“Hey.” His welcoming smile turned into a furrow of concern. “You’re back early. Everything alright?”
“More or less.” Tamlin gave him a wry smile, dropping onto the couch beside him with a good-natured huff. “Krystal and Tegan’s place doesn’t have power. A truck backed into a power pole out front, taking out the electricity to their building and half the block. I got there the same time as Nate; we took the stairs up and walked in to find a frantic Krystal on the phone to Tegan, who was trying to talk her through how to replace a blown fuse, both of them completely unaware it wasn’t just their apartment affected, we had to tell them that workmen had cordoned off half the street outside while they dealt with the fallen pole. Marc and Adrian arrived before we could let them know that Gateways & Gryphons was cancelled this week, which actually worked out better for Krystal and Tegan: Marc went home to fetch the battery-powered lanterns he uses for camping, so they didn’t have to resort to using candles.”
Jeffrey gave a pronounced shudder. As averydedicated book owner, one of his worst nightmares was a stray flame lighting up his beloved library. Tamlin’s hastily-smothered smile indicated he knew all about Jeffrey’s phobia and had noticed the flinch; he was doing that smiley nose-scrunch thing he did when he thought whatever Jeffrey had just done was incredibly cute—Tamlin was the only one who ever used that word to describe Jeffrey, to his face or otherwise.
“I went and got Krystal and Tegan some takeout from Schooner so they didn’t have to bother trying to cook in the dimlight. And between them, Nate and Adrian managed to make a pot of tea on the gas stove. I’m pretty sure Adrian nearly burned the bottom out of the pot; and the only reason they didn’t both end up wearing hot, unstrained tea was that Nate’s training with an epee allowed him to do a controlled pour through a sieve. It wasn’t the best tea, but it calmed Krystal down, let us keep her company till Tegan got home, gave us a chance to chat despite not getting to play G&G. The power should be back on by tomorrow, definitely before our next gaming session.”
“A shame you had to miss out tonight,” Jeffrey said, sincerely. As much as he had been missing Tamlin, he knew how much his boyfriend enjoyed these weekly campaigns; the various shelves of their apartment held a scattering of G&G manuals and novelty dice, Tamlin’s contribution to their combined library. Since they were already so well-equipped…“Maybe next week you could hold G&G here? Save Krystal the stress of having to reorganise, give her a break from hosting.”
“Would that be alright?” Tamlin asked tentatively; he used to host game nights back at his old apartment, but hadn’t since he’d moved in with Jeffrey. “I wouldn’t want to intrude upon your space.”
“I don’t mind,” Jeffrey assured him. “I know everyone in your group, some of them I’ve known longer than you have; it’s not like you’re inviting a bunch of strangers over. And I’ve been meaning to sit in on one of your sessions anyway. I wouldn’t mind listening, if it’s essentially a group of nerds collectively telling a story.”
“Watch who you call a nerd,” Tamlin retorted, pointedly adjusting how his glasses sat on his nose. Despite feigning annoyance, he scooted up the couch and drew Jeffrey into his arms. Jeffrey went happily, shifting sideways so he could lean his back against Tamlin’s chest, relishing the feeling of long limbs encircling him.
Tamlin pressed a kiss against his temple. “Thank you, that would be wonderful. You’re welcome to join in as much or as little as you want. You can ignore us while you read, listen to us play, or create a character and join in. Maybe you can actually manage to convince Nate to not stab every single NPC we encounter.”
“I’m not sure I disagree with him,” Jeffrey admitted, prompting Tamlin to playfully jostle him. “A fencer’s usual winning strategy is to keep stabbing until the other party surrenders.”
“It’s not just enemies though! Every single time we encounter anything evenremotelysentient, straight away he wants to roll damage f—hey, were you reading that?”
Jeffrey looked where Tamlin gestured—he had loosened his embrace in order to point, dammit—at the book that sat on the coffee table, capped pen beside it.
“I was.” Jeffrey ran his fingertips idly along the one forearm Tamlin still had wrapped around his waist. “Not the book itself; I found avery interestingbookmark inside it, with aninsightfulaccount of our weekend in Wrenfield written on it.”
He felt the chuckle reverberate through Tamlin’s lanky frame at his back. “I wondered how long it would take you to find that.”
“And Ididn’twonder how long it would take you to findthis, since I just wrote it, and I intended to show it to you once you got home.” Jeffrey sat up enough to reach for the book, flip open the back cover, and extract a bookmark that was near-identical to the one he’d found in the front.
This one was instead covered in Jeffrey’s printed handwriting: regimented, purposefully legible, and no-frills, as blunt and direct as Jeffrey himself.
He plucked the bookmark out and passed it to Tamlin. He reluctantly left his boyfriend’s hold, twisting around so he couldwatch Tamlin’s reaction as he read:
I’m sitting here while Tam is at Gateways & Gryphons, looking at this book. Not reading it; I found a bookmark with Tamlin’s recollection of that weekend written on it, makes for far better reading. I thought I should share my memories of that night too.
I knew I had to see this exhibition—everyone who knew me knew I had to see this exhibition. But I didn’t want to make our trip to Wrenfield just about me. I wanted to make it something special for Tamlin too, show him how much I appreciate him, since I’m bad at saying it (as everyone who knows how we finally got together would attest).
I booked a suite at the Wrenfield Plaza. It was difficult to leave the room—so tempting to let Tamlin keep me pinned to the mattress—but I really did want to see the exhibition. Having the original Prince’s Pride costumes and prop swords right in front of me was amazing, a once in a lifetime experience.
The tapas restaurant I found turned out to be really good, I know Tamlin prefers a variety of small dishes instead of a big plate of one thing. Drinks at Banned Books were great too—of course they were, Tamlin designed their mocktail menu—though Gino was serving drinks shirtless, he kept hovering and making me nervous. I didn’t know where to look; I only have eyes for Tamlin, we had enough misunderstandings when we first got together, I didn’t want to give him any doubts by ogling a half-naked man right in front of him.
Tamlin surprised me after our trip with this book. I wanted to buy it, but that weekend left my wallet a bit light. I’m so thankful he got it for me. More than the book, though, I treasure the memories it represents—especially flashbacks to those four amazing hours we spent in the hot tub ;)
P.S. I’m also thankful to Tamlin for writing on a bookmark, not on the book itself. He knows me so well <3
Tamlin snorted as he read the last line. “Of course I know you, you frustrated librarian. You have meverywell trained; I’m pretty sure I’ve also started viewing this apartment as a Tetris puzzle we need to solve in order to fit more shelves in it.”
Delighted as Jeffrey was by this agreement to get more shelves—he and Tamlin were almost always on the same page—he wanted to make sure Tamlin truly understood what he had been trying to put into words.
He plucked the bookmark from Tamlin’s grasp so he could take his hand in his own. “It’s not my training; you know how much I hate defaced books, and you took my feelings into consideration. I saw your college textbooks; you used to make notes in the margins. You changed to suitme.”
Tamlin gave a self-deprecating shrug, smoothing his thumb back and forth over the sabre callus on Jeffrey’s thumb. “Just like you leave chili out of the food you cook when we eat together, and restrain yourself from putting another set of shelves in the corner of the kitchen so there’s space for my mini bar.”
It was Jeffrey’s turn to shrug. “It’s a small price to pay to eat dinner with you, watch you mix drinks in our kitchen. Share a home with you, alifewith you. I’d do those things for you even if we had stayed platonic friends. Though for the record, I feel very non-platonic about you—andonlyyou. If I glanced at Gino’s bare chest a few times, it was purely aesthetic admiration.”
Tamlin hand left Jeffrey’s to stroke his chest this time, toying with shirt buttons. “Gino is ecstatic after his top surgery, he wantseveryoneto look at his chest; it would be rude not to oblige. For the record, you’re the only one I have a non-platonicregard for too. And I don’t doubt you. I haven’t ever doubted you; not since we sat right here, and told me that you love me.”
“Youtoldmefirst,” Jeffrey pointed out. But he accepted the deep, sensuous kiss Tamlin used to silence him.
