This took subterfuge and planning, and Rico was surprised they managed to pull it off. He couldn’t say exactly where the idea took root—sure, he’d semipromised to take Adam earlier in the year, but suddenly, after that day in the candy store, the idea seemed to sprout full grown. Rico wanted to give Adam something amazing. He tried to explain it about two weeks after the dinner with Derek’s parents. They were sitting in the living room, watching professional wrestling—which was an extremely odd choice, but Derek had left the remote on the coffee table and was now lying on Rico, head on his chest. They were both too comfortable to move, so guys in rainbow leotards mauled each other mercilessly. Rico gave up staring at them and trying with half his brain to figure out if they were fighting or just really well choreographed. “So,” Rico said after thirty seconds of trying to decide if the guy in the purple cape had a really big jock strap or a really big erection, “he’s starting school, and he’s going to be working two jobs, and you know?
