Chapter 20 #2
As long as it had taken them to make the meal, the food was gone an hour later. There was still a good chunk of ham left over, and half the veggie lasagna remained, but they’d obliterated the cheeses and salamis, the potatoes and Riley’s salad, and they’d used up all of Marta’s pretty napkins.
Oscar rested against the bench, leaning in to rest his head on Aaron’s shoulder while Grandma told them the story about that time Oscar had tried to dye Lina’s hair green with food coloring.
“That was a fun month at school,” Lina said.
She’d settled next to Marta, who had lit right up when Lina said she was studying to become a primary school teacher. Marta had confessed she’d always wanted to teach kindergarten, but social work had stolen her heart, and now she couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
“I was only trying to improve you, Leen,” Oscar replied.
Aaron’s laugh echoed through him, passing from his shoulder to Oscar’s cheek. He couldn’t wait until they were lying in his bed skin to skin. He couldn’t believe that just a year before, he hadn’t even known Aaron existed.
“It was the worst sort of green. You could have at least gone for a teal! And it was uneven. As if Mom would have let me color it to even it all out,” she said, shaking her head.
Oscar kept his smile on, but Lina’s laughter died out.
This would be the first Christmas she didn’t see their mother at all.
Oscar hated that it was on his account. When he’d called to ask how much he had to pay her for the bar tab, Lina had refused his money, but she’d demanded to know what had happened.
Eventually, after a long-winded back-and-forth, Oscar had conceded.
And Lina had decided she wouldn’t be giving their mother anymore of her time either.
Oscar still wasn’t sure how to feel about it.
Ryan, now their mother, all because of him.
Aaron’s hand slid over his thigh, pressing.
“Who wants to taste that delicious pie now?” he asked.
With all the plates and dishes cleared away to the kitchen and the apple pie dish washed and ready for Grandma to take back home, they all sat with fresh coffee Aaron had proudly brewed using some fancy beans they’d bought for the occasion, and Marta had hot chocolate because she hated coffee.
Grandma listened to Tobe and Marta talk about their non-profit and how many homes they’d found for young queer people, how many jobs, how many they’d sponsored therapists and other healthcare providers for.
Riley told them about their engineering course, and Anna and Joe told everyone the story of how they’d met, how they’d been at the same baseball game, and Anna had shouted at the top of her lungs to fucking run, and Joe had known from the moment he’d seen and heard her that he wanted to take her out.
The Space Invaders theme overrode Michael Bublé’s “beginning to look—”, cutting it off mid-sentence, and Oscar slid out of his place at the edge of the bench and muted the TV, racing to his room to get his laptop.
Philip and Lucas blinked to life on his screen, waving at all of them squeezed in on one side of the table.
“We just wanted to wish you all happy holidays and a wonderful evening! We just got back to the rental,” Lucas said.
“We got to spend the day with Maddie,” Philip added, eyes brimming with warmth.
“That’s lovely, Philip,” Aaron said.
“Has anybody collapsed from Spike’s cooking yet?” Lucas asked.
“No,” Oscar replied, frowning. “Because I cook real food, not your pressed vegetable smoothies.”
“Hey, I have been eating a ton of real food while we’re here!” Lucas complained.
“His jeans aren’t buttoning up. That’s how good the food is,” Philip said, wrapping an arm around his shoulder and kissing him on the temple.
“More to love,” Aaron replied.
“Yes!” Tobe said.
“That’s what I’m telling him,” Philip added, pressing Lucas’s shoulder harder. “I’m going to have to start cooking with oil when we get home. I never thought food would make him this happy.”
“Food is the best thing in existence,” Grandma replied, and everyone nodded along to her wisdom. She glanced at Oscar and Lina, eyes scouring the rest of them gathered around the table. “Except for family, of course. May you all always find your way to each other.”
A soft contented bliss fell over their group then.
Philip and Lucas signed off so they could have some dessert, and soon after, Joe and Anna announced they were going to Anna’s parents’ house for a drink.
Her family didn’t celebrate Christmas, but they still liked to meet in the evening to mark the holiday together, and it was time for them to get going.
“Well, we have a party for our kids,” Tobe announced. “At the center,” they explained, turning to Grandma. “We could totally drop you off, Joe, Anna. Riley’s coming with us, right?”
“Yeah, I’m totally going to that!”
“Hey, Riley, take the lasagna leftovers with you,” Oscar said, heading to the kitchen to retrieve the packed up servings that remained. “Please. Here.”
“Oh…uh…how do I return the box?” Riley looked from Oscar to Aaron, sucking in their lips.
“It’ll give you all an excuse to come back to ours very soon,” Aaron said, and there was something about the way he’d said it that bellowed warmth into Oscar’s stomach, each soft breath whispering home home home over and over again.
Grandma and Lina offered to help them clean up, but both Oscar and Aaron said no and ushered everyone out with the knitted gifts Aaron had made them. Lina lingered last, wrapping her arms first around Oscar, then around Aaron.
“It means a lot to me,” she said, running her thumb over the MINNIE Aaron had embroidered onto the rim of her woolen hat. Her eyes shot up to Aaron’s. “He would’ve loved you, you know, our father.”
“Yeah, this one keeps telling me,” Aaron said, glancing at Oscar, dripping fondness.
“Good. You take care of him for us,” Lina said. And then she turned and left, taking Grandma with her.
Luigi mewed, curling around Aaron’s ankles, then Oscar’s, and they shut the door, sealing themselves into the warmth of the apartment.
“Well, this is a mess.” Aaron laughed, eyes crinkling behind his glasses. He scratched the back of his head, studying the pigsty that was the kitchen.
Oscar wrapped his arms around him from behind, settling a chin on his shoulder, kissing his neck. “We can get it all done together. Come on.”
They cleared away the scraps, packed up whatever was left, and started washing cups and mugs and glasses, plates and saucers, mismatched cutlery and roasting dishes.
Aaron washed, Oscar dried and put everything away.
It was well past nine in the evening when the sink was finally sparkling again and the countertops were cleared and wiped down, the table as empty as though nobody had ever been there, and Paulie’s borrowed things sitting by the front door so they could return them in the morning.
“Would you like me to make you a cup of fancy coffee?” Oscar asked, sliding his arm around Aaron’s waist and pulling him in. “Hmm? With those new beans you hid from everyone.”
“You bought them for me,” Aaron replied, pouting.
“Hmm, I did.” Oscar kissed him on the cheek. “Go relax, boo. I’ll make you a nice hot cup, and you can use your Christmas present.”
Aaron’s eyes lit up, his excitement echoing from the morning, when Oscar had passed him the mug warmer he’d finally bought. Aaron had panicked about not having anything to give him, and Oscar had pointed repeatedly at the sweater he was wearing.
As he waited for the coffee to brew, Oscar studied him, curling up in the corner of the couch, Luigi fussing around him, rubbing his face against his arm, Aaron tickling the top of his head while he looked for something to watch.
In the morning, Oscar would spend a few hours playing video games to earn a little extra cash.
It was important now that he get paid, with Aaron out of a job.
There had been all of two one-week gigs he’d found without the help of the agency, and now that Oscar had offered the other half of his beta hours to Joe, Aaron had refused to let him ask for them back.
The coffee machine beeped. Oscar took a cup over to the coffee table, setting it down on the warmer as he climbed onto the couch beside him, curling his knees in at the other end.
“It’s nice having people over,” Aaron said, “but the quiet is nice, too.”
“Yeah, I…I love being home together.” Oscar hoped his affection had crossed the distance between them, that it had wrapped around Aaron like a blanket, that it had kissed him on the cheek the way Oscar wanted to.
“Me too,” Aaron replied. “It’s my favorite thing, that we get to spend so much time together.”
“Do you…” Oscar drew in a deep breath, willing his hammering heart to quieten, the spit in his mouth to slide down his throat and let him speak. “Do you want it to be home together?”
“What…” Aaron frowned, gathering his lips to a point in the center as he tried to work out the puzzle of Oscar’s convoluted question.
“Let’s live together, Aaron. We already kind of do. Just bring your things over and…” Oscar shrugged. “Will you move in with me?”
“Wh…but…I don’t…I don’t have…” Aaron fumbled through the archive of his vocabulary to look for the words. Money, a job.
“I want to live with you,” Oscar said. “I want us to have a life together, and we practically already do.”
“I used all my last wages to pay Joe and Anna rent for the last two months. I haven’t—”
“Aaron…” Oscar crawled between Aaron’s legs, wrapping his arms around his neck.
“I won’t let you pay rent. Even if you did have money, I wouldn’t.
I’m inviting you to live with me. It’s a rent-controlled apartment, and I can afford it.
I want you to bring your things, throw out half my useless shit from the dressers, and put your useless shit in there instead.
I want you to write down my address on all your applications. ”
“I’ll clean then,” Aaron said, pursing his lips.
“You already clean,” Oscar replied. “Boo…”
Aaron pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, pressing them into the space between his eyebrows, and sucked in his lips. Oscar knew his response even before his eyes began to twinkle like the frost out on the sidewalk, even before he’d said it.
“I’ll go to the post office tomorrow,” he said, “and have them forward all my mail.”
“And your applications?” Oscar asked, pressing his chin into Aaron’s knee.
“You’re already my emergency contact. I just have to paste your address into a second box.” Aaron brushed a wavy strand from his forehead. “I love you, Spike. Thank you for giving me the best Christmas in years.”
“Yeah,” Oscar replied, kissing Aaron’s knee.
It was a good thing he’d bought him the warmer. His coffee would have gone cold by now if he hadn’t. But Aaron wasn’t thinking about coffee as he looked down into Oscar’s eyes again, and it stirred something in him, pressing a magic switch.
“Want to make it even more memorable?”
Aaron’s coffee sat untouched until the morning.