'Why am I hesitating? Why is my heart beating so fast?'
Absurd, Andrzej pulled himself together and knocked. He entered without waiting for an answer.
Dominik was already in bed. He was lying on his side, his face turned towards the door, and when he opened, Dominik looked straight at Andrzej. His eyes were sad and dull and his mouth was expressionless. He looked very weak and frail, which made Nowicki's heart unable to calm down. Surprisingly, however, actor was the first to speak.
"Thanks for breakfast."
The voice came out with difficulty and it sounded oddly heavy. Andrzej looked at the bedside table and saw two waffles on the plate - two of the five he had prepared. Seeing this, Nowicki felt real relief and joy. He didn't even notice that he was smiling.
"You're welcome. You look a little better. Did you take the medicine?"
Dominik blushed slightly and looked away like a child who had messed up.
'My God, how cute he is,' the photographer thought, and swallowed.
"I'll give them to you right now," he announced, turning so that Śliwiński could not see his face. For some reason, he felt strangely uncomfortable.
"Is it true? What did you say before that you won't leave this house until I tell you to leave?"
And where did that come from?
"Stupid, right?" In response, he laughed nervously. "But yes, I mean it."
"What if I asked you to stay here permanently?"
"What?"
"If I asked you to live in this house?"
Andrzej heard his words but did not understand them. How so " live in this house "? Together with Dominik?
He was looking at the back of the lying man who was hiding his face from him.
Why is he asking this?
"As… roommates?" he wanted to make sure.
There was no reaction for a few seconds, then the answer came softly, very softly:
"Yes."
Dominik's proposal completely surprised him, but it did not come out of nowhere. Actually, Andrzej himself told him that he would stay. He meant only a few days until the actor regained his balance, but the given word remained a word. Yes, Śliwiński needed help and care now, but at some point he had to stand on his own feet.
But it seemed that it was not yet. Anyway, the boy doesn't think quite sober now. He is upset and hurt and since he thinks that he needs Andrzej's presence now ...
The doorbell interrupted his thoughts.
"I'll open it. I think it's Paulina."
Dominik grunted in agreement.
'If I move in,' he thought as he descended the stairs, 'the media would be clawed at it. But if I refuse, Dominik will be completely alone, and at the moment it cannot be allowed to do so. The fact that I agree does not have to mean that I will live here permanently. After all, neither of us knows how it will work out. Maybe we'll get on our nerves and he will kick me out after a week?'
But then it would be his decision.
Only there was still the question of their kiss. Nowicki had no reason to believe that for Śliwiński he was more erotically than a wedge on a broken heart, but the relationship between them may be at least strange. He made him a promise before the kiss, but does that change anything?
The bell rang again. Paulina was very insistent, but he was glad she had come. He will be able to discuss Dominik's proposal with her.
"It's good that you are here, listen ..." He broke off in mid-words, seeing that it was not Paulina standing at the door, but a man.
Not some stranger, he corrected himself. It was Marek Marczak.
Śliwiński's manager was almost as tall as Andrzej, but he looked more massive and broader in the shoulders. The elegantly trimmed dark hair and aristocratic nose made him classy. He was even handsome and he certainly had no trouble finding a partner for himself, which made Nowicki even more irritated. How could someone with such decent appearance be so rotten on the inside?
Although he was a few centimeters lower, he looked at Andrzej with superiority.
"Please inform Mr. Śliwiński that his manager has arrived."
For a moment Nowicki looked at him speechless with this arrogance. This one has the nerve.
"Dominik doesn't receive guests today" he replied, putting in his words the right dose of venom.
They looked at each other. Andrzej felt such a hatred for this man at that moment that he forcibly refrained from smashing him with his bare fists.
"I want to hear it from him."
"No way."
"Get out of my way man, I want to see my actor."
"Then go to the cinema for the afternoon screening."
"What insolence," he tried to push past Andrzej.
"Mine?" Nowicki stood in his way. "I don't think you looked at my face. After our last meeting, you must have had a headache for a long time, since you suffer from amnesia, Mr. Marczak" he draws out the last two words as if they were disgusting, which he accidentally took into his mouth ...
The manager seemed to remember the incident from several days ago. He frowned and looked at Nowicki with hostility.
"I have already discussed that matter with Dominik. We have it behind us.
"Yes, but I'm afraid there are new… contentious issues."
"Then I will discuss them with him in private."
"I already said no."
"Get out of my way ..." he growled.
"No. This house is already closed to you. You're supposed to leave Dominik alone. If he experience any unpleasantness on your part, and I emphasize the word any, the photos I took of you then will end up in the prosecutor's office."
The manager's gaze was full of fury. The tension between them was so thick that the air began to vibrate - or at least Andrzej got that impression.
'Get the fuck out of here,' he thought passionately. 'Get the fuck out of here before Dominik sees you and just seeing you will hurt him.'
„You don't dare ..."
"No? Then we'll find out. From now on, it's my home too, and I don't want dog shit on its premises. Now get out of here, because I feel sick. Goodbye" he slammed the door in his face, admiring himself that he hadn't fucked up this garbage.
He could feel the adrenaline buzzing in him, and maybe that's why it took him a long time to realize what he had just told Marczak.
"From now on, it is also my home ..."
It seems the decision was made by itself, he thought resignedly. Well, if so ...
He looked towards the stairs and Dominik's bedroom, in which the actor struggled alone with a broken heart and in which Andrzej experienced his first kiss with another man.
Heterosexual tabloid paparazzi and a homosexual movie star living under the same roof - a combination at least bizarre.
Well, let's see what comes out of it, Andrzej shook his head resignedly and went to inform Dominik about his decision.