While he was cleaning up, he found a card in the mess of packaging—typed rather than handwritten, probably because Nate had bought this on the internet and never seen it in person.Happy housewarming!—N.Very understated. He could hear Nate saying it too, see the warm, smug curl of his mouth around those words as he handed over a supremely useless gift. That fucker.
Aubrey set the sculpture on the breakfast bar in the kitchen. Maybe he could get matching plates.
He took a picture of it there, with his left hand in the frame, flipping the bird, and sent it to Nate.
Fucking Nate. What an asshole.
Aubrey loved him so much.Wish you were here, he started to write, but then he paused and erased. He didn’t have the right to say that, did he? He’d asked Nate to come, and Nate had said no. It wouldn’t be fair for Aubrey to keep reminding him, would it? To keep asking?
Nate should be here, no question. And maybe one day he would be, but it had to be his decision.
You’re an asshole, he said instead, and softened it with a laugh-crying face. Really, the sentiments came from the same place.
Chapter Twenty-Four
NATE WASnot a romantic gift-giver by nature. He always defaulted to the practical. When he needed to give someone a gift, he asked the recipient what they wanted. With Marty they’d gone so far as to purchase the items together and use them immediately rather than wrap them and wait for the occasion, be it birthday, anniversary, or Christmas. NHL money made it easy to buy extravagant gifts, and extravagance could make up for the lack of romance and surprise, Nate often found.
But Aubrey wasn’t Marty. Aubrey had never been in a romantic relationship before Nate. And Aubrey also wouldn’t be impressed with simple extravagance; he’d grown up with that. No, the way to please him would be to surprise him with something that showed how well Nate knew him. Nate was going to get him a romantic, thoughtful gift if it killed him, goddammit.
If the holiday crowds were any indication, it might.
He went to the bookstore first. With a clerk’s help, he found a few prospective series in similar veins to those he knew Aubrey liked, all in paperback, and bought the first two books in each set.
He was turning away from the cash desk when a child of about five or six ran into his leg and looked up with that expectant expression that children get when they look at their parents, which turned to easily read horror when he realized Nate was a stranger.
“Jimmy,” called a woman about Nate’s age from close to the door. She had a stroller as well, and a man wearing a similar coat to Nate’s stood next to her. “Sorry,” she said to Nate as Jimmy ran toward her, relief plain in his posture.
He shook his head and smiled. “It’s fine.”
Jimmy took his father’s hand and they walked away.
Cute kid, Nate thought wistfully.
Maybe someday.
After the bookstore, he puttered around the mall for an hour and popped in and out of stores, searching for inspiration. Aubrey had mentioned that the knives provided at his rental weren’t up to snuff, so Nate picked up a nice set, but that didn’t really count. He was tempted by a gorgeous cream sweater in an upscale department store, but it was a thick cable knit. Wouldn’t Aubrey roast wearing that in Vegas?
Instead he found himself fingering a very fine silk shirt in navy, with a pattern of tiny martini glasses. He liked the whimsy of it, and it reminded him of that first night in Winnipeg. Aubrey would’ve had something to say about it. He would have teased Nate until Nate blushed and suggested they could recreate that night once they got home. The thought made Nate feel suddenly very alone, but he bought the shirt anyway because Aubrey would love it.
But it wasn’tromantic. It didn’t feel like enough. Aubrey had asked him to move across the country, and he’d said no. He needed somethinggood, something that would let Aubrey know, in no uncertain terms, that he wanted them to have a future together.
He paused in front of a swimwear shop, lost in thought.
And then he had an idea.
AUBREY HADN’Tworn a harness since his first jump, when he was eight or so. And that had been nothing like this. He certainly had never landed a triple axel only to leap again and twirl midair to end up dangling crotch-first from an arena ceiling while acrobats on long cloth apparatuses performed aerial feats on either side.
He couldn’twaitto do this in front of an audience… except for one thing.
When the show started, he’d have even less opportunity to spend time with Nate.
With performances three nights a week and Nate needed in Chicago for filming three nights, the odds of them finding time to be together in person seemed stacked against them.
Aubrey missed him.
He’d never lived with a boyfriend—obviously, since he’d never had one—and his only roommates had been temporary ones at competitions. He was used to being alone… or he had been. These days he found himself turning on the television just so the house felt less empty. He had Greg over for dinner one night because he missed cooking and couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to make dinner just for himself.
Greg took one look around, raised his eyebrows, and immediately opened the wine he’d brought. But he didn’t made Aubrey talk about it, so that was nice.
