okay?"
"Okay."
"Maybe a little earlier."
"I'll be ready … Bob." He tried to copy the grin.
"I like you, Gay … sorry it's taken so long for this to happen."
Gaylord heard footsteps and Joy's tones, but her steps and voice were far away.
Suddenly he had achieved a world. The long-dreamed victory was his. He had gazed and desired this but had almost relinquished the thought of it ever coming true. Perhaps now he could recapture something which had been so void from the beginning, which had made him lie awake nights wondering if words with music and ecstasy would ever be heard. He visualized only one thing; that Blake, perceiving at once his feelings, would go with him to a place remote from the crowd, where he would repeat what had happened in the shower … where he would gather him in bronze arms and be his impetuous lover. And in the clarity of that moment he experienced his first real pang of love, as though here on the deserted earth he was seeing Blake for the first time.
