by Mia Kerick
I wasn’t sure how to respond to that.
“Well, this is not your fault.” Savannah was looking at me now, even if Tristan still wouldn’t. “Maybe you could just talk to Mikey. You know, tell him you got his message. Find out what else he wants from you.”
“He wants me to dump you guys.” I lifted my hands and pressed my thumbs hard against my temples. “And if I did just that, you guys would both be safe.”
At those words, Tristan flipped over, his penetrating gaze centered on my face. “You can’t leave us. I need you to stay. Please don’t go, Robby.” The way he was clutching my wrists emphasized his pleading. “I feel so much for you. Don’t leave us.” Eyes as dark and sweet as chocolate melted into mine. Tristan needed me. And I needed him even more.
“Okay, baby, I won’t leave you, but I’m still going to talk to him. I have to at least talk to him about this.” God knew he deserved firing, and worse. And luckily, Tristan had never technically asked that I promise not to throw a punch or two (or ten) in Mikey’s direction. This time, I didn’t give a shit if I rocked the boat that we were floating on, even if it launched us both into the sea.
Tristan yawned widely. “Just keep it civil when you talk to him. Try to be nice.” Another yawn. “And Robby, stop worrying. I’m okay.”
He curled against my chest, and I wrapped my arms around him. “Go to sleep. We’ll be here when you wake up.” I think he was already asleep as I spoke. Then I looked over at Savannah, and she reached out her hand to me, her eyes wide with concern over our partner.
I didn’t deserve to have either of these people in my life. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be worthy of them. But I was sure that Mikey DeSalvo was gonna get a taste of his own medicine, and I could hardly frigging wait for tomorrow to come so I could feed it to him. I guess some things were more important than keeping the status quo.
Chapter 27
Robby
I COULDN’T fucking believe that the asshole was actually sitting behind his desk in my office, sipping calmly on a cup of coffee, and punching keys on his computer as if it was any other ordinary work day. I slammed the door so hard that the framed panoramic photograph of my college campus rattled against the wall.
For one of the first times I could remember, I was gonna rock the boat.
“So, Dalton, it seems ya got my message.” He didn’t even have the good grace to look up at me.
I threw down my briefcase and coat on my desk. “Yeah, I got it. Loud and fucking clear.” Perspiration rolled freely down the sides of my face. The effort of holding myself back from snapping the bastard completely in two was already taking its toll on me. “Now, you’re gonna get my message.” I stepped over to his desk and bent right down into his face.
Only then did Mikey grace me with a brief glance. “You don’t look too good, D-man. Now, don’t ya go straining ya-self or anything.” He was taunting me.
“Listen, DeSalvo. The only reason you still have a job right now is because Tristan asked me not to fire you.”
“Well, then, you must remember to thank him for me.” Looking up again, Mikey batted his eyelashes. “That boyfriend of yours is such a frigging sweetheart and a looker too, huh? But what I like best about him is he’s fucking great to use for batting practice.”
My fists clenched into balls so tight that my knuckles whitened as a surge of hot fury rushed through my veins. And I knew for a fact that Mikey DeSalvo wouldn’t walk out of this room today. If the asshole was damned lucky, when I was finished with him he’d still be alive to crawl out of here. “Stand up and face me like a man, DeSalvo!”
So Mikey calmly stood up, stepped aside to push his chair under his desk as if he had all the time in the world, and directed his eyes to mine. Then he asked me mildly, “Is there anything else you wanna get off your chest there, Dalton?”
At that moment, I found him more infuriating than ever before, which was certainly saying a lot. I wanted to go straight for his throat, but I couldn’t resist the urge to smack my fist very hard into those smug lips and then swing once more and flatten his big nose against his ugly face. So yes, his face is where I started. When I was satisfied he wouldn’t be able to bite into or smell his mama’s home cooking for the better part of a month, I went for his gut. The dude worked out, and he put up a little bit of a fight after he recovered from the whole nose thing, but I had him doubled over on the floor beside his desk in a matter of minutes. I’d seen Mikey fight before—in fact, I’d stood beside him in a few physical disagreements. So I knew his tricks, I knew his weaknesses, and I knew exactly how to take him down. Before five minutes was up, I was looming over him, and “in a fetal ball” would be an accurate way to describe his position.
“Since you asked, there is one more thing I’d like to get off my chest.” Blood streamed from his nose, but the overall damage would have been much more severe had I not been respecting Tristan’s wishes that I not kill the guy. “Next time you’re pissed off, take it out on the person you’re pissed at—and that’s me.”
Tilting his head sideways as if in deep thought, he replied somewhat groggily, “Maybe that’s what I shoulda gone and done, Rob. But it sure felt good to see that pussy crumpled up in a pile on the ground.”
At the visual image of Tristan lying helplessly on the ground, I again came unglued. I grabbed the asshole by his now mostly bloodred collar and gave him a shake he’d remember well into middle age. “You are never, fucking ever, to so much as look at, let alone touch, Tristan Chartrand again. You got that? You got it, asshole?”
My employee actually had enough spunk left to smirk at me. “Why don’t you scribble that li’l thought down on a piece o’ paper and stick it in my suggestion box, huh, boss-man?”
“And stay the fuck away from Savannah too. You hear me?”
I might as well have been talking to a brick wall. Mikey let his head roll back, shut his eyes, and asked, “We done here?”
I was speechless. Somehow, while trying to teach the asshole a lesson he wouldn’t forget, I had managed to let Tristan, Savannah, and myself down, and I didn’t even know precisely how I’d done it. I just knew that what had happened between Mikey and Tristan was wrong and I had done nothing at all to make it right, except take a few swings at the asshole and shake him around like a rag doll. I hadn’t done enough. I was still furious, and now I felt guilty on top of it. I pounded my fist hard into my palm and said, “Get the fuck out of my office for the rest of the day. It’s your turn at Starbucks.”
Chapter 28
Robby
“SO, SINCE your father’s company holiday celebration is being held on Christmas Eve this year, we thought the family would just get together on Christmas day, in the early afternoon.”
“That sounds doable, Mom.” At long last, I had the luxury of being alone in my office since Mikey had gone up north skiing for a few days. To say I was enjoying my solitary work status would be an understatement; I sat back in my leather chair, sipping coffee, my cell phone on speaker. “I’m going to bring Savannah and Tristan again, like on Thanksgiving. That a problem?”
“Oh. Oh, well, let me put your father on, dear.”
That didn’t sound promising.
“Rob, about you, er, about you having guests to Christmas dinner, son….” My father rarely stumbled on his words. In fact, I’d say it was a first for him. “Well, I was thinking it might be nice if it was just family this year.”
I hadn’t seen this coming, not at all. I couldn’t think of anything to say.
“You know, we don’t have a problem if you bring that pretty little gal, Savannah, is it? But….”
“But no Tristan—is that what you are saying? Don’t bring Tristan?” I noticed that my voice still sounded vaguely confused, but his point had already become crystal clear to me. “Are you saying Tris isn’t welcome in our home, Dad?”
“Damn it, Rob! It’s just one day—can’t you separate yourself from the boy for just twenty-four fucking hours?”
My blood froze. I wanted to scream at him, but cowardice held my tongue still. Maybe I let loose on Mikey, but things were completely different with my father.
Dad lowered his voice. “Besides, I’ve invited Mike DeSalvo over for dessert on Christmas night. He’s such a fine young man. But poor Mike has expressed to me that he is uncomfortable with homosexuals.”
“What? What are you talking about, Dad?” This was getting just a bit too close to the heart of the matter for comfort.
“Jesus Christ, Robert, do I have to spell it out for you?” I could tell my father had left the room my mother was in because his voice returned to its typical booming volume. “Mike confided in me that you’d mentioned to him that your girlfriend’s roommate is a fa—is a gay.”
“I never said that Tristan was gay, but what difference would it make if he was?” Already, I’d started sweating rather profusely. I got up and went to crack the window to let in some cold December air. “What are you trying to say?”
After a brief pause, he replied, “Look, Rob, personally I don’t care if the boy is gay, straight, green, or blue. But I-I’ll just say I didn’t appreciate the goddamned love-struck way he looked at you on Thanksgiving. No, I didn’t like it one bit. And Mike, well, if I’m going to put it plainly, Mike told me that he is very uncomfortable with what he considers to be Tristan’s deep feelings for you.”
“Mike is talking crap—Tristan is my friend and Savannah’s roommate, and that’s all,” I lied like the complete coward that I was. Amid the intense irritation I was feeling toward Mikey at that very moment, a stab of personal guilt found its way to my gut.
“Well, Mike DeSalvo is a close family friend, and he’s already been invited, so I feel I need to respect his wishes. Understood, son?”
I had nothing to say. There was absolutely no way anything I could possibly say would help me please my dad, as was my usual goal, let alone please myself, so I kept my mouth closed.
“I’m glad you understand, Rob.” He cleared his throat. “So, I’ll see you and Savannah on Christmas Day, and that’s just four days away now, so you’d better start your shopping.” I heard his laughter before I ended the call.
It took me less than a split second to know that I wasn’t going to be going home for Christmas this year. Maybe I wasn’t yet ready to come out and declare my newly found love of a man, of this man, to my father, but I would not hurt Tristan by leaving him alone for Christmas. Not that Savannah would ever even consider doing such a thing, because she wouldn’t.
And not only was I refusing to hurt Tristan, but I was doing what I wanted to do for once. I wanted to exchange gifts with Tristan and Savannah together on Christmas Day. If that couldn’t happen in my childhood home in the presence of my family by blood, then it would happen at my new home with the family of my heart. And that was exactly what I planned on doing. The rest of the Daltons and that sack-of-shit, DeSalvo, would just have to survive without me.
I briefly wondered how he was going to explain the condition of his nose to my family.
But I had to figure out how to explain the situation to my new roommates, as well as to my family. But there was no real rush to tell Tristan he’d been barred from my family party and my family that I was going to be a Christmas Day no-show for the very first time in twenty-six years.
I had four whole days to get those distasteful duties done, right?
IT TURNED out that I had no explaining to do. Two days after I’d engaged in that extremely disheartening conversation with my father, Mom called to inform me that Dad had very suddenly come down with a horrible flu and they were not going to be able to host Christmas dinner this year after all. In fact, my father would probably not even be able to get out of bed that day to eat his Christmas ham.
Some may call Dad getting sick right before Christmas a case of very bad luck, but I preferred to call it karma.
What goes around comes around, Dad.
Chapter 29
Robby
WHAT I saw when I looked across the room, Tristan and Savannah sitting cross-legged beside our scraggly Christmas tree like a couple of excited little kids, was everything I’d ever imagined the joy of Christmas could be. And yes, I realized that my thoughts at that moment were sickly sweet and sappy, but I didn’t give a shit. For the first time, I was really home in every way for Christmas. Although I’d been living out of suitcases stacked up at the bottom of the bed for the past several weeks, I knew I was exactly where I belonged.
“I think we should start our own Christmas tradition,” Savannah suggested brightly, her eyes shining in the soft glow of the tree lights. “Let’s exchange our gifts tonight, on Christmas Eve, when it’s just the three of us here alone. It’ll be nice.”
Tristan didn’t need to answer in actual words; his huge grin informed us that he liked the idea very much. So, I crawled down off the couch and joined them by the Charlie Brown tree. “Sounds like a plan.”
The two of them scrambled to grab the presents they’d wrapped and placed under the tree several days before. And I have to admit, I did the same thing. I was truly thrilled with the prospect of putting smiles on the faces of these two people I cared for so much.
“Can we go first, Robby? We have some small stuff for you here, but first I’ll have to go down into the storeroom for the big one!” Tristan hopped to his feet, tugging up those loose gray sweats when he was finally standing, and before I had a chance to answer, he was out the door.
Savannah smiled sheepishly. “We planned your gift together and, uh, he’s a little bit excited.”
I returned the smile and we waited while Tristan retrieved my gift. I was definitely surprised and rather alarmed when he staggered down the hall with a huge box in his arms. I had to force myself to shove the worry about him damaging his healing ribs to the back of my mind. “Did you guys get me a refrigerator?”
“How’d you guess?” Savannah laughed, but she appeared very eager as well. “Go ahead, what are you waiting for? Open it!”
And if I was going to level with myself, I was pretty excited to see what kind of a gift these two had come up with. So, none too slowly, I pulled off the giant red bow and the colorful paper. “Oh, guys, you got me a bureau! I need this so much!”
Tristan’s face was pink with pleasure, his eyes sparkling. “We want you to feel like you’re really at home here, and you can’t feel at home living out of suitcases.”
“We already know exactly where we’re gonna put it in the bedroom, and guess what else?”
I just looked at Savannah, waiting for her to spill the rest, knowing I wouldn’t have to wait long.
“We cleared out the smaller bedroom closet—it’s all yours. For your suits and stuff.” Had anyone ever appeared so pleased to give me a gift before? If someone had, I couldn’t remember it.
“Come here, you guys.” I held my arms open to them both. “Thank you. You got me just what I needed and I love it, but honestly, I already feel like I’m at home just because both of you are here.”
Savannah and Tristan climbed into my arms and clung to me for a moment, both of them near tears. Certainly, they had each experienced rough times in their lives, but they were still so pure of heart. Unjaded, really. After our group hug, they presented me with a few things that I’d been missing since I’d made my rather hurried move: slippers, my own deodorant, a bottle of my usual cologne, and a special construction-themed mug for my morning coffee.
“So, how about I spoil one of you next?” I reached for a box. “First, Savannah.” I handed it to her.
She glanced down at the box in her hands, and then at me rather shyly. “Okay.” With her tiny, delicate fingers, she tore off the paper. “Oh, Robby, an iPad! I can take it with me to classes! My laptop breaks my back when I try to carry it! This is so great! I never expected it!” And again they were both in my arms, Savannah for obvious reasons, and Tristan because his joy at seeing Savannah so happy was too great for him to stay still.
Once they’d clim
bed off me, I handed her an envelope. “This one is for both of you, and me too, I guess.”
With wide eyes, she opened it as Tristan looked on. “Tris, look—season’s tickets for three—to the Red Sox! Oh my God, thank you, Robby!”
I was fairly certain, judging by the way Tristan was looking at me, that he was going to cry. He opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. Then he gently took the envelope from Savannah’s hands and held it to his heart. Nope. No verbal thank you was necessary. “I got something else for you, buddy.” I handed him a separate envelope.
“Y-you didn’t n-need to get me anything else, R-Robby.”
“I wanted to, baby. It was my pleasure, okay? Now open it.”
Tristan hesitated, dipping his head down and rubbing his hair fleetingly in an attempt to collect himself, and then he pulled out the little card I’d placed inside the envelope. He looked at it like he wasn’t sure what it was.
“Now you belong to the Rose Gym, too, bud. And you and I are going to get plenty of use out of that membership, believe me.” Tristan seemed to be in a daze, staring at the hand that held the membership card I’d purchased for him. “We’re going to be permanent workout partners from now on. Sound good?”
Still staring down, Tris choked out what I thought was “Yes, Robby” and the next thing I knew he was crying. “No one has ever been this good to me, besides Savi, and I don’t know what I did to deserve it and….”
I pulled Tristan back against my side, right where he belonged, kissed his lips briefly, and said softly, tears in my eyes now as well, “You’re my partner, and I love you. I love both of you.” I caught Savannah’s glance. “You two, like you told me once, Savannah, are ‘a package deal,’ and believe me, this deal has given me all the friendship and love that I’d always wanted and could never find. What we have may be unconventional, but it’s ours, and it works.”