Chapter 12
chapter twelve
easton
“Are you going to take that?” I asked, barely able to contain the grin that had been pasted on my face for the past hour. Patrice and I had finished our enormous bowls of soup and instead of running home like I would have expected, he’d cleaned up and then gotten back on the couch with me.
I’d been too scared to ask if he was staying, but eventually, he just grabbed the control and turned on the TV. We’d been dozing while an episode of a superhero show droned on when his phone rang.
I handed him the phone, which had Nesto’s face flashing on the screen.
I tried to get up to give him space, but he just pulled me back to him.
I had no idea what was happening, but when he put that big arm across my chest as he answered the call, I let myself melt into him.
I was not going to stress and I was not going to question anything happening between us tonight.
“What’s up, brother?” Patrice’s soft voice brimmed with affection when he spoke to his friend.
“Where are you, man? I’m at your place.” Nesto was pretty loud, so it wasn’t very hard to listen in on the conversation.
I looked at him for a moment and then stood up, signaling with my hands that he could go back to his place. But he didn’t move, he just brought the phone down from his ear and tapped on the screen. Speaking as he did.
“Nes, I’m just putting you on speaker. I’m actually up at Easton’s.” He cleared his throat as I stood there wondering what happened with the skittish Patrice I knew.
He leaned over and pulled on my hand, while Nesto’s amused voice filled the living room. “Oh? You visiting your neighbor then.” There was a whole lot that was not being said in that answer, but Patrice wasn’t giving him anything.
“That’s right. I brought over some dinner, to pay Easton back for the one he made the other night.”
“Right.” The tone on Nesto’s voice evoked a clear, “More like you went up there with a peace offering for being an asshole.”
If there was one thing I knew, it was that Patrice and his friends told each other everything.
After a few seconds of Patrice glaring at his phone, I broke and spoke in its direction. “Nesto, you can come up if you want.”
I mean we hadn’t been fucking or anything, everyone was fully clothed and there had clearly been a meal happening. Nesto didn’t need to know the details about the last hour of true confessions and cuddling by the fireplace.
Nesto’s friendly laugh snapped Patrice into action. “I’m already here, my dude.” The knock had us both standing up and walking to the door.
I waved my hand to indicate Patrice could let his friend in.
As he walked, I stayed behind to watch his ass in one of his seemingly endless supply of fitted sweats.
By the time he got there and started opening the door, I forced my eyes to move up to where Nesto was standing, a shit-eating grin on his face.
After giving each other a hard pat on the back, Nesto sauntered into my place, taking in the scene, which even I had to admit was pretty cozy.
He walked up to me and gave me one of his strong hugs. “What’s up, man?”
I smiled at the way his eyes moved around the room. “Not much, we were just hanging out a bit. Patrice was nice enough to bring me dinner.”
Nesto just winked and sat on the couch smiling.
“Looks like you guys were enjoying a night in. Sorry to disturb.” That last part, he said while innocently blinking at Patrice, who ignored him.
“Anyways, I don’t have a lot of time. I have to go pick up my man at Carmen’s.
” It was always amazing to me how Nesto used such a tone of complete adoration whenever he spoke about his partner.
“He still eats dinner with them on Sundays when he’s not at the restaurant.
But I wanted your help with something, P. ”
Patrice seemed to relax when it was clear Nesto was not going to pry about why he was hanging out at my house on Sunday night, lounging by a fire. He walked over to his friend and sat next to him on the couch while I took a seat on the chair across from them.
“What do you need?”
The way he said that, it was so obvious that there was nothing his friend could ask that Patrice wouldn’t try his best to make happen.
Nesto turned to me, his face serious again.
“Did P tell you about what happened last night?” His grim expression told me he could only be talking about Ari’s traffic stop.
I nodded, my face burning with shame that I had nothing better to offer than a nod and a shrug. “I know.”
Nesto nodded once and turned his mouth to the side, clearly refraining from whatever he wanted to say.
“P, I want to do something at OuNYe. Sheridan and I have that fundraiser in a couple of weeks. We were going to give all the proceeds to the agency that helps immigrants and refugees. The one that got me connected with Ari and Yin when I first got here. We still are, but I want to do something more.”
Nesto ran his hands over his head, he looked shaken, which was such a departure from the no-nonsense businessman I usually saw around town.
He spoke to Patrice whose eyes widened at Nesto’s serious expression.
“You know I like to keep my head down with this shit. I’m not political like you and Milo.
I stay in my hustle and I know I do my part by creating jobs and shit.
” He paused then and his generous lips pursed.
He looked at us both before he spoke again.
“The way that Ari looked this morning when he was telling me about that bullshit that went down last night; I can’t look the other way, bruh. ”
Patrice gripped his friend’s knee. From the look they shared, I knew these two men had seen each other through everything. “What’d you have in mind?” Patrice’s tone clearly said, whatever it was, Nesto could count on him one-hundred percent.
Nesto turned to look at me then and smiled.
“I actually want your opinion, too, Easton. You’ve been in this town your whole life and people trust you.
I talked to Harold about it and he wants to do a match giving, or some shit.
Whatever we raise that night, he’s going to match it and give the same amount to that place that works with Black and Latinx kids teaching them about their rights, the Ithaca Justice Project. ”
He lifted a shoulder then and looked back to Patrice. “I’m not worried about people getting pissed and losing business. I just need to do something.”
Patrice dipped his head in agreement with Nesto’s words.
“I think that’s great, Nesto.” I glanced up at Patrice and saw that he was completely focused on me, clearly waiting to hear what I was going to say.
“As a matter of fact, I’ll go in on that.
Whatever you raise that night, I’ll match the amount for each agency.
” I put my hands up, needing to make it clear I didn’t want cookies for this.
“I’ll be an anonymous donor. I don’t need to sidle into your event. ”
Nesto smiled wide then and sent Patrice a look that was very much in the vein of “I told you so.”
“That’s great, man. Thank you. We’re going to start promoting the event more aggressively since it’s in a couple of weeks.”
He sighed and looked over to Patrice who was still focused on me. “What do you think, P?”
He didn’t hesitate, nodding enthusiastically as he answered Nesto.
“I think that’s great, Nes, when local businesses do this type of thing, it really gets communities more engaged.
OuNYe’s a new place, but it’s already well-respected, and so are you for that matter.
Harold Sheridan is a big fish here. People will pay attention to the fact that you’re giving to the Justice Project.
I’ll make sure to go in hard on my Twitter account promoting it over the next two weeks. ”
He looked over to me and then he did something that had Nesto and me almost dropping our jaws. He walked over and bent down to kiss me. Not just a peck either, he braced himself on the arms of the chair and licked into my mouth like he’d been doing that forever.
My heart actually skipped, and by the time he pulled back, I was lightheaded. “Thanks for offering to help.”
“Of course.” I was breathless, and would’ve gone back for another kiss, but Nesto cleared his throat reminding us he was still there. Patrice and I both turned to find him grinning at us, like we’d just made his entire week.
“Okay, I’m going to go get Jude, since you two seem like you need some privacy,” he teased and made a show of putting a hand over his eyes, as he stood up.
“Thanks for the help, guys. I feel better about this now that I know you have my back.”
I nodded as we got to the door. “Just let me know any other way in which I can help.”
After Nesto left, I leaned against the door, looking at Patrice who was walking up to me with a predatory look in his eyes, seemingly unbothered by the events of the last few minutes.
He did that thing where he braced his arms on top of my head, so that I was ensconced by him. I looked up and my field of vision was all Patrice. When he spoke, it was low and so close to my ear, I felt his breath fluttering my hair. “That was really nice of you to do.”
I swallowed, feeling way too many things, to be able to give a proper answer. “It’s the least that I can do.”
He nodded, his face serious, but his eyes were still soft and completely focused on my mouth. “Still, you didn’t have to and you did.”
“We’ll see how things go with Sheriff Day tomorrow. That will have to do a lot with whether I actually can help put a stop to all this.”
Patrice’s face turned sober then, and for a moment I thought I’d lose him again. I could tell he was looking for the right words. I counted one, two, three breaths before he spoke.
“I know you’ll try.”
I exhaled and tipped my head up to look at him, a little bit scared of Patrice’s vote of confidence. Something had shifted today, but Patrice’s faith in me scared me, because I was still not sure what I did would change a thing. Still I told him the truth. “I will do my best.”