Michael/Jamie
Thank fuck. Put a leash on him.
Percy
Michael!
Asher
Hope Jamie kick’s your ass for that one.
Michael/Jamie
Say that to my face. I dare you.
Asher
Asher has left the chat …
Tate
Lol. Sounds good, Cal. I like this idea.
Wren
Same.
Percy
Samesies!
Lol, nice. Y’all be good. Talk soon.
Allmyplanningandpreparation was about to pay off. The only thing that could go wrong would be me, which ranked high in the list of possibilities for today.
The promise of winter came early in Boston, and while I’d grown used to it over the last four years, that first super-cold day always snuck up on me. Clouds hung low and thick on this Saturday in October. A cold, moist wind should be what had me huddling deeper in my jacket, but unfortunately, it was nerves.
“You okay?” Cal asked as he handed over my to-go coffee from the café close to our new apartment. We usually went inside together, but I waited at his truck, hoping the bite of fall air would clear my mind and settle my anxiety.
It hadn’t.
I nodded and opened his door for him. He grinned like a loon and kissed me quickly before getting behind the wheel.
Cal never got his shot at MIT but came out on top anyway. By graduation this last spring, he’d had a job waiting for him with a gaming company and his first choice. We’d celebrated his salary by moving into our new place. It was smaller but closer to schoolfor me and now work for him. The only downside was Ty had to move out.
After our freshman year was over and we were no longer required to stay in dorms, we’d gotten a two-bedroom apartment for the three of us. Ty complained about the noise we made, but it’d been a front. He liked having us around. While he and I readied for our master’s programs, I’d confessed to him about my plan. About today.
Ty had agreed it was time Cal and I got a place of our own, even if he grumbled the entire time we went hunting for our new homes. He lucked out with an amazing loft this ballet dude advertised. Apparently, the guy traveled a lot with his dance troupe or gang, whatever they were called, and wanted someone to house-sit, basically. Ty would only have to share it when the guy was in town, which wouldn’t be often.
That amazing find for him lifted a bit of stress off my shoulders.
Not all of it, but hopefully soon. Hopefully once Cal said “yes” and this day was over, I could go back to worrying about normal shit, like what was for dinner. Seriously, why was that such a hard choice to make?
“Is this it?” Cal asked, even as he turned off the rural road and under an archway that clearly stated it was indeed the pumpkin patch we were heading to. He liked it when I navigated instead of the GPS, tossing him directions in a silly voice, but today, I was way too in my head for that kind of creativity.
“Uh, yeah,” I answered anyway.
The place was fairly busy. Couples and families wandered from the parking lot to the long rows of orange in the distance. An authentic-looking barn painted red with white trim sat to one side, with signs proclaiming a store was within instead of horseshit or whatever else was normally inside barns.
