Chapter 30
Auggie
Mia bounced at my side as we waited at the park, bursting with energy as each second ticked by.
It was an overcast day. The sky above us was hazy with a promise of rain that didn’t seem to want to come, but that still couldn’t dampen Mia’s spirits.
Eli was arriving today, and Mia was about to burst out of his skin with excitement.
It had taken longer than I wanted to arrange transportation to bring Eli to Baton Rouge.
Even a domestic flight was difficult to secure on such short notice, and Eli had taken some convincing before he agreed to accept my offer.
Not only did I have to prove to the man that I did, in fact, know Mia, but I also had to provide evidence that Mia actually wanted to see him before he would agree to get on a plane.
I couldn’t fault Eli for his caution. The man was only a year older than Mia, but he’d probably experienced a lot of betrayal and broken promises in his lifetime.
People didn’t just end up living on the street for no reason.
It was usually because of a mix of bad luck and painful experiences.
For now, Eli had no reason to believe that I wasn’t just another abuser looking to use Mia in some way.
Well, I’d just have to show him differently, but I would need time for that.
Apparently, Eli was also still miffed that Mia had just up and disappeared one day without a word to him. Of course, he didn’t know the truth of it all but that wasn’t my story to tell, so I left that up to Mia to discuss once the other man was here.
Unfortunately, all of that meant that it had taken a couple of weeks before I was finally able to deliver Mia’s friend to him. The waiting had been excruciating. He’d been marking off the days on the calendar with the same eagerness as a kid counting down to Christmas.
Come to think of it, had Mia ever been able to celebrate a proper Christmas?
Back when he lived with his mother, she always got depressed around the holidays so Mia had mostly spent the time by himself and staying out of her hair so as not to upset her further.
Then when he went to live with his father, he rarely received gifts of any kind.
Most of the time he was overlooked, and on the few occasions when he was given a gift, it was usually something hyper-masculine, like a toy gun or a particularly violent video game.
As if that could somehow get his gender expression back on track and make him more acceptably male.
After that, when he went to Camp Green Hill, there weren’t any more presents and Christmas stopped being celebrated all together.
That would have to change this year. As the two of us waited for Eli to finally arrive, I decided that this Christmas I would have to do something special to make up for everything Mia had missed out on in the past.
It was just a little past noon when a familiar car rolled into the park.
Roland had agreed to pick up Eli from the airport so that I could stay with Mia and help keep him calm while we waited.
At first, I’d tried to turn him down. Roland and Tyler had already done so much, helping me with Mia’s case and getting me in touch with Eli in the first place.
Asking Roland to use his day off to pick up Eli from the airport seemed greedy.
However, Roland insisted, claiming that he was already so involved that he had a vested interest in the outcome.
Roland got out of the car first, then came around to open the passenger side door. A moment later an unfamiliar man stepped into view.
I’d seen a photo of Eli before, but it had been from a few years ago, and it had been a mugshot when he was arrested for alleged vandalism, so it wasn’t the most flattering.
The man who exited the car barely resembled the photo, and I almost suspected that Roland had brought us the wrong man, until I noticed Mia’s reaction.
There was a small gasp, and then Mia ran toward Eli, so clearly pleased by the sight of him that there was no doubt as to the man’s identity.
Eli was shorter than expected, with his hair shaved short in a way that made it haphazardly stick up in the front.
His face was narrow with harder lines that I’d expect to see on someone his age, but his eyes were soft when he saw Mia running toward him.
“So, you really are here.” He reached out toward Mia, but his hands stopped before he made contact, eyeing Mia’s visible burn scars. “Your man there really wasn’t lying.”
Mia glanced back at me. “No. Auggie doesn’t lie.” Then he closed the rest of the distance between them and pulled Eli into a hug. “It’s good to see you. I’m glad you agreed to come.”
Once Mia crossed that physical barrier, Eli lost the last of his hesitation and returned the hug.
“Well, it was a worthwhile risk. I figured it wouldn’t really make any difference if it weren’t really you.
I’ve had so many claims of your whereabouts over the years that all turned up false, I figured if your man was wrong, I wouldn’t be any worse off.
Although, it seems like he’s been taking good care of you. ”
With a blush and a frankly adorable giggle, Mia pushed a lock of his long hair behind his ear and nodded.
It was then that I realized Eli wasn’t the least bit surprised by Mia’s appearance.
Before the fire, Mia’s hair had been long, and although he didn’t have much choice in his clothing while homeless, he must have worn feminine clothing whenever possible.
Eli had probably seen more of Mia’s personal style even more than I had.
That meant he might also know things about Mia’s past that I wasn’t able to find.
I’d been able to give Mia factual information about himself, but I couldn’t tell him all the little stories and anecdotes that he’d forgotten.
With any luck, maybe he’d told these stories to Eli in the past, and now the other man could return them to him.
The two of them drifted over toward the swing on the otherwise empty park playground, discussing Mia’s scars and his recovery from the fire he’d suffered through.
Meanwhile, I moved over to a nearby bench with Roland, keeping an eye on the pair while, going over the details of a recent case that had shown up on our desks.
I’d been so distracted by arranging things with Eli that I hadn’t been paying as much attention as I should have at work, but Roland was happy to bring me up to speed.
We stayed there until late in the afternoon when the park began to grow crowded.
The place had made for a good neutral ground for this meet-up when it was empty, but with more and more children gathering on the playground now that school had ended for the day, we no longer had the privacy we needed.
Roland returned to his home, and I took Mia and Eli out for an early dinner.
I spent most of the time as a third wheel to their conversation, but I was happy to just sit in silence while Mia enjoyed reminiscing with his friend.
After dinner, we dropped Eli off at the hotel I’d arranged for him to stay at.
Mia was so reluctant to leave his friend that I was half tempted to suggest that he stay with Eli at the hotel that night as well.
However, Mia acted like coming home with me was assumed, and I didn’t have the heart to argue with him.
I’d never argue with the option that led to him sleeping in my bed at night.
That was one more aspect of our relationship that we’d fallen into without really discussing it.
Before, Mia used to come to my bed whenever he needed comfort after a nightmare, but he still spent most nights in his own bed.
However, as our relationship grew more physically intimate, he began to spend his nights in my bed whether he had a nightmare or not.
Now, the small bed in the secondary bedroom mostly went unused.
I was already considering returning the room to its original purpose as Melody’s bedroom and finally set up a schedule for her to start staying with me for longer periods of time.
She liked Mia, and there was plenty of space for her in the apartment if Mia moved into my bed permanently.
Plus, I was sure Chantal would appreciate having more free time to spend alone with her own husband. Everyone would win.
But I wasn’t going to bring up the idea tonight. Mia was still reeling from the sudden introduction of Eli back into his life. We needed to wait for the dust to settle before we introduced any more changes to our fragile routine.
As soon as we arrived home, Mia collapsed onto our bed with an exhausted sigh, showing just how comfortable he’d become in the space that was once only mine.
The atmosphere of the bedroom was too intimate to ignore. Mia looked so happy and relaxed that I couldn’t resist joining him on the bed. I lay next to him, my hand landing on his thigh where the skirt of his dress had ridden up.
Before meeting Mia, I’d never thought much about men’s clothes and women’s clothes, and then I’d only cared about it because it affected his happiness.
However, I found that I was starting to really like his preference in clothing for the access it gave me to his skin.
Instead of fumbling with zippers and confining pants, I only had to slip a hand under the loose hem of his skirts.
The temptation was nearly impossible to resist when he was already so open and welcoming.
A slight hesitation remained at the back of my mind, and I waited to see if Mia would pull away, but he grabbed my hand and slid it even farther up his thigh.
“Don’t tease.” The hand that wasn’t keeping my own hand trapped started unbuttoning my shirt. “You always pull away at the last second. I know we agreed to take things slow, but if we go any slower, we’re going to start going backward.”
I sucked in a deep breath to clear my head as my shirt fell open and his fingers brushed against my chest. “I just want to make sure you’re ready.”