“Congratulations,” Elijah said finally.“What’s her name?”
“His name is Ben.”
The pause was even longer this time.“Oh.”
“Yeah.”Phil fiddled with the empty coffee cup in front of him.“So, it’s new, obviously.We wouldn’t be rushing to the altar or anything, but there’s a dicey custody situation with his nephew, and CPS liked the idea of them having a stable home here with me, so…”
“So you proposed to some guy to help him out?”
Phil winced.“Kind of didn’t propose, kind of went ahead and told CPS we were getting married to get them off our backs before I’d so much as talked to him.It’s okay though.He proposed tomeyesterday.”The memory made him smile.Secretive, aggressively self-sufficient Ben, putting it all out there for Phil… Yeah, he allowed himself to feel smug that he’d drawn that out of his fiancé.
“But are you even…do you even…” Elijah left the question unfinished.
“Oh, yeah.Definitely in love with him.Kid’s pretty great too.”
“Okay, then congratulations again.Can’t say I’m not surprised, but I’m happy for you.When’s the big day?”
“We’re heading down to the courthouse next week.Get it done, have a nice meal to celebrate, that’s all.No invites, no fuss.I just wanted to let you know before I did it.”
Elijah chuckled, a deep, rich sound.“Okay, now I’m liking this.Sounds much more your style than the whole shebang you did with Camille.”
Phil remembered the months of preparation, Camille’s Instagram reels dedicated to dress shopping, all the little details he was expected to care about, from the brand of gin in their signature cocktail to the number of ferns in the table decorations.
“Are you telling Mom and Dad?”
“I have to, don’t I?”Phil asked.“Do you think they’ll be…okay about it?”
“I think Mom will get really concerned that she didn’t act supportive enough when we were kids, and that’s why you never told her.So she’ll double down and be obnoxiously supportive now.Expect her to get into lots of discussions with all their friends and neighbors and tell you all about it.”
Phil could work with obnoxious.It was lightyears better than what Ben and Charlie had to deal with.
He still wrote his parents an email instead of braving the phone.
The three times his mom tried calling in response, he pretended to be busy.
Eventually, she emailed back to congratulate him and ask if she had a grandchild now.He felt comfortable not answering until he found a good time to ask Charlie how he felt about grandparents.Time would calm his mom’s first wave of anxious overthinking and coax an actual response from his dad.By then, Ben and Charlie might be ready to interact with the family they were marrying into.
Besides, Phil really was busy.He had to pick up the coaching slack for the practice and the two games remaining before the All-Star Break.
Ben skipped the practice to go to the police station and returned wound tight as a taped-up stick.They’d told him to wait it out and not draw attention to himself while they investigated the claims, which meant he continued to be trapped in the same limbo he’d been in all year.Only now, it was worse because he had to pretend to actually be part of the betting ring.
The day of the second-to-last game was especially bad.Ben scratched Howie for being late to practice, knowing all the while that Howie had been with Michelle Horowitz and didn’t want to admit it in front of the whole room.Tom caught Howie crying in one of the supply closets and had to comfort him, an experience that must have been harrowing for both of them.Afterward, Tom asked to speak with Ben privately.
Phil, who was in his own session with Michelle Horowitz, working through his myriad reasons for hating contract negotiations, couldn’t even intervene.
Ben kept silent for the entire drive home.
It took him two hours to shake off his funk, and he only managed to do so by giving Phil the blow job of his life.Which would have been even better if Ben wasn’t clearly doing penance for something he couldn’t help.Phil counted it as a win when Ben accepted a hand job in the shower in return.
At least the team entered the break on a four-game win streak, and Trout left town to spend the week on Turks and Caicos.With everyone gone or on vacation, they could finally relax.A whole week with no practices or games, no times when Ben had to be Coach Morris, no big chunks of the day when Phil had to pretend not to be in love with him.It felt like a preview to a life they were heading for, and for the very first time, Phil couldn’t wait for the end of hockey season.
They’d set the wedding date on the Friday of their bye week, when the media would be occupied by the first day of the All-Star Break.Despite it only being a courthouse wedding, Phil found himself excited the day before, and he went shopping instead of getting the groceries delivered.He picked up a sheet cake decorated with two little groom figurines, a bottle of champagne, and sparkling grape juice for Charlie.He hid all of it in the basement fridge Ben hadn’t discovered yet.
Phil was humming in the kitchen, thinking about dinner, when Ben came in wearing one of his nerdy graphic tees.(This one featured a dinosaur with a book as a mouth instead of teeth and the caption “Thesaurus.”)
“You never told me what my wedding present is,” Ben said.
“We’re not married yet, are we?You get gifts at the reception.”
