Trevor returned home after sunset, holding the casserole dish which he had washed after they’d eaten so that G.G. wouldn’t attempt it.
Full of energy, Trevor put it away in the cabinet, then straightened the kitchen before floating into the living room to flop onto the couch. It was too early to call Sky, who was probably still working. But Trevor was going to take a break and then do exactly that while riding this high.
G.G. wanted him. He didn’t think Trevor had fucked up. He wanted more.
Trevor sighed as he propped his feet up on Ellie’s back without using his full weight because it would make her get up to demand cuddles, which he then gave her.
At the other end of the couch, his grandmother cut him a look. Several looks.
“Is that your nonjudgmental face?” Trevor wondered lightly without turning toward her.
She muttered something, then answered, “It’s as close as I can do right now.”
Trevor glanced over. Her gaze was serious but her lips twitched as if Trevor amused her despite her concerns about the situation.
“Good,” Trevor said with real relief. “Because I’m going to call Sky later, so when you email him, you don’t have to feel like you’re lying for me or anything. He knows.”
“Hmm.” His grandma turned toward the TV. “You said you weren’t dating Sky, so why does that matter? He’s not your boyfriend anymore. That’s what you told me.”
Trevor looked to the TV as well. She wasn’t watching the spy show. It was some movie with Robert Redford.
“You don’t sound like you agree,” he said after a while, scratching behind Ellie’s ears while Ellie grunted with pleasure.
His grandma snorted.
Trevor sat against the back cushion and lolled his head to the side to study his grandmother’s profile.
“Admittedly, Sky and I are not good at not dating each other,” he allowed.
She snorted again.
Trevor decided to dare more. “He’s still my boyfriend, I think, and has been this whole time.”
“You don’t say.” His grandmother looked at him. “How did G.G. like your lasagna?”
Trevor ducked his head to smile. “Ate every bit.”
His grandma nodded firmly in approval of that before giving a very put-upon sigh. “At least you have good taste in men.”
“Got that from you.” Trevor wasn’t even joking. But his grandma cackled for a second before controlling herself and trying to look unimpressed again. Trevor glanced to the TV and a middle-aged-to-older Robert Redford in some dad jeans. “Seriously, even married, you can’t tell me you wouldn’t have gone for Redford if he’d asked.”
She smacked his shoulder.
“There was a movie about that,” his grandma said primly a few moments later. “Your grandfather and I discussed it when it came out.”
Trevor closed his eyes tight and took a breath. He opened his eyes. “You know what? If you’re messing with me, I deserve it. And if you’re not, good for you but also don’t tell me.”
It startled another laugh out of her before she gave Trevor the sternest frown in her repertoire.
He watched the rest of the movie with her, fed Mr. Tams since his grandma had forgotten because of her long nap, and then took Ellie for a much-delayed evening walk once his grandma went to bed.
Then, with everything taken care of and the events at G.G.’s really starting to sink in, Trevor went into his bedroom to talk to Sky.
He wanted to warn Sky first in case Sky was working. But Sky had promised him a talk and a talk they were going to have.
Ready when you are.
Sky answered almost immediately, though his answer was odd. You’re earlier than I thought. Gimme a sec.
It wasn’t late, but it was late enough. Had he expected Trevor to want to talk at midnight?
Trevor didn’t wonder for much longer. Sky called him.
“Hey,” Sky said, quiet and out of breath, just audible over muffled noises in the background. The noise wasn’t music, so it was probably a movie or gaming streamer or something Sky had put on while working. “So, listen…”
“I love you.” If Sky was officially ending it because he couldn’t take long distance anymore, if G.G. had made him think Trevor didn’t care, Trevor wanted him to at least know that.
Sky choked, really choked, coughing for several worrying moments before rasping, “What? Trevor… what?”
“I still love you.” Trevor amended his previous statement while his pulse thundered and he walked back and forth in the space available beside his bed. “I tried to be respectful and not get in your way because I was the one who ended it. I know I did that, and that you’re happy there, but a part of me is sorry that I ever suggested it. Also, frankly, we both suck at moving on. My grandma is confused about it, and G.G. thinks… never mind that now.” That was a whole separate conversation. “I think… I didn’t know how to give you all that you wanted back when you were here, and you couldn’t tell me. But you’re starting to now, and you want to be mine, and I want that so much, and I haven’t stopped loving you. So. So… that’s that.”
He probably should have written out his thoughts for this beforehand, tried for persuasive. He was supposed to be a writer. Of a kind.
Sky was breathing very fast. “Trevor.”
“If you still….” Okay, Trevor wasn’t brave enough to ask flat out if Sky still loved him. “Long distance sucks,” he said instead, “but I can save up to come visit you. Seeing you on a screen isn’t enough. Not being able to touch is the fucking worst already, but when I want to take care of you the most, I can’t.” He stopped, relaxing his hand when he noticed he’d clenched it. “You’re mine and you’re family. You and Grandma and…. I know I have nothing really except the desire to make you happy, but….”
“Trevor.” Sky sighed it. Trevor’s shoulders sagged with relief. Sky’s tone was warm, if teasing. “You created a dragon because you wanted to keep us both, Sir.”
Trevor drew in a sharp breath. “You knew that?”
“Well, I thought it,” Sky said, in the tone of someone who had a lot of thoughts and expected most of them to be right. “The question is: did you?”
Trevor refused to examine any of that in this moment. “The question really is: would that make Sky happy?”
“What about G.G.?” It was a whisper; Sky’s mouth had to be pressed against the phone.
Trevor sat on the edge of his bed. “He told me today that he doesn’t expect a happy ending for himself.”
“What?” Sky seemed offended on G.G.’s behalf, then intrigued. “Why not?”
“His past, probably.” It wasn’t Trevor’s information to share so he was vague. “There was a whole thing with an ex taking over his business. Although I don’t think G.G. liked that business much.” G.G. enjoyed the work but as a hobby more than as a vocation. Trevor frowned and considered the rest. “His family doesn’t take him seriously even though he’s…. Ugh. Sky, he reads, and he makes these beautiful things, and he blushes, Sky! He blushes all the time. And he does puzzles!” Trevor listened to Sky’s silence, trying to gauge it while he continued to talk about G.G. like a matchmaker who knew Sky’s tastes. “He’s kind to my grandma and to Nancy across the street, and he cried about his dead cat, and he thinks my art is good.”
“It is.” Sky was still out of breath. “Keep going.”
“He was surprised I’d want to be friends with him,” Trevor revealed.
“Friends?” Sky echoed it with an amused gasp. “With you, Brian Trevor? He’ll want more than that, if he doesn’t already. Even if he apparently thinks he can’t get it.”
“He knows about you,” Trevor went on, ignoring Sky’s attempt at distance. “What I feel for you.”
“Oh yes.” Sky’s voice rose. “That. Say that again.”
Trevor’s whole face and neck were flaming hot. “I love you.”
Sky released a deep, shaky breath. “And what does he think about that?”
“He seems to think we’re already together,” Trevor confessed. “So does my grandma, by the way.”
Sky chose to disregard the last part. “And it doesn’t bother him?” His voice rose even higher before he returned to a furious whisper as though he couldn’t imagine anyone not being territorial over Trevor. “What? Why not? Is it only about pushy Trevor for him?”
“Yes… no.” Trevor frowned to himself. “He… changes the subject when it comes to himself, to more than his needs, I mean.” When it came to his heart. “Like I said, he doesn’t expect a happy ending.”
He had no idea what Sky was doing, but Sky somehow gave the impression of sitting back in an oversized chair like a movie villain. “I see.”
Trevor did not lose his frown. “Do you?”
“Oh, more than you realize.” Sky was close to stroking a villain’s fluffy cat as well. Or maybe Sky was the cat, already purring. “Say it again, please.”
“I love you?” Trevor could say it many times, but maybe Sky wanted something else. “Or that I want you to be mine?”
The movie villain dropped his phone, then recovered it. “God, you make things difficult,” Sky hissed, but fondly. Only Sky could hiss fondly. “Okay.” He said it once, then again as if steadying himself. “Okay. I need you to hold onto that thought for a while longer. Please? Just for another hour? Maybe an hour and a half? Before I can speak to you again?”
Trevor gripped his phone so hard it should have cracked. But he already knew he was going to respond the way he always did. “I’ll give you anything you ask for, you know that.”
Sky pulled the phone away from his mouth but a muffled scream was audible. He came back to say, “Then don’t go to bed. Wait for me.”
He hung up before Trevor could answer.
Mere seconds after that, Trevor’s phone lit up with a message. You made me forget to say it back. I love you too.
Trevor smiled at his phone with giddy relief. Oh good.
And I’m yours. Don’t go to bed, Sky replied, then sent him every kind of heart emoji every few minutes for the next half hour before he must have gotten pulled into his work.