Chapter Thirty-One #2
Flipping through the envelopes, Cassian shifted his stance. He hoped that the particular envelope he was looking for had arrived. Sure enough, at the bottom of the pile, there it was. All the way from London.
“Is that what I think it is?” Ethel asked from her chair.
“Indeed, it is,” he said with a happy hum, ripping it open.
Listening to James and John return to the car, he bit down on his bottom lip and strummed his fingers on the envelope, barely able to contain his percolating excitement as he wondered whether or not he could stand to wait for nightfall before presenting James with the gift. Probably not.
“I’m heading up to my bedroom to wait for James,” he said, starting into the hall with the envelope. “I’ll be back for some coffee later.”
Cassian bounded up the stairs. His and James’s bedroom was the last one at the end of the hall.
Inside, most of his bags were already there, having been brought in by James and John right before this.
Just like when Cassian had boarded the Titanic in April, though, he still kept his most important possession (well, second most important) on his person most of the time, rather than in a piece of luggage.
After setting the envelope atop his long dresser, Cassian reached into his breast pocket for the forever-stopped watch.
He never left for New York City without it.
Having it with him made feel a little more anchored to James whenever they were apart, as morbid as that probably was.
After all, Titanic was where the two of them had met.
Not all of Cassian’s memories of the ship were bad. Not most, even.
But that was another reason why he liked having the watch with him. It helped him remember Jacob and the others who had been lost in the sinking, and it helped remind him to think of other people more often as well.
Faintly, Cassian heard James come back into the house.
He unclipped the watch’s chain from his clothes.
James was a sensitive soul. He needn’t be reminded of either of those things.
So, as Cassian always did when he arrived at the cottage, he put the watch in with his socks for safekeeping.
Until the next time when he’d have to be without his caring steward.
Which, thankfully, would not be for a while this time around.
Just as Cassian shut the drawer, James came into the room.
“Didn’t fancy a cup of coffee for yourself?” James asked, setting the last piece of luggage on the floor next to the bed.
“Mmm, not right now, no,” Cassian said.
He took the envelope off the table and walked over to James.
“What’s that?” James asked.
“It’s a present.”
“Awfully small to be a present,” James said playfully, his lips curling into a sweet smirk. “Unless my month’s wages are the present, which seems pretty cruel, especially since I’ll probably spend the bulk of it on you anyway.”
Cassian chuckled. “No, it’s not your salary.” He handed the envelope to James. “In fact, I think that this particular present, you might consider priceless.”
Before peeking inside the envelope, James narrowed his eyes at Cassian suspiciously. Cassian flicked the envelope to encourage him to open it. Finally, James looked inside, humming loudly and pursing his lips to fight a smile while he did.
But then, in an instant, James’s face fell and the humming stopped. He looked up at Cassian. And then back inside the envelope. And then back up at Cassian again.
“Go on, James,” Cassian encouraged him.
James’s eyes were welling up with tears, and Cassian knew that his own would soon well up, too. Gingerly, James removed the item from the sturdy cardstock envelope.
George’s photograph.
For a little while, James stared at it in obvious wonderment, his mouth agape.
“Impossible,” he said in a whisper. “It’s . . . Cassian, this is impossible.”
“It is the right one then, yes?”
Slowly, James lifted his eyes to meet Cassian’s. Perplexed, he shook his head.
“How?”
Cassian shrugged. “I asked Maggie where he’d had it taken. Luckily, that photographer has a habit of keeping his negatives. I believe he keeps them for posterity’s sake rather than in case of inquiries like mine, but, regardless, that meant we lucked out all the same. He printed a new one for me.”
“I love it,” James said, his voice now noticeably wobbly. “I love it so much. Thank you.”
Just then, as Cassian knew would happen, James began to cry. Cassian plucked the envelope and photograph out of his hands and set them on the nightstand. Immediately thereafter, James collapsed into his arms.
“You’re too nice to me, I think,” James said with a sniffle as he buried his face in the crook of Cassian’s neck.
“Don’t say such ridiculous things,” Cassian said. “I’m precisely as nice as I ought to be to the man I love.” He kissed James’s head and threaded his fingers through his hair. “You’re an exceptional person, James. And it’s only right that I treat you as such.”
Cassian’s vision was starting to blur from the rush of emotion when James caught his mouth in a kiss. He (somewhat reluctantly) let a couple of tears fall while their lips moved together. Afterward, Cassian took James’s face in his hands and massaged his too-adorable cheeks with his thumbs.
“You aren’t uncomfortable with me having that in my wallet?” James asked.
“No, but I’d rather you keep it in a frame somewhere in our room, considering how much effort it took to find that for you,” Cassian said. “Do you like that idea?”
James pressed his lips together and nodded, like maybe he was attempting to hold back from crying some more. Cassian huffed a light laugh.
“I have one more thing for you, though,” Cassian said, sniffling and blinking back the rest of his unshed tears. “And I’m afraid that you are required to like it equally as much as you like the photograph of George.”
James crooked an eyebrow. Cassian stepped back and opened up one of the pieces of luggage. After only a couple seconds of rummaging, he found what he was looking for. Grinning proudly, he handed it to James who immediately bellowed a laugh.
“Good God, Cassian, is this what I think it is?”
“It’s a photograph of me,” Cassian confirmed with a nod. “I’d like for you to keep this in your wallet.”
“You’re forcing me to keep a photograph of you in my wallet?” James asked through another roaring laugh.
“Why wouldn’t I?” Cassian scoffed. “It’s clearly something that you like to do.”
James, though, only continued to lose himself to how humorous he must have found this.
Cassian let out a small huff and rolled his eyes.
He really hadn’t thought that James would find his present quite this funny.
Still, though, Cassian couldn’t help but smile a bit, even through the prickle of irritation.
Because at least his steward was happy.
After laughing a little more, James beamed at the wallet-sized photograph for a couple of long seconds and shook his head.
“I love it,” he finally said. “You look so ludicrously haughty in it, too.” He sniffled as he began to cry a bit more. “Oh, God, it’s perfect.”
Cassian huffed a laugh. Now that was the reaction that he’d been hoping for. Taking James’s face in his hands, Cassian captured James’s mouth in another kiss.
Afterward, James smiled up at him in that wonderfully sweet way that made Cassian’s heart stutter.
“You’re incredible,” James said.
“I know,” Cassian replied warmly. “But so are you, James.”
He said this with complete and total certitude, in a manner that he might normally have reserved for relaying the irrefutable facts of how the world worked.
But it was fitting right then as well. After all, Cassian knew for certain that what he’d said was true.
James Thomas Morrow was an incredible person.
Because Cassian Penn Livingston wouldn’t have fallen for someone who was anything less.