Chapter 9
NINE
“Blaine,” Alfie growled, fists clenched, trying to keep his voice down as the kids lined up on the dais for their performance.
Frustration like the grind of a stressed engine rolled through him as he watched Blaine slip out of sight between two of the trees. He should have seen the signs before Blaine cut and ran. He knew enough of Blaine’s past to know he was a flight risk in the face of just a hint of a serious relationship on the horizon. If he had to guess, he’d say that Blaine had been burned so many times that even a whiff of smoke made him bolt.
“Ladies and gentlemen, good evening, and welcome to the joint RAF and Hawthorne Community Arts Center Christmas toy drive party,” Robert Hawthorne greeted the guests as he stood by his daughter Rebecca’s side. “We’re so glad you could all join us here tonight. A special welcome to the kids of the Aylesford and Maidstone Children’s Homes. We’re happy to have you here, and we can’t wait to see what you’ve prepared for us tonight.”
Everyone who had paused their conversations and celebrating to watch the show applauded politely. Alfie put on a smile and clapped as well, though he felt like he might come out of his skin with the need to catch Blaine before he got away for good.
He stopped clapping and took a step towards the trees, but froze when Robert went on with, “We’d also like to welcome Group Captain Parker and Corporal Spears, who are part of the force behind the toy drive that has been going on here at Hawthorne House and in several other places this month.”
Alfie was forced to turn and nod graciously to the people who clapped politely for him and Parker. He smiled and waved in acknowledgement.
In the process, he spotted a familiar-looking man at the far end of the room. Dave, Blaine’s former business partner. He’d only seen the man in passing that one time before, but it was enough for him to recognize Dave now. He had a tall, stylish woman with him who had to be the owner of the house Blaine thought he’d burned down.
“Without further ado,” Robert went on from the dais, “let’s all sit back and enjoy the holiday song stylings of the kids from Maidstone Children’s Home.”
There was more applause as Rebecca made one last sweep around the kids spread out on the stage, then headed to an old upright piano at the side.
Most of the people in the room gave their attention fully to the kids. Alfie wished he could stand there and watch them as well. In the short time it had taken to help with their costumes, he’d made an impression on the kids, and they’d made an impression on him. He wanted to give them his full attention and cheer them on.
But a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye pulled his focus back to the trees. Blaine was either trying to hide deeper between the branches or he’d somehow gotten himself stuck.
Alfie clenched his jaw and silently growled to himself before taking a few sideways steps towards the trees. He checked to make sure none of the kids were watching him, and was momentarily distracted as one of the boys who were dressed as gingerbread men suddenly sang the chorus of the Christmas song louder than the others while breaking out some serious, viral video worthy dance moves.
The urge to just watch the kids and enjoy everything they could do was so strong. Not only that, a large part of him wished he had somehow had a more active role in planning the show. Right there, up on the stage, was a living example of everything that called to him. His poor, frightened Afghani girl would have such a good time singing and dancing with other kids.
Another shuffle from the trees and an indistinct “Uff” yanked Alfie’s attention back to Blaine. He peeled away from watching the show, stepping behind the trees and going after the biggest kid in the room.
Sure enough, Blaine had somehow gotten his sequins stuck in the branches of the rainbow tree decorated with blue decorations. His sleeve had snagged a large, glitter-covered pine cone, and in the process of trying to detach himself without dragging the entire tree down, Blaine had somehow caught his other sleeve on the string of blue lights. The more he tugged and pulled, the more damage he caused to the decorations.
“Need some help?” Alfie murmured, reaching for him.
Blaine flinched and hissed. The movement caused him to lose his balance and spill sideways into the tree. Alfie caught him and pulled him into an embrace, knocking several ornaments off the tree as he did.
They were lucky that the first of the kids’ songs ended just then and the applause hid the rustling of the tree and the crunch of one of the glass ornaments breaking as it fell.
“Let’s get you somewhere you’ll cause less damage,” Alfie said, more or less carrying Blaine away from the trees and back to the far corner of the room.
“You don’t have to help me,” Blaine insisted in a whisper as the applause died down and the next set of kids lined up on the stage for their song and dance. “I’m beyond help.”
“You are not,” Alfie said, barely acknowledging Blaine’s self-deprecation. “Take a second,” he said, making sure Blaine was standing firmly on his own two feet, then brushing pine needles off his shoulders.
“I don’t have a second,” Blaine whispered, darting a glance around Alfie by leaning to one side, then the other. “I need to get out of here.”
“You don’t,” Alfie told him, feeling paradoxically calmer with each second that ticked by. He understood the situation, had a good idea of what was coming, and was confident that he could contain the situation and facilitate the best outcome. It was a version of what he’d been doing in the RAF for the last ten years.
“How can you be so calm when my entire life is falling down around my feet?” Blaine asked, genuine desperation in his expression.
“Because it’s not,” Alfie said, resting his hands on Blaine’s shoulders. “Now breathe.”
“I can’t breathe at a time like?—”
“ Breathe ,” Alfie said, meeting Blaine’s gaze and holding it firmly.
Blaine was as tense as could be for his first two, quick breaths. He made eye contact, though, and as soon as he did, Alfie breathed with him, leading him to slow everything down.
“Breathe,” Alfie repeated one more time, willing his calm into Blaine. “There.”
Blaine let out a long breath and relaxed, nodding at Alfie like the crisis had been averted and everything was okay.
That lasted for five seconds.
“Blaine, there you are. I’ve been trying to catch up with you for ages, but I guess we’ve both just been so busy,” Dave said as he walked up to stand beside Alfie. The attractive and richly dressed woman was with him. “Hi, I’m Dave,” Dave went on, turning to Alfie with a smile and extending his hand. “I’m Blaine’s business partner.”
Blaine made a small, terrified sound as Alfie pivoted to shake Dave’s hand.
“And I’m Lucy Evers,” the woman introduced herself, extending her hand as well.
“Please to meet you,” Alfie said, smiling as he greeted each of them.
Things were starting to click into place. Blaine probably thought he was facing his worst nightmare. Not only had Dave tracked him down and cornered him, Blaine probably thought he was about to be sued.
“Blaine, I’ve been trying all week to reach you but you haven’t returned my phone calls,” Dave said, turning to Blaine with a confused frown. “Where have you been?”
“Here?” Blaine said shakily. “The party?”
Alfie drew in a breath, squaring his shoulders as his drive to protect kicked in. He shifted closer to Blaine and said, “Blaine told me about what happened. He’s anxious about the implications and what it might mean for your business partnership.”
Blaine whipped to face Alfie, his eyes wide with indignation. Alfie figured he probably wouldn’t love being forced to face something head-on, but whether Blaine knew it or not, he wasn’t facing it alone.
“That’s why you haven’t returned my calls?” Dave asked, blinking. “Because of the fire?”
Blaine swallowed hard, but could only manage to push out a weak, “Yeah.”
“What was the extent of the damage?” Alfie asked, placing a hand on the small of Blaine’s back to communicate that he was right there with him. “Blaine was concerned that the financial fall-out would put your entire business in jeopardy.”
“Who are you?” Lucy asked, though not unkindly. “Are you his boyfriend or something?”
It was another calculated risk that could send Blaine into a spiral again, but Alfie answered, “Yes, I am.”
Dave broke into a smile. “I didn’t know you were dating anyone,” he told Blaine. “Good on you.”
Blaine opened his mouth, but again, only a loose string of wheezed syllables came out.
Dave didn’t seem phased by Blaine’s reaction, which hinted to Alfie that Blaine being rendered speechless wasn’t new to Dave.
“Mate, are you worried that the fire would somehow put us out of business?” Dave asked with a look of genuine surprise.
“Didn’t it?” Blaine found his voice. “We…we don’t have insurance. I forgot the payment. The whole place was destroyed.” He peeked at Lucy. “She’ll come after us for everything we have.”
“I—” Dave started to reply, but the kids on the dais finished singing, and the conversation was temporarily put on hold as the room burst into applause.
Dave and Lucy turned towards the stage for a moment, and as soon as they did, Blaine jerked to the side. He most likely would have bolted if Alfie hadn’t caught his wrist to hold him still. As soon as Blaine rocked back, like he was anchored, Alfie adjusted his hand to hold his.
The applause died down and Rebecca announced the next act. As soon as the new batch of kids started some sort of holiday skit, Dave and Lucy turned back to Blaine.
“I’m sorry,” Blaine said, keeping his contrite voice down. “Sue me, but spare Dave. It was my fault. I should have checked everything before leaving the house that night. Bring the law down on me, but let Dave go.”
Dave and Lucy gaped at Blaine for a moment.
Then they burst into laughter.
Alfie tightened his hand around Blaine’s, not sure he appreciated their reaction.
“Darling, everything is alright,” Lucy said, reaching out to touch Blaine’s other arm. “The fault was with the wiring, not anything you did.”
Blaine gusted out a breath like she’d punched him in the stomach. Alfie shifted closer to give him support in case he fell over. He wasn’t at all surprised by what Lucy said, though. He resisted the urge to say, “I told you so.”
“Besides,” Lucy went on, “I had that house insured to the rafters. The investigators have already determined there was no fault in the fire, and they will be paying me a more than generous sum for the damage.”
“They…will?” Blaine asked breathlessly.
“And we have insurance as well,” Dave went on. “In this case, we don’t need it, but even if we did, we’re covered.”
Blaine shook his head. “I forgot to pay the premiums.”
“Yes, you did,” Dave said, “because you were up to your eyeballs in renovations and redecorating. You were so busy engaged in everything that makes our business what it is and in giving our clients the most for their money that of course a little administrative task would slip through your fingers. That’s why I paid the premiums for us.”
Blaine’s mouth dropped open as once again, he went speechless. This time for an entirely different reason.
“Oh, it gets better than that,” Lucy said with a mischievous grin. She slipped closer to Dave, taking his hand. “Thanks to this whole incident, Dave and I have been forced to talk again. At first it was talk about the fire, but then we got around to talking about the past.”
“There were a lot of things left unsaid between us before,” Dave said, squeezing Lucy’s hand and beaming at her like she’d hung the stars. “A lot of misunderstanding led to our break-up.”
“To make a long story short,” Lucy picked up the story, “we got back together.” She leaned into Dave, hugging his arm.
Dave smiled at her, then kissed her lips quickly just as the audience applauded something going on in the kids’ skit. He then turned to Blaine and said, “We never would have talked things through and gotten back together if you hadn’t disappeared and left me to deal with the client.”
“So really, we owe you for patching things up between us,” Lucy finished.
Blaine was still speechless.
“What a beautiful story,” Alfie said, answering with what he hoped Blaine felt, too.
“So wait,” Blaine said, seeming to snap out of his stupor. He shook his head, then said, “You two got back together, everyone has insurance, and nobody’s head is going to roll?”
“No, not at all,” Dave said. “That’s what I’ve been trying to find you all week to tell you.”
“I—” Blaine’s mouth worked for a moment without any words coming out.
“That’s wonderful,” Alfie answered for him again. “I’m so happy that your story ended well.”
“So am I,” Lucy said, sending Dave a love-struck smile.
Another round of applause sounded, and when they all turned toward the stage, the kids had joined hands and were bowing to the audience. From the sound of things, the skit had been a huge success.
Robert returned to the center of the stage as the kids scampered off and announced, “And now we’ll break for refreshments, but stay tuned, because I hear Santa is on his way.”
There was another smattering of applause and a few teasing gasps of excitement from the adults in the room.
The kids were mostly busy rushing to take their costumes off or to be the first ones to the refreshment table, which had just been stocked with sweets of every kind. A few of the kids, including the Christmas fairy girl, spotted Alfie at the back of the room and made a beeline right towards him.
“Mr. Spears, Mr. Spears, did you see us?” the Christmas fairy asked.
“I did,” Alfie lied with a smile, crouching to be closer to the girl as she ran to him. “You were wonderful.”
She surprised him by flying right into his arms for a hug. Despite the rules and protocols for physical contact with kids, Alfie hugged her back before setting her aside, though he continued to smile warmly at her.
“Do you need help with your costumes?” he asked all of the kids that had gathered around him.
“I do!” one of the boys called out.
“Can I keep my fairy wings on?” the girl asked.
“You can absolutely keep your wings on,” Alfie said.
He crouched again to help some of the others with bits of their costumes. As he did, he turned to smile at Blaine.
Blaine watched him with a look of absolute wonder, as though he were the Christmas fairy.
“We can help, too, if you need it,” Lucy said, moving forward to help one of the older girls untangle her sash from her long hair.
It was exactly the sort of end to Blaine’s drama that they all needed. All was forgiven, it turned out there wasn’t really a problem in the first place, and they could all immediately move on to sweeter, better things. Even Blaine joined in, helping kids out of their costumes, then taking a group of them over to the refreshment table.
Alfie gathered up the costume pieces and took them back to the box in the corner, which, fortunately, wasn’t that far away, then joined Blaine and the other near a pile of cupcakes.
“Good job,” Alfie told Blaine with a wink once everyone had what they needed. “You’re alright.”
He meant that both in terms of the danger being passed and Blaine being a wonderful, interesting, vibrant, good person.
“You’re not so bad yourself,” Blaine said, finally seeming to relax as he pulled the paper off a cupcake.
“So I’ve been told,” Alfie teased him. “You might want to consider keeping me around to manage your occasional crisis.”
He was teasing, but Blaine said, “Seriously. I was terrified. I never would have said any of that if left to my own devices.”
“I know,” Alfie said. “You would have dragged things out way longer than needed, and you never would have seen that you didn’t have anything to worry about to begin with.”
Blaine dropped his face sheepishly. “You must think I’m completely useless.”
“Not at all,” Alfie laughed. “I think you’re passionate and that you think and act from your heart.”
“And it’s rubbish,” Blaine added.
Alfie shook his head. “It’s brilliant, and it’s a refreshing change from the way people are in the world I’ve been part of.”
“I should be able to function like an adult without you managing it for me,” Blaine disagreed, shaking his head.
Alfie set down the cupcake he’d picked up but not started eating. He rested one hand on the side of Blaine’s face and stared deep into his eyes. “You are who you are, and I happen to really like who you are. Don’t you dare go changing your eccentricity to fit something you think I might want. I want you just as you are.”
Blaine gave him a watery smile. “There you are, going all Mark Darcy on me again.”
Alfie’s smile grew. “Does this mean I get to call you Bridget?”
Blaine gasped, his face lighting up. “You do know the reference.”
“Of course I do. Bridget Jones’ Diary is a masterpiece of literature and cinema,” Alfie said. “I’m not just a pretty face in a hot uniform, you know.”
Blaine laughed. Then he threw himself forward, cupcake still in hand, and planted a big, wet kiss on Alfie’s mouth.
Alfie wrapped his arms around him, pulling Blaine closer. He loved seeing Blaine happy and impulsive. It was exactly the way things should be. He didn’t even care that they were standing in full view of the room.
He would have kissed Blaine longer and harder, but right at the moment they pulled back for air, Group Captain Parker stepped up to them, his expression guarded, and cleared his throat, saying, “I think we need to talk.”