"Tell me, David, do you have a girlfriend?"
David blushed hearing this bold question. Ursula Meiden was extremely direct and bold. He had never met such a woman before.
They had just finished their little tour of the palace and its grounds and were now sitting with glasses of apple juice. Gustav did not accompany them. He said he was busy with work and hid in his office. He only instructed them to be quiet and closed the door. So David was the only companion of the beautiful Norwegian woman, whose charms were not at all hidden due to the hot weather. Of course, she was not naked, but her cleavage clearly showed the deep groove of her breasts.
David felt the heat. Ursula doesn't seem to want to hit on him? There were times when beautiful girls flirted with him, here he was dealing with a real woman of probably thirty years (he deduced this more from the fact that she was older than Gustav Meiden than from how she looked, because she looked simply gorgeous!).
"I don't have a girlfriend," he admitted blushing, "but there's someone I've liked for years. It's just... I can't confess it to her."
"Why?" she quipped. "I think any girl would be happy if you confessed your feelings to her."
"Well she... She's perfect, and I..."
"Ah!" The Norwegian woman smiled with understanding. "I think you should do it after all. You love her, that's why you think she's perfect, but maybe she doesn't see herself that way? Maybe she thinks she's not very good, or that she's hopeless at all..."
"But she's not...!" he assured hotly indignant blasphemy against Berenice.
"You think so, and she? People have a lot of complexes that they don't show to the world. Sometimes they even act like idiots to hide these complexes."
What came to David's mind was his boss, who more times acted like an idiot than a decent human being, but this certainly couldn't be due to any complexes. David himself had a lot of complexes but he didn't act like an asshole because he had grown up learning that you shouldn't take out your frustration on others. Berenice, on the other hand, had absolutely no complexes, it's simply impossible for a walking ideal to have any complexes.
"Not Berenice," he shook his head with conviction.
Ursula was still smiling, but somehow sadly, which made David feel uncomfortable. She probably thought he was an idiot, but she didn't know Berenice after all and....
"Love is beautiful," she concluded. "It allows people to see only the best in their loved one. You're right, Berenice is certainly an ideal," she sighed and looked toward Gustav's office.
David looked at her for a moment and a suspicion came to his mind.
"You love him, don't you?" he asked before he realized how big a gaffe he was committing with this question.
She, however, did not take offense. She laughed briefly and stuck her gaze into her glass of juice.
"Not what you think," she said. "I would give my hand for him, but I wouldn't go to bed with him."
David didn't understand. Ursula glanced at him and seemed to read the big question mark in his face.
"There is no chemistry," she replied with a slight shrug of her shoulders. "Our pheromones don't work on each other. Maybe it's because he prefers..."
She paused as if she had covered herself for accidentally wanting to reveal his secret.
"...Men?" he asked timidly. "Mr. Meiden admitted that he was in a relationship with a man, but I don't know the details. Sorry, I didn't mean to be nosy," he added hastily.
"Did he tell you?" Ursula raised her eyebrows.
"Just by chance, just a few words..." he blushed up to his ears. Not good, he thought. He shouldn't talk about these things behind Meiden's back. It was simply unethical. Well, and gossip.
"I'm glad," Ursula, however, was not angry. "In the current world, people have a habit of classifying themselves because of who they sleep with. Do you know that it used to not be like that? In the old days it wasn't the gender of the person you were dating or having sex with that mattered, but mutual attraction and love. Gustav is a bit like that. Romantic. I'm sure the modern world has a term for even that, but not everyone wants to be locked in a drawer. Do you understand what I mean?"
Surprisingly for himself, David understood. After a little erotic adventure with Gustav, he began to panic that he was gay. It wasn't even that being gay was a bad thing just that he was suddenly faced with having to change his identity. He would stop being the David everyone knew and would have to become a gay David. And yet his character, his personality, his professionalism at work would not change. What would change would be the label, not the product itself.
But perhaps for many people the label is important because it clearly says who he is?
It's just that David knew he was David Krosny, the son of his parents, that he worked as a gardener and loved his job. He also loved Berenice, a woman he didn't dare confess his affection to, and once, completely by accident, he had sexual contact with a man because... Because his body was curious and aroused. He knew all this and didn't want people to add a label to him because of his sexual preferences, because he wanted to be seen through the prism of his person and sexual attraction wasn't what made him a person, just a tiny aspect of him.
"I understand," he admitted. Gustav Meiden simply thought the same way he did.
Ursula smiled broadly and her eyes lit up. She was probably smiling all the time, thought David. Maybe that's why she looked so beautiful?
"I have to admit that I'm surprised Gustav told you about his ex," she said.
"Eeeee, actually he just admitted that someone was. A man. I don't know any details..." He was tempted to add that he would like to know them, but he shouldn't ask. It was a private matter for Meiden. However, he had never met a man who was in a relationship with another man and felt curiosity, especially since the man was also doing erotic things to him. Granted, he shouldn't, but he really was curious.
"When he's ready, he'll tell you about it himself," Ursula stated. "I can only ask you to be patient with him. Their parting was not pleasant, and Gustav has changed since then. He used to be not so rough, so rude and so unpleasant. He was really sweet and had a bright future ahead of him. We all hope that he will return to the way he used to be."
Oh, a sudden understanding came to David. So it was an unhappy relationship with a tumultuous end that had affected Meiden so badly! Could it be a broken heart? Meiden mentioned that he had seen that man in the embrace of another, so... betrayal?
Poor Meiden. Sometimes, yes, he acted like an asshole, but a lot of people behave like that and David never went into what the reasons were. They were simply assholes and that was that. But maybe they had some reasons for being just that? Maybe something happened in their lives that hardened their hearts and characters? His grandmother said that suffering ennobles, but maybe not everyone? Maybe sometimes suffering hurt so much that it was impossible not to feel and show this pain as hostility to the whole world?
Gustav was not, after all, completely evil. He apologized for his mistakes, admitted his guilt and made amends for the harm he had done. Everything indicated that he also had no intention of repeating his mistakes. Well, and above all, he rushed to David's aid when he thought the latter was in trouble. Yes, he was rude, yes, he said ugly words to him, but he saved him.
David smiled broadly.
"Don't worry, Mrs. Ursula! I promise to take care of Mr. Meiden. I think I'm used to his strange moods by now."
Ursula Meiden looked at him in amazement for a moment. Then with admiration. Finally, she grasped his hands and exclaimed:
"Please, David, become my little brother!"
David had no idea what she meant, but her words made him feel even better. He gladly smiled in return, although he felt a little embarrassed. To be the younger brother of this woman? Gladly, no problem. Just so he knows how to do it!