AllFreeNovel
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After I dressed, I got downstairs and found flower petals along the stairs, all the way to the table in front of the fireplace. It was a table he’d bought for the backyard, a little metal bistro table with two matching chairs he’d refused to put out until the snow lifted and spring came.
We’d stored them in the spare room on the main floor, and he’d brought them out, draped a tablecloth over the table, and a bouquet of roses on top in a lovely crystal vase.
The dishes were the ones he’d chosen that day we’d shopped, the wine glasses too, and there was a bottle of red wine open to breathe near the vase. “Like it?” Theo asked from the kitchen doorway, a platter of food in his hands.
“This is beautiful, babe. I’m blown away.”
He brought in the plates and set them on the table, then took the platter back to the kitchen as I sat. When he returned, he knelt beside my chair, but I had him get into the other chair. “Sit with me tonight. I want to stare into your eyes.”
He poured us each a glass of wine and held his up after. “To us.”
“Us.”
Theo sipped and set his glass down, and I took a sip, finding the wine delicious. “Where did you get all this?”
“I asked Joel to go to town for me and pick up a few things. Him finding good wine, that was a chore.”
I chuckled and stared at that food, but I felt the unspoken words in the room taking my appetite. “Theo, talk to me.”
“Freely?”
“Of course! It’s always free, even when we’re in a role.”
“That’s one thing. We haven’t been, in the role, that is. It’s like…you forgot about it. And me.”
I laughed a little darkly, which pissed him off immediately until I could explain.
“Theo, I never forgot you. In fact, I was worried about the same thing, that without Ryan and Brett here, we wouldn’t know how to just…be together.”
“You? You’re lying!”
I reached across for his hand and held it. “No, I’m not.”
“But you left the house and were gone all day!”
“You were crying your eyes out! I thought you needed some space.”
He yanked his hand from mine and got up, on a tirade and pacing like mad. “I lost two people I’ve grown to love, so of course, your first thought is, hey! Let’s leave him alone again like he’s been all his fucking life! Yeah, that’s really smart, you fucking Neanderthal.”
I got up and stopped him, grabbing the squirmy fucker and holding him as best I could. “Stop! I fucked up, okay? I should have stayed here and held you. I was afraid!”
“What the fuck are you so afraid of? That you don’t really love me without…them?”
“No! That you wouldn’t love me without them!”
He stopped struggling and stared up at me. “That’s insane!”
“Is it? You thought the same of me!”
He pulled from me, but the tirade was over. “I love you, Hud. That’s never been in question.”
“Oh? It’s been a question most of the time we’ve known each other until it wasn’t. We’re brand new, Theo. We’ve both spent our lives alone, so of course, we’re going to fear that again.” I grabbed him again, picking him up and in my arms like he was a bride I was carrying into a new home. It fit. We were heading into a new life, his and mine.
His tears were once again black, rolling down his face. “And your makeup was so nice.”
“Monster.”
“Yeah. Your monster. Theo, what did we say? Before and during all of this?”
