I was still babbling when Boris said:”Potter”. Before I could answer him he put both hands on my face and kissed me on the mouth. And while I stood blinking - it was over almost before I knew what had happened- he picked up Popper under the forelegs and kissed him too, in midair, smack on the tip of his nose.
...
We stood looking at each other - me breathing hard, completely stunned.
“Good luck”, said Boris. “I won’t forget you.” Then he patted Popper on the head. “Bye, Popchyk. Look after him, will you?” he said to me.
Later - in the cab, and afterward- I would replay that moment, and marvel that I’d waved and walked away quite so casually. Why hadn’t I grabbed his arm and begged him one last time to get in the car, come on, FUCK IT Boris, just like skipping school, we’ll be eating breakfast over cornfield when the sun comes up? I knew him well enough to know that if you asked him the right way, at the right moment, he would do almost anything; and in the very act of turning away I knew he would have run after me and hopped in the car laughing if I’d asked one last time.
But I did’t. And, in truth, it was maybe better that I didn’t - I say that now, though it was something I regret - ted bitterly for a while. More than anything I was relieved that in my unfamiliar babbling-and-wanting-to-talk state I’d stopped myself from blurting the thing on the edge of my tongue, the thing I’d never said, even though it was something we both knew well enough without me saying it out loud to him in the street - which was, of course, I LOVE YOU.
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