Alina Popescu, Writer

With a noncommittal grunt, Tudor turned around and walked toward the door. Radu could follow or not, he didn’t much care. He went straight to the reception area and asked if there was a place to eat nearby. They were exactly five minutes from Times Square, so he expected fancy, expensive, and not necessarily the best food ever. The guy at reception was their first guardian angel in this city and told them about a nice little diner down the street from the hotel. Tudor moaned his approval and saw the teen swoon a little. He thanked him with an unnecessarily wide grin, just to make him feel good about himself and headed through the door.
“So we’re eating greasy diner food?”
“Radu, most of your lunches at work are either KFC or McDonalds. Don’t tell me you’re suddenly worried about your health and what goes into your mouth.”
“Well, no, but I’d expected you to be… you know?”
“Be what?” Tudor said, stopping in his tracks and shoving his hands into his jeans’ pockets.
“You know!” Radu insisted, a sleazy grin twisting his face. “All about health and your looks.”
Tudor chuckled and shrugged, then continued toward the diner he could now see. He licked his lips in anticipation—diner food was one of his many, many very guilty pleasures—feeling a tingle of delight in his gut. On his last trip to the US, he’d eaten every meal of every day in a diner, until he was so sick of the stuff that he needed a break. A short one, half a day, to be exact, and then he’d started it all over again until he went back home.
“No, seriously. I did not expect you to eat anything that was not healthy and tasteless,” Radu whined as they were shown to a booth in the rather large diner.
“That’s because you have misconceptions about a lot of things,” Tudor hissed through his teeth. “Healthy food does not mean tasteless. It just means healthy. And while I do work out a lot and generally take care of myself, I pretty much eat anything. I just don’t indulge often in all the crap you gulp down every day.”
“Is that because the boys wouldn’t want you anymore?” Radu asked, grinning wolfishly, as if he’d finally gotten an official come-out speech. For a second, Tudor worried if they had some sort of betting game at work, something like how many days it would take for him to either come out or kill Radu. Then he realized they surely did, most likely on both counts.
“Well, I do enjoy being attractive, it makes it easier to get whoever I want into my bed. That’s not the only reason why I prefer healthy food though. I’d been on the school’s volleyball team throughout high school and have been taking karate lessons since secondary school. I just got used to eating like that.”
“So you’re a black belt and can kill me with your fork or something?”
“I don’t need any weapon to kill you, Radu,” Tudor said, lowering his voice and smiling sweetly at him. He was delighted to see Radu’s eyes pop out and his breath hitching. Yeah, fucker, you should be afraid.