Chapter 20 #2
“Don’t threaten me with a good time.”
Sami rolled his eyes. His fingers curled around Baz’s arm. “I’m just saying. Maybe there was a decent person inside of him all along. And maybe now, the side of him that loves you finally outweighs the side too stuck in his old ways to express it.”
“Wow,” Eevee said. “That’s very deep.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
Baz crinkled his nose. “She’s my sister, don’t call her ma’am.”
“It’s called respect. I know you haven’t heard of it.”
Bold words from the guy who had bulldozed into Baz’s life and demanded to be fucked.
“I think Sami’s right, Baz. Dad left the church and went to therapy. He hasn’t made a single transphobic remark yet. And he called me yesterday, freaking out about having messed up with you, so there is some self-awareness there now.”
Of course he had tried to gain Eevee as an ally.
Or were those the actions of a man genuinely trying to reconnect with his children? How was Baz to know?
He had been spectacularly wrong before. If Sami had been any less determined to get into his bed, Baz would have missed out on getting to know the sweet, caring person he truly was.
And since the world wasn’t black and white…
What was the harm in seeing for himself that Eevee wasn’t falling into any traps?
“I guess I can hear him out. But one ounce of his manipulative self-pity, and I’m out.”
“Me too. Would be empowering for us to kick him out,” Eevee said. That, it would be. Almost made Baz hope this was a ruse after all. “You can bring Sami too, if you like.”
Baz frowned. “Why would I like that?” He had subjected Sami to so much trauma already; any more and he might be liable to a lawsuit for emotional distress.
“Having your boyfriend there might make it easier.”
Hold up. Boyfriend? Where had that come from?
“That’s not—”
“We aren’t,” Sami agreed.
“We would never.”
“Definitely not.”
“We don’t even like each other.”
“Hives everywhere just thinking about him.”
Wow. He didn’t hold back on the dramatics, did he? Actually—not a bad trait to confront Jack with. Baz never had the chance to come out to him. Rocking up with a man he could touch and kiss in front of him might rip the mask of tolerance right off his face.
“Unless you want to come? It might piss Jack off.”
“I do enjoy pissing people off,” Sami mused. “You know what, sure. I’d love to meet the man who screwed you up this bad.” Sami’s arms slithered around his waist like an amicable snake. Not reciprocating the hug would be rude, and that was Sami’s domain.
“You’ll be the poorly trained dog I’m bringing along as an excuse to leave when you start acting up.”
“Oh, I’m very good at acting up.”
“Finally, a use for you.”
At this point, Baz was convinced there was an actual star trapped in Sami’s eyes, the way they shone with the intensity of a thousand suns. Before he got lost in the vast galaxy, he pressed a kiss on Sami’s forehead.
Sami nuzzled into his neck. The scruff of his beard magicked goosebumps onto Baz’s skin.
“And you’re… not together?” Eevee asked, her brows furrowed, her eyes darting back and forth between them. Here she went with the hopeless romanticism. That was why Baz had never brought a guy home when they lived together. Sami had better appreciate the honor of being the first.
“Why would you think we are?”
“No reason,” she mumbled.
Strange.
They agreed on a time—thirty minutes before Jack’s supposed arrival—and, with a final reminder that Baz had every right to change his mind, Eevee left.
Which appeared to be Sami’s cue to help himself to Baz’s closet to ‘borrow’ fresh clothes that weren’t covered in glitter and alcohol.
Fortunately, everything that looked good on Baz looked even better on him.
Sami put on a gray T-shirt (after dramatically processing the alleged shock that Baz owned ‘normal people clothes’) and one of Baz’s more casual dress shirts that he wore open. It was too long on him, too big, and absolutely perfect.
The whole drive, Sami did not stop talking, somehow managing to segue from the nice weather to penguins’ mating rituals, which turned into comments about how surprising it was that someone who wore designer dared to venture this far south in Chicago.
As if the South Side didn’t have plenty of nice areas too, not to mention that it was home to one of the most prestigious colleges in the country.
Sami should know that, having gone there himself and all.
Baz parked under the long vines of the same rugged tree outside their building as always and turned the engine off.
His legs were too heavy to move. Speaking to Jack, getting clarity, was a good idea in theory, but now that it was time to face him…
Sami squeezed his hands. Baz hadn’t realized they were trembling.
“It will be okay,” Sami whispered. Yeah. Probably. What did he have to lose? Either his life went on exactly as it had, or maybe… Baz didn’t dare finish the thought. He knew better than to get his hopes up.
“Sure. Heads up, if Kaina and Zahra’s love nauseates you, you might wanna have a bag ready. Joel and Eevee are cuter.”
“Oh, yeah? What went wrong with you?” Sami bumped his shoulder.
“I knew I could never compete.”
Sami huffed and climbed out of the car.
This was it. No turning back.
He pushed the door open and guided Sami up the stairs he had walked a thousand times before, creaking under the load of memories: their move, the excitement and relief to have a place of their own, the anxiety when the bills racked up, the joy of building a healthy home for themselves, it all echoed in every step.
Sami accepted the hug Eevee offered without hesitation. They both seemed to have shaken off the surprise from earlier.
The second Sami complimented their kitchen, he and Joel hit it off too, joking and laughing as if they had known each other for years.
The ease with which Sami could connect with people he’d only just met was admirable—and usually, a skill Baz couldn’t help but resent.
But seeing Sami so comfortable around his family…
he didn’t have words to describe the feeling blossoming in his chest, like a hoard of daffodils sprouting around the rose that Sami’s kindness had planted there yesterday.
The apartment with its three rooms was hardly big enough to get lost in, but Sami insisted on getting a tour anyway.
Baz’s old room had long been turned into a dining room/home office, but the cracks in the walls held plenty of stories about nights spent huddling on his bed, fantasizing about what life might have in store for them.
Once the road to nostalgia was open, he wasn’t the only one going for a ride. When Sami asked about the pictures on the wall, Eevee shared the story of how Joel proposed.
Baz had kept her out all day doing meaningless errands so Joel could decorate every surface with flowers and candles and pictures of them. Upon their return, Eevee’s confusion about the commotion vanished the second Joel went down on one knee.
Joel kissed the corner of her mouth as she wrapped up the story, and Eevee blushed like she was the luckiest girl alive. Baz sure hoped she was.
“I see what you mean,” Sami whispered. Baz knew he would. Funny how Eevee had thought he and Sami were like them at all. Partners.
In love.
The three-tone harmony of the doorbell shot through Baz like a flash of lightning. All the hairs on his arms stood to attention.
His legs turned to stone, keeping him stuck at the end of the hallway. Sami intertwined their fingers, a solid, reassuring presence next to him. Baz was so grateful he had come.
The air grew heavy when Joel opened the door.
Jack stepped inside, wearing a cautious smile and a too-big shirt and jeans that had seen better days, but at least they were clean. He shook Joel’s hand, awkwardly patted Eevee’s arm like he wanted to hug her but didn’t know if he should. And then, Jack’s muddy eyes found Baz.
Baz squeezed Sami’s hand until his knuckles ached from the strain.
“Sebastian. It is so good to see you. Thank you for coming.”
“Jack,” he pressed out through his impossibly thick throat. Jack’s nod was barely there. He regarded Sami.
“I don’t think we’ve met yet.”
Literally how could they have? Well, here it was. Jack’s first test.
“This is Sami, my…” What even were they? What would bother Jack without being presumptuous? “Person.”
Wait. No. That sounded more intimate than he had intended. The side-eye Sami regarded him with seemed amused rather than appalled. He knew what Baz had meant!
“Oh. I-I see,” Jack stammered.
Sami freed his hand from Baz’s abuse and offered it. “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Hadley.” The words oozed with that outrageously easy charisma.
“Call me Jack. It’s a nice surprise meeting you too.” Whatever he was thinking, if there was a part of him that was bothered to learn both his kids were queer, he was smart enough not to say anything. That was growth, Baz supposed.
Joel ushered them to the living room and promised coffee and snacks. Like that would ease the tension.
Baz sat on the far end of the leather couch, thigh to thigh with Sami.
Jack stopped by the side table. With a trembling hand, he picked up a picture frame; Eevee and Joel’s wedding photo.
Baz knew it well. Eevee in her white princess dress and floor-length veil, hugging Joel in his light-pink suit.
Their foreheads pressed together, the river skyline (with the Trump Tower pixelated, naturally) as their backdrop. Jack clutched his chest.
“Oh, honey, you were a beautiful bride. I’m so sorry I missed it.”
“Yeah,” Eevee said neutrally.
Oh, please. “I’m not,” Baz declared. The ceremony had been perfect. Barely twenty people had watched them exchange their vows, intimate and beautiful. There had been no space for hatred.
Jack nodded, slowly placing down the frame. “I deserve that.”
“You think?”