WE CELEBRATED our twenty-third birthdays in the hospital. Mrs. Maybury supplied the cake, bought from a local Orlando bakery, and both of us had trouble blowing the candles out. Damn broken ribs. After the flames were out, Alex and I kissed in front of everyone in the room. I didn’t turn to see my parents’ expressions, preferring to keep my eyes closed as I relished the touch of his soft lips. “I wish we were in South Beach,” Alex whispered against my lips. I wished we were too.
“Next year. I promise,” I replied softly before kissing him again.
I spoke to Julie on the phone and reassured her I was fine. She had stayed behind when they found out I was going to be okay as she had finals coming up. She cried a little when I spoke to her, but when I called her on it, she said, “Shut up, Jerkoff, I have a cold, that’s why I’m sniffing.” She’d been staying with a friend but was eager for everyone to come home.
Alex had been discharged a couple of days after I came out to my parents. Alex’s mom and dad wanted to take him home when he was discharged, but he refused to leave me behind. When they realized his heels were dug in and he was there for the long haul, my mom patted my shoulder, a wistful smile on her face, and said, “You and Alex will be just fine.”
He was staying in a nearby hotel with his mom and dad. He visited every day, bringing me real food and stealing kisses, not leaving till they kicked him out after visiting hours were long over. I stayed another week in the hospital before I could be transported home to Fort Wayne with some degree of comfort.
When we all returned to Indiana, I spent a week at home with my parents until I begged Alex to take me away. Being away from him while recovering was more than I could bear. Alex arranged for us to live in the downstairs den at his home, as I would have trouble navigating the steps to his room. Alex could have lived with me, but that was asking too much of my parents, as they were still coming to terms with my sexuality. I often wondered if Dad accepted it only because just days before he’d thought I was going die, and having a gay son was an acceptable alternative.
Maude went on to make a full recovery. Insurance paid for the repairs in Florida, and Mom and Dad used Maude as an excuse for a little holiday of their own, flying to Orlando to pick her up and driving her home. Maude currently sat under a tarpaulin in Dad’s shed, waiting for the next road trip. Mom and Dad had already made plans to drive her to Connecticut next spring.
Alex drove me to and from my therapy sessions three times a week. Despite my constant whining that my therapist was ‘a manipulative bitch,’ I made good progress, soon ditching the crutches but still hobbling around with a leg brace on.
It seemed it wasn’t only family and friends who had been keeping track of our travels through the blog, and Alex was offered a position with a national gay magazine as their travel consultant a few weeks after our return. It meant a fair bit of traveling, but after my brace was taken off, I was able to travel with him, and Alex did a few feature posts as a couple, rather than catering only to the young single crowd.
I set up a graphic design business by accident. Since I wasn’t able to get out and about initially, I started doing some online designs for something to do to pass the time. I started to have repeat customers and my business steadily grew. I worked from home at first, but as long as I had my laptop, I could work whenever I traveled with Alex.
Alex returned late one evening after completing an assignment in Vermont to find me sitting up in bed looking at rentals online.
“Hey,” I said as he closed the den door behind him.
“Horse.”
“Your dad wants his den back,” I stated simply.
“And?”
“I missed you.”
Alex smiled as he leaned down to kiss me. “I missed you too. What did Dad say?”
“Nothing, actually. I thought it was a good way of telling you we need to move out.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I’m almost fully mobile and if we’re going to move the bed upstairs, we might as well just move it into our own place instead.”
“But it’s free to live here,” Alex said as he started stripping out of his clothes.
“Crowded.”
“The food’s good,” he countered.
“The walls have ears.”
“Do they?”
“Yes. I’m too scared to make any noise when you fuck me. The last thing I want is knowing looks over the breakfast table.” I pouted. I didn’t actually think Mr. and Mrs. Maybury had ever heard us since they slept upstairs, but it felt weird being vocal during sex when there were parents under the same roof. I batted my eyelids as I palmed my growing cock through the thin sheet. “Don’t you want to make me scream?”
Alex’s gaze turned hungry and he stripped out of the rest of his clothes in record time.
After we’d made love, Alex told me about a trip he had coming up.
“What, like Spain?” I asked.
“Is there another Ibiza you know about?”
“And I’m going?”
“Yep. My boss must like my work because when I asked if you could come, he agreed it was a good idea. It’s one of those couple assignments again. It doesn’t hurt that he likes the work you’ve done on the website.” Alex rolled over so we were face to face. I pulled him to me, needing the closeness once more. He kissed me tenderly, then talked about the upcoming Spanish trip and the things we could see.
“Do you think we’ll ever get married?” Alex asked a bit later, not taking his eyes off my face. He smiled and I schooled my features as I tried to keep the excitement from my voice.
“I haven’t really thought about it,” I said as I snuggled into the pillow and closed my eyes. “Can you get the light?”
Alex chuckled as he flicked the switch and lay down facing me, entwining our fingers.
His breath ghosted across my skin and I could feel his gaze on me. “I love you,” he whispered into the darkness.
I squeezed his fingers. “Hmm, I love you too.” I opened my eyes and we stared at each other for a long minute, his face illuminated by the streetlight coming in through the thin curtains.
“Do you want to get married?” he asked after a while.
I smiled. “Are you asking me to marry you, Alex Maybury?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “Depends on what your answer is, I guess.”
“Well, I can’t give you an answer to a question I haven’t been asked.” I smiled into the darkness as I waited for the question, nerves tingling my skin.
Alex asked a question, but not the one I expected.
“What color suit did you have in mind? Because I found these really cool indigo ones online.”
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