by Max Hudson
“You don’t want to do it?”
“Derek, you… what we had was something,” Luca said. “But it wasn’t good for either of us, okay? We don’t even like each other that much.”
Derek grabbed Luca’s chin, hard. It reminded Luca of the way that Brooklyn grabbed his chin, but there was nothing sweet about it. If anything, it was scary. Luca took a deep breath as he tried to wriggle himself out of Derek’s touch, but before he could process what was happening, Brooklyn was at his side, staring down at Derek.
They were both approximately the same size, but for some reason, Brooklyn seemed to be the more intimidating one of the two. It was probably because he looked so angry, and he did look angry. In fact, he looked furious. Luca didn’t think that he had ever seen him look like this, with a furrowed brow and his cheeks dark red.
He looked like he wanted to punch Derek in the face and the only thing that was stopping him was that Luca might get hurt in the kerfuffle. He was right in front of Derek’s face, looking right at him like he might actually kill him. Derek looked at him wide-eyed. “Who is this?”
“None of your fucking business,” Brooklyn said, looking him up and down. Then he turned to Luca. “Is this guy bothering you?”
“No,” he said, then he shut his mouth as Brooklyn cocked his head. Was he really going to get in the way of Brooklyn defending him because of his pride? That was the kind of thing that had gotten him in trouble before. It was the kind of thing that could get him in trouble again if he wasn’t careful.
Luca was sure of it.
Brooklyn raised his eyebrows at Luca, who was obviously still thinking.
He waited for a few seconds for Luca to say something.
“He’s my ex-boyfriend,” Luca said. “He, um, wanted us to get back together. I didn’t.”
Brooklyn scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest. “You heard the man,” he said. “Get the fuck out of here before I make you get out of here.”
Derek moved away from him and went to face up to Luca. “Yeah?” he asked. “What the fuck are you going to do?”
“I’m going to—”
“Do nothing,” Luca said, grabbing Brooklyn’s hand, which was fisted at his side. “He’s going to do nothing, because you’re going to walk your ass out of here and walk away, and we’re never going to see you again. Do you understand?”
Derek scoffed. “Since when did you become an asshole?”
“I’ve always been an asshole, douchebag,” Luca said, flashing him a smile. “I was just afraid of you. But not anymore.”
“Because your boyfriend is here to protect you, huh?”
Luca felt his cheeks redden. He didn’t like the idea that he was brave only because Brooklyn was there to protect him, but he was certain that there was an element of truth to that.
“Yeah, dickwad,” Brooklyn said before Luca could answer. “Do you have a problem with that?”
Derek’s eyes widened and his gaze darted toward their hands, which were still clasped together. He shook his head. “I guess not,” he said after a while, turning to walk away from them.
They both watched as he left the theater. Brooklyn turned to him and cocked his head. He tucked a strand of hair behind Luca’s ear, a sweet intimate gesture that had Luca melting. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Luca replied, nodding his head. “Yeah, I’ll be okay. He’s just… it’s complicated.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Luca looked up at him and shook his head. “I’m sure you will hear about it thoroughly some other time,” he said. There was a long silence between the two of them before Luca spoke again as he let what had just happened sink in. Once it had, he couldn’t help but smile. “So boyfriend, huh?”
Brooklyn bit his lower lip, squeezing Luca’s hand. “I mean,” he said. “If you want to be. I wouldn’t want to push you into something you didn’t want to do.”
“No,” he said. “I… like it. I like it a lot.”
Brooklyn smiled at him and Luca’s heart flipped in his chest.
Epilogue
Two Years Later
Luca stopped to look at himself in the mirror. He looked nice—maybe too nice, but Brooklyn had said that he needed to dress up. He was still getting used to the decorations that Brooklyn had put up in their apartment. After they had decided to live together, there had been something of an adjustment period.
Luca was used to being fiercely independent, but that meant that he did all his own laundry and let the dishes pile up. Brooklyn was scarily self-sufficient and helpful, so often, when Luca got up to go to work, the garbage would be emptied, the dishes would have been put away, the whites were all getting washed and Brooklyn had done the dusting for good measure.
Brooklyn never complained about Luca not doing enough. If Luca ever said that he was sorry that he wasn’t contributing as much to the household as Brooklyn was, Brooklyn would look at him and give him a sweet little smile, shaking his head when he spoke. “All you have to do is be there and make me happy,” he would say before he planted a great big kiss on Luca’s lips.
He had been spoiled. Luca was all about kisses and being touched now. He had liked it before but now it felt like things were wrong when he wasn’t constantly getting kissed, touched, or stroked. It was fucking ridiculous and he knew that he had been spoiled by it all.
His day had been hard and he was glad that Brooklyn had decided to take him out to celebrate. It had been good, but it had been hard too. It was his first day as regional sales manager and there had been a lot of driving around and a lot of meeting people that he had never met before, trying to get them to stock their product in their stores.
It wasn’t that hard, but it was definitely different than handling most of the things that he did, which were usually in front of the computer.
They’d had a celebratory meal when he had been officially promoted a few weeks ago, but this one was the first proper one. The one they could pay with Luca’s new salary.
Luca was more than a little relieved about that. It was good because Brooklyn kept having to put up more money every month because Luca wasn't making the cut with his commission. His salary was okay and steady, and it covered half of their needed expenses, but Brooklyn had expensive tastes and liked taking them out on vacations and bringing home vintage mirrors that he would then hang up in the living room. It was so weird to think of Brooklyn, his Brooklyn, who was tall and big and broad-backed, as someone who cared so much about the way that their house looked. But he did, and the fact that he did mattered. Brooklyn earned more money than him, and he was also getting a further education for the hospital, so that he could be the head nurse at the ER. He couldn’t remember the name of what Brooklyn was studying, one that Luca had been told by Brooklyn many times, but which he couldn't remember at all.
He didn’t want to ask again. Brooklyn might think that he didn’t listen to him, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Brooklyn was just way smarter and a lot of the things that he did went over Luca’s head. Brooklyn could probably tell, because every time that he talked about anything like that, Luca got a stupid look on his face and Brooklyn looked at him like he was an idiot.
He would kiss the tip of his nose and tell him that he was adorable and Luca would end up feeling loved, but a little stupid. His phone buzzed in his pocket and he took it out to see Brooklyn’s name.
[Brooklyn: Hey, come outside. We’re running late.]
Luca looked at the digital clock on top of Brooklyn’s name. He didn’t think that they were running late, but he liked spending time with Brooklyn in his car, so he shrugged and walked outside.
It was dark outside and Luca could only see Brooklyn’s outline, leaning against the car, from where he was standing.
“Luca,” Brooklyn said. “Turn on the porch light.”
Luca grinned when he detected a hint of nerves to Brooklyn’s words. He wasn’t sure why he would be nervous, but he did as he was told, walking over to turn on
the light switch.
When he did, thousands of sparkling lights came alive on his front porch. They were beautiful, and for a second, they were almost too much. Luca blinked as they all came into view. He realized, perhaps a few seconds too late, that they weren’t running late after all.
Brooklyn hadn’t been at work. He had just made sure that Luca was inside getting ready for their date while he set up the lights outside of their apartment. They were stunning and Luca stared, open-mouthed, around the display. He then turned to look at Brooklyn, who was still leaning against the car. This time, however, he was holding out a bouquet of peonies, which were purple and pink. Inside of them, Luca could see a single red rose poking out. He started to walk toward Brooklyn but Brooklyn stopped him by holding out his hand.
“Wait,” he said as he started to approach him. “Stay there. Don’t say anything until I’ve finished, okay?”
Luca nodded, his mouth dry.
“I want you to know, Luca, that ever since I met you, I've been happier than I've ever been before in my life. I've seen you blossom into the most amazing person I've ever met, and I still have so much to learn from you.”
Luca clasped his hand over his mouth to stop himself from saying anything.
“A few months ago, I realized that I never wanted to be without you.” With that, he got down on one knee and pulled the red rose out of the bouquet. Around the stem, there was a ring, being held up by a thorn. “It’s not always been easy. We met under hard circumstances. But it’s always been worth it. Luca Jones, will you make me the happiest man in the world and be my husband?”
“Yes,” Luca said. “Yes.”
With that, he got on his knees too and kissed Brooklyn back. They must have looked ridiculous, both kneeling next to twinkling lights, kissing each other in their expensive clothes on the asphalt, but it still felt amazing.
It felt right.