The day was cooler than expected, yet they did not cancel their visit to the zoo. It was the last Sunday before September 1[1], so quite a lot of visitors gathered, but it was not so crowded that you could not get through the alleys. Well, maybe with monkeys, lemurs and meerkats, but they were supposed to watch kangaroos first.
Paulina was walking next to Andrzej in a friendly manner from his shoulder. Their pace wasn't too fast, so the two ahead of them advanced a bit, but not so much to lose sight of them. The energetic eight-year-old pulled Dominik Śliwiński by the hand, confidently leading him through the curious crowd.
"Do you think they can handle it?" Andrzej could not stand it and asked his companion. "It looks like the little one has completely dominated him."
"If she starts to get on his head, then we will intervene. So far, there is no indication that Dominik needs help. You got attached to him, didn't you?"
Nowicki walked for a moment collecting his thoughts.
"I suppose so," he admitted. "He's a good boy. A bit naive but decent."
"But you remember he's gay?" Paulina asked.
"What? Of course. Why do you ask?"
"Because it looks like he liked you too. He is heartbroken, you are very handsome and you show him a lot of kindness and support. You live under the same roof ... Didn't it occur to you that it might confuse him?"
He stopped and looked at Paulina without understanding. What is she insinuating? Probably not…?
"Come on," he smiled crookedly. "I'm not interested in men and we all know it. He knows it too."
"But his heart might think otherwise. What will you do when he falls in love with you?"
"It is impossible."
"Why?"
"Because ... he's a guy ..." Andrzej couldn't put it into words, but the possibility that Śliwiński might endow him with a romantic feeling was simply ridiculous.
"Just like Marek Marczak."
"It was different. This… this individual seduced him when the boy was seventeen or nineteen and had been messing with his head ever since. As soon as Marczak disappears from his sight, Dominik will return to normal."
"To normal? Paulina sighed, shaking her head. "And I thought you were more tolerant and open."
"I am!"
"So how come you find homosexuality abnormal?"
He wanted to tell her that it wasn't normal for a guy to prefer men over women, but such thinking was almost intolerant.
"His sexual habits aren't typical," he said instead, "but I think they're just habits, nothing more."
"Maybe ..." she admitted with a sigh.
Andrzej really believed it. In his eyes, the gay man had a typical image of someone effeminate and fond of wearing women's clothes. Dominik wasn't like that. Yes, he was softer and more sensitive than most of the guys he knew, but he was an artist, hence his more poetic personality.
"You can be calm," he added. "I really don't believe that he could fall in love with me. I'm not the type to get someone's affection easily" noticed Andrzej.
Andrzej Nowicki felt Paulinas stronger touch on his hand. They were both unlucky in love and Andrzej had even less of it than she. Dominik was right when he said that they were very similar to each other.
"You know" she almost whispered, "if Dominik had loved you anyway, I would have cheered him on."
"Don't make me gay!"
"Do not behave like a child! There is nothing more beautiful than love. You don't know because you've never been in love. "
"You have an idiotic sense of humor."
"But just look at him. Dominik is a very pretty and sexy man and I bet he has an equally alluring body. He is a very good and kind man who would not hurt a fly. He is warm and talented, and he quickly made contact with Martynka."
Instinctively, Andrzej looked at Śliwiński. The actor was crouching in front of the kangaroo run and pointing at something with his hand. He was smiling radiantly and Martynka standing next to him clapped her hands and jumped up. A weak wind tugged at his long, light brown hair and his eyes glowed aquamarine. The girl turned to them and waved. Dominik did the same. At the sight of this, Nowicki felt his throat tighten.
He was not gay and the sight of Śliwiński did not excite him, yet when he did not see him, he often found himself worried if he was okay. Being in his company was pleasant and the actor's penetrating glances and his shy, warm smiles made you want to be with him all the time. Although they had known each other so recently, Andrzej got used to being around him and he didn't even remember what it was like before he met Dominik.
But that's what friendship is all about, he assured himself. He felt the same way towards Paulina.
Similar but not the same. With Domonik it was special in so many ways…
He had known Paulina for years, he smiled to himself. The acquaintance with Dominik was fresh and not fully established. He would not have allowed him to walk with the slung on his arm as Paulina was doing now. He was amused by the conclusion.
"What are you laughing at?" Paulina asked curiously.
"Nothing, actually." Nowicki replied innocently. "I thought that as we go along, we might seem like a couple in love."
"What, you don't love me?"
"I love you," he admitted without thinking. "You're like a twin sister to me."
He looked at Dominik and Martynka. The actor was for him a bit like a younger brother, whom he never had. He required defense and support, but each of his successes of independence made him proud.
"You and Martynka are like family to me," he said softly. "He, in a way, too."
The girl was happy to lead Śliwiński wherever she wanted. Usually she was cheerful and full of energy, but on that day in the zoo she turned into a real element of nature that was everywhere. Looking at her and at Śliwiński, who could barely keep up with her, Andrzej could not help feeling that not only she was having a great time. He got his cell phone out and took some photos of both of them.
"Still paparazzi?" Paulina asked sarcastically.
"No, these are for him."
"I understand," she announced.
Nowicki doubted whether it was really true. Yes, she might have thought she understood, but was she really aware that Dominik, apart from the two of them - now three, Andrzej corected right away - had absolutely no one in his life?
[1] The first day of the school year in Poland. The school year runs from September 1 to June 25 (until Friday, so sometimes it is a bit later, sometimes earlier). In winter there is a Christmas break and a two-week winter break, the dates of which are movable and fall in January and February. Then the first semester ends and after the winter holidays the second semester begins.
So the action takes place on the last weekend of summer holidays.