“Whichever it is,” G.G. continued when Trevor got himself together enough to shrug, “Alyssa was selling cookies, with her mother in your grandmother’s driveway to observe while chatting with Margaret, and Alyssa told me that her mom was concerned about your grandmother tripping on those bricks in your front yard.”
“That’s so touching.” Trevor put a hand to his chest. “I knew Nancy was a worrier, but I didn’t think it was that personal. Some people are just worriers.”
G.G. studied Trevor intently, but looked away before Trevor could speak. “And some are prone to fussing,” he remarked, possibly with amusement. But he was serious when he added, “She has to handle everything herself, I think. The kids and the house.”
Trevor nodded in agreement with what G.G. hadn’t said. “Thank God I’m not the only one judging her husband. Or ex-husband.”
G.G.’s gaze came to Trevor again and stayed there. “They aren’t divorced. I don’t even think they’re officially separated.” How he knew that much was a mystery Trevor was going to have to pry out of either G.G. or his grandmother. “But they don’t seem to be together in the way partners should be. I don’t think she knows who to trust now. It can be like that, with or without a divorce.”
“Because she can’t rely on her husband?” Trevor guessed, feeling a tad guilty for gossiping about Nancy, but also as though he should be taking her meals in 1980s dishware too.
G.G. shrugged. “When a split happens, friends pick sides, and they tend to choose the one who hosts dinner parties or has the summer home.”
Since Covid had screwed over everyone, that hadn’t happened with Trevor and Sky’s mutual friends. But he suspected more of their friends and definitely the gaming group would have gone with Sky. Which hurt but made sense. To them, Trevor was a nice guy who made party dip, but Sky was their DM, and special even outside of that.
But losing a romantic relationship and then many friends would make for a lonely existence. Lonelier even than this. Lonely before this, in G.G.’s case, since he’d moved here alone and stayed alone that whole time, and he was clearly speaking from experience.
Ellie, done chewing her toy, sighed loudly and dramatically in the distance. G.G. glanced to her, then jolted in surprise when he looked back and found Trevor watching him. Why, Trevor had no idea. Trevor had been watching him as much as he could without going full weirdo.
“So you helped Nancy,” Trevor explained the covetous, Smaug-like glint in his eyes as gently as he could manage, “with that tree in January.”
G.G. looked like Trevor had caught him at something naughty, as though he hadn’t realized Trevor had seen him head over to Nancy’s with his chainsaw and gone out onto the porch to observe the whole affair.
“I had the time and the tools.” G.G. tried another shrug but Trevor wasn’t buying it this time.
“It was still sweet of you—nice, nice of you.” Trevor chose a more neutral word although he thoughtsweetwas exactly right. “Neighborly, I suppose. Which is not something I used to think about aside from occasionally moving up someone’s garbage bins for them on trash day at my old apartment building.”
“Sweet?” G.G. echoed despite Trevor’s correction, his voice high.
“Yeah, sweet. Demonstrating that you care. Is sweet.” Trevor needed something to spoil and quick. “Ellie, babygirl, come here.”
Ellie huffed but trotted over, toy once again in her mouth. Trevor gave her head a good rub and then tossed the chew toy to her shady, squirrel-watching spot. He took a second before turning back to G.G., who, unlike Trevor, apparentlywasthe sort to blush.
“Why a poodle?” G.G. asked in an especially husky voice when he noticed Trevor watching him. “No offense. But you don’t get a poodle by accident. You must have wanted one.”
“Ha! My family asked the same question, with a certain baffled disapproval in their voices. You know the kind.” Trevor paused for a moment to let G.G. object if he wanted to, or express confusion, but apparently, G.G. knew subtleBut why so fruity?questions when he heard them. Trevor smiled. “But really, I don’t know. I met one once as a kid and loved it, and ever since, I’ve always sort of liked meeting new ones. Then a friend who is good friends with a breeder mentioned it to them and put us in contact. But a poodle would need space, so I was about to say no, when… well, the family was already discussing someone coming to live with my grandmother even before the plague hit. She needed help. I needed a place to stay. My grandmother thought a dog would give me something to do…. She was startled by the poodle thing too, but once Ellie and Mr. Tammy Tams figured their shit out, it was fine. Meant to be, possibly, if you think of things that way. Poodles were originally hunting dogs, you know. But they look born to be spoiled, and I happen to enjoy spoiling her. And I…” Sky was always right, “I need something to spoil. It’s my nature.”
G.G. took an audible breath like someone trying to steady himself. “So you… moved in with your grandmother to help care for her, and adopted a poodle to take care of that as well, and then masterminded this garden?”
Trevor raised his head to frown. “I didn’tmastermind itas much as… well, even with the foam knee pads to help, Grandma can’t really kneel for long to plant or weed. And she tells me what she wants, so I wasn’t taking over.”
G.G. didn’t say anything, but he regarded Trevor in silence for a few seconds before arching one eyebrow.
Trevor crossed his arms. “Normally, I would make a joke about adapting too well to the grandma lifestyle but not once has anyone thought it was funny.”
“But don’t you want to go out? Date, or…? Never mind. Sorry. It’s not my business.” G.G. did genuinely seem sorry, waving his hand to dismiss the question with just enough of a limp wrist for plausible deniability.
Trevor had no idea what G.G. had been through to make him so careful, but he wanted to help him relaxso much. A thought he did his best to shove aside for now.
He decided to answer the unspoken question. “Growing up, unsurprisingly, I was dorky and awkward. I daydreamed a lot, and read the sort of books that are cool now but weren’t then. Then I grew up and moved to a medium-sized city where some gays were into that, so it was fine. I did date. I fell in…. I dated. Things happened.” Trevor happened. The world and a pandemic happened. “We’remore like best friends with benefits now. Anyway… in a town the size of Rosemont, options are limited. Other queers are around, of course, but there is my grandma to think of. I can’t just bring strangers home.”
G.G. again did not openly respond to the opening Trevor left him, but he did give Trevor a sideways look. “You seem young to be giving up.”
“I’m not giving up.” Trevor probably should have been more offended, but he suspected Sky would have called G.G.’s remarkprojection. “I’m…” He really didn’t want to call himself a loser in front of G.G. “I’m trying to get things going, so I have something to offer. You know.”
“Something to offer,” G.G. echoed him again, putting some weight into it. Asking, but not asking. Subtle. Trevor should think about the warrior’s fighting style. More elegance, less hack-and-slash.
Trevor gestured at himself, the dirt, the nerdy, old clothes, the moderate amount of muscle, before removing his hat to fan himself with it and also reveal his buzzed, balding head. “Anyway,thingshave kind of prevented a lot. I’ve cancelled two tattoo appointments out of concerns for her.”
