Chapter 25 Evan
EVAN
If Alan hadn’t been there, I might have melted down a bit over Perry’s tears. He didn’t say where they came from and I didn’t ask. I just told him I loved him, which was true, and Alan told him everything would be okay, which had to be true as well.
Eventually, he fell asleep and I got up to fetch a hot cloth to clean him up, then stayed with him while Alan took a fast shower. When he got back into bed with him, I showered.
“Are you okay?” Alan asked when I had climbed back on Perry’s other side from him.
“Fine, why?”
“Is that normal for him?”
“Not at all.”
“But you’re not worried about it.”
“Are you?” I was, even more so if he was too.
“You know him better. I hoped you might be able to shed some light.”
I was quiet, thinking about it. Lately, he’d been so obsessed with the job he’d willingly cut back on a few months ago that he had less time for me. His practice face the past month had been more serious than his game face had ever been.
“It isn’t that he doesn’t have time for me,” I said out loud.
“Explain.”
“Working more than he has to. Practicing and training so hard. He isn’t trying to avoid me.
Well, he is. Sort of. More like, he’s worried he’s going to let me down and he’s kind of doing it a little bit at a time, slowly, so it isn’t such a shock when we don’t get to the Olympics or something. I thought we’d got past that.”
“Is that what he thinks is going to happen?”
I sighed. “It is if he thinks it is.”
“Then we have to change his mind and help him get his head out of his ass.”
“Don’t be mean.”
He paused to study Perry, stoking his cheek and smiling. “I’m not. I want him to be happy. The Olympics will be nice, but that isn’t my only dream anymore.”
“That’s sweet of you to say.”
“Precious, it isn’t just something I’m saying. Olympics or no Olympics, this, us, it isn’t going away.” He moved his hand from Perry’s face to mine. “Yes?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Hundred per cent.”
“Good. Go to sleep.”
“Yeah.” I snuggled in close to Perry and did as I was told.
When I woke up, Perry was gone and Alan was sound asleep.
Kissing his cheek, I slipped out of bed, found some sleep pants and poked my head out to the living room.
“Harve, I know what I said,” Perry was saying into his phone.
“But that was months ago, when it was summer. Trials are coming up and I can’t do both.
This is what I’m choosing. At least for now.
Maybe after this is over. Or…” He paused.
“I don’t know. I don’t want to draw renders of other people’s designs anymore.
In fact, I don’t think I want to do that at all. ”
I watched his back as he listened to his boss on the other end of the phone, nodding, and mm-hmming.
“I’m aware,” he said. “Keep the stipend.”
Another pause.
“I don’t have that kind of—seriously? You can’t do that, actually.” He crammed his hand into his hair. “But I don’t—”
He started pacing as he listened.
“Harve, seriously. Why are you doing this?”
“What?” I asked, coming out into the room. “What is he doing?”
Perry waved a hand at me. “Wait a sec, Ev.”
“No, I won’t. Look at me.”
“I’m on the phone.” But he did turn to look at me.
“I know you are. And you’re freaking out, so tell me what’s happening.” Cupping his face, I wouldn’t let him look away from me. “Let me help you.”
“You can’t.”
“Let me try.”
He muted the phone and dropped it from his ear. “I tried to quit. Harvey says if I do, he’ll make me pay back all of the stipend.”
“So we’ll pay him back.”
“It’s thousands of dollars. We don’t have it.”
“We’ll figure it out.”
“We’ll barely have enough to live on, never mind paying him back.”
“So use the money collected at Evan’s café,” Carol said, sitting up from where he’d been lying on the couch.
“That’s for the kids,” Perry protested.
“Babe.” I kissed him carefully. “Let us help you. Tell Harvey you’re done so we can go practice, yeah?”
He looked around the room from me to Carol, to Michael, who’d been at the table doing his puzzle, and to Robbie and Mikko making breakfast together.
“I shouldn’t quit my job,” he said to no one and to everyone.
“I did,” Robbie said.
“Sure, but I don’t have a sug—a Mikko,” Perry said. “Sorry, Mikko.”
Mikko grinned and blushed, and turned back to cooking bacon.
“You focus on this,” I told him. “On now. On you and me and Alan, and this dream we’re living. I want to go to the Olympics, and I want you there with me.”
“We might not—”
“We will. Together. Now quit your job and get off the phone.”
“You’re sure.”
“Positive.”
“It’s scary. What if we don’t make it?”
“Then we’ll go home, you’ll get another job, I’ll go back to the café.
Alan will—huh. Not sure what he’ll do, but I sure as hell hope he does it with us.
It doesn’t matter. We’ll all do our best, and whatever happens, happens, but we do it full-on.
Focused. No more distraction of your job or trying to make everything right for me. ”
“It’s how we work.”
“It’s too much for you to be calm enough to do what you do, and try and be my balance and my executive function. Some things I have to do for myself as much as I can, and some things, Alan can help with.”
“He doesn’t get to take over fu—”
I slapped my hand over his mouth and looked around the room.
“Ohmph.” He nodded and I moved my hand.
Perry unmuted the phone as he raised it up again. “Hey, Harve? I’m quitting. Do what you think you have to. I’ll be sending my resignation letter by registered mail later this afternoon, and you can contact my lawyer for whatever else you think you need from me.”
I took the phone from him before he could hang up.
“Also, Harve, you decide what side of this you want to be on when interviewers ask who we want to thank for helping us get to the podium, and I tell them my mom-and-pop coffee shop supported us from the beginning. So. There’s that.
” I handed Perry the phone back while he stared at me, horrified.
When he didn’t do anything, I leaned in and kissed him. Hard. “Someone has to stand up for you, babe.”
He nodded while I clamped a hand around the back of his neck and held his gaze.
He put the phone to his ear once more to listen to the ranting on the other end of the line.
“Yeah, Harve. I heard you. But since I have no outstanding assignments, and I know you have nothing new pending, you can consider this my two weeks’ notice.
I’m sure there are plenty of draftspeople you can find to take my place, so good luck.
” He hung up. “Talk to you never, asshole,” he grumbled as he shoved the phone into his pocket.
When I pulled him into a hug, he melted against me, and I felt his shaking.
A moment later, Robbie joined us, hugging Perry from the back, then Carol, then Michael, and even Mikko came over and clamped a hand onto Perry’s shoulder.
“What is going on with my boys?” Alan asked from the bedroom hallway, looking sleep-dishevelled and proprietary.
The others pulled back and scattered, offering a few last, sympathetic pats.
Perry didn’t move.
“I got you,” I told him, running my hand up and down his back. “We all got you.”
He nodded against my neck where he’d hidden his face.
“Can I tell him?” I asked not wanting to step on his toes or rush him.
Sniffling—again—Perry huffed out a hoarse “sure.”
“Perry quit his job,” Michael said from where he’d returned to his puzzle. “Which we support, by the way.”
“Of course we do.” Alan hurried over and for a moment, I thought he might pry Perry out of my arms, but he simply leaned down and kissed his temple. “Of course we do, darling. Come have a cup of coffee, help Michael with his puzzle while the boys cook us some breakfast.”
“Yeah,” he husked, sniffing and scrubbing his fingers under his eyes as he backed out of my arms. He sat opposite Michael and stared blankly at the puzzle while Alan went to the kitchen.
“It’s going to be fine,” I said, shuffling puzzle pieces and trying a few here and there.
“If he makes me pay back the stipend—”
“We will look at the team finances and figure it out,” Michael assured him.
“We’ve won enough purses we have a cushion, so don’t focus on that until we even know if it will be an issue.
” He glanced up through his lashes at me.
“Thanks to Evan’s snarkiness, it may not even happen. That was quick thinking, actually.”
“Well, we’ll see. Either he backs off, or I made it worse.”
Perry dropped his head onto his arms on the table and I rubbed his back between the jut of his shoulder blades.
“There’s nothing we can do about it right now, Pere,” I reminded him. “So we’ll do what we can do. Have breakfast. Go downstairs and work out. Our ice time is from two to six so we’ll go practice and focus all our might on that.”
“Because now we have to make the Olympics,” he said into the tabletop.
I glanced up at Michael. All he did was nod at me, like I was doing fine. As if I had any idea what I was doing or what I should say.
“Now we have to do our best. We will work hard,” I said, thinking I sounded like a K-pop idol, and deciding to lean into it. “We can only try our hardest and have fun. That will lead us where we need to go.”
“Thank you, Harua.”
I laughed out loud, because not only had Perry picked up my vibe, but he knew exactly who I’d been channeling, since Harua was the biggest team cheerleader for my favourite K-pop-adjacent group, &Team.
Then I realized he knew my favourite idol group, and the names and personalities of the members. I lunged at him and hugged him, laying my head over the back of his. “You are the fucking best boyfriend,” I whispered.
“Don’t let Alan hear you say that,” Michael whispered, and when I glanced up, he was looking over us at something.
I sat up and turned to find Alan standing there, two coffees in hand. “Far too late,” he deadpanned, and placed one cup in front of me, and one in front of Perry.
Of course they were fixed exactly how we both liked.
It was on the tip of my tongue to say “and you’re the best daddy” but I managed not to blurt that out. “He’s had a lot more practice,” I said instead, then grinned. “But you’re getting there.” I sipped my coffee and sighed. “Yeah. Coffee bribery level unlocked.”
“We’ll see,” Perry said, voice quiet as he sat up, once more wiping his eyes as he picked up his coffee. He took a sip, settling back with a very dirty groan. “Fuck me, that’s good. Thank you, daddy,” he said under his breath.
Not enough under his breath because Michael’s head came up and he stared. My heart stopped then thundered forward and I also stared. Alan’s hot glare bored into Perry.
“Fuck,” Perry said. “I’m sorry.” He tilted his head back to look up behind him at Alan. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Alan rumbled and bent to kiss him, deep with a lot of tongue and a hand covering his exposed throat.
I thought that would make Michael uncomfortable but he just heaved a sigh and went back to his puzzle.
At least we all seemed to be on the same page.