“Then I’ll help you clean it up,” I say without hesitation.
“What if I hog all the pillows?”
“I’ll buy more pillows. A mountain of them.”
“What if I get, you know,reallyLittle and want to build a blanket fort at 2 AM?”
“Then, pretty boy, we will build the most epic blanket fort this apartment has ever seen. I will string the fairy lights myself. There is no ‘what if’ you can say that changes this. I want all of it.”
He looks at the key in his hand, then at his old keys on the table. With a sudden jerk of his hand, he sweeps the old keys into his palm and walks to the kitchen. I hear the loud clank as he drops them into the heavy ceramic jar on the counter. It typically holds spare change and takeout menus.
When he returns, he’s only holding the new key and sporting a proud look on his face.
“They can live there until I formally give them back to my landlord,” he announces. “This on though, this one needs a keychain. Something to show how important it is.”
I can’t help but laugh, the tension of the last week dissolving into pure joy. “We can go pick one out tomorrow. Anything you want.”
He wraps his arms around my waist, resting his head on my chest. We stand like that for a long time, in the middle of the living room, in the home we now share. I can feel the steady beat of his heart against mine. We’re synced down to our very core.
Later, we’re in bed, wrapped together in a blanket. The apple juice is long gone, as is the meal I’d prepared. My boy twists the key in his fingers.
“It felt like a proposal,” he says softly, almost like he’s speaking to himself.
I kiss the side of his head. “It was.”
He turns slightly to look up at me. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. A proposal for a different kind of forever. One that starts with sharing a closet and arguing about the thermostat.” I trace the line of his jaw, the faint stubble rough under my fingertips. “Is that okay?”
“It’s more than okay. I like this way a whole lot. But you should hold onto the key for tonight. I don’t want to lose something so precious.” He snuggles back into me with a happy wiggle.
The most precious thing here is my pretty boy. And I plan to hold onto him just as tightly too.
The End
