Javi peeled off his leather jacket. He had chosen a skin-tight red sleeveless shirt that showed off his muscles and his tattoos. And his nipples.

“Oh my God.” Brandy was staring at his nipples, although he quickly shifted his gaze to the serpent with hummingbird wings tattooed around Javi’s upper arm.

“Too much? I can change.”

“No, it’s great.” Brandy managed to lift his eyes as high as Javi’s ear, where a small spider was tattooed in black and green. In the other ear he’d put back the three gold rings he never wore to school or work. “It’s ... a lot. I like it.”

“Hey, you say piss people off and I am there for you. Now how about that drink?”

When they returned to the parlor Brandy’s family was fawning over an elderly couple who were having their coats taken by a maid.

“My mother’s parents,” Brandy whispered loudly. “My sister is hoping to be left all their money now that they pretend I don’t exist. The sodomy, you know.”

Mr. Brandywine turned their way and came to stand by Brandy, his expression mild. “Do not make a scene at your sister’s reception,” he said flatly.

“What kind of scene?” Brandy asked in the hopeful tone of someone wanting hints.

“I’m serious, Chas. Behave or you can spend a semester working for a living. And I doubt your friend here is in a position to put you through college, even if he cared to.”

Brandy flushed and looked away.

Javier squeezed his glass a little too hard and said, “I could always pimp him out. They pay more for the ones with good grammar.”

Mr. Brandywine’s jaw tightened. “I don’t consider that sort of jest to be in good taste.”

“Neither do I,” Javi assured him.

“Would you like some nuts?” Brandy asked quickly, tugging him toward the sideboard.

“I got plenty nuts,” Javi informed him, taking a handful without using the little silver server, and tossing them in his mouth. “I thought you wanted me to be rude?”

“Yes, but I didn’t expect them to start with the threats so soon. My sister must’ve read them the riot act.”

Javi ate more nuts, finished his drink, helped himself to cheese and olives. No one else seemed to be eating anything.

An unsmiling middle-aged couple arrived. They greeted everyone else, then frowned in Brandy’s direction.

Javi took an olive and put it in Brandy’s mouth.

“Thanks,” Brandy murmured. “That’s my father’s sister Marie and her husband. They never liked me. Said I was frivolous and effete.”

Javi wasn’t sure what either of those words meant. “They’re probably jealous,” he said. “They look like they’ve never smiled in their lives. Bet the sex is terrible.”

Brandy snort-laughed. “Ew, God, Javi, don’t make me imagine that!”

Mrs. Brandywine was approaching with the expression of a woman determined to perform her duty, no matter how unpleasant. In other words, talking to Javi.

“Your bags have been taken up,” she said. “Perhaps you’d like to change now for the party.”

“Which room does Javier have, Mother?”

“Since you didn’t inform us that you were bringing a guest, there isn’t a spare room. He’ll have to share yours.”

“Ah. Javi, let me get you another drink and I’ll show you my bed. I mean my room.” He fluttered his eyelashes at his mother.

Brandy’s room was easily twice the size of Javi’s studio apartment. It had its own bathroom, and front area with a sofa and entertainment center, half separated by a panel from the sleeping area with the walk-in closet where Brandy was deciding between two of a dozen dry-cleaner-wrapped suits.

“Don’t change,” he told Javi. “Your outfit is shockingly inappropriate. I love it. You’ll want your jacket, though, it’ll get cool later. Besides, if I drink too much I might try to grope you. Your nipples are driving me distracted.”

He glanced at Javi, probably hoping to have embarrassed him, but Javi only said, “I noticed that,” and it was Brandy who blushed and turned to the mirror. He spent the next thirty minutes doing something to his perfect hair.

“You look good already,” Javi told him.

“Thanks. But I can’t afford any chinks. Anyway, we’re waiting for my mother to tell me to come outside.”

“Chinks in what?” Javi turned to study Brandy looking at himself critically.

“You know. Flaws. Weaknesses. Anything people could pick at.”

“You expect back-biting?”

“Absolutely. I don’t have anything for anyone here to suck up to me for. And someone has to bleed.”

“How come?”

Brandy finally turned to look at Javi. “How come what?”

“How come someone has to bleed? It’s a party, right? Can’t you just have fun?”

“Fun?” Brandy looked bewildered. “Do you have fun at family gatherings?”

“Sure. Drink, eat too much, dance, kiss the babies.” Javi felt a wave of homesickness.

Brandy’s phone chimed. He took a deep breath and let it out. “Performance time.”