“It’s coming down hard,” Jett said when he greeted Harrison at the door. “What are you doing out here? Doesn’t your leg hurt?”
It did hurt. Cold and damp weather always made it worse, but his limp must have been showing for Jett to comment on it.
“When you live in the woods, you learn to set things up for emergencies,” said Harrison, gesturing to the four-wheeler. “Need to be ready for any situation.”
“Is that why there’s a fabled shotgun under the floorboards?”
“I told you it’s under the guest bed, not the floorboards,” Harrison grumbled.
He checked the fire once he was inside to make sure they would stay nice and warm for the rest of the evening. Jett picked a movie for them to watch, an old fantasy movie called Lord of the Rings that he’d watched when he was younger, and they reheated pizza and leftover lasagna.
“Mordor,” said Harrison. “I get it now.”
Jett snorted and shuffled closer. They were sitting on the couch so they could share a blanket and snuggle, which Jett was taking advantage of by clinging to him.
Harrison never thought he would be a snuggly type of guy, but there was something satisfying about how well the two of them fit together when they were like this.
“Max is going to make your life hell if you don’t open your life to Nerddom. What were you even doing for five years on your own if you weren’t watching classics like Star Wars and building Lego sets?”
Harrison wasn’t a nerdy guy either, but he knew Jett would change that. “I watched TV and worked on my car. I spent a lot of time chasing Arlo aroundbecause his car was a piece of shit, and it broke down at the most random times. I do maintenance here, so there was plenty of upkeep to do. I read books too, but I get distracted easily. Arlo took up most of my free time though—him and his video games.”
“Yikes.” Jett stole a piece of onion off the top of his pizza. “Well, in the off season, I go on fishing trips with my dad, so you’ll be coming too. I also take Max to anime conventions because he gets too nervous to go on his own, and Ryan gets busy with Jason and his projects. Sometimes I travel, and Ireallywant to go to Japan because I want to buy shit for my collections that I can’t get here.”
Right, Jett was big into anime like Arlo. That was something to keep in mind for future gift-giving.
“Oh shit!”
Jett jumped up and was gone before Harrison could ask him what was wrong. He was about to get up and follow him to make sure he was okay, when his boyfriend ran back into the living room, socked feet sliding to a clean stop beside him.
“Your gift,” said Jett, handing him a wrapped box. “You’re going to hate it, but I’m not taking no for an answer.”
Those words didn’t fill Harrison with confidence, but he accepted the large box and began unwrapping it, revealing a Switch that was a different colour than what he was used to.
“It’s a limited edition one,” said Jett when Harrison raised an eyebrow at him. “Everyone in the group chat plays Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley besides Sébastien and Étienne, but they’re old, so they have an excuse. Now I can help you build an island, and we can get married in Stardew until we decide to do it for real.”
Jesus Christ. Jett was so adorable that it sometimes made Harrison feel cute-aggression.
“You and Arlo won’t let me rest until I join the cult, will you?” Harrison began removing the gaming system from the box so he could get it set up. He had no problem with gaming and sharing hobbies with Jett, but he at least had topretendto be grumpy about it.
“Nope,” said Jett. “But I realized this was a present for me too, so I bought you a car on top of this.”
Harrison halted, his attention snapping back to Jett. “You bought me a car?”
Jett’s cheeks were slowly turning red as he worried his bottom lip with his teeth. “It’s not here, it’s in Toronto, but yeah. You like cars, so I bought you a car.”
He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know, but he had to ask. “What kind of car?”
“I had to harass your cousin for suggestions, so if he told me the wrong damn thing, I’m going to be pissed.”
Harrison waited silently.
Jett sighed and took out his phone. “I don’t remember the name, so give me a second.” He scrolled and clicked on a few things, frowning in concentration. “Uh, it’s an Aston Martin DB5, if that means anything to you.”
Harrison let his head fall into his hands because,yes,it meant something. “That is my dream car, Jett.”
Jett rubbed his back like he was trying to soothe a crying baby, which Harrison might turn into if he wasn’t careful.
“You gonna be okay, buddy?”
