-Noah and Navid [nah-VEED] visit Santa Barbara for the weekend.
*****
"No you can't throw this out! This one is my favorite! What else is in here?" I grabbed for the white tank top he had carelessly placed in a bag of clothes to donate.
"Why not? They are old clothes and this one has a hole in the stitching on the side," Navid took the shirt from me and showed me where the side was coming undone a bit.
"You were wearing it the first day I met you. You looked so hot," I admitted and crouched down to see what else was in the bag.
"Oh... my little princess," Navid said in that voice he used when I'd done something he found irresistibly cute. "But I must get rid of some things. My mother sends me new clothes. She has sent some things for you as well. I cannot keep every thing I have worn around you."
"These stretchy white workout tights you wear to the gym! I get hard just watching your bulge in them when the shorts that cover them come down. They're my favorite! Not these, No!" I hugged them to my chest like a madman.
"Ok, ok. Take it easy, my love. There will be new tights to show you my bulge in. I would never take that from you... You will pick three items AT MOST, but we MUST shrink things. Our new home will be ready soon and I feel that your father is close to give his permission of yes for you to live with me. I cannot move forward to start new life with you unless I say goodbye to past life things," He said with hope.
Navid crouched down behind me and put his hands on my shoulders. He squeezed them and kissed up my neck tenderly to let me know he would support me in this time of great sentimental loss. I love that he didn't laugh at me for this.
"She sent things for me too?" My ears perked up as I processed what he had said. I dropped the clothes back into the donation bag and turned to look at him with a grin.
"Of course. You are boy I take care of and my mother she like to buy things. She also sends some old but good clothes of mine that might be small enough to fit my Noah. You do not notice large box in the corner?" Navid laughed at my christmas-like excitement.
"Box? Oh! That! You have so much stuff in here," I said playfully. His room was always a mess. I knew from the start that once we lived together, my cleaning skills would be put to the test.
"And yet you yell for me when I try to throw things out!" Navid laughed and pulled me into his chest. He tickled me and then kissed me as he rose to his feet and brought me with him.
"Presents!" I demanded and lightly pounded my fists against his chest when he eased his tongue back and set me free.
He laughed again with adoring eyes and took my hand in his as he led me across the room through piles of laundry and his workout bag.
"I don't open yet, I wait for you so we do this together!" Navid beamed and pointed to a box that could have held a large microwave. The flaps were open and there were a few unfolded pages of handwritten letter in Farsi script from his mother. They looked like he had read them over a few times, the edges crinkled with interest.
Navid collected them and folded the papers neatly before setting them on top of his computer desk. I know he missed his parents terribly. Late at night when I'd gone to sleep, he would call them. Tehran is eleven and a half hours ahead of Los Angeles, almost exactly the other side of the world.
He would speak to them in their language in soft, tender tones. I pretended it didn't wake me up, and invariably he would rub a hand over my back as he spoke. Maybe it was the need for human touch with his tribe of humans so far away.
"They go to London two weeks ago for a conference my dad speak to. He presented on a new science discovery in bacteria that can change..." Navid started. I zoned out. Like his father, Navid was passionate about science. Some nights when I had trouble falling asleep, I'd ask him to explain a concept from the biology class I was taking. He'd launch into this very detailed and brilliant explanation and soon I'd be nodding off in his arms.
"... So she buys from that store a lot!" Navid finished and I realized I'd missed out on important shopping details. He pulled out a wrapped square of tissue paper and unfolded it to show a crisp button up blue shirt with neon yellow flecks. It looked so futuristic. He pulled out a few more things that weren't for me until he found a thick paper parcel tied in string with my name on it in Farsi script.
"This say Noah, my mother write your name," Navid said it in a shocked whisper like it was a scientific anomaly, his worlds colliding. He sat on the bed beside me and pulled me into his side. He pushed the parcel into my lap and I pulled at the string of her intricate knot. Navid reached for a pocket knife he kept in his desk and made quick-work of it.
"Oh I love this!" I held up a t-shirt covered in a million little mickey mouse heads all jumbled together.
"That will give me headache to look at!" Navid laughed.
"Woah look at this one!" I held up a small tank-top shirt that was black and made of this stretchy, almost-velvet material that felt incredibly pettable. I knew instantly that Navid would think it was too revealing.
"No, no that is not for wear outside of my bed. It show so much skin and the material! Why she think this would be ok for you, I do not know... People will want to pet you. No, no," Navid took it and folded it up. He set it on his other side.
"Why don't you like me to show skin?" I was willing to hear him out on this, but it bothered me.
"Your body is for me as mine is for you. In my religion and culture we are to keep modest, covered and judge others by their character and mind rather than their body. You have beautiful heart and outsides to match it. I do not want some man to think of you in a way I think of you." He rubbed my hair as I snuggled into his side. It sounded like the stereotype one thinks of when asked about middle-eastern men.
"But you go out wearing whatever you please. You don't think boys like me look at that and want it?" I asked.
"You don't understand, my love. I am man, Noah. I am strong provider for my boy. Boys like you may think things, but they could never force themselves on me. You are small, weaker. If a man sees too much of you and decide he want that, you may not be able to stop him. Is not to excuse men like that, they are vile dogs, but I also don't want for your danger, ever... It is also for selfish reason as I don't want another to come after your heart..." Navid went back to digging through the box
