36. Wyatt
36
WYATT
“You really saved all these photos?” Matt asks me, the two of us cuddled up outside, a blanket over our entwined bodies. It’s not raining right now, so we’ve taken the opportunity to be in the sunlight.
I’m happy.
I’m so fucking happy.
Matt is scrolling through my phone, through our story. The memories we made as kids. The foundation we built.
I’d thought it was rotten. Gone. But I was wrong. It’s still there. It was battered and broken, but we fixed it. Turned it into something stronger.
Something that can never be destroyed.
“I did. I kept them all. I wanted to delete them, but I couldn’t.” I pause before confessing a secret. “I’ve looked through them so many times. Not just these past few months, but before. Even when I was with Jen.”
Matt looks at me in surprise. “You did?”
I nod. “I couldn’t let you go, Matt, even when I thought I hated you.”
“You did hate me.”
“No,” I correct him, thumbing at his lip. “I didn’t. I hated what we’d become. What I thought you’d done to me. But I don’t think I hated you. Not really.”
A large, black raven swoops past us through the garden, so similar to the one I saw in the graveyard that fateful night. I don’t curse at it this time.
I just smile. It makes me think of Matthias.
He kisses me, and I sigh happily. I’m so grateful we found our way back together.
I’m never letting him go again.
Matt grins and goes back to flicking through the photos. He stops on a selfie of us sitting outside the shelter where we used to hide during storms. “God, we were so young.”
“We were.” Young and full of naive hope. “Things didn’t go as we’d planned.”
“No,” he says darkly. “They didn’t.”
“But we got here,” I say. “That’s all that matters.”
Matt smiles down at the photo. “True. And I don’t think seventeen-year-old Matt imagined we’d end up like this. Not unless I was jerking off. Then I imagined all sorts of filthy things about you.”
“Really?” I drawl, pressing a kiss to his neck. “Maybe later you should tell me about them. See if there’s anything we haven’t done yet.”
“I doubt there is, but I’m happy to revisit them with you.”
I snuggle into his side a bit more as he continues scrolling. Revisiting the past sounds good. It reminds us both that it wasn’t all bad. In fact, there had only been a single bad day between us. The one that had torn us apart.
Which we both now know was neither of our faults.
I’m fucking thrilled that Matt’s dad is dead. After finding out what he did to Matt, I think I would’ve killed him myself if he hadn’t been. Wouldn’t have bothered asking The Firm either.
I can do my own dirty work if it means protecting or avenging the man I love.
“Can you send these to me? My father deleted all of mine.”
Motherfucker . Not only had he ripped me away from Matt, but he’d removed the physical evidence too. That makes my heart clench, and I nod. “Of course. Anything that’s mine is yours now.”
Yeah. I’m glad the cunt is buried six feet under.
“Maybe we can have some printed,” I say suddenly. “Put them up around the house. What do you think?”
He leans into me. “I think that’d be fucking perfect, Wy. I’ve spent so long keeping that part of my life hidden.”
“No more,” I vow. “Let everyone who comes in see our history. See how long we’ve loved each other. I’m fucking grateful that you picked me, all those years ago, and I want as many people to know as possible.”
Matthias smiles. “Me too.”
I tap the bracelet on his wrist. The leather is worn and faded. “Why did you wear this for all those years?”
I think I know the answer, but I want to hear it all the same.
“Because it was my last link to you,” he says. “Without the photos, without you, I didn’t have any reminders. Except this. I haven’t taken it off since the day you gave it to me.”
“Good.” I stroke it reverently. “Never take it off. I want you to be wearing that and my ring always.”
He nuzzles into me further, our legs twining, our bodies impossibly close as we just lounge. The small space between us is filled with the past. Memories from our childhood. Teenagers.
Then we move on to the pictures from after. To what happened in the time we missed out on. College. Work. The Firm. We talk about everything until our voices are hoarse. Until night has fallen and the rain finally drives us back inside.
Our conversation doesn’t stop then. Everything is laid out in the open, no secrets lingering in the shadows.
This is our cleansing. Our starting anew. No, that happened when I went down on one knee on the balcony. This is just a natural continuation of that. Another step along the path of our journey. It’s not been easy, but we’ve made it this far.
And we’ll continue fighting for each other.
All this revisiting the past has left me feeling raw, my nerves fragile. And yet, I can’t help but feel so full. So happy.
I think Matt knows. He pulls me into his arms and we stand there in silence for a long time, letting the pain wash away.
I know it will settle down the longer we’re together, that things will return to normal shortly. That we will experience our ups and downs as we go through life. Only this time, we will face it all together.
We’re in this. The two of us.
Matthias and Wyatt
Matt and Wy.
We step into the shower together, taking turns washing each other from head to toe. There’s nothing sexual about it, but there’s a quiet domesticity that makes me happy.
So fucking happy.
It hits me then that this is my life now. No more loneliness. No more darkness. No more shouldering everything alone.
I have Matt. Regardless of whatever life throws at me, I won’t face it alone.
Not with him at my side.
I’d known that leaving that request would change my life, but not for the better. I never dreamed I’d find myself in this situation.
One where I’m deliriously, helplessly happy.
“Why are you so quiet?” Matthias asks me as he hands me a towel to dry off with.
I meet his gaze.
“Just thinking about our future. About how it’s you and me now.”
His eyes flare and he takes a step toward me.
“Forever?” he asks.
“Forever.”