by Ana Newfolk
“Sorry,” Isaac said, “we didn’t mean to scare you. What are you cooking?”
“That’s okay, I’m sorry about the mess, I got a little carried away. I made spaghetti with a tomato and bacon sauce, a chocolate cake, and little enchiladas.” She looked proud of her efforts and she was right to be, everything looked delicious, and the smell was making my mouth water.
“Thank you, Lucy, that’s really nice of you to make all that. When can we dig in?” I asked.
“Let me clean up a bit of this mess and then we can start.”
“No way, I’m too hungry. We’ll all clean up after dinner.” Isaac went straight for the cupboard where I kept the plates while I made space on the table for us.
The food was to die for. I ate until I couldn’t stomach one more bite and Isaac looked like he was about to enter a food coma.
“You’re never moving out if you cook like this all the time,” I said before I caught myself.
Lucy’s smile dropped and she looked down at her hands. I saw Isaac sit up slightly from the corner of my eye.
“Lucy, what was it you wanted to tell me earlier?”
“Before my phone died yesterday I had a call from Dad. He’s been calling me and leaving messages asking where I am but I’ve been ignoring them.” She was playing with a napkin and wringing it around her fingers.
“The call came from the school number so I picked it up but it wasn’t my teacher, it was Dad.”
“What did he say?”
“I don’t know. I hung up the phone. I was scared he’d tell them lies to make me go back home.”
Tears started running down her face so I got up to sit next to her. I put my arm around her and she leaned in. I couldn’t believe how easily she trusted me.
“Shh it’s okay.”
“No, don’t you see? Now I can’t go back to school because they’ll make me go back to him. I can’t go back to him, Max. Please.” She looked up at me with pleading eyes. “Can I stay with you and Isaac? I’ll help out and do all the chores and get good grades at school. Please, Max. Please, Isaac.”
“Oh, honey, I will do everything I can to make that happen, okay? I can promise you that.” I kissed the top of her head and told her to go pick a movie while Isaac and I cleaned the kitchen. She protested but I pulled the big brother card and she relented.
Despite the mess Lucy had made in the kitchen it didn’t take us long to clear up. While Isaac finished the dishes I made a call to Peter, a friend from college who had become a lawyer, specializing in family affairs, and set up a meeting for the next day.
I needed to know what challenges I would face from my parents if they were to fight to take Lucy back. Considering they’d near enough neglected her and only provided the bare basics it surprised me that they’d be looking for her.
Before Lucy came into my life I’d thought the worst thing my parents ever did was to kick me out for being gay. Now other memories were slowly coming back.
The times when Dad was really stressed about work and would sometimes shout at me and send me to my room for the smallest infraction. He’d always had business trips when he was like that. Now I wondered if what he’d done was to go to Lucy’s mom and use her as a punching bag so he didn’t do it to me or my mom.
I wanted to cry and apologize to Lucy for everything she went through. Her mom suffered so mine didn’t and she suffered so I didn’t. Except that wasn’t the truth. I had also suffered because I hadn’t been the good straight son they thought they had. Up until that day I had never even heard my parents express any kind of homophobic opinions.
“How about some ice cream with a slice of cake?” Isaac asked.
“I thought you couldn’t eat anything else?” I approached him to tickle his sides. He moved quickly but fortunately for me his move also meant he was trapped between me and the fridge.
“You know there’s always room for dessert.”
“How about you leave that room open and I’ll give you some dessert later?”
“I think you make a compelling case but, well, ice cream.” He shrugged.
“Let me make it a little more compelling.” I took his mouth, pushing him further against the fridge.
“Guys, I picked the—oh.”
We sprung apart like we’d been electrocuted.
“Sorry, Lucy, we shouldn’t—”
“Hey, I don’t have a problem watching Isaac making out but you’re my big brother so ew.” She wrinkled her nose so I threw a wet dishcloth at her.
“Gross!” She threw the towel back and I managed to catch it before it hit me square in the face. “I chose the film so you can come watch it or carry on with your, ahem, clearing up the kitchen.” And with that she left us alone.
“Well, Max James, what’s it going to be?”
“I guess we could get some ice cream,” I said in mock defeat.
Chapter Twenty
Isaac
Since we’d cleared things up last week Max had been a lot more relaxed, and even slept better at night too. It felt like we were finally at a stage where we could learn to be a couple together. We had a routine of going to work together whenever we could and sometimes when he was doing a late or night shift at the hospital Lucy and I would take him dinner and sit with him during his break.
He’d introduced me to all the nurses and doctors in the ER and I even exchanged numbers with Shelly. I remembered her from my brief stint at the hospital last year when I suffered from smoke inhalation. Shelly had a younger sister and told me if I needed any help or tips on how to deal with stroppy teenagers to give her a ring.
Max had also gotten closer to Lucy. They had competitions to see which could add more marshmallows to their hot chocolate and got ridiculously excited when a well-known TV channel started showing all the Christmas movies.
I was both dreading and looking forward to Christmas. I was dreading the holidays because it meant that for the first time in years I wouldn’t spend Christmas with my family.
On the other hand I was also looking forward to it because it marked a year since Max came into my life, and despite all the challenges we’d faced, and continued to face, we were together. I felt like for the first time in a long time I had a family that was mine. I felt responsible, but also loved.
Of course, every time I thought of family I missed Alex, Joana, and especially Sofia. I felt like I was missing so much of her growing up and I was definitely going to miss her first birthday.
We’d had a few video calls but the time difference meant it was a challenge to find the right time that fitted with both our schedules.
Last week Alex had sent me a video of Sofia’s first steps and I’d sobbed like a baby when I saw it. Max had come into the room as it happened. He’d been great at calming me down and reassuring me we would figure out a way of spending time with them too, maybe fly there for a vacation. I’d been a brat and said I didn’t want to miss all these milestones in Sofia’s life.
Max had thought I was telling him I wanted to go home to Lisbon. It had taken a whole day and Lucy playing peacemaker for us to talk again and for me to tell him I wanted to stay in New York but I still missed my family.
Max decided we all needed time out and to be tourists, so he made one of his “Max’s guide to New York” plans and told us to wrap up warm.
Fernando had also become a good friend since, like me, he was adapting to a new culture and way of life. He was happy with his job in New York and felt it had been the right decision moving here to support Diogo.
Diogo and Lucy’s shy introduction transformed into a fully fledged friendship. Or that’s what Max and Fernando thought. Individually, both teens had shared with me their feelings for one another. They valued their friendship so they were scared that if they shared their feelings, it would ruin things. It was all too sweet.
“Baby.” I sauntered over to Max from our bathroom, wearing nothing but a towel around my waist showing the outline of my erection.
He looked a
t my bulge with hungry eyes and made a slow move toward me. I took a small step back, looking at him with my best bedroom eyes. He kept moving slowly in my direction as I moved back. I’d started this game but now I was as desperate for his touch as a thirsty man in a desert.
I put my hands behind me to feel where I was going and came to a stop when I felt the chest of drawers on my back.
“Keep them there,” Max said in a low voice that resonated deep inside me. I left my hands where they were, resting on the chest of drawers.
He removed his shirt, exposing his beautiful body with those delicious muscles I so loved to explore in every which way I could.
“I know what you want.” His voice was low as he came close but not close enough to touch me. I shivered as his breath on my collarbone caressed my skin.
His tongue left a wet trail as it moved up ever so slowly, and he planted a kiss on my Adam’s apple that made my breath catch. I closed my eyes, which only made every touch, kiss, and lick like he was touching me all over.
“What… what do I want?” I managed to say.
“Me. Inside you.”
“Yes,” I said, half whispering, half moaning. We’d had the results from our tests back and we were both negative so I was dying to feel Max inside me without the barrier of the condom.
“When we do, baby, I will take my time with you. It won’t be rushed because I’m going to wind you up so tight you’re going to beg to have me.”
I jumped into Max’s arms with no warning and wrapped my legs around his waist. My towel came undone, but it was trapped between us. Max lost his step, managing somehow to get us to land on the bed as he fell backward with me on top of him.
I attacked his mouth like a starved man pillaging for food.
“Wait!” I said, lifting myself up and away from his sinful mouth. “You’re not gonna fuck me, are you?”
Max had the decency to look embarrassed.
“Baby,” he said, pulling me back down to him, “were you trying to seduce me so I’d tell you where we’re going?”
Damn it.
“Maybe.”
“You’re so cute. Come here.” He kissed me more, but we kept it tame, despite my raging hard on, and the fact I’d lost my towel along the way.
“Go get dressed before I cancel our plans, send Lucy away, and lock us both in the room until Monday.”
I think I must have purred. “That’s not how you get me to put clothes on.”
We met Diogo and Fernando at Battery Park. I was glad I had taken Max’s advice and wrapped up warm because without the shelter provided by the tall buildings of the city, the wind got all the way to my bones.
“Can you even move inside all those clothes? You look like a yeti,” Diogo joked.
“Yes, but I’ll be the warmest yeti around,” I replied.
“And definitely the cutest,” Max said, pulling me closer, and planting a kiss on my cheek.
Lucy let out an over-the-top gagging noise and took a few steps so she was walking in front of us. Diogo joined her.
“So where are we going then?” Fernando asked.
“Follow Diogo, he knows the way,” Max said before he turned to me. “It’s going to get a little cooler so you better stay close.”
I didn’t know how much cooler it could get but got my answer when we got on the ferry to Liberty Island.
“I’m positive you stop feeling the cold after a bit because you must be dead,” Fernando said.
“In that case I’m totally dead. And I’m coming back to haunt Max.”
“Aww, baby, I’m flattered.”
We walked around the island and took lots of photos of the Statue of Liberty and the park. The statue was smaller than I’d imagined, but the view of Manhattan was postcard perfect, with the skyscrapers all stacked up next to each other like Lego bricks.
Diogo and Lucy had spent the day a few steps ahead of us in their own teenage bubble as we behaved like total tourists and took photos of everything, including a few group selfies.
After Liberty Island we had a short stop at Ellis Island before we went back to the city. The tall buildings gave us a break from the low temperatures, which both Fernando and I were thankful for.
The kids wanted to see the 9/11 memorial, so we walked rather than take the subway so we could look at the store windows that were starting to get decorated for Christmas.
“Thank you.” I squeezed Max’s hand. “I’m loving today.”
“Me too, Lucy looks happy. She’s happy, right?” There was a hint of doubt in his voice.
I knew he was afraid to screw things up with Lucy again but he’d been doing a great job building trust with her. Somehow she seemed to have built that trust with me before she’d allowed Max in as much. I wondered if it was because, like Max, Lucy knew how frail their relationship still was.
“She’s happy, baby. Look at her.”
Lucy was walking with her arm linked with Diogo’s. Their heads close together like they were sharing a secret. Every few steps she’d playfully punch Diogo or take her phone out to take a photo of the two of them.
“Max,” Lucy called.
“Yeah?”
“Can I go to the cinema with Diogo tonight? There’s this awesome movie out and I really want to see it. Pleeeeeease…”
Diogo’s face was beet red. I wondered if Lucy realized she’d just been asked out on a date.
“What time will you be home?” Max asked.
I didn’t think it was possible for Diogo to blush more than he already had. He quickly got his phone out and showed Max the screening times, giving far too much unnecessary information, and stumbling over his words.
“Fine, okay, just make sure your phones are fully charged so we can get hold of you,” Max said.
We’d more or less stopped to have the conversation and I could tell Max wanted to keep moving but Diogo was still fidgety. He looked at me as if to find reassurance. I nodded to give him my support.
“Er, Max, would it… would it be okay if we… me and Lucy got a milkshake after the movie?”
“You can’t have a milkshake at the cinema?” Max was so blind to what was going on right in front of him.
I interjected and hopefully brought poor Diogo’s racing heart down a few notches. “That’s fine, Diogo, just keep us updated by text.”
Diogo and Lucy returned to their earlier position, a few feet ahead of us. “Honestly, you two,” I said so only Max and Fernando could hear. “Can’t you see Diogo wants to take Lucy out on a date?”
Fernando looked at the kids like a lightbulb had suddenly turned on inside his head and then punched the air. “You go, kid. My nephew has good taste.”
“No! They’re too young for that. They’re not going on a date… it’s not date. They’re only friends.”
I chuckled at Max’s denial.
“Babe, they’re old enough, and they’re both responsible. Besides, I think Diogo is shit scared of what you’ll do to him if he puts a foot wrong with Lucy.”
“He is?”
“You really haven’t noticed how you behave around her, have you.”
“Fine, maybe I am a little overprotective. I just don’t want to screw things up.”
I understood him more than he knew so I gave him a quick peck and carried on walking toward the memorial.
It was dark by the time we arrived at the 9/11 memorial. I’d seen documentaries on TV about 9/11 but nothing had prepared me for the overwhelming feeling I got looking at the space where once the two buildings of the World Trade Center had been.
We stood by the South Pool, looking at the water that ran into the well in the center. The lights that illuminated the running water were enthralling. I wanted to visit the museum and spend longer there, but since the kids were going to the cinema, we thought we’d have the rest of the evening at home.
Fernando got the subway home from the nearest station and we left Diogo and Lucy exploring the memorial before going to the cinema.
; Max put his arm around me and said, “What do you say about us having a movie night of our own?”
“Only if you promise we won’t watch it.” I winked.
“Oh, I mean actually watch a movie.”
I couldn’t hide my disappointment. We’d had a great day together, but I wanted to finish what we’d started in the morning.
“Hey, I want what you want, okay? But I…” He blushed a little. “I want to be up when Lucy comes back.”
“She’s safe with Diogo, you know that, right?”
“Yeah, I know,” he sighed, “but I don’t want her to know I’m cool with it.”
“But you are, cool with it, I mean.”
“Yeah, I guess I can get used to it. She’s old enough to have a boyfriend, and if she’s going to figure things out, it may as well be with a good kid like Diogo.”
I squeezed his arm, so proud of how he was handling all this change.
We’d been on hold, waiting to hear from his lawyer friend, and the call had come a few days ago. Max was going to apply for custody of Lucy until she was eighteen and could decide for herself where she wanted to live.
“How about I cook us a nice dinner tonight?” I suggested.
“Sounds good. Do we need to go to the market?”
“Yes, I can pop to that one close to the apartment.” We were nearly home, so I told Max to carry on home while I grabbed the stuff I needed for dinner.
As I walked the aisles of the local supermarket I tried to work out in my head what I was going to cook for Max. I was still adjusting to the size of American supermarkets and where everything was.
The chocolate and caramel sauce at the end of an aisle caught my eye and my mouth watered at how I could use them both tonight.
I had all intention of doing my best to keep Max’s mind off Lucy’s date, and now I had a plan too.
When I arrived at the apartment, the door was wide open. I walked in and saw two police officers standing in the middle of the living room. Max still had his coat on and he looked shaken up.
“Oh god, Lucy.” I tried to get to Max but the officer stopped me.