Taking a Knee

by Sean Ashcroft

  Noah sighed and rested his head against Jace’s shoulder. Jace liked him like this, when he was a little tipsy and his usual inhibitions faded. He was cuddly. Jace regretted not getting more hugs from Noah.

  He was going to miss this. Just thinking about it made his chest hurt.

  “Your heart is in the right place,” Noah said.

  To Jace, it didn’t feel like it was. It felt as though Noah was about to take a piece of it with him. The derby team was family. Not everyone turned up to every bout or practice session, but they were still important to him. They had each other’s backs, and he knew he could rely on all of them in real life as well as on the track.

  Especially Noah. And now Noah couldn’t—or wouldn’t—lean on him when he needed it. Jace might have been straight, but no one would really question him and Noah getting together. Anyone who knew both of them knew they were close. It was a good plan, and he didn’t understand why Noah was saying no.

  “I’m gonna miss you,” Jace said.

  “Yeah.” Noah sighed, draining the remainder of his beer. “I’m gonna miss you, too.”

  A moment later, Noah stood, pulling his coat on and grabbing his laptop bag. “I gotta go home. Start looking at apartments and stuff. I guess I’ll… see you round.”

  “At least let me know when you’re going. Let me drive you to the airport,” Jace said. The thought of doing it made his stomach turn, but he didn’t want Noah to leave without getting to say goodbye.

  The offer made Noah smile. “Thank you. I might just take you up on that.”

  Jace watched Noah go, swallowing thickly as he disappeared into the crowd. He couldn’t just lose his best friend, but it looked like he was going to.

  Chapter Three

  Noah had been through enough in life to know that last days were boring, unproductive, and generally unpleasant. Today, to make matters worse, there were a lot of people on their last day, and none of them were inclined to cooperate with each other. Noah couldn’t blame them. The move had come as a shock to all of them.

  He didn’t even have the heart to blame the company for it. Business was business. It was no secret that Caldwell Holdings, their parent company, was struggling, and while Page Perfect Web Solutions was only a small, newer branch of the company—an experiment, people had said—they still felt the effects of a falling share price. Last in, first out. That was what the email had said, and that was clearly what was happening.

  Noah couldn’t help but feel that he’d been singled out, though. People at work complained about his lack of teamwork in anonymous reviews, which was stupid. He was clearly good at teamwork. His derby success proved that. He couldn’t control how bad everyone else was at it, though.

  Maybe he’d be better off without this place. No, he’d definitely be better off without this place. If it didn’t also mean losing his friends and the city he’d come to call home, he would have been celebrating his last day. As it stood, they were taking everything he loved away from him, and he was bitter about it.

  By the time lunch rolled around, Noah had resigned himself to playing endless games of Solitaire until it was time to go home. The huge sheet cake in the break room was also appealing. He didn’t really need to worry about keeping at least moderately fit for roller derby anymore, since even if he signed up with a new team the moment he landed, there was no way he’d see any game action this season.

  Which was fair. He’d be the new guy. Again.

  He hadn’t been in Baltimore long, but it felt more like home than anywhere else Noah had lived. He didn’t want to go.

  Halfway through his second piece of cake, he remembered the offer Jace had made last night. Noah hadn’t been sure at the time whether or not he was joking, but now that he looked back, he suspected Jace had been serious.

  Now that he was thinking about the reality of leaving, Jace’s idea seemed like a better one than it had initially. On the other hand, he didn’t want to trap Jace in a marriage that wasn’t real, or risk being found out.

  People would believe it, though. That was the thing keeping the idea in Noah’s mind. People would believe that he and Jace had a thing that wasn’t just friendship. They’d always been close. Jace had taken him under his wing, looked after him when they first started derby together.

  Jace had always been there for him. He was trying to be there for Noah now, as well. But it was a stupid idea, wasn’t it? People would fake marriages all the time if getting a green card was as simple as that.

  He turned to his computer to look up how green cards and marriages worked. It couldn’t be that easy. He couldn’t just sign his name at the bottom of a form and be allowed to stay, as long as someone else signed it with him.

  The wall of information his search returned made his head spin, but he’d gone as far as searching now. With nothing better to do, reading up on US immigration law was as good a time-killer as any.

  It was simpler than he’d imagined. Everything he read told him that as long as he didn’t overstay his visa by too much, marriage was basically a golden ticket to permanent residency and eventually citizenship, as long as they passed the two-year check and stayed together for three. They could do that. Three years wasn’t so long to pretend to be in love with someone.

  Three years, and he could file for citizenship. Noah wasn’t sure he wanted that yet, but this place was home. Citizenship would mean it stayed home, forever. The idea of giving up his own national identity for the privilege was daunting, but not anything he had to worry about in the immediate future.

  It wasn’t quite as simple as just signing a form, but it wasn’t that much more complicated. Not so complicated as to be impossible, which his current situation was.

  Noah went back to the handover document he knew no one was ever going to read and put the final touches on it, listing every access password people might have use for and some they definitely wouldn’t. It wasn’t the world’s most secure way of handling things, but it was what his manager had asked him to do.

  If he didn’t need the final paycheck, he would have walked away without bothering. It hurt to be thrown out of a company he’d given his best to from the word go with very little warning.

  He didn’t want them to have that much control over him. They shouldn’t be able to put him in a position where he had to leave his friends and the life he’d built here just because they didn’t want him working there anymore. Not because he’d screwed up. Because they’d screwed up and couldn’t afford to keep him.

  Marrying Jace would solve that. It would solve it so neatly Noah could barely believe what he’d read.

  Noah took out his phone. This was a bad idea. A terrible idea. If they got caught, Noah would be deported and maybe never allowed back.

  But he wanted to stay, and Jace had offered. Jace was a smart man. He knew the risks, and was clearly willing to take them on. For Noah. It was stupid not to at least talk about it.

  Hey, he typed. Were you serious about marrying me?

  As a heart attack, Jace texted back.

  Noah swallowed nervously. It was a plain and simple statement, one that made Jace’s feelings clear. This was a decision Noah would have to make, knowing Jace was already a hundred percent on board.

  I think I was too quick to dismiss the idea, he sent. Part of his instant refusal was that he did have a little crush on Jace. Nothing serious, nothing he ever intended to mention, but it was hard not to like him. As far as Noah was concerned, everyone who met Jace ended up with a crush on him. Gay or straight.

  He was a painfully sweet man, a pediatric nurse, and built like a very muscular teddy bear. No one could resist that. There was no reason for Noah to be embarrassed about it. If this was something Jace wanted to do for him, as a friend, then why was he refusing? It was the perfect solution.

  I think you should reconsider. We can’t lose our captain. Plus, I’d miss you. Who’d watch my ass if you weren’t here?

  Noah snorted. He’d done a lot of watching Jace’s ass,
both literally and metaphorically.

  Let’s… have dinner or something. Talk about it.

  Awesome. I’ll pick you up ass seven, Jace texted back. *at, whatever.

  Noah laughed, his dark mood lifting for the first time all day. Jace often had that effect on him.

  The more he thought about it, the more sense it made for them to seriously consider the option of getting married. To look into it, at least, and see where they’d stand with each other and what they needed to do. It was better than having to drop his entire life just because the company he worked for couldn’t keep its head above water.

  It still made him feel guilty to take advantage of Jace, but Jace was offering. If his offer was truly sincere, then there was no point in Noah knocking it back for Jace’s sake. He was a grown man, he could make his own life decisions.

  Maybe this was what friends were supposed to do for each other in times like this. If the situation had been reversed, Noah would have made the same offer to Jace in a heartbeat. This was a normal reaction to the kind of problem they were facing, and Noah was just being stubborn about it.

  He couldn’t afford stubbornness. They’d talk about it.

  Chapter Four

  Jace wasn’t sure what had made him dress up for dinner. Well, he knew what his thought process had been—he was trying to convince Noah to marry him, because he didn’t want Noah to leave. He’d put on his cleanest, darkest jeans and a button-down that he thought of as his first-date shirt when he’d gotten out of the shower.

  He wasn’t trying to convince Noah to marry him because he was attractive, though. The thing he had to offer was having been born in the US. He could have turned up in his hospital scrubs and it wouldn’t have made any difference to his citizenship status.

  The shirt hadn’t gotten a lot of use in a while. Jace liked to tell himself that was because he was too busy to date.

  Still, it couldn’t hurt for Noah to see him as a sensible, grown-up adult. They were going to have to move in together anyway, so it wasn’t the worst idea to make a good impression. Or at least show Noah that he wouldn’t have to be embarrassed to be seen with him.

  His palms were sweating as he rang Noah’s doorbell. He shouldn’t have been as nervous as he was—either Noah would agree, and he wouldn’t leave, or he’d decide he was better off going home. It wasn’t as though Jace was offering him his heart for real.

  He breathed a sigh of relief when Noah opened the door, all the same. “Hey.”

  “Hey yourself. You got a hot date after this?” Noah asked, nodding to Jace’s clothes. He stepped away from the door to let Jace in. Noah literally always looked good, his shirts crisp and fitted. Today, he had the sleeves rolled up, revealing toned forearms. Jace wished he looked half as good in a shirt as Noah did, but they didn’t make nice shirts in his particular waist-to-shoulder ratio, and paying for decent tailoring was out of his reach.

  Jace headed into Noah’s apartment, noting that he clearly hadn’t even started packing yet, since everything was where he was used to seeing it. That seemed like a good sign. He hadn’t made his mind up, he wasn’t just humoring Jace or making an excuse to see him before he left.

  “Are you not a hot date?” Jace teased. “I wouldn’t wanna start taking you for granted before we even tie the knot.”

  “It’s not that kind of marriage.”

  “It kind of is, though,” Jace said. He’d been thinking about this a lot, and his and Noah’s potential arrangement had a lot in common with a regular marriage. “I mean, I’m asking you because I want you to stick around. You’re my best friend. My life would suck without you. I just don’t wanna kiss you.”

  “And here I was, starting to think you were about to confess to being secretly in love with me all this time.” Noah rolled his eyes. “I cooked, if that’s okay? I figured I needed to use up my groceries.”

  Jace felt his heart sink again, but he took a deep breath and reminded himself that whatever happened, Noah would have to move, anyway. His apartment was what realtors generously called a ‘studio,’ as if that would fool people about living in a shoebox. In any case, it was a company deal, and his job was finished.

  “How long do you have?”

  “End of next week. When I will cease to meet my visa conditions and officially be in the country illegally. So I’m thinking I’d like to be gone before that, just so I don’t run into any trouble at the airport.”

  “That’s so fast.” Jace moved to sit at the kitchen table, putting down the folder full of immigration forms he’d printed on his lunch break. God bless free staff printing.

  His head spun with the knowledge that Noah could be gone in less than seven days.

  Noah shrugged. “I knew it was coming, sort of. Well, no, that’s a lie. I’m still in shock. I just feel like I should have known.”

  “They went to all the trouble of bringing you out here. You’d think they’d keep you.”

  “Everyone on a work visa got fired.” Noah shrugged. “I dunno. I guess they’re outsourcing or something. I was offered the same position as a freelancer today, but I still couldn’t have stayed. Besides, if I was going to freelance, I’d charge more and be pickier about my customers.”

  “Well, if we do go through with this, I have to promise to support you financially, so in theory you could be a househusband.”

  “Yes, but then you’d divorce me. And I wouldn’t take advantage of you like that, anyway. You should get some benefit out of this. Since you’re not interested in unlimited blowjobs, having slightly more money is the best I can offer.”

  “The benefit I get out of this is keeping the hope that we could win the nationals this year alive. Unlimited blowjobs though, huh? A man could see his way to being a little heteroflexible if that’s on the table.” Jace grinned. He was joking, but seeing the look on Noah’s face was priceless.

  “Do not play gay chicken with me,” Noah said when he recovered. “I’m already gay.”

  “You know how hard I go to win. I could beat even a gay man at gay chicken. But you mentioned dinner?”

  “Shit,” Noah got up, hurrying to the oven and switching it off. He opened the door and peered inside, then closed it again and grabbed oven mitts.

  “It’s crispier than intended, but I like crispy cheese, so I figure it’s fine,” he said. Jace had never eaten Noah’s cooking before, so he had no idea what to expect.

  He pulled out a cheese-topped, bubbling dish that smelled amazing. Probably because Jace hadn’t eaten anything but a protein cookie today, and he wouldn’t even have had time for that if one of the doctors hadn’t given it to him. Doctor Lee was easily his favorite resident, primarily because he handed out homemade baked goods. And because he listened to the nurses instead of treating them like they weren’t also qualified medical personnel.

  Mostly because of the baked goods, though. Brian didn’t work on his ward, but Jace suspected he was a cool doctor, too. With a derby name like Dr. Love, he’d have to be.

  “This is just a pasta bake, so don’t go expecting culinary genius,” Noah said as he brought the dish over. It was a little crispy on the edges, but the burnt bits were the best part as far as Jace was concerned.

  “Dude, it’s a meal I didn’t have to make myself or pay for. It’s already the best one this week.”

  “Well, if we did get married and I did go into freelancing, I could probably be persuaded to take care of most of the cooking.”

  “You sure do know the way to a man’s heart,” Jace said, taking the plate Noah offered him.

  “Directly through the rib cage,” Noah agreed. Jace chuckled, not entirely surprised by the answer. Noah wasn’t the biggest or meanest-looking guy, but he made up for it on the track. Jace had watched him straight-up body check dudes twice his size without flinching. That was why they called him Noah Way.

  Noah’s real surname was Levesque, which Jace knew because he’d seen it on the team register. It was a pretty enough name, but not one Jace could see hi
mself taking on. He wasn’t sure Noah would want Lewis, either.

  They were modern men, though. They could each keep their own surnames if they did get married. That would make the most sense.

  Noah served both of them dinner, then got two beers out of the fridge and sat down. Jace didn’t bother waiting for him to start eating, knowing that Noah wouldn’t care. They were comfortable with each other.

  “This is good,” he said between mouthfuls. “I would definitely consider this a benefit of being married to you, just saying.”

  Noah snorted and sat at the table as well, twisting open his beer. He sipped it before poking at dinner with his fork, but not taking a bite yet. He was probably waiting for it to cool, whereas Jace was in the habit of eating as quickly as possible because of his work, and no longer felt the effects of food being too hot to eat.

  “So if I did agree to this…” Noah began, trailing off and waving his fork while he searched for words.

  Jace smiled. He was getting through. “Then you can move into my place as soon as you want. A marriage license takes forty-eight hours to come through and it’s good for six months. We can take the next available slot, and then immediately file for your green card. There’s no waiting period-”

  “For relative petitions, I know. I looked it up,” Noah said. “I really didn’t believe it’d be that easy.”

  “Welcome to America.” Jace shrugged. He hadn’t realized it would be quite as easy as it was, but he was glad it wasn’t complicated. There was less that could go wrong, that way. “I think it’s weird, but I also think it’ll work to our advantage.”

  Noah sighed, finally taking a bite of his dinner. “I’m going to agree to this, aren’t I?”

  “I hope so,” Jace said. “Seriously, I want you to stay. If all I have to do is promise to make sure you behave and don’t end up on the streets? I’m cool with promising that. We’re not taking anything away from anyone, here.”

  If Jace thought for a second this was the wrong thing to do, he wouldn't even have suggested it. America was supposed to welcome immigrants with open arms, even if they were only from Canada. Noah wouldn't have much trouble with immigration along the traditional route, anyway. They were just simplifying and speeding up the process.