Chapter 20
chapter twenty
patrice
“You sure you don’t want a glass of prosecco with your slice, P?” Nesto asked as I took a second slice of the passion fruit silk pie thing he’d made for dinner.
I shook my head as I licked some of the crust and delicious filling off my finger. “Nah, man. I’m driving.”
He shook his head like I was the most stubborn motherfucker on earth. “Man, you gotta chill,” he teased and turned to Easton, an eyebrow raised and the bottle tipped in the direction of the flute by his place setting.
My boyfriend smirked at me before raising the glass to Nesto. “I’m not nearly as good as Patrice,” he said as he leaned in to kiss my cheek.
Nesto scoffed and shook his head again. “Yeah, but you had like one glass of wine and now one of prosecco. That’s not exactly getting your drink on.” He got up and slapped a hand on my shoulder. “My man has to relax a little more.”
From the other end of the table Jude protested, “Leave him alone, Nesto, it’s been a bit stressful in this town for the past couple of months. I don’t blame him for being careful.”
Jude was quiet and very mild-mannered, but he did not pull a punch when it came to shit that he felt strongly about.
At his words, I saw Easton’s back go up.
But Jude had those baby blues right on him.
It’d been a few days since that last stop.
Easton had gone to visit the kid who’d passed out at the hospital, who’d thankfully made a full recovery, but of course, things had died down again.
I could see Easton trying to keep his sigh inward instead of responding to Jude.
“I don’t blame him either, even if he is a little bit more intense than I am with these things,” Nesto said ruefully.
Easton took a small sip then gave Jude a serious look. “Day has finally agreed to take a strong stance and have some kind of diversity training in the department. Honestly, I don’t think that’s enough. He needs to make a statement, publicly.”
He’d been trying to get his boss to say something, too, but so far, nothing. I was starting to wonder if that was where it would stay.
Jude nodded and looked straight at me, as if he knew we’d be on the same page. “I know you’ll try, Easton. I just hope there’s not a tragedy while they’re sorting themselves out.”
“Me, too,” Easton said heavily, pushing his barely touched glass of prosecco away. “It’s what has me considering this run more seriously; maybe I could do some good. Take a different position as DA.” When he looked at me, I reached over and ran a hand over his.
We’d reached a sort of détente since the day Cindy had announced his candidacy.
He’d been moving behind the scenes trying to shake things up.
I’d ended up participating in the peaceful protest after the last stop, had been quietly helping some local groups organize, and intentionally laying off Twitter, but we’d kept our stuff separate.
I wasn’t sure how long it would work to leave things hanging like this.
Those parts of our lives were too big to just keep them to ourselves.
Eventually we’d either have to bring them together ourselves or they would collide on their own.
But the struggle and the law could not go to bed every night, without coming to a standoff at some point.
I heard Jude clearing his throat and looked up to find him looking at Easton and I like that he knew exactly what was going down with us. But when he opened his mouth, it mercifully went in another direction. “Did Ari tell you about the moving date?”
I nodded and smiled over at Easton, who was suddenly super focused on his hands. “Yeah,” I said, pointing a fork in my boyfriend’s direction. “His new landlord made sure the apartment was ready for him within a week.”
Easton rolled his eyes at Nesto, Jude, and me like what he had done was no big deal. “It didn’t need that much work. It’s a studio. Took like two days to get it ready.”
“Uh huh,” Nesto said, putting his arm around Jude. “You’re charging him what he paid his uncle for rent, which I know was not very much, and giving him a brand new place downtown, which happened to be fully furnished. That ain’t nothing, my guy.”
I could see the color rising on Easton’s cheeks like it always did whenever anyone tried to give him a compliment.
After a moment, he looked up from whatever he’d been closely inspecting on the table. “He’s gone through a lot this past month, so I’m glad that I can help on this one thing. It’s not like it comes at a big cost to me.”
Before I could interject, Nesto voiced what I was thinking. “You also got him the immigration lawyer who took his case pro bono. And you didn’t have to do a thing, but you did it anyways. So stop trying to talk yourself out of your cookout invitation, bruh.”
That got us all laughing and moving on to discuss the logistics of getting Ari situated in his new place.
After some more talk about what each of us would get for a housewarming, I noticed Easton’s yawns were coming more and more frequently.
I’d been staying at his house pretty much every night for the past month and knew he was back to leaving for the office before five in the morning, preparing for his next trial.
So, when I saw him nod off, I ran a hand over his shoulder.
“Hey, you want to head home?”
The sleepy look he gave me did not match up with the cheeky response or the lopsided smile that appeared on his face when I said the word home. “Will you tuck me in?”
I could only laugh as I pulled him up with me. “Only if you’re good.”
“Well that doesn’t bode well for me then,” he said, feigning annoyance.
All I could do was shake my head. No matter how much I tried to keep my fortress of solitude act up, Easton always found a way to make me take myself a little less seriously.
I liked the person I was with Easton.
I looked over at Jude and Nesto who were getting up, too. “We should be heading out. Easton’s on a super early wake-up schedule and I’ve started getting up with him and heading to the gym before class.”
We exchanged hugs and goodbyes and soon were walking up the street to our cars. Easton looked at me and pointed at my black SUV that was parked right by his. “Do you want to leave your car here and go in mine? I can drop you off here in the morning.”
I laughed at the suggestion, because it made zero sense. “That would mean you driving like forty minutes tomorrow morning for no reason. So, no thank you,” I said, unable to keep a straight face at his hurt expression.
I pulled on his scarf so I could give him a kiss, and when he pulled back, he seemed in much better spirits. “That should tide me over.”
I was about to get in my car when he pulled on my hand, not letting go. “Hey.” The way he said it, made me turn fully around.
“Hey, yourself.”
He put both arms around my neck, and looked up at me, eyes locked with mine. “I could fall in love with you, Professor Denis.” His voice was clear and strong, unhesitant.
To my surprise, my response to his words seemed just as certain. “I’m pretty sure I’m falling in love with you.”
Radiant.
That was the only word for the smile the words got me, and the kiss afterward was so sweet I felt greedy that I got to have all of it.
After a few more kisses, Easton pulled back, biting on his bottom lip. “Does this mean I get, ‘we said I love you sex’?
I shook my head, laughing as I got in my car. “When have you ever not eventually gotten what you want from me?” I waved as he grinned at me in answer. “I’ll see you at home.”
I saw Easton quickly get in his BMW and drive off while I checked my Twitter account.
I had a bunch of stuff in my mentions. People tagging me on different events and posts related to race relations in Ithaca.
I responded to some and retweeted the less incendiary ones.
Everything else I just let sit there for now, tonight I would be a little selfish, like my mother had said.
I felt so good right now, I wanted to hold on just a little longer.
I’d been on the road for about fifteen minutes when my phone rang.
I had on those magnetic things where I could mount the phone on the dashboard, so when the screen lit up I easily read it was from Easton.
I smiled and shook my head as I hit the Bluetooth button on the steering wheel to take the call.
“Where are you? I just got into the garage.” Of course he had, because he drove like a New York City cabbie.
“Uh I’m still like five miles out of town, Speedy.”
I heard him scoff and smiled in anticipation of his response. He had a very inflated sense of his driving skills, which was kind of adorable. “I didn’t even drive that fast. There’s barely any traffic at this hour.”
I nodded in the direction of the phone, like he could see me. “You know I like to go just under the speed limit at night, helps me feel like I’m more in control of the vehicle.” I sped up a bit, because it was true that there was no one on the road, not that I would admit that to him.
“Did I accidentally call my grandpa?”
The genuine bafflement in his voice had me busting up. “All right, smart-ass, I’ll see you in a few minutes. I’m really close to town,” I said, grinning as I drove down the dark county road.
“Fine, I’ll leave the door—”
A siren coming from behind startled me out of the conversation. I tried to slow down in case a first responder needed to get past me, but when I looked in the rearview mirror, there was a patrol car behind me, its flashing lights trained right on my car.
“Patrice?” I heard Easton’s voice still full of humor, and for a moment, it felt like I was in a dream. Like time had slowed down, and then I realize it was panic. I was scared.
“I think I’m getting pulled over,” I said woodenly, my bare hands on the steering wheel suddenly felt like sausages. Still I quickly tapped on my phone screen, and switched the call to FaceTime, as I steered the car over to the side of the road.
When I saw Easton’s face, he looked terrified. “Where are you? I’m coming over there.”