“Well.” Julien stepped in with a smile, “We have a little surprise for you. We planned on waiting, but we thought… maybe you could use a pick me up tonight?”
Luis turned fully away from the laptop. “What? You don’t have to get me anything. You’ve already done–I mean, so much.”
Julien stepped close enough to lay a hand on Luis’s shoulder. “I know, but we wanted to. Would you allow us this?”
He was being tricky about the wording. “Fine,” Luis said with a smile. “But it better not be anything big.”
Julien only smiled at him sweetly. “Mmm, come, it’s in the living room.”
That sounded ominous. Luis got up and followed Julien out.
Karim was already there, on the couch on his phone. Julien guided Luis to a seat.
“Just one moment, let me go get it.”
Luis groaned. “I already know this is going to be too much.”
Karim laughed and nudged his shoulder. “Julien loves to spoil. Do you think that Audi out there was something he picked out for himself? Julien doesn’t know a thing about cars.”
Luis looked at him horrified. “Do not tell me that you got me a car.”
That only made Karim laugh harder. “No, I think a car is the first anniversary gift.”
Luis couldn’t tell if he was joking. “Uh huh.”
Before Luis could double-down on how much he could not accept ridiculously big gifts like that,like ever,Julien came back into the room.
Luis’s eyes zeroed in on what he had in hand.
A guitar. A familiar guitar.
It wasn’t the one he’d lost from his apartment, that one was yellow and this one was black, but the shape was familiar. It was a Fender Acoustasonic.
Julien walked up and placed it in his hands as Luis gaped at him.
“You didn’t…” Luis stared down at it.
“We thought since yours was stolen, we’d replace it for you. I know it meant a lot to you, and you’d mentioned liking the black one,” Julien said.
It wasn’t a car, but somehow this was an even bigger gift than that. They had–had–but–
“I don’t understand,” he said, as a lump rose in his throat.
Julien took a seat on his other side. A steady hand touched Luis’s shoulder. The guitar was a familiar weight in his arms.
“I–I can’t–this is too nice,” he stuttered out. Luis knew how much this exact guitar cost, and they’d just gone out andgotten him a new one?
His eyes burned and his heart was pounding. He felt like he could barely breathe.
“You deserve to have something that brings you so much joy,” Karim said with resoluteness.
“It was no trouble, really,” Julien said softly.
Then Luis was crying. He couldn’t stop the tears, and Julien and Karim pressed in on either side, half hugging him.
“Fuck,” Luis said wetly after a moment. He reached up and wiped at his cheeks briskly as they backed off to give him space. “You two can’t just–just buy me a guitar.”
“His love language is gifting,” Karim stage whispered, “So you might want to get used to it.”
