Housekeeping

Nicky found living with Spencer surprisingly comfortable.After months of being homeless, it was nice to have a room "of my own".He'd thought the beds were great when he'd lived here before, and Spencer had created quite a bit of chaos to keep Nicky happily busy.

Nicky didn't see his new roommate very often, at least not in the first few weeks.They bumped into each other only occasionally in the big house and talked for a few minutes.Spencer spends most of his time shutting himself in his office or driving out to meetings with clients.Neither of them was much of a partner.Spencer seems to live on takeout, while Nicky lives mostly on sandwiches and salads.Their meal times also rarely cross.

With some money in her bank account, Nicky decided to take a few community college online courses.Online courses are less time consuming and more fulfilling; moreover, if Nicky decides to finish his college degree one day, these courses will bring him closer to his goal.He took a chemistry class and had a good time, doing a lot of virtual experiments with the software provided by the professor.He also took math class, but this one was much more tangled.But he's never been good at the subject, and it's been a long time since he's calculated anything more complicated than a 17 percent tip.

One evening in mid-September, Nicky sat on the comfortable leather sofa in the family room with an algebra book spread out on her lap.However, Nicky felt that unless the knowledge burned through the pages, the cover, and his jeans, and then permeated the skin all the way down the nervous system and into the brain, there was no way he would learn to factor polynomials tonight.His attention was on the giant television screen, where Jon Stewart was doing an interview with an author about the sins of snacking.

"Doritos chips are the work of the devil," Spencer said behind Nicky, who almost jumped up in fright.He didn't hear Spencer enter the door at all.

Nicky turned and grinned at Spencer. "What you should worry about is not how unhealthy Doritos will make you, but how dirty the cheese powder on it will be. It's just rubbed on something. A few months ago, I helped a family look at the house. , that house had a couple of eleven or twelve year old kids and a solid white couch. The couch was unbearable to look at. God, you don't know the horrific pollution potential of Cheetos except for Doritos. "

"As taught. But I'm a jerky pie." Spencer walked around the sofa and plopped down on the other side. "Do you mind if I watch it with you?"

"This is your home."

"Well... don't want to disturb you."

"Yes, yes, you have seriously interfered with my intense study progress." Nikki waved his hand, motioning him to look at the nearly blank notebook beside him.

"Studying math?"

"Torturing myself." Nicky frowned, as if someone was sticking a bamboo stick between his nails. "I hate math. I suck at it. Always suck."

After a moment's hesitation, Spencer took the book from Nicky's lap.He looked at the pages and smiled. "I remember this! It's funny."

"Interesting? Are you a masochist?"

"No, look, it's very simple. You just have to..." Spencer grabbed the paper and the pencil from Nicky.He put the paper on the book, drew a few quick and decisive strokes, and handed the result to Nicky. "It's a piece of cake. It's logical, step by step."

To Nikki, however, the numbers and letters on this piece of paper were not much easier to understand than those in the book.It's almost like a mystical symbol in Sanskrit.No, maybe it's just a mystical symbol in Sanskrit. "I'll just get an F right now," he said with a sigh, "and save myself some time and trouble."

"I... I can teach you. If you want." When he said this, Spencer's body language had a hint of inexplicable temptation, as if he was ready to be slapped in the face.

Nicky is tempted, but still rejects him. "I'm a terrible student. I just can't. It's like... I got the wrong wiring in my head."

"Maybe it's just that no one explained it to you in the right way. Think about it, how a guy who can organize my cupboards so well can be stumped by a few polynomials."

When it came to this, it was hard for him to refuse.Besides, Spencer seemed genuinely eager to help.He couldn't say anything that disappointed him anyway. "Okay," Nicky said, "thanks."

They ended up sitting side by side on stools at the breakfast table—although, as far as Nicky could remember, no one had ever used that table for breakfast.They each opened a bottle of beer and placed a large bowl of popcorn in front of them.Spencer patiently taught Nicky how to deal with the wriggling x's and y's.

Spencer smelled nice, musky, it seemed, strong but not pungent.Nicky guessed it was his aftershave.Even if the delicious smell hadn't taken him away, Spencer's long, broad fingers would have distracted him from the lecture.Spencer's fingers control the pencil as easily as an All-Star pitcher controls a baseball.Spencer has beautiful eyes, too, with record-breaking eyelashes and a little crow's feet at the corners.But the strange thing is that Nicky was only a little distracted by the beauty, and more of it was listening to the class seriously and devoting himself to his teacher's wonderful handwriting.

"Oh my God," Nicky said, taking a deep breath after successfully solving a quadratic equation. "I will solve it!" He felt that he had just learned one of the mysteries of the universe.It's a small secret, maybe, but he's not greedy.

Spencer patted him on the back encouragingly. "I told you, it's easy."

"It looks easy now. It wasn't like 10 minutes ago."

"Math makes sense, man. Those rules never change. You just let the numbers know who's in charge."

"It's also important to have a good teacher."

Spencer smiled broadly, lifted his bottle and took a swig. "I don't mind teaching you. In fact, I bet you, uh, a steak meal, you'll get an A in this class with a little effort."

A warm current flowed slowly in Nicky's chest.He took a sip of his beer to hide his smirk. "Well, all right. Bet on you. I can't afford to lose, can I?"

In this way, Nicky's boss and landlord has an additional identity as an algebra tutor.

***

Nicky didn't notice at first that math class changed the rhythm of both of their lives.Spencer still locks himself in the office for a few hours a day, where he mostly eats.But the difference is that now he comes out almost every night to tutor Nikki in math.And, after the homework was done—"killed," Nicky thought gleefully—Spenser would stay in the living room and watch TV with him.They watch whatever is on the TV: a HBO movie, baseball, The Button Report, or a reality show or two.Knowing that Nicky didn't dislike his cartoons, Spencer would sometimes pull out the DVD and play them.But these two people don't really care about what they are watching. What they enjoy is sitting together, chatting and laughing, and enjoying the feeling of being friends.

Note ①: TheColbert Report, a satirical political program in the United States.

They saw Tom Cruise on TV one day in mid-October, and then engaged in a restrained debate about the media's presumed sexuality of certain "straight" actors.Spencer is the opposition. "It's none of Passerby A's business who they sleep with."

"Yeah, unless they make money from the public eye. You rely on public relations personnel to issue press releases to attract attention, while earning money from fans, and then turn around when the public wants to know about you? That's not okay."

"Why not. Just because you're an actor or musician or something - maybe a really good one - you have the right to some privacy. They don't have to tell us everything about themselves , Nicky."

"Personal privacy is bullshit. The longer they keep it secret, the more they take their female companions and set off smoke bombs in front of people, the more they will strengthen the concept that 'homosexuality is not normal'. They owe us a sincerity. The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility Big ② ah."

Note ②: The classic lines of "Spider-Man".

"Maybe, Spider-Man. But they're just normal humans. They—"

Then Spencer's rebuttal was interrupted by the Slaze Sisters' song.

Nicky shrugged apologetically and reached for his phone on the side table.

"Are you joking, Nicky? We Are Family?"

"My mother is calling." Nicky pressed the answer button. "Hey, Mom. Hold on a second, okay?" He mouthed to Spencer that the call wasn't going to be long, and ran into the kitchen with the phone in his hand.

Nicky's mom was on the phone reporting to Nicky about her colonoscopy she just had and complaining about her sister's insistence on retiring and moving to Minneapolis. For 10 minutes, Nicky couldn't say a word. go in. "Minneapolis!" Nicky's mother continued to shout. "Who's going to Minneapolis when they retire?" She concluded by succinctly grilling her son about his immediate life: school (good), job prospects (non-existent, not counting current errands), love (too far do not remember).Then gave him a loud goodnight kiss and hung up.

Spencer was watching the car chase action on TV when Nicky returned to the couch. "Is everything okay at home?" Spencer asked.

Nicky groaned softly and collapsed on the sofa, leaning against him. "It's good. Her old man probably just wants to chat, and her other children just don't have time to accompany her."

Spencer looked over. "Other children? Brothers or sisters?"

"Two older brothers, one older sister, and I'm the youngest." Before that, they hadn't talked much about each other's families.For some reason, this topic never came up.

"I've always wanted a brother. But I only have sisters."

"Sister, isn't it just your sister?" Nicky asked in surprise.Spencer only mentioned his sister.

"Yes. Two. A sister—the one who came to live—and a sister."

"Oh."

The two were silent for a minute or two.On the screen, a police car flies to an unbelievable height, flips, and then crashes to the ground.If Nicky's old Foster car had been allowed to do these moves, he would have been screwed.Or to be more precise, it has become an omelette.But on TV, a shootout began as officers struggled to escape through broken windows.

"Does your family know you're gay?" Spencer asked in a low voice.

"My family? Know."

"When did you come out?"

Nicky blushed for a moment, thinking of those distant memories is still very embarrassing. "My mom found it. I used to hang out with a friend named George when I was 16. Our relationship was a bit like...exploring sexuality. We both thought it was well hidden. Then one afternoon, my mom Pulled us both into the living room, educated us like an elder, 'I know you are having a rich sex life, but you have to keep me safe.' My dad died when I was very young, so she felt She's obliged to tell me 'why dicks get hard' and stuff." He was stiff with shame, and George's face was terribly purple.

The strange thing is that Spencer didn't show a teasing expression, but rather sad. "So she doesn't care about your sexuality?"

"Not really. She said at least she knew I wouldn't blow up a girl's belly during puberty, which my brother did."

Spencer nodded thoughtfully. "What about the rest of your family?"

"They accepted it too. Although my other brother sometimes called me gay Nicky, I called him a quick jerk and it was a tie. We didn't tell my grandfather, but he was a hot-tempered and stubborn guy. We also didn’t tell him that Kuaibo Luzai’s wife is of Mexican descent. In short, we generally don’t give the elderly the right to know about such things.”

"Your grandfather would hate me if he knew," Spencer said, before realizing that the words were ambiguous and panicked. "I mean, I'm such a gay as your roommate."

"Maybe. But who cares? I'm so happy here." Nicky said it from the bottom of his heart, but for some reason he couldn't help but blush.

Spencer stared down at his lap, bit his lip and said nothing.He paused for a while before saying, "I've been in the closet for a long, long time, and I don't even want to admit to myself that I'm gay. When I finally started to face the reality... well, when it came to that point, Vanessa accepted it very calmly." .She said we are all entitled to be happy.But when I came out to other relatives and friends...they couldn't stand it.My sister Jaymin was the only one who still talked to me.My mom sometimes wrote me Letter, tell me to quickly give up the homosexual lifestyle." He shook his head dejectedly. "I don't know what kind of life I'm living in her eyes, man."

"She probably thinks you've got a bunch of stripper boys hiding in the office." Nicky kept his voice low.He felt sorry for Spencer.Although Nicky's mother is sometimes very painful, and his brothers and sisters have left him with a lot of psychological shadows, he knows that his family loves him.They give him a sense of belonging.

Spencer burst out laughing, and Nicky felt much better. "Yeah. Or a sex party I've marked on my calendar to go to, every day at [-]:[-] p.m."

"Except for Thursday. You have to start planning ahead of time on Thursday, destroying the sanctity of marriage and flouting the very principles upon which our country was built. I get it, Spencer—the gay agenda is too good to be true. We don't have time Going to seduce the student brother."

They couldn't help laughing.Spencer leaned over and squeezed Nicky's shoulder. "I'm very happy living with you, Nicky. It's good to have you here." He quickly took his hand away again.It dawned on Nicky that this was probably the first time the two of them had touched each other in a long time.

Trying to ignore the throbbing in his chest, Nicky turned his attention back to Tom Cruise.