Chapter 21
It’s the best lunch of Danny’s life, hands down.
Not even because of the food—steaming hot clams, melt-in-your-mouth butterfish, a piece of salmon that Alina actually closes her eyes when she tastes—but because it’s the first meal he’s ever shared with Sasha, and he gets to sit there, his heart as full as his stomach, watching a breeze ruffle those holy-fuck curls while Sasha murmurs something in Russian to Alina.
He loves the quiet affection between them, their heads tipping together every time Sasha translates, the conferences they always seem to have before Sasha looks back at Danny.
It hadn’t really hit him, until they were going through the menu, how much Alina must have been relying on Sasha this whole trip—and how challenging that would have been for them both, Sasha having to talk for two people in a foreign language when normally he barely said enough for one.
But there he was, patiently reading the entire menu to her, and there Danny was, falling a little harder for him with every entrée.
“Danny?”
“Sorry, what?”
“Do you want dessert?” Sasha repeats, and that’s when Danny realizes he totally spaced out on their server returning.
“Oh. Uh…” He wasn’t planning on straying that far from his diet, and a quick glance at Sasha tells him they’re on the same page; Alina doesn’t seem very interested, either. “Thanks, Katie,” he says, smiling up at the server. “I think we’re all set.”
He swipes the check over Sasha’s protests—he’d already snuck his card to Katie on a bathroom trip earlier, so all that’s left is the tip—and once Sasha finally accepts that Danny won’t let him pay, they leave the restaurant, stepping out into the afternoon sunshine.
Since they have a few hours to kill before Alina has to be at the airport, Danny suggests a stroll down the harbor to the Fun Zone, a popular tourist spot with a Ferris wheel, an arcade, and souvenir shops.
While Alina’s distracted by a window display, Danny leans in close to Sasha, shoulders almost touching. “Hey. Thanks for letting me meet your mom,” he says, keeping his voice low even though Alina wouldn’t understand him anyway. “It really means a lot.”
“You’re welcome.” Sasha looks up at him, a small smile tugging at his lips. “I… I am glad that we did this.”
Remembering how reluctant Sasha had been before, Danny brightens—maybe this means he’ll be more open to other things now, too, like telling Danny’s parents about them. “Yeah?”
When Sasha nods, Danny grins and nudges him, and Sasha nudges him back.
For a moment, he can almost imagine that they’re just like any of the other couples nearby, the ones holding hands and sharing bites of their Balboa bars; but then Alina turns around, and Sasha moves away from Danny as smoothly as if he’s stepping into a corner for his next tumbling pass.
After the Fun Zone, they follow the crowds of tourists down Main Street, walking until the stores and restaurants surrender to open air and palm trees.
The road curves off to the right, and the beach stretches out in front of them, a shimmer of sand before everything turns blue.
Danny takes a deep breath, inhaling that salty, tangy smell as he listens to the waves crashing in the distance, the seagulls squawking overhead.
He’s lived here his whole life, but he’ll never get tired of this.
Although Alina’s dressed a little too nicely for them to explore the beach itself, there’s a long wooden pier that runs out to the ocean, full of families taking pictures and fishermen trying their luck.
Danny, Sasha, and Alina walk down to the end, where there’s an old-fashioned diner selling burgers and milkshakes.
“I used to bring girls here for dates in, like, middle school,” Danny confesses to Sasha. “I thought I was hot shit.”
Sasha snorts at that, declining to translate for Alina.
They chill on the pier for a while, watching the waves and the swimmers, until Danny steps back from the railing and pulls out his phone. “You guys want a picture?”
Sasha and Alina have one of their discussions before agreeing, and Danny gets a nice shot of them with the shoreline in the background, the sun glinting off their smiles. As he’s sending the photo to Sasha, Alina gestures between them and says something in Russian.
“She is asking if we want picture, too,” Sasha explains.
He sounds a little uncomfortable, like he’s not sure it’s a good idea, but there’s no way Danny’s passing up this chance. “Hell yeah, let’s do it,” he says eagerly; and as Alina comes forward to take his place, he moves in next to Sasha, throwing an arm around his shoulders.
For a second, Sasha stiffens, his muscles tensing like he’s about to pull away.
When Alina’s expression doesn’t change, however, he relaxes a little, even allowing his hand to hover between Danny’s shoulder blades.
Something about it actually kind of makes Danny sad, but he doesn’t want to feel that way right now; so instead he focuses on enjoying the moment, Sasha pressed against his side as they smile for their first picture together.
As soon as they’re done, Sasha steps out from under his arm. Later, though, while they’re leaving the pier, Danny gets a text with the photo and a happy-face emoji. He glances up, and Sasha slips him a small, secret smile before turning to answer a question from Alina.
Grinning, Danny examines the photo. Sasha looks a little awkward, but it’s still the two of them in the same frame, proof that their relationship exists—except he’ll never be able to share it on Instagram, not like he would if Sasha were a girl.
Or hell, if Sasha were one of the guys, Matt or Patty or literally anyone in his life at all.
He already knows Sasha wouldn’t want a picture like this of them out there, not even if he put a hanging with my bro caption on it.
Caught up in his thoughts, it takes him a while to notice that the tone of Sasha and Alina’s conversation has shifted. Sasha’s showing her something on her phone—it looks like a ticket—and she’s peppering him with questions, each one sounding more anxious than the last.
“Everything okay?” Danny asks.
“Yes, okay,” Sasha replies, though he’s glancing uneasily at Alina. “She wants to go to airport early, so she does not lose her flight. Can you drive us to train station again? Sorry, I did not say before—”
“Wait, why the train station?” Danny asks, confused. “I can just drop her off at the airport.”
Sasha’s eyes widen, and he quickly shakes his head. “This is too far for you. She will take train to Los Angeles, and I… how do you say, I arranged? For Uber to airport.”
“Dude. That’s, like, way too complicated.” Juggling three different modes of transportation in a foreign country, with a flight to catch at the end? No wonder Alina looks stressed. “Seriously, it’s only like an hour to the airport. It’s not a big deal at all.”
Sasha hesitates, glancing back at Alina. “But—”
“Sash, come on. Let’s just make things easy for your mom, okay?”
After a few seconds of pointed eye contact, Sasha caves and accepts the offer, looking almost as relieved as Alina when she hears the news.
With light-for-LA traffic, it’s smooth-ish sailing to the airport, and soon they’re pulling up to departures.
Danny makes the executive decision to circle around while Sasha goes inside with Alina to help her check in—“Don’t even argue,” he warns when Sasha tries to protest, “it’s happening”—and steers into a drop-off lane before getting out with them to grab Alina’s suitcase.
To his surprise, when he hands it over to her, she gives him a quick embrace. “Thank you,” she says, pulling back and looking him straight in the eyes—Jesus, she and Sasha really have that X-ray stare down pat—as she adds something else in Russian.
“She says you are very kind and…” Sasha hesitates. “I don’t know how you say, you… met us like family?”
Even though Danny’s never heard that expression before, he thinks he gets what Sasha means. “That’s a good thing, right?”
“Yes. Good thing. She is very happy to meet you.”
It’s like getting a smile from the judges, but even better, and Danny barely manages to wait until he’s in his car again before pumping his fist. Fuck yeah, Alina likes him (execution score: perfect), Sasha doesn’t regret introducing them (difficulty score: high), and now he’s finally got a photo of him and Sasha together (stick bonus), so this is definitely going on the trophy shelf of best days ever.
The check-in line must have been pretty short, because Danny’s only a few loops in before he gets a text from Sasha that Alina’s on her way through security.
When he returns to the drop-off area, Sasha’s waiting for him, looking all sexy and European in his polo shirt and sunglasses, smiling as he climbs into the passenger seat, and Danny has to fight back the urge to kiss him then and there.
“How’d it go?” he asks instead, already thinking about the drive home, the places he knows where they can pull off the road. “All good?”
“Yes, good,” Sasha reports, buckling his seatbelt as they ease into traffic again. “My mother said to have fun. And to be safe.”
“Well, we’re definitely gonna have fun.” Danny waits until they’ve pulled away from the other cars before sliding his hand onto Sasha’s thigh, grinning at the wide-eyed reaction he receives. “But I don’t know about being safe.”