“Oh, fine. Sonia’s husband,Paul, is a former hockey player, of course. He works in marketing or something now. He is the absolute worst.” He sighed. “He makes Sonia happy, though. And everyone is excited about the pregnancy.”
“How’d your show go?”
Fabian brightened. “It was great! I haven’t played in Halifax in so long, it was a really appreciative crowd. It was nice to see some old friends too.” He laughed. “Amy snuck in with a fake ID.”
“I still can’t believe she’s eighteen.”
“You’ll have to see her. She was asking about you.”
Ryan nearly sat up in surprise, until he remembered his back. “She was? What do you mean? Did you tell her about...us?”
“I told my family that we’d reconnected, and we’ve been hanging out. I think my parents were mystified enough by that. I didn’t feel like adding to it by telling them that I’m...well anyway. I didn’t tell them. But Amy figured it out.”
Ryan’s stomach knotted up. “What did she say?”
“She’s thrilled. She remembers you very fondly. You used to pretend to be a dinosaur and let her ride on your back.”
Ryan chuckled. “That was fun. She was a great kid.”
“I have hope for her. I might just have a friend in my family after all.”
They talked for a while longer, and Ryan tried not to overthink the fact that Fabian hadn’t told his parents they were together. It wasn’t that he was disappointed Fabian was keeping their relationship a secret from them, it was more that he understood all the reasons why. Reasons that reinforced his fear that this thing he had with Fabian couldn’t possibly last. They were simply too different. They didn’t makesense.
“I’ll see you in a couple of days,” Fabian said. “Rest that back. I’ll be there to soothe and comfort you before you know it.”
“Looking forward to it.”
“Me too. Good night, Ryan.”
“Good night. Merry Christmas.”
Ryan set his phone on the coffee table and picked up the remote. He flipped around until he foundThe Shop Around the Corneron Turner Classic Movies. He ordered some Chinese food and forced himself to walk around the apartment a bit, because he knew it would be better for his back if he moved around.
The thing was, even with the injured back, this wasn’t Ryan’s most depressing Christmas ever. At least this year he had a boyfriend who was concerned about him and called him darling. A boyfriend who missed him, and who would be back in his arms in a couple of days.
Which was why Ryanreallyneeded his back to heal.
Fabian could not believe how much he missed Ryan. It wasstaggering. Even though they had spent plenty of time apart in the weeks since they’d first hooked up, he’d never felt Ryan’s absence as acutely as he did now. It probably had a lot to do with Fabian being back in the house where they’d first met, all those years ago.
His old bedroom was unrecognizable. The band posters that had covered the walls were gone. There were no books, no knickknacks, nocolor. It was a drab and generic guest bedroom. It actually reminded Fabian a lot of Ryan’s apartment.
Except Ryan’s apartment would have Ryan in it, which would make it infinitely better.
Fabian ate dinner with his family for the last time for what he was sure would be months, if not a year or more. They had ordered Lebanese food from a restaurant that was owned by a family friend because neither of Fabian’s parents had any interest in cooking. Fabian had grown up eating a lot of takeout and heat-from-frozen convenience food.
“Where did you say you ran into Ryan Price again?” Dad asked.
Fabian chewed and swallowed his mouthful of falafel as fast as he could without choking, and said, “At work. The drugstore.”
His mother made a sound that Fabian interpreted as,The drugstore is no place for a man of thirty-one to be working. He ignored it.
“Did he recognize you right away?” Amy asked.
“Yeah. We recognized each other.”
“That’s cute.”
Dad made a sound that Fabian interpreted as,Men don’t do things that are “cute.”He ignored that too.
