september, age twenty-one
The last bag made its way up to the flat thirty minutes after the first, joining several others in the sitting room into which the front door opened. It wasn’t much: rent was a killer in Brighton and the tiny one-bedroom flat was only a one-up from a studio. The bedroom just about had a view of the sea from almost a mile away, the shore at the end of a casual stroll down a long hill, and on the third floor, it was far enough away from the street that the noise from the revellers wasn’t so disruptive.
After deciding to move in together, Asher and Lucas had spent tireless hours on the internet trying to find a flat that they could afford that was conveniently located for the university, the beach and the station. They had found the trifecta in the flat that would be theirs for the next year at least, with options to extend the rental contract if they wished to stay in the city: it sat right in the middle of the triangle, an equal distance from all three and not too far from the north laines either.
It was the next step. Lucas had to keep reminding himself of that every time a sliver of fear made its way into his heart. He had graduated – Asher had cheered him at his ceremony two months ago, alongside his parents and his step-parents – and he was dating the only man he had ever loved. Life was serious now, pushing him into the realm of adulthood, whether he was ready or not.
Sarah stood straight, her hands on the small of her back as she bent back with a heavy sigh and surveyed the modest flat her son was moving into. There was a lot of unpacking to do, mostly Asher’s things when Lucas was a conscientious packer who had only filled a couple of cases to move down south whereas Asher’s things were haphazardly thrust into bags for life and the odd box.
“Is that the last one?” Lucas asked, poking his head out of the bedroom. He had started to unpack his clothes, which had travelled from home on their hangers straight from his wardrobe
“Yup,” his mother said as she scooped her hair into a ponytail. “This is everything.” Bending down, she peered into the bag she had just brought up. “This is full of Asher’s clothes, I think.” She lifted the bag again and carried it into the room that Lucas and Asher now shared, dropping it onto the bed when her muscles gave in and she couldn’t carry it anymore.
“Thanks, Sarah!” Asher took the bag from her, dragging it across the bed and tipping it out on top of the duvet. Lucas grimaced at how little he seemed to care for tidiness, his clothes sitting in a heap. Asher looked up and caught his eye with a laugh, pointing at him. “Hey, don’t give me that look.”
Lucas held up his hands. “I wasn’t giving you a look.”
Sarah chuckled and put her hand on her son’s shoulder, several inches above her own. “I think you’re just going to have to get used to a little more chaos, hun.”
“He knew this when we decided to move in together,” Asher said to his boyfriend’s mother. “I’ve never changed and I don’t think I will any time soon. I’m not tidy.”
“I know that,” Lucas said. He was well-versed in Asher’s chaotic way of life and having never spent more than a few days in his house, he wasn’t entirely sure what it would be like to live together – and in such close quarters. It was one thing to have his entire house to spread out in back in Farnleigh, but their flat was small. With the stress of his final year of his illustration degree, Asher was bound to be even messier.
“What if I leave you to sort out the cupboard?” Asher offered. “I’ll go and unpack the kitchen stuff.”
“Ok. How d’you want your clothes arranged?”
Asher laughed and kissed Lucas before he left. “Any way you want.”
He hummed to himself as he headed into the kitchen, swinging a couple of bags onto the counter on his way. Sarah sat down on the edge of Lucas’s bed, separating Asher’s shirts and trousers. She began to fold his jeans into neat squares to be filed away in the chest of drawers that the two would share. Lucas had never really had to share before. Although their house was small, he had always had his own room. His three younger sisters shared another; the triplets in the last. If ever Audrie stayed over, she slept in the attic room she had converted for her last year or two at home.
“I can’t believe this,” Sarah mused. “You’re so grown up now. When did that happen?”
“Pretty gradually over the past twenty-one years,” Lucas said. His mother rolled her eyes at him as she smoothed out a crease in a pair of Asher’s trousers. His own parents hadn’t quite been able to make it down that morning though Sarah was glad she got a bit of time alone with the boys, to help them make their flat more like a home while Truman stayed home with the six children who still lived under their roof.
“Thank you, Mr Pedantic,” she said. She stood with a pile in her arms. “Which drawers are Asher’s?”
“The top two,” Lucas said, nodding over at the chest. “I’m the bottom.”
Sarah pulled out the second of the top two drawers, neatly arranging the trousers inside while Lucas hung up shirts in colour order on the right-hand side of the wardrobe. His tops were already perfectly arranged in a rainbow on the left, a suit bag separating the two sides. He was sure the organisation wouldn’t last when he was sharing with Asher, who rarely even bothered to hang up his shirts let alone in any kind of system, but that didn’t bother him as much as he had thought it might. After all, he had all the time in the world to keep on top of the tidying.
So much time had been spent looking for a flat once he had graduated that Lucas had yet to find a job. He wasn’t too worried when the market was strong, though it lived as a niggle at the back of his mind that as fast as everything seemed to be moving, he was unemployed. He only hoped he wasn’t unemployable. His degree said otherwise, and Asher was always quipping that with his qualifications, he could pretty much get any job he wanted. Lucas doubted that, but it comforted him.
Before too long, the wardrobe was a rainbow of colour, a couple of suit bags separating the two sides. Several boxes within the drawers split up socks and underwear, making them easier to find, and Lucas had arranged everything vertically to make it easier to find. There was no way the system would last long but it satisfied him to see the organisation he could bring to the little flat, making the most of every bit of space.
“Ah,” Sarah said, taking the lid off a box. “No wonder this was so heavy.” She hauled it on top of the chest, taking out Lucas’s pristine copies of the Harry Potter series. No matter how old he got; no matter how much else he read, they were his old faithful. He found himself returning to the series at least a couple of times a year, working his way through the seven books when he had the time. Now that his degree was over, he would have even more time at his disposal, especially since he had decided not to do a master’s.
He had contemplated following in his sister’s footsteps with the extra year, when he had begun to panic that he had no plan for the future, but the past three years had been an intense challenge. Just a few months after finishing his dissertation, fifteen thousand words of literary analysis that he had worked on for almost a year, Lucas was more than ready to take a break. As much as he loved to learn, throwing himself into his research with gusto, he was done with education now. He just wasn’t sure what came next.
Although he had no intention of letting his friends go, as time went by it was harder and harder to keep the group together. While Mika and Tom each had a year left in Farnleigh, and they showed no intention of leaving the town once they graduated, Mira and Mawar had their sights set higher and further. Both of them had skipped their graduation to spend the summer in America and neither seemed to want to come back. Lucas had a strong feeling that the only way he would see them again was if he flew out to Michigan.
There was no use dwelling on that though, not when he had his own move to focus on, his life in a purgatorial state of flux until he had finished unpacking.
“Look at all this,” Sarah mused, holding her elbows and surveying the room. “I can’t believe you’re moving out already.”
“I am twenty-one, Mum,” he pointed out. “You left home when you were twenty-one. Dad left when he was eighteen!”
“I know, baby, I know,” she said, bumping against him with a smile. “I just can’t believe my little boy’s grown up already. It feels like just yesterday that it was just you and me in our old flat.”
Lucas smiled and shrugged, letting out a sigh. “Time flies when you’re having fun,” he said, “and you’ve still got three little boys at home.”
She chuckled and nodded. “It may seem like forever to you but trust me, they’ll be moving out before you know it. I think I need time to slow down a bit. I still can’t believe the boys are in nursery already, and Flossie started high school.” She shook her head to herself, baffled by how quickly her children were growing up.
“You’ll have an empty nest before you know it.” Lucas straightened the books that his mother had arranged on the shelf over his bed. She had tried to match his standards but she was too used to living in chaos. Her home wasn’t her own anymore, commandeered by her children.
“Never,” she said. “I think I’ve got myself covered – at least one of you is bound to want to hang around as long as possible.”
“I bet it’ll be Harvey,” Lucas said, smoothing out the duvet and puffing up the pillows. “He’s a total mummy’s boy.”
Sarah laughed and ruffled his hair. “So are you!” she teased. “You can’t deny that, hun, but it doesn’t mean you want to stick around at home forever. Look at you, all grown up.” Pulling him into a hug, she squeezed him tightly. “And I am so proud of you, Lucas. I can’t explain how happy I am for you, and I’m so excited for you and Asher.”
“Thanks, Mum,” he said into her hair. “I am too.”
Asher came in with a grin on his face and an empty box in his hand that he dropped onto the floor. “What am I missing out on?” He put his hand on Lucas’s shoulder and said, “Don’t tell me, you’re regretting this already?”
Sarah rolled her eyes at Asher. “I was just saying how excited I am for you two,” she said, reaching out to bring Asher into the embrace. The two boys dwarfed her even when she stood on her tiptoes.
“Thanks, Sarah. We’re pretty psyched,” he said, his arm around Lucas’s shoulders. He kissed his cheek and beamed. “I think we’re pretty well set up, don’t you?” He looked around at the tidy bedroom, their things all arranged and unpacked. Sarah had even put a bunch of flowers in a vase on the chest of drawers.
“Well,” Sarah said, “I think this place is looking pretty great and I don’t know about you two but I’m pretty thirsty. How about we go for a drink before I head back?”
“That’d be nice,” Lucas said, nodding. The flat wasn’t quite ready, not to his standards anyway, but he had all the time in the world to polish it up. Asher was due to start his final degree in less than a fortnight and by then, the two of them planned for the flat to look as though they had always lived there. There were pictures to be taped up on the walls – something that Lucas planned to do, not quite trusting Asher’s inability to stick them straight – and food to be bought, cushions and throws to be arranged in the sitting room to make it look a little more loved.
Asher locked up when they left in search of somewhere to grab a drink. There was no shortage of cafes in the beautiful city, basking in deliciously warm September sun, and Lucas was quite happy to wander around the streets holding his boyfriend’s hand with his mother walking beside him. She chatted away about work, having recently been promoted with a generous bonus that settled some of her financial worries for now, and Lucas loved to hear his mother so happy. No matter how much she reassured him that everything was fine, he knew how she counted pennies, scrimping where she could to give her children everything.
He had known she’d been promoted before she announced it, simply by the fact that she had suggested going out for supper. That wasn’t something they ever did as a family, far too expensive to eat out en masse even before the triplets had come along. When Audrie and Cooper had come along too, and two bottles of wine were ordered, Lucas had known that the bonus was a good one.
“Oh!” Sarah came to a stop, her hand on Lucas’s elbow. “Have you spoken to Dad?”
“Which one?”
Sarah’s smile grew a little. Although she and Truman had been married for fifteen years and in that time he had proved himself to be an adoring father and doting stepfather to Lucas, she was still touched any time that Lucas called him dad, even if it was simply because it was easier when that was what everyone else in the house called him. “Your father,” she said. “I know he wanted to be able to come down today. You should call him later, check in. Oh, and I bumped into Cora yesterday – she said they all send you their love and that she can’t wait to come and visit.”
“I know, she texted me,” Lucas said. “And yeah, I’ll call Dad later.”
Sarah fell back into step, looping her arm through her son’s. He was older now than she had been when she had become a mother, his whole life ahead of him, and she couldn’t wait to see what he would do with it. Although she would never dream of putting pressure on him, she had full faith that he could do anything he wanted to do. His brain worked in a different way to her own, a wonderful way that she constantly admired.
Twenty minutes later, the three of them sat in the quiet, sun-drenched courtyard of a coffee shop set just away from the hustle and bustle of the crowded city centre streets. Asher set down a tray in the middle of the table, passing a cup of tea across to Sarah. She took it with a grateful smile, though she had paid. Asher had tried to cover it but she had been insistent and if Lucas’s mother was one thing, she was stubborn.
“So,” she said, resting back in her seat and glancing around.
“So,” Lucas repeated. “This is home now.”
“Well, you know you’ve always got two homes, baby.”
He nodded and smiled, sipping his hot chocolate without getting any cream on his face. Asher wasn’t so careful, ending up with a white splodge on the end of his nose that Lucas swiped off with his thumb.
“Thanks for this, Sarah,” Asher said. “You really didn’t have to.”
“Are you kidding? My baby’s leaving home. The least I can do is treat you two to a cuppa.” She lifted her mug to clink it with Asher’s. “Here’s to you, and all the photos and texts I expect you to send.” She grinned and when she put her mug down, she tucked her chair in as close as she could, stretching out to put an arm around each of the boys. No matter how many of her own children she had, Asher had been an honorary son for more than a decade. She imagined that one day, that title would be a little more official.
“Thanks, Mum,” Lucas said quietly. He took a deep breath before he sipped his hot chocolate. Even after three years of living away from home at university, he still felt that odd curl of home sickness in his stomach when he thought about waving goodbye to his mother soon, watching her leave him so far away. But this time was different. This time he had Asher right by his side to hold his hand and hug him tight, to lie by his side and remind him that everything would be alright.
“What’re your plans for today?” Her question pulled him out of his reverie. He glanced over at Asher, who had more of an idea of what was happening for the rest of the day. That was rare.
“My family’s coming down,” he said. “Mum and Dad are renting a house for a few days with Sadie, and Aaron and Dylan are coming down for a family meal tonight.”
“Lovely,” Sarah said. “I wish I could stay for a couple of days, though I don’t think it’s fair to leave Truman on his own for so long.” She let out a dry laugh. The children could be a handful. Although the girls were getting older now, that didn’t make them any easier to manage: Liliana was going through a moody teenage phase while Felicity, having just started high school, was trying to reinvent herself to fit in with new friends. Sarah had never predicted that Charlotte would be her easiest child but she was by a long shot, a quiet and considerate girl who loved to spend time with her parents and did what she could to help out.
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Asher said. “I’m sure he’d be great with the kids for a bit.”
“Oh, I know he’d be amazing!” Sarah said, her eyes wide. She would never insinuate that her husband couldn’t manage when he had levels of competence and patience that she had never seen before. “No, I just don’t think it would be very fair of me to swan off for a bit of a holiday on my own.”
“You deserve it,” he said with a shrug. Sarah’s cheeks pinkened. She had never really had a day off. When it had been just her and Lucas, she’d had the occasional respite when her son had gone to stay with his father every other weekend but in the fourteen years it had been since Liliana had come along, she’d never really had a moment alone. Only now had the triplets started nursery, but that offered her no extra freedom when she had used it as an opportunity to spend even more hours in the office.
“You’re sweet,” she said to Asher with a smile, “but I couldn’t do that. And you two won’t want me hanging around here any longer than it takes me to finish my drink and say goodbye.” With that, she took a sip of her tea and let out a long sigh, as though she was letting out every ounce of stress in her body.
Lucas rejoiced in the gentle smile on her lips, the utter peace on her face. She looked truly happy as she basked in the soft heat, her eyes closed behind the lenses that reflected the sun. His eyes on his mother, he jumped when he felt something brush against his hand, glancing down to see Asher’s fingers curling around his own. Asher scooted his chair over so the legs touched. For a moment, he just gazed at his boyfriend with the purest adoration in his eyes.
“I think you’re magical,” he said quietly, the words only just crossing the space between the two of them. Lucas’s heart fluttered, his stomach leaping. He draped his arm around Asher’s shoulder and rested his forehead against his cheek, pressing his lips to his neck. Asher grinned, lazily walking his fingers up and down Lucas’s spine. “I know you are.”
*
When Sarah left, she took the weather with her. The sky lost its saturation, the blue fading to grey that slipped behind the pale clouds crawling across the horizon. After an afternoon in the sun, wearing nothing more than a t-shirt and a pair of shorts, Lucas pulled on a jumper as soon as they got back to the flat with a shiver.
“Well, that got gross,” Asher muttered when he pushed the door shut with a click of the lock. No sooner had they got inside than it began to rain, a pathetic drizzle turning into a downpour within seconds. Wrinkling his nose, he followed Lucas’s cue and pulled on his favourite fleece jumper before dropping down next to him on the sofa, kicking his feet up onto the coffee table.
“Maybe it’s an omen.” Lucas snuggled against Asher, resting his head on his shoulder with a sigh. Asher frowned, leaning away from him to look down.
“Are you ok? You’re not regretting this, are you?”
Lucas widened his eyes and sat straight. “No! No, not at all. I was only joking. I’m excited. I just hate this weather.”
Relaxing, Asher’s smile returned. “You know what this weather’s perfect for, though?” He slipped his hand onto Lucas’s knee and grazed his lips over his jaw before he kissed him, knocking his glasses off kilter. “How about it?”
“When’re your parents getting here?”
Asher pulled a face. “Um, I was hoping we could do this without them.”
“Oh my goodness,” Lucas muttered, rolling his eyes. “You know what I mean. I don’t want a knock on the door halfway through.”
Asher’s face cracked into a grin as he checked his watch. “Mum said they’ll be here at six. It’s quarter to five now.” He shifted so he was almost straddling his boyfriend, looming over him before he leant down to kiss his nose. “We’ve got time.”
Lucas cupped Asher’s face in his hands, pulling him down to kiss him before he ran his fingers through his hair, careful not to knock the processor of his cochlear implant. Ever since the surgery three months ago, his hearing had been better than it had been for a long time. The first month had been hard, four long and silent weeks after the surgery before he’d had the implant switched on; the next month had been even harder as he’d desperately tried to get used to the new kind of sound. He would never hear like he once had and he had known that from the start, but it didn’t make it any easier.
Now he was slowly getting accustomed to the device that had given him a new lease on life when he had feared his hearing might leave him for good. Not long after the surgery, he had rejected the idea of ever having a second implant fitted to replace the hearing aid that struggled to keep up with his rate of decline, but it would soon be a necessity. That thought didn’t scare him anymore.
“How about…” He trailed his fingers down Lucas’s chest and slipped his hand under his jumper, feeling the heat of his skin against his palm. “A hot, steamy, soapy shower?”
Lucas was powerless to resist, nodding against Asher’s lips. Showering together was one of his favourite things. As much as he valued his personal space, as though there was an invisible bubble surrounding him, Asher had always been an exception to that rule. He always would be.
“Did you unpack the stuff for the bathroom?” Asher stood, heading into the bedroom. Lucas nodded and followed. He watched as Asher took off his processor and left it with his hearing aid on the bedside table, plunging himself into near silence. Showering was wordless, every touch intensified when he couldn’t hear the water splashing onto his skin, the words that Lucas swallowed.
Asher held up his hand, his middle two fingers tucked down, and he moved it back and forth. Lucas’s smile grew as he peeled off his jumper, exchanging his clothes for a towel, and he mirrored the gesture. The sign for I love you was the first Asher had ever learnt and the one he used the most, whether he was talking to Lucas or to Charlotte.
The two of them had been his first port of call when he had realised it was time to take the language more seriously: although Lucas’s hearing was perfect, he had studied the language intensely for eight years to the point of fluency, and though Charlotte was only eight, it was the only language she had ever known. She had hardly been able to hide her excitement when she had heard that Asher was losing his hearing, that at last someone in her own family had the vaguest idea of what silence was like.
*
“I can tell my parents to come later,” Asher said as he lay on his side with Lucas tucked against him. “They can go entertain themselves.” He yawned and hugged his boyfriend closer. “I don’t wanna move.”
“Me neither,” Lucas sleepily said, his eyes closed and his glasses on the bedside table, “but we already said we’d meet them for supper at half six and it’s…” He trailed off, squinting at his phone as though that would make his vision any better.
“It’s six now,” Asher said, reading the time over Lucas’s shoulder. “The restaurant’s about a ten minute walk away, so we don’t have to move for twenty minutes.”
Lucas sighed. “Except we need to get dressed and ready and I don’t want to turn up late when your whole family has driven four hours just to come and have supper with us.”
“Actually, to take us out to supper. Free food.” Asher grinned. “And also, you know, their own holiday. Sadie doesn’t start school until Monday and Aaron’s off work and I guess Dylan’s taking a break from being an old married fart.”
Lucas chuckled at that. Dylan wasn’t actually married yet but he and Benji had been together for six years now. Never had they taken a break or put their relationship on hold, and they somehow always seemed happier each time Lucas saw them. He admired them as a couple: his boyfriend’s brother was an inspiration, and his parents too.
“We need to get ready,” he said, reluctantly rolling away from Asher who held onto him, kissing the back of his neck.
“Do we have to?”
“I do,” Lucas said. “Come on. Let’s just press pause and we’ll come back to this later.” He pulled on a pair of boxers and his jeans, smartening up the outfit with a shirt even though he wanted to snuggle up in his jumper again. The rain had eased up but the sky was a depressing shade of grey, even darker on the horizon.
“Ugh. Fine.” Asher dropped onto his back, his hand on his stomach, and sighed. “You know, I bet they’ll be late. You know Mum.”
Lucas passed Asher his phone, which proudly displayed a text from his mother informing him that they were just settling into the house they had rented for the week and that they’d be at the restaurant bang on time.
“Come on,” he said. He laid out an outfit for Asher to wear before checking his own get-up in the mirror, fixing his hair in the mirror. Satisfied that that he looked presentable, he picked up the clothes that had been discarded earlier, straightening up the room that they hadn’t even spent a night in yet. Asher watched him, a smile twitching on his lips.
“How’d I end up with someone so anal?” he asked with a laugh. Lucas pushed the drawer shut.
“When you came out.”
Asher’s eyebrows shot up a moment before he guffawed, his jaw hanging open when he realised what Lucas had said. “Oh … oh my God,” he spluttered, his eyes creasing. “I meant how tidy you are.”
Lucas ran a hand through his hair only for it to flop over his forehead again, and he winked. “I know.”
*
The two of them arrived outside the restaurant at twenty-nine minutes past six, a great deal smarter than they had looked half an hour ago. Asher squinted at his phone, wiping raindrops from the screen to see the latest text from his mother.
“They’re almost here,” he said, looking up at peering down the street. The sun had yet to return, the grey settling in for good.
“They are,” Lucas said. He nodded at the bustling crowd that was Asher’s family, his parents walking hand in hand while his brothers jostled along next to each other and Sadie gripped her father’s hand. The five of them dominated the pedestrian street until Sadie broke away, racing over to her brother with her arms outstretched.
“Ashie!” she cried out as though she hadn’t seen him for years. When she launched herself at him, he swept her up into a tight hug, her feet swinging above the ground.
“Hey, stinky,” he said with a laugh, letting his little sister drop down. She wrapped her arms around Lucas, one of very few people outside of his immediate family who could do that without having to ask permission first. Of those people, the majority were Asher’s family, though they hardly counted when he saw them as an extension of his own family.
“Hey, Sadie,” he said. “How was the drive?”
Sadie pouted, wrinkling her nose. “It was so long,” she said with a groan, “and Daddy slept the whole way.”
Lucas chuckled and looked up with Bishop and Ishaana got closer. They looked every part the devoted couple, a role that suited them down to a tee. The past year had only made them stronger, pushed closer together by something that could have torn them apart. After fourteen months of remission, Bishop seemed better and better every time that Lucas saw him. His hair was growing out and his stamina coming back at a painstakingly slow pace, and he looked good.
“Hey, guys,” he said with a grin, pulling his son into a hug before he embraced Lucas with a clap on the back. Ishaana did the same, her grip a little tighter.
“Right on time, huh? First time for everything,” Asher teased when his mother hugged him.
“I told you, I’ve turned over a new leaf,” she said. “One that involves being on time for things. What’s our goal for this year, Sadie?”
“To be at school on time four days a week,” Sadie said. She laughed. “I don’t think it will happen.”
“Hey!” Ishaana acted offended. “It takes two to tango, hun. We both have to be on time.”
“Speaking of which,” Aaron said once he had greeted his brother and Lucas, “we are now officially a minute late for our reservation.” He nodded at the door. “Shall we?”
Drinks flowed before the food came, several empty pint glasses and a couple of drained cocktails cluttering the table as the seven of them celebrated. Sadie made a point of clinking her glass of coke every time there was a toast, pretending she was drinking beer too.
“I can’t believe how grown up all my boys are,” Ishaana said with a wistful sigh. “There were times I thought I’d never get rid of you and now I wish I could keep you all under my wing as long as possible.”
“You’ve got me!” Sadie cried out. Her mother laughed and cuddled her.
“I’ve still got one baby bird in my nest,” she said, kissing Sadie’s head. “Don’t you go growing up too fast, ok?”
“You know,” Dylan began, looking around the table, “we’ll all be in our thirties by the time Sadie finishes high school. Aaron’ll be nearly thirty when she starts. How crazy is that?”
Bishop put a finger to his lips. “Don’t make us feel old, Dylan,” he said. “It’s hard enough admitting I’ve got three sons in their twenties.”
“You’ll be eligible for a senior discount in a couple of years,” Aaron pointed out with a teasing glint in his eyes, though it was true. “Just waiting on that six-five, eh?”
Bishop glared at his oldest son. He and his wife were still young at heart, regardless of their age, and he wanted to believe that for as long as he could, though it could get difficult with four children always ready to remind him of his age.
“Speaking of growing up,” Ishaana said, shifting the subject and looking over at Lucas, “what’s on the horizon for you?”
Lucas took a deep breath. He had been dreading that question, the one that exposed him for the clueless graduate that he was. His future sat in the as of yet undecided pile in his brain, a pile that he usually liked to keep empty, but he wasn’t sure how to budge this particular sheet. “I … I don’t know,” he said, playing with his fork. “I’m going to look for a job once we’re settled in.”
She smiled and nodded, picking at a piece of bread that she haphazardly buttered. “You know, there’s always a place for you at Chess House, hun,” she said. “If you want, of course. Totally up to you, but we’re in the middle of opening up an office down here.”
“You are?” His eyes widened. Ishaana laughed.
“Yeah. I must’ve forgotten to mention that,” she said. “There’s been so much going on recently and it’s been on the downlow recently, but yeah, we’re opening up a Brighton branch. Obviously I don’t want you to feel like you have to work for the company but if you want to, or you can’t find anything else you’d rather do, there’s always a place for you.”
“Are you serious?”
“Of course!” she cried out, swigging a mouthful of her beer. She leant back a little when the first couple of plates arrived, but she didn’t let the food deter her from her thought. “We just started up a kind of internship scheme, actually. It’s fully paid, basically a job, but it’s just a one-year contract with no obligation to stay on.” She shrugged and smiled at Lucas. “You’d learn the ropes and everything, and you’d have an automatic boost if you wanted to stay on. Just let me know – there’s a place with your name on it if you want it.”
“Oh my goodness,” Lucas said, hardly able to push the words out through the crush of relief that flooded him. “Yes. Yes, I’d love that. Do you really mean that?”
She rolled her eyes. “I wouldn’t offer if I didn’t mean it. If you can stand it, that is. You might want to break away and I’d totally understand that.”
“No, no … I’d love to, Ishy, I really would. Oh my goodness.”
Ishaana grinned and winked. “It pays to know me, you know,” she said. That was more of a truth that she had intended it, when so much of the good in Lucas’s life had come from Ishaana, from his mother’s job to his boyfriend, and now the first step on his own career ladder.
“I can’t thank you enough, Ishy,” Lucas said, ignoring the plate of delicious food in front of him. “I…”
Ishaana flapped her hand as thought it was nothing to hand him a job on a silver platter, squashing the worry that had plagued his mind ever since before he had even graduated.
“Don’t mention it,” she said. “Just eat. That smells too good to let it go cold.”
He took a moment to compose himself and pick up his jaw before he managed to get his hands to work, picking up his cutlery and trying to control the growing grin on his lips. “Thank you so much,” he said.
“Any time,” Ishaana said. “I really mean that, by the way. What’s the point in having my own company if I can’t use it to help out my family? And I can’t picture anyone better for the job, anyway. You were born for the role. You’re practically a Knight.” She winked when she said that, wiggling her eyebrows. Although the boys were only twenty-one – and Lucas only just at that – she was constantly dropping hints that the two of them should make their relationship official. None of her sons were exempt from that, though Aaron had never brought anyone home and Dylan had grown immune to his mother’s persuasions.
Asher grinned at that, bumping Lucas’s shoulder. “My knight in shining armour,” he said, putting a spoonful of his food onto Lucas’s plate.
“That’s you,” Lucas said. He did the same. They had always shared each other’s meals, even before they were a couple. “You’re my knight.”
Asher laughed and rolled his eyes, loaded up his fork with a little of everything. “Fine,” he said once he had swallowed. “You can be my Flores then. That means flower, right?”
Lucas nodded, then shook his head at his boyfriend in mild despair, digging into his food. It lived up to the reviews that had led Ishaana to book it. Each bite was a burst of taste and texture: even Sadie’s fish pie from the children’s menu was exceptionally creamy and flavoursome and Ishaana even groaned out loud a couple of times as she ate, much to her children’s embarrassment.
“Get a room, Mum,” Aaron said, pulling a face at how much his mother was enjoying her meal.
“Got one,” she said. “I might have to order one to take home.”
Asher wrinkled his nose. “Gross,” he said. His father laughed and swigged his beer.
“I’ll be on the sofa tonight, huh?”
She passed him a forkful. “Oh, hell no. You need to get in on this action, babe.”
*
It was late before Lucas and Asher made it back to their new flat for their first night together in their own place. Supper was a lengthy affair, drinking the night away until Sadie could hardly keep her eyes open and it was time to put the evening to bed. Asher’s parents left with the promise of catching up with the boys in the morning, the two groups parting ways outside the restaurant.
As the clock chimed eleven, Lucas dropped onto the mattress with a heavy sigh of exhaustion. Pulling the duvet over his legs he flopped back and took off glasses, staring at the blurry ceiling as he waited for Asher to come in from the bathroom.
When he climbed under the covers a minute later, plunging the room into darkness when he flicked off the lights, he let out a sigh of satisfaction and nestled close to Lucas. “That’s what I’ve been waiting for,” he said, kissing his shoulder. “Don’t get me wrong, tonight was great, but I couldn’t wait to get back into bed.” Sloping his arm over Lucas’s waist, he pulled him close, holding him as the little spoon.
“Mmm,” he hummed. “I’m shattered.”
“We did move in today,” Asher said. “I think we’re allowed to be a bit exhausted. Though you and your mum did most of it.” He pulled the duvet up higher around his shoulders, pressing his knees against the backs of Lucas’s. “I can’t wait.”
“For what?” Lucas asked through a yawn, his head sinking into the soft pillow.
“This. Us. Living with you. This is really exciting.” He smiled against the back of Lucas’s neck, his breath warm and steady. “Night, flower.”
Lucas smiled, his hand over Asher’s. “Night, Knight.”
+ – + – +
when i first wrote this author’s note, it was three weeks before i was due to fly to canada but i’ve been here for almost a week now. i can’t apologise enough for my horrendous lack of an update – i really should have finished this book weeks ago! sorry that this isn’t the best chapter – i lost my plan and life just got in the way. hopefully the next will be better, and quicker! (they will, however, be later – i am now 5 hours behind my usual time zone but still writing at night!)
i can only blame the fact that i’ve been getting to bed at a human hour recently, as well as being pretty preoccupied with the whole canada move, and binging supernatural when i should have been writing! also realised i have yet to post the casts for the triplets so i’ve added them below!
(fun fact . . . the only reason sarah had triplets was because i couldn’t choose which of these boys to cast as her son. sorry, sar)
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