Chapter 17 #2
Yano and Marco had another silent conversation, then tried to egg the other on by elbowing each other in the ribs. Fuck, Mitch wanted to go home. He slipped into his boots and winter coat, grabbed his equipment bag, and headed out.
He was halfway down the hallway when Yano and Marco caught up to him.
“Yo, Grey! Wait up.” Yano caught his elbow, bringing him to a halt.
Mitch swallowed an angry retort. He turned to his friends. “What? I have somewhere I need to be.”
Yano cleared his throat. “We just wanted to, ah, invite you and your, um…” He scratched his head.
“Friend,” Marco piped in.
“Yes, friend. To, ah, have a late dinner with us at Mama Jean’s. Or wherever.”
The fuck were they on about? “My…friend?”
They jostled each other again, whispering under their breaths. Mitch dropped his bag and crossed his arms. “Spit it out already. I’m tired and I want to go home.”
“Right, right. Uh…” Yano scuffed his boot against the tiled floor.
“Jesus.” Marco rolled his eyes and faced Mitch head-on. “What our inept friend here—”
“Hey!”
“—is trying to say is, we’d like to treat you and your…” He glanced around them, but there was no one else in the hallway. “…boyfriend,” he whispered before resuming in a normal voice, “to dinner sometime.”
“My…” Heat flushed through Mitch’s body and he jerked his head toward Yano. “You told him?” he growled.
“I guessed,” Marco said. “I’m not stupid.”
“He’s not stupid,” Yano repeated.
“And you’re kind of obvious,” Marco continued.
Yano slapped Marco’s chest with the back of his hand. “That’s what I told him.”
Marco squinted at Yano, sighed at Yano’s obliviousness, and raised his eyes to the ceiling. Yano had known Mitch was gay because his high school best friend was gay and Yano knew what to look for. Mitch had a feeling such was not the case for Marco. Man, Mitch’s gaydar was for shit.
He sent his friends a grateful smile and picked up his bag. “I appreciate it. Really. But at the moment we’re kind of laying low.” He held up a hand before they could protest. “He also lives out of state and he’s here this weekend mostly so he can visit his sick grandpa. So, another time?”
“You probably also want your alone time too, huh?” Yano waggled his eyebrows. “To…” He pumped a fist and made a sound not unlike a broken chainsaw.
“Man, you’re so crass.” Marco put a hand on Mitch and Yano’s shoulders and steered them all outside, where the cold slapped Mitch in the face and stole his breath.
He tugged his scarf up over his nose and pulled his alpaca mittens out of his pocket.
“Seriously,” Marco said when they reached Mitch’s car.
“Next time he’s here, we’d love to treat you guys. ”
Touched, Mitch could only nod. “Thanks, guys. I’ll let you know. See you later.”
He texted Alex before driving home. Once he got there, he paced a five-foot trail in the tiny space between the living room and kitchen.
“What’s wrong with you?” Cody asked from his perch on the couch where he was playing Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii.
“I’m nervous.”
“It’s just Alex.”
“Just Alex, who I haven’t seen in almost three weeks.”
“Aww.” Cody paused the game to grin at him. “I knew you were smitten.”
“Fuck you,” Mitch grumbled, and promptly stubbed his toe on the leg of one of the island barstools. “Fuck!”
Cody laughed at him and kept playing.
When the doorbell finally rang what felt like five years later, Mitch had worked himself into a bundle of nervous tension. His toe throbbed, his hands were knotted, and he felt like he was going to throw up what little he’d eaten today.
But the smile on Alex’s face, an impossible combination of misery, relief, and happiness, had concern and pleasure replacing Mitch’s nerves, and he was on Alex before Alex could say hi.
Alex squeezed Mitch just as hard, his arms steel bands around Mitch’s waist. Mitch used his grip around Alex’s neck to haul him inside. Alex kicked the door closed behind him, shutting out the dark and the cold, dropped his bag to the floor, and stuck his frigid nose in Mitch’s neck.
“God, I’ve missed you,” Alex mumbled, pressing a small kiss to the skin between Mitch’s neck and shoulder, and that was all it took for Mitch’s eyes to water.
He’d joked with himself that he’d miss Alex like a limb.
Truth was, Alex had stolen a piece of his heart that he didn’t want back.
It was Alex’s, for better or worse. And sure, doubt might’ve crept in now and then over the past few weeks they’d been apart, dangerous thoughts slithering into his brain when he wasn’t paying attention, telling him Alex was going to change his mind and dump him any second.
Those thoughts might scare Mitch shitless, especially in the middle of the night when he couldn’t sleep, but he’d rather be scared than be without Alex, no matter how difficult things might get.
“I missed you too.” Mitch kissed Alex’s ear, his cheek, his mouth, keeping his movements slow and soothing.
A sound behind Mitch had him pulling away and glancing over his shoulder to where Cody was walking toward them.
“Hey, Cody,” Alex said.
“Hey, man.” Cody clapped Alex on the shoulder. “How’s your grandpa?”
“Better. Relatively speaking, anyway.” Alex hung his coat on the wall hook and untied his boots. “He’s kicked the pneumonia, so…” His shoulder twitched in a half-shrug. Mitch took his hand and linked their fingers.
“That’s good.” Cody seemed at a loss for what more to say. He jerked his head in the direction of the stairs. “I’m heading to bed. See you guys in the morning.”
Mitch moved right into Alex’s personal space again. Alex wrapped his arms around Mitch’s shoulders and cuddled him close.
“What do you need?” Mitch asked, tracing tiny circles on Alex’s lower back.
Alex exhaled a long breath, ruffling the hair on top of Mitch’s head. “Just this.”
“Okay. Come on.”
Upstairs, in Mitch’s bedroom, they undressed to their underwear. Crawling into bed, they fell asleep with Alex’s big body firm behind Mitch.