Once the delivery guy left, David left the table to make a dash down the hall to cut off the water in the shower, patting himself on the back for cleverly anticipating possible objections to the lack of an adult figure in the house.
He soon rejoined Oliver, who was having fun drawing out a strand of cheese as he lifted a slice of pizza from the box. As he transferred the slice to a plate, the cheese strand snapped and most of it fell back onto the pie remaining in the carton.
"This was a great idea, Davey," he said.
David had been somewhat huffy when Oliver first referred to him by Davey, but then his boyfriend in the Sesame Street undies had explained that they were boys now, and nicknames would be cool.
"Sure, but I am calling you Ollie," David responded.
Ollie giggled and bit into the slice of pizza. Second later, doing another jig as he stood in a chair to reach the table, he reached for his soda and quenched his scalded mouth.
"I thunk I bunned my tongue," he said.
"You've got to be more careful," Davey admonished him. Even with both of them four years old, he still got tasked with looking out for Ollie.
Both boys soon discovered that a large pizza had been a bit optimistic for their now pint-sized appetites. Both their tummies felt full before they even finished their first slice.
"Guess we could save on grocery bills like this," Davey joked.
Davey closed the pizza box and awkwardly carried the oversized cardboard carton to the fridge. "I guess we have lunch and dinner tomorrow," he joked.
He actually figured he could make short work of the pizza tomorrow. He'd enjoyed his return to boyhood, but he figured it was time that he and Ollie resume their normal, adult lives. Once he closed the fridge door, he turned to the kitchen counter and stared up at the cake holder. His heart skipped a beat. "Where's the ring?"
He tried to tell himself it was the angle. He wasn't used to having to gaze up at objects at countertop level. He pushed one of the table's chairs over to the counter and scrambled into it. By now, his actions had alerted Ollie, who stood by as ineffectually as always.
"Oh shit!" David cursed, which sounded incongruous in his little boy voice. "The ring's gone."
Ollie listened. "It can't be!"
"It is!" David retorted with heat. "Damn! Did you move it?"
"I haven't touched the boring ol' ring..."
David felt trapped. The walls seemed to expand and stretch, receding away from him, leaving him smaller and more vulnerable. The pepperoni, sausage, and extra cheese rested a lot more heavily in the pit of his stomach now. It had been a stupid lark! Just a game with his boyfriend... he didn't want to be trapped as a four-year-old urchin.
The two boys, both wide-eyed from a sickening fear, looked at each other and cried out in unison: "The pizza guy!"
David hurriedly retrieved his phone, almost too nervous to punch in the numbers to Gio's Pizza.
"Oliie, we hafta get that ring back," he said as he made the call. Even as it rang, he realized he didn't even know the name of the delivery guy.