I was hiding under your porch because I love you.

Sid is not a hooker, he's a high class escort.

"What's different?" Geno asks.

"I get paid better," Sid says. "Also, I get you."

Geno is Sid's driver.

The agency that Sid works for hired Geno, too. He drives Sid to his appointments, walks Sid up to the door of the client's house or hotel room, picks him afterwards. It's as much about discretion as it is about protection; this way there's no records of pickups and drop-offs on a taxi company's books, no chance that an escort will get into a fender bender or run a red light leaving a client's house. Sid has a panic button that will buzz Geno if things go really wrong, but he's never used it, even on nights when he gets back in the car with bruises or rope burns or a split lip. They both understand that Sid is valuable to the agency, but not quite as a valuable as a good client.

And besides, most of his clients are perfectly nice. The split lip was because the guy turned out to be ticklish around his love handles and he accidentally whacked Sid in the mouth when Sid was trying to get his boxers off. Even professionals have awkward sex sometimes.

Sid and Geno don't set out to be friends. They've both got a job to do and the less they know about each other the better. But they talk, because there's nothing else to do when they're sitting in traffic or waiting for a client to be done with a meeting. Just small talk at first, the weather, sports radio, what that asshole in the black BMW in front of them thinks he's doing. They don't ask questions, but little things come out.

They both like dogs but they're not home enough to take care of one. American football is fun, but not as great as hockey. Sid has a younger sister and Geno has an older brother, and neither of them have seen their sibling in a while.

Sid started working as an escort in college, to pay the bills, and he graduated only a year late, with no loans at all. Geno came over to the US to work in a family friend's restaurant, and because he's big and scary when he frowns, he ended up doing some bodyguard work before eventually becoming a driver for Sid's agency. He still peels potatoes at the restaurant sometimes, while the elderly Russian grandmother who runs the kitchen criticizes his technique and gossips about the staff's love life.

What makes Sid good at his job (other than his mouth, which Geno thought explained everything the first time Sid got into his car) is his smooth, professional shell -- an ability to be pleasant and friendly and entirely inoffensive. It's a blank canvas for clients to project their own fantasies on. The first time Geno hears Sid's real laugh, weird and honking, he almost sideswipes a parked car.

Sid and Geno didn't set out to have these complicated silent feelings, either, but well, here they are.

Geno is polite and respectful to Sid from the beginning, because they're both professionals here. Geno tries not to think too much about Sid's mouth and his dumb laugh, and is mostly not successful, but he keeps it to himself. Sid can pick and choose from the richest, most powerful men in the city, and Geno's seen the way some of them look at Sid; like they'd drop everyone else and marry him if Sid gave them the least encouragement. There's no reason Sid would be interested in Geno.

Sid thinks about Geno's shoulders and his hands on the steering wheel and his kindness all the time, but Geno never flirts with him or acts like he's interested in anything other than this friendship, so Sid doesn't flirt either. And even if Geno did, Sid doesn't know if he'd flirt back. Sid's dated a couple of people who knew what he does for a living, and it always ended badly, messy and ugly. Sid doesn't want what he has with Geno now to end like that.

So they both pine quietly. FOR EXAMPLE:

One client requests that he be met at a private airfield by Sid wearing nothing but a jockstrap. Only his plane is delayed.

After the first half hour, Geno gives Sid his suit jacket. They talk for almost three hours, waiting for the plane -- they're both on the clock and they've got nothing better to do.

The plane finally land. Sid peels Geno's jacket off and hands it back. Geno wrestles it on and his stomach does a weird little dip when he realizes it smells like Sid.

He gets out of the car, goes around to wait at the back passenger side door. The client has made it down the airplane stairs and is coming towards the car. He's trailed by a couple of harassed looking assistants, but he waves them off as he gets close to the car. Geno figures they'll have to take a taxi.

Geno opens the car door for him. He doesn't meet the client's eyes, but he can still see the look on his face, that satisfied, possessive expression when he sees Sid waiting for him in the back seat.

Geno closes the door a little harder than he has to.

He gets in the drivers seat and starts the car. Sid leans forward and pushes the button to raise the partition between the front and back seats.

Geno looks back over his shoulder. "Watch the upholstery."

Sid's professional expression disappears in a quick flash of a grin.

"What did he say?" the client asks.

"He said, welcome to the city," Sid says, his face smoothing out again. The partition closes all the way and Geno doesn't hear whatever happens next.

(What happens next is that the client sucks Sid's dick. He's got a couple of clients like that, men who want to suck cock or get fucked but don't trust anyone they're not paying for the privilege. They all trend to be like this guy, more enthusiastic than talented, but Sid is a professional. He moans nicely and says all the right things, pulls his hair gently. When he can tell the client's jaw is starting to hurt, Sid tips his head back and closes his eyes and thinks about something that will take him over the edge. Usually it's a hockey player or an actor or a hot guy he saw at the gym, no one he really knows, but today he can't stop thinking about Geno on the other side of the smoked glass partition. He wonders if Geno is thinking about him, too.

"I'm close," Sid says, and the client makes an encouraging noise.

There's an intercom button to speak to the driver. Sid could hit it by accident, and then Geno would be able to hear everything -- the wet, sloppy sound of the client's mouth on Sid's cock, Sid's moans…

Sid keeps his hand carefully away from the button, and comes in his client's mouth.

The client swallows messily, half-choking on it, and fumbles his pants open to jerk off all over Sid's stomach. Sid is proactive with the wet wipes and none of the mess gets on the upholstery.)

They sleep together once while Geno is Sid's driver. It's the day before Geno's birthday, and Sid's client gets arrested for security fraud right before his appointment, so Sid's got a free bottle of champagne and nothing to do with his evening.

He convinces Geno that they should go back to Geno's apartment and celebrate Geno's birthday early. He and Geno split the bottle of champagne, which isn't nearly enough alcohol to explain why Sid thinks it's a good idea to kiss Geno when the clock strikes midnight.

Geno goes completely still, and when Sid pulls back, Geno's eyes are huge and his face is soft, shocked.

"Happy birthday," Sid says.

Geno groans and pulls Sid back down to kiss him again, hungry and desperate.

It's -- maybe not a mistake, but it changes things. How could it not? The reasonable thing to do would be to talk about it in the morning, but these are not reasonable people. Sid leaves before Geno wakes up.

They both realize they can't go back to what they had before. They both quit the agency without telling each other. Sid decides he wants to go to grad school for history, starts researching programs and applying to places. Geno buys a share in the family friend's restaurant, because he wants to do more than peel potatoes and has some ideas about what they should do.

They don't see each other or talk for almost a year, until Sid walks into the new cafe that just opened around the corner from campus and sees Geno taking orders behind the counter.

Sid's dressed like a student, jeans and a t-shirt and a baseball cap, and Geno is wearing a chef's coat, and they both look new and fresh and different, but also, deeply, perfectly familiar.

(They get married and adopt two dogs and live happily ever after.)