《星条红与皇室蓝》番外篇Part 1
"I am not asking you to believe in it, or even to like it," Henry says stonily. It's been a long morning already. He is beginning to perspire. "I am simply asking you to show a modicum of respect."
"To-to your quiche?"
"Yes.To my quiche."
Bea puts down her tape gun and wipes her eyes. "Pez."
"我不是要你相信它，甚至不是要你喜欢它，"亨利坚定地说。这已经是一个漫长的上午了。他开始冒汗了。"我只是要求你表现出适度的尊重。"
"敬你的乳蛋饼？"
"是的，敬我的乳蛋饼。"
碧放下录音枪，擦了擦眼睛。"皮兹。"
"Yes?"
"Henry says he's going to make us a quiche!"
Pez's squawk of a laugh bounces down the stairs. "Pull the other one!"
"I make them all the time for Alex," Henry insists."They are perfectly edible."
"So, when you promised us breakfast if we got up early to help you,"Bea says, "you meant that you were going to make us breakfast?"
"什么事？"
"亨利说他要给我们做乳蛋饼！"
皮兹的笑声从楼梯上传来 "喊另一个当救兵！"
"我经常给艾利克斯做乳蛋饼，" 亨利坚持说，"完全可以吃。"
"所以，你答应我们说，我们要是早起帮忙就请我们吃早餐，"碧说，"你的意思是，你要给我们做早餐？"
"Yes!"Henry says hotly. "Stop laughing!"
"I'm sorry!" Bea says. "It's only that...well, Henry,the last time you cooked breakfast for me,you wee twelve and you put a sausage in the microwave until it exploded."
"That was your idea And it's been ages since then! I've studied, all right? I'm quite good now. Those pictures I send the group chat aren't just for show."
"Oh, aren't they?" Bea says rudely,as if his incredibly generous of fer to cook her a shallot-and-thyme quiche with mushrooms from the farmer's market means nothing at all. As if he's lived in this house for five entire years without learning to use its kitchen.
"是的！"亨利激动地说。"别笑了！"
"对不起！" 碧说。"只是......好吧，亨利，上次你为我做早餐时，你才 12 岁，你把一根香肠放进微波炉直到它爆炸。"
"那是你的主意，而且已经过去很久了！我早就进步了，好吗？我现在已经很不错了。我在群聊里发的那些照片可不是摆设。"
"哦，不是吗？" 碧毫不客气地说，好像他慷慨大方地用农贸市场买来的蘑菇给她做香葱百里香乳蛋饼，根本就不值一提。就好像他在这房子里住了整整五年都没学会用厨房一样。
Perhaps if their lives weren't so chaotic, if Henry weren't flying out of New York every time Bea had a spare moment to fly in,he could have proven this to her earlier. But Pez, who lives mostly in the city now and visits so frequently he's earned his own Secret Service code name(Cardinal, since Henry is Bishop), should know better.
"Percy Okonjo," Henry says as Pez joins them, "you were here last weekend when I made mince pie. You loved it."
"Did I?" Pez wonders aloud, with an annoyingly Bea-like lilt.
"Look at this apron!" Henry gestures to himself and the navy blue apron he's wearing. Alex gave it to him for his birthday last year. "Would a man who Alex pushes up his sunglasses and frowns into the camera. He looks so lovely with his faded T-shirt and jean jacket and shaggy hair. Pure American heartthrob,might as well have a cowboy hat on. Henry never does tire of it.
也许，如果他们的生活不是那么混乱，如果亨利不是一有空就从纽约飞来，他本可以早点向她证明这一点。但佩兹现在大部分时间都住在纽约，而且经常来纽约，他已经有了自己的特勤局代号（红衣主教，因为亨利是主教），他应该更清楚这一点。
"珀西·奥孔乔，"佩兹过来时，亨利说，"上周末我做肉馅饼时你来过。你很喜欢。"
"我喜欢吗？佩兹大声问道，带着一种很像碧的口吻，像到烦人。
"看看这条围裙！" 亨利指了指自己和身上的海军蓝围裙。这是艾利克斯去年送给他的生日礼物。"艾利克斯推了推墨镜，皱着眉头对着镜头。他穿着褪色的 T 恤和牛仔夹克，头发蓬松，看起来非常可爱。纯正的美国甜心，真该再加一顶牛仔帽了。亨利对他百看不厌。
"Sorry?"
"Bea and Pez don't believe I can make a quiche."
"What? Have they seen your apron?"
"That's what I said!"
"Henry's quiches are great!" Alex says loudly, to the kitchen at large. "I almost never find shells in them!"
"什么？"
"碧和佩斯不相信我会做乳蛋饼。"
"他们看见你的围裙了吗？"
"我就是这么说的！"
"亨利做的乳蛋饼很棒！" 艾利克斯对着整个厨房大声说，"我几乎从没在里面发现过蛋壳！"
That sets Bea and Pez off again. On the screen,Alex's face crinkles into laughter.
"Thank you very much, Alex, you've been a tremendous help," Henry groans. "How are things? Florist this morning, wasn't it?"
"Just finishing up," Alex says with a grin. "Final approvals done. Everything looks great."
With only one week until moving day and two until the wedding,it made sense to divide and conquer. Henry agreed to stay in New York and finish packing up the brownstone with help from Bea and Pez, while Alex, June, and Nora are ticking off the last of their checklists in Texas.
这句话又把碧和佩斯惹笑了。屏幕上，艾利克斯的脸笑得皱巴巴的。
"非常感谢你，艾利克斯，你帮了我大忙。"亨利呻吟道。"事情怎么样了？今天早上去花店了吧？"
"刚刚结束，"艾利克斯笑着说。"最后的审批已经完成。一切看起来都很好。"
离搬家只有一周时间，离婚礼只有两周时间，所以分头行动很有意义。亨利同意留在纽约，在碧和佩斯的帮助下完成褐砂石房子的打包工作，而艾利克斯、琼和诺拉则在德克萨斯州完成最后一项工作。
"Of all the surprises that wedding planning has brought us,"Henry says,"your ability to micromanage floral arrangements has certainly been...one of them."
"You know I love to curate a vibe," Alex says.
"That you do,"Henry agrees."Where are the girls?"
"Getting donuts," Pez answers before Alex can. He holds up his phone, open to a photo of June blowing a kiss while Nora fellates an éclair."
亨利说："在婚礼策划给我们带来的所有惊喜中，你对花艺安排的微观管理能力无疑是......其中之一。"
艾利克斯说："你知道我喜欢营造氛围。"
"那是当然，"亨利同意道，"姑娘们呢？"
"去买甜甜圈了。"佩兹抢在艾利克斯之前回答。他举起手机，打开了一张照片，上面是琼在飞吻、诺拉在吃奶油蛋糕。
"Donuts!" Bea says. "Now there's an idea!"
They spend the rest of the day drowning in cardboard boxes and bin liners, packing everything but the furniture and the downstairs television. Pez reminds him once an hour that they could pay someone to do this, but Bea is stubborn, and Henry is reluctant to let anyone else wade into all the intimate trappings of his and Alex's life. It was bad enough explaining the contents of the trick drawer in their dresser to Pez, much less some mover he's never met.
"甜甜圈！"碧说。"这才是好主意！"
剩下的时间里，他们都沉浸在纸箱和垃圾袋里，除了家具和楼下的电视机，什么都打包。佩兹每隔一小时就提醒他一次，他们可以花钱请人来做这件事，但是碧很固执，亨利也不愿意让别人涉足他和艾利克斯生活中的所有隐私。向佩斯解释他们梳妆台抽屉里的小玩具就已经够糟了，更别提向他素未谋面的搬家工人解释了。
When it's done, Bea puts A Knight's Tale on in the living room and promptly falls asleep on Pez's lap. Pez passes out too, but Henry stays awake,because Heath Ledger deserves an audience. And because he knows if he doesn't wake Bea and move her to the guest bedroom,he'll have to hear about her back spasms in the morning.
David hops up beside him on the loveseat, and Henry strokes the top of his snout until his little body relaxes into Henry's side.
做完后，碧在客厅里放了《骑士的故事》，然后很快就趴在佩兹的腿上睡着了。佩兹也昏睡了过去，但亨利还没睡，因为希斯·莱杰不能没有观众。因为他知道，如果不叫醒碧，把她挪到客房去，明天早上他就得听到她抱怨背痛了。
大卫跳到他身边的沙发上，亨利抚摸着它的鼻子，直到它的小身体放松地靠在亨利的身边。
"Nervous old boy,"Henry hums. It still does seem like the ultimate irony that the dog he adopted for emotional support has anxiety. David has grown more and more worried all week, as more and more of his home disappeared into boxes."We won't leave you,I promise."
The brownstone has been a good house for them. Sturdy brick walls,neighbors that actually let them be. Henry has loved it more than he ever loved Kensington, or at least as much as he loved Kensington when his parents both lived there too. Some mornings,when he comes downstairs to find Alex with the coffeepot and the kettle already on, he feels the way he did when his family all slept under one roof.This roof is quite a bit smaller than that one,but the feeling isn't.
"紧张的老伙计，"亨利哼道。他收养的这只作为情感支持的狗竟然会焦虑，这似乎仍然是一个最大的讽刺。这一周来，随着家里越来越多的东西消失在箱子里，大卫也越来越担心。"我们不会离开你的，我保证"。
这栋褐砂石房子对他们来说一直不错。坚固的砖墙，邻居们都很照顾他们。亨利爱它胜过爱肯辛顿，至少像他父母住在肯辛顿时一样爱它。有些早晨，当他下楼发现艾利克斯已经把咖啡壶和水壶打开时，他的感觉就像他的家人都睡在一个屋檐下时一样。
So, perhaps David hasn't got entirely the wrong idea. It is hard to let the place go. For the past month, Alex has kept asking Henry why he's staring, and the truth is that he's been committing to memory exactly how Alex looks in every room. How the bannister fits in his hand, the place on the foyer wall where he always braces himself to pull on his shoes.
Everything that's happened in the past five years has happened, a least in part,inside this house.
所以，也许大卫并没有完全想错。这个地方让人难以割舍。在过去的一个月里，艾利克斯一直在问亨利为什么盯着他看，而事实上，亨利一直在牢牢记住艾利克斯在每个房间里的样子。楼梯扶手和他的手是如何贴合的，门厅墙壁上的那个地方，他总是撑着那里穿鞋。
过去五年发生的一切，至少有一部分是在这所房子里发生的。
It's seven months after Alex's mother's second inauguration, and Henry is wishing he had never even heard the word "credenza." Then he wouldn't have to decide where to put one.
Alex is arriving in half an hour to help him move it, but Henry still doesn't know where. Across from the fireplace,perhaps? But what if he wants to put a sofa there? Does he want a regular sofa, or a sectional? Should it go upstairs, in his study? Or should he leave room for book- cases?
现在是艾利克斯母亲第二次就职七个月后，亨利真希望自己从来没听说过 "书柜 "这个词。那样他就不用决定把柜子放在哪里了。
艾利克斯半小时后就会来帮他搬，但亨利还是不知道放在哪里。也许放在壁炉对面？但如果他想在那里放一张沙发呢？他想要普通沙发，还是组合沙发？是放在楼上的书房呢？还是应该留出放书柜的地方？
He longs to be back on a beach, sipping something from a pineapple.
It's been a long, glorious summer since Alex packed up his White House bedroom, called Henry, and asked, "Do you want to get the fuck off the continent?" They did Dubai first, then Lagos. Rio, for old time's sake. Buenos Aires, paper lanterns in moonlight and Alex flirting with the bartender for free drinks. June through August became a lovely blur: Alex asleep against his shoulder on the plane, Alex throwing his Portuguese phrase book out the window of a speedingcar, sand in unmentionable places, Alex Alex Alex. Endless runways and half-arsed disguises, swimsuits that got smaller and smaller until they simply didn't wear them anymore. Falling in love,the sequel,with fresh suntans and all the time in the world.
他渴望回到海滩上，喝着菠萝汁。
自从艾利克斯收拾好他在白宫的卧室，打电话给亨利，问他："你想不想离开这个该死的大陆？"已经过了一个漫长而灿烂的夏天了。他们先去了迪拜，然后是拉各斯、里约，又为了怀旧区了布宜诺斯艾利斯，月光下的纸灯笼、艾利克斯和酒保调情换取免费酒水。从六月到八月，一切都变得美好而模糊不清：艾利克斯在飞机上靠着他的肩膀睡着了，艾利克斯把他的葡萄牙语短语书扔出了飞驰的汽车窗外，沙子钻进难以启齿的地方，艾利克斯--艾利克斯--艾利克斯。无尽的跑道和半生不熟的伪装，越来越小的泳衣，直到他们干脆不再穿了。坠入爱河，续集，新的日光浴和世界上所有的时间。
And now here they are in Park Slope, where Alex is renting the second floor of a brownstone two blocks from Henry's.
It's practical, they agreed, to live in the same neighborhood before they live at the same address. They've scarcely gotten a chance to date the normal way yet-if it can be called "normal" when their combined security teams are headquartered in an empty apartment down the street. Still, Henry wants this to last.
现在他们来到了公园坡，艾利克斯租住在离亨利家两个街区的一栋褐砂石房子的二楼。
他们一致认为，先住在同一个社区，然后再住在同一个地址，这样比较实际。他们几乎还没有机会以正常的方式约会--如果这还能被称为"正常 "的话，因为他们的联合安保团队总部就设在街边的空公寓里。尽管如此，亨利还是希望这种关系能持续下去。
They've sprinted headlong into everything so far, but now he wants move slowly, in delicious increments. He wants to savor nights, min-utes, firsts, to covet them and then let them dissolve on his tongue, like the sugar cubes he snuck off his gran's filigreed tea trays when he was small. He wants a life.
He wants someone to tell him where to put this damned credenza.
迄今为止，他们都是一头冲进一切，但现在他想慢慢地、以美味的方式前进。他想细细品味夜晚、分钟、第一次，觊觎它们，然后让它们在舌尖溶解，就像小时候从奶奶的丝茶盘上偷吃的方糖一样。他想要生活。
他希望有人能告诉他，这该死的柜子该放哪儿。
It's a vintage Broyhill Brasilia piece, walnut with clever brass drawer pulls. June helped him pick it out when she was in town meeting with her editor, but she never gave him any advice on where it should go.He hasn't ever been allowed to decide where furniture should go before.
So,it's...there, in the center of the empty living room,the first piece in the entire house.
"Maybe you could start with a ru or two," says Alex from the foyer.
Henry turns to find him with his keys in one hand and a paper bag in the other, smiling in a beam of midmorning light,and,ah.Yes, there it is. That sweet, sharp gasp of nerves. The half second when he forgets how to use his mouth. If he knows nothing else, at least one certainty remains, which is that seeing Alex Claremont-Diaz in the flesh will always do this to him.
这是一件古董布洛伊希尔-巴西利亚（Broyhill Brasilia）家具，胡桃木，抽屉的黄铜拉手很精致。琼在城里和她的编辑开会时帮他挑的，但她从没给过他任何建议，告诉他应该放在哪里。
所以，它就......在那里，在空荡荡的客厅中央，是整个房子里的第一件家具。
门厅里传来艾利克斯的声音："也许你可以先摆放一两件家具。"
亨利转过身，发现他一手拿着钥匙，一手提着纸袋，在一束晨光中微笑着。那甜蜜而急促的紧张喘息。那半秒钟，他忘记了如何用嘴。如果他什么都不知道，至少有一点是肯定的，那就是看到艾利克斯·克莱蒙特-迪亚兹的真容，他总会这样。
Alex in a photo is handsome, but Alex in life is a symphony. He's refracted light with a cherry cola chaser. He's got a Fibonacci jawline and a troublemaker smile and thick forearms built for posing in doorways with his sleeves rolled and thumbing corks out of champagne bottles. The first time Henry ever told Pez about him,he said,"God,but he's lethal." It's only worse once you get to know him.
"Weird place for a credenza," Alex comments. He kisses Henry's cheek, then passes him a warm bundle wrapped in parchment paper. "Hope you like sausage-egg-and-cheese."
"I don't know where to put it."
"Sandwich goes in your mouth,typically."
"The credenza."
照片中的艾利克斯是英俊的，但生活中的艾利克斯却是一首交响乐。他是光的折射者，也是樱桃可乐的追逐者。他有一个斐波纳契式的下巴，笑起来很麻烦，前臂粗壮，适合卷着袖子在门口摆姿势，摁开香槟酒瓶的塞子。亨利第一次跟佩兹说起他的时候，他说："天啊，他太致命了。" 一旦你了解了他，情况就更糟了。
艾利克斯说："这个柜子摆得真奇怪。"他亲吻了亨利的脸颊，然后递给他一个用羊皮纸包裹的暖包。"希望你喜欢香肠鸡蛋芝士。"
"我不知道该放哪儿。"
"通常，三明治应该放在你嘴里。"
"书柜。"
"Ohhh, right," Alex says, pretending to have just caught on. He winks. Henry sighs theatrically but accepts a second kiss, on the lips this time.
"Why don't you just put it right here?"
He points to his left, where a blank wall stretches from the front door to the foot of the stairs. It does, upon closer inspection, appear to be the exact right size.
"哦，对，"艾利克斯假装刚明白过来。他眨了眨眼睛。亨利夸张地叹了口气，但还是接受了第二个吻，这次是吻嘴唇。
"你为什么不把它放在这里呢？"
他指了指左边，那里有一面空白的墙，从大门一直延伸到楼梯脚下。仔细一看，大小确实合适。
"Oh,"Henry says.
This is where they overlap. Where he ends and Alex begins. Great gooey puddle of feelings, meet course of action; endless burning energy, meet point of focus. Agonies, meet your most obvious, most natural, most inevitable conclusions. It's frightening sometimes for a person like Henry, who has spent his entire life pedaling his agonies about like baguettes in a posh little bicycle basket. What is he to do with them now?
"Yes," Henry concedes, "I suppose I could," and Alex laughs.
"哦，"亨利说。
这就是他们重叠的地方。他在这里结束，艾利克斯在这里开始。汹涌澎湃的情感，汇聚成行动的方向；无尽燃烧的能量，汇聚成关注的焦点。痛苦，满足你最明显、最自然、最不可避免的结论。对于亨利这样的人来说，有时会感到恐惧，因为他一生都在把痛苦像长棍面包一样装在高档的小自行车篮子里。他现在该怎么处理这些痛苦呢？
"是的，"亨利承认，"我想我可以。"艾利克斯笑了。
