At the store, Dante pushes Ryan’s wheelchair up and down the aisles and pretends that Mrs. Talonovich isn’t with them. He imagines that they’re just two guys on their own, lovers for many months now and living together, at Target to do their weekly shopping. When they’re finished here, he sees them maybe stopping by that Rio del Oro place downtown for a quiet dinner—just the two of them—and then back to the apartment they share, they’ll cuddle on the couch in front of the TV, talk of skating and fool around before they head off to bed. Not a hospital bed like Ryan’s, not a narrow twin like Dante’s own, but something larger, something they both fit in comfortably. They’ll sleep twined together, naked, and Ryan isn’t embarrassed by his scarred legs in the daydream—he’s simply beautiful again
