Chapter 1 #6
"You need help?" Gio calls out. "No!" Antonio shouts back. "What are you doing in there?" Gio asks. "Petting Lulu." I choke on a laugh. Of course.
Send the child to bring the important birthday present. End up losing him to the cat. They come back together, Gio and Antonio, carrying a closed, hand-drawn box between them.
Antonio is gripping one side with both hands, tongue peeking out. Gio's holding the other side, but Antonio keeps tugging on his sweatpants, trying to steal it from him.
"I wanna give it to him," Gio whispers like a five-year-old. "I wanna give it," Antonio whispers back, equally stubborn. Gio sighs dramatically and gives in. "Fine. Go, traitor." Antonio walks over and sets the box carefully on my lap, his whole face lit up.
"I know you have everything," Gio starts, watching me, "and if something's missing, you have enough money to buy it. So we got you something you can't buy. No matter how much you have." That alone punches a smile out of me.
I have no idea what to expect now. "Do I open it?" I ask. They both nod at the same time. I lift the lid and pull something out, a big, thick album.
The cover is sturdy, almost like a hardcover book. On the front, there's a picture, the three of us, Antonio in the middle, both of us kissing his cheeks. I already love it without even knowing what's inside.
I open it. There's even an introductory page. Actual title, neat writing. "365 drawings. 365 photos." I look up immediately. "Tell me this is one Antonio drawing for every day of the year."
"And one photo for every day," Gio adds.
"How did you even do this?" I laugh, somewhere between shocked and overwhelmed. "Every day you were gone, Picasso here went into art mode," Gio says, ruffling Antonio's hair. "I kept all of them. One drawing for every day, mister."
"And behind each drawing, there's a photo of us.
We've taken, like, over ten thousand thanks to you, so I tried to find the best ones.
Under each one I wrote one of those dumb jokes your teacher-ass loves.
You said you were running out of them for your lessons, so.
.. now you've got 365 new ones. You're welcome. "
I laugh out loud as I flip the first page, tears already burning at the back of my eyes. "I can't believe you did this," I say. "You're unreal, Gio. How did you even think of this?"
He shrugs. "I don't know. When I thought about what Rava needs, the only thing I kept hearing you say was 'Jesus, I need more creative jokes, I don't wanna be the boring teacher.' So I followed a bunch of stupid joke pages for you."
He points at the album.
"And for the drawings, I asked Antonio what makes you happy. He said you're always happy when you look at your art, so he suggested we give you a lot more so your happiness multiplies. His words, not mine."
Antonio nods very seriously. "I made these, Dada," he says, pointing at the album. Like there was any chance I wouldn't know. Before I fully process it, I'm actually crying.
"Oh no," Gio says immediately, sliding closer and wrapping his arms around me. I laugh through it, embarrassed, wiping at my face. "Daddy, why is Dada crying?" Antonio asks, genuinely worried. "Didn't you... like them?"
"No, baby," I say quickly, shaking my head. "Your drawings are perfect."
"Sometimes when we're really happy, we cry," Gio explains gently. "Remember when you cried when we gave you that car you wanted for days?"
Antonio shakes his head no. Gio laughs and hugs me tighter, rubbing my back. "Okay, well, Dada just got really happy with our present. And he hasn't even opened it properly yet to see inside. That means we're incredible. High five again."
They high-five over my shoulder.
"Good," Gio adds. "Now go hug him too. I think he'll like that." Antonio throws himself into my arms and I catch him with a small, wrecked laugh.
I open the album again and start going through the pages properly this time. Antonio shuffles closer, climbing halfway onto my lap so he can explain every single drawing like a tiny tour guide. I flip to one with a huge pink monster taking up the whole page.
"What monster is this?" I ask him.
He frowns. "It's not a monster. It's Lolezo!"
"Oh," I say. "Right. Sorry. My mistake." I bite the inside of my cheek, trying not to laugh.
I glance up at Gio and he's already looking at me, clearly fighting his own smile.
I turn the page and see a photo on the back, a shot of Lorenzo holding Antonio upside down, both of them laughing like absolute menaces.
Underneath, in Gio's handwriting, it says:
Joke of the day:
- What do you call a math book that's sad?
- Full of problems.
I laugh out loud, like actually snort. Gio laughs just because I'm laughing. "Is it good enough to tell your students?" he asks.
I nod. "Yeah, it's good. Thank you, baby."
He looks so pleased with himself it's ridiculous. I can't picture him sitting there while I'm gone, scrolling through joke pages, picking them out and writing them down one by one.
It's... insanely sweet. I can't wait to read all of them. Next to me, Antonio lets out a giant yawn, his dinosaur hood slipping back a little. "Hmm," I say, smoothing his hair. "Someone's getting sleepy. Might be time for afternoon nap."
"But I wanna see them too..." he mumbles, rubbing his eyes. I pull him closer, pressing a kiss on top of his head. "You're going to bed now, and when you wake up, we'll look through all the rest together. I promise I'll wait for you, okay?"
He pouts. "Okay... don't look at them alone, please." I laugh and hug him tighter. "I promise. I'll wait for you." Gio scoops him up in his arms. "I'll put him down," he says.
"You go change, shower, do whatever you wanna do and then wait for me in the living room."
He leans in closer, his mouth brushing my ear. "I have two more presents," he murmurs.
I pull back and stare at him. "Two?"
He nods once. "Say bye to Dada," he tells Antonio.
"Bye-bye, Dada," Antonio mumbles, already half-asleep against his shoulder.
"Byebye, baby. Sleep well," I say, reaching up to stroke his hair one more time. He loves his afternoon nap. Honestly, I'm a little jealous.
Gio disappears down the hallway with him.
21) Rava’s Birthday Pt. 2
Rava
Antonio is asleep. I've showered, changed into something soft, and now I'm stretched out on the couch.
Gio is using my stomach as a pillow apparently, because he's wedged between my legs under the blanket, cheek pressed to my shirt like I'm his personal mattress.
"Rava," he mumbles, lifting his head a little.
He looks hesitant. Which is funny, because nothing about this man has ever been hesitant in his life. "Will you go on a date with me?" he asks.
"No," I answer immediately.
"Fuck you, I'm leaving this fuck-ass house," he says, already trying to get up. I have to cover my mouth so I don't wake Antonio up with laughter.
I grab Gio by the hoodie and pull him back down. "No, no, wait, we can talk about this!" I say, tugging him closer. "A date..." I add, pretending to think. "Don't you think that's a huge step?"
He turns his head and bites my waist gently.
My skin is dramatic, so it hurts more than it should. "Hey," I hiss, smacking his head. He smacks mine back. "Listen to me," he says. "I wanna take you out. Like, a real date. Somewhere nice to eat. For your birthday. You keep dressing up nice and classy only for school, dress up for me too."
He's playing with our engagement ring on my finger while he talks, twisting it around, thumb rubbing over the metal. The truth is, it's been a while since our last proper outing.
I miss walking next to him in public, watching people trip over themselves looking at him. When we have Antonio with us, it's even worse. We turn into some kind of celebrity family. People flock to us, poking at the baby like he's a science exhibit.
They ask how we "got" him and all sorts of questions like we're close friends and not total strangers they met on the street.
I kind of miss being looked at just for us, not because they're fascinated we made a family.
I run my fingers through his hair, smoothing it back, then trace the line of his forehead with my thumb. "Okay," I say. "Let's go on a date. But just so you know, I don't sleep with someone on the first date."
He looks up at me. "Bold of you to assume I wanna go to bed with you." I laugh and I'm about to clap back when my phone starts ringing on the table. I reach for it. "Oh."
"What?"
"It's my old friend from Canada again, Daniel." I say, staring at the screen. "Pick it up then, what are you waiting for?"
I nod. "Hi, Daniel." The word is barely out of my mouth when I feel Gio's hand slip under the blanket and into my sweatpants. My smile freezes.
Before I can even process what's happening, he's got his hand on my dick, and my eyes go wide. I shove at his shoulder with my free hand, trying to keep the phone steady with the other, but he doesn't move.
If anything, he squeezes.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!" Daniel shouts, and that's when Gio takes my dick into his mouth and starts sucking.
"Jesus—thank you, Daniel, thank you so much." Gio wraps both my thighs in his arms and shoves his head deeper between my legs.
I rub my face. "Um, how's Canada?"
"Same as you left it, Rava. What about you? What's your sexy husband up to?"
Oh, you don't want to know. He's definitely not under the blanket sucking my dick right now.
"He's—good! Uh. Around. Somewhere," I say, biting my lip so I don't start moaning. I grab Gio's hair tighter and move his head up and down.
"Please tell him hi from me. And give him a slap from me too. He stole you from here and now I've got no one to play poker with."
I laugh and smack Gio under the blanket. He kisses my hand, then licks me again from the base all the way up.
Christ, how is he so good at this? It feels like my entire soul is draining out through my dick. "Just did," I say.
"And how's your kid doing?"