Allegro con fuoco

LVI

Could anyone tell what they had just been up to? Eddy was really pretty sure they couldn't -  although it was probably good that Todd wasn't here because he would probably be the exeption - but still he felt quite exhilarated, walking casually into the hotel dining room with Brett by his side and picking up a bowl as neutrally as anything. He grinned at his love, whose cheeks were all rosy, whose eyes were glittering, whose lips were turned up in a slight smile that told him he felt it too. 
It was their little secret, and it was making his insides melt. 
Before he knew it Eddy was flashing a very Todd-like smile to the girl behind the buffet and started piling rice, sweet and sour vegetables and dumplings in his bowl. 
"This looks to die for." he said to Brett, who took the spoon from him and heaped his own bowl full of food. 
"I know, right? We're going to get super fat this week. I plan to eat everything in sight."
Eddy shrugged and glanced around him, then lowered his voice. 
"I'm planning to give you plenty of exercise anyway."
Brett grinned softly. 
"Stop teasing me like that, or I'm taking you back upstairs and ignore the fact that you're hungry."

Surely, no one would pay his little chuckle any heed? The girl who was there by the meats certainly didn't seem to at all. She just gave him a smile, then looked him up and down and cast her eyes back down to whatever it was that she had been doing. 
"Thank you." he told her, then he turned around and walked to a table in the corner with his overflowing bowl. 
"You do realise you just pulled, right?" Brett remarked casually, sitting down opposite him, instantly putting his foot against his own under the table. "It's not just Todd who gets attention, you know."
Eddy shook his head. Look. What was he even going to say to that?
"She was just being friendly."
"Okay." Brett said, but his grin as he lifted his first chopstick-full of rice to his mouth was over the top, really. 

It suddenly hit Eddy then. They had never done this before. A holiday, just the two of them, no orchestra, no concerts, no friends around. It was their first time. 
"What do you want to do tomorrow?" he asked. "It's weird, not having an itinerary already that someone else made."
"I know, right?" Brett's eyes were large and shiny. "But is it really lame if I want to go see the gardens by the bay?"
Something pulled through Eddy, even though the statement was simple enough. The gardens by the bay. He had seen pictures of them before. They looked amazingly pretty. Very romantic, too.
Romantic. 
He blinked and focused back on the now. 
"Yes, absolutely! And I'd love to see the marina as well."
"Cool!"
The cog wheels in Eddy's mind were turning like crazy as he sat opposite his love, eating rice and vegetables. 
Brett had shown him the most fantastic time, back in Taiwan, on the tea hills of Maokong. 
Could he do something like that in return? And how would he do that without Brett knowing? Before he knew it he was smiling sweetly, neutrally he hoped. 
"So... I think I'll go jogging again, quite early tomorrow. It's just... it helps me after travelling. Do you mind? I promise not to get lost."
Brett laughed. 
"Do I look seriously lazy if I want to sleep in?"
"No, not at all. I'm the crazy one."
"I don't mind. Would you mind bringing your phone, though?"
Eddy smiled and took his hand briefly. Overt gestures of affection wasn't really something either one of them felt very comfortable with in Asia, he knew, what with homosexuality technically still being illegal in most places. But surely this little squeeze would be fine, right?
"I will definitely bring my phone." he told his love with a reassuring smile. "And I'll probably be back by the time you wake up, anyway."
Brett smiled back.
"Cool. We should eat this and crash, I think?"
"Yes. I want some dessert, though. I think I've earned if after all the calories I burnt."
Brett's little snigger was everything. 
"You do."