It was extremely pleasant. The Milky Way was so bright that the soft coloured lights Tim had turned on were not really necessary. It was utterly silent other than the crackling of flames.
Tim was more relaxed than Aleksey had seen him for a long time. He clearly liked mixing back with people who actually spoke words that made sense.
Squeezy, now out of his suit jacket, tie off, sleeves rolled up, was competing with Ben to guzzle all the leftovers, at the same time as tossing unsuitable scraps to the dogs. Watching Radulf catch a stuffed pepper and swallow it whole, Aleksey commented dryly, ‘They’re sleeping down here tonight.’
Tim’s expression told him that they’d be lucky to be sleeping inside the house at all. ‘I think it went really well, don’t you? Everyone loved the renovations, of course.’
Squeezy snorted at his boyfriend’s wistful comment. ‘Totally jealous you mean, little man. Despite all their organic hemp andoh I only drink my own recycled piss, they were just fucking jealous. ‘
‘I think Max was a bit, yes. He’s just bought a lovely old house on the river and wants to do it up, but he’s mortgaged to the hilt, and with the business struggling as well…and I do wish you’d stop calling melittle man. I keep telling you: in the normal world I’m actually quite tall.’
‘Hah. How d’ya know I was referring to your height?’
‘Because in that case, compared to you, I’m huge.’
Aleksey snorted quietly.
‘Oh, I haven’t opened this yet.’ Tim picked up Aleksey’s present, which he’d left earlier on the table.
Aleksey had almost forgotten it too. It seemed a long time ago he’d handed it over. He shook himself lightly. He was sitting next to Ben Rider-Mikkelsen. He’d been freely given a whole glass of wine, and he had another cigarette. You had to enjoy small pleasures when you got them. Life was short.
He hadn’t meant to allow that last unfortunate thought, and pulled his concentration back to Tim, replying, ‘Yes. You gave Molly such a thoughtful present for her sleepover room that I thought I would reciprocate forourroom—when Ben and I come here.’ He could feel Ben’s gaze on him. He was being excessively polite, and clearly Ben was suspicious. ‘It’s for both of you, of course.’ He gave the cretin a winning smile, knowing Squeezy would hate thenow you are a coupleinference in this. The moron’s main aim in life appeared to be to deny the existence of any suchother half,or if he did admit to one, make its life a misery.
Tim was picking at the wrapping paper by himself, a shared opening having been lip-curlingly rejected. ‘Oh, yes, it was such a lovely photo of you both. I was convinced it was ruined by the sun when I took it, but when I was uploading them I saw… Oh, what’s this?’ He pinched out a sheet of paper, which Aleksey had folded into an empty cigarette packet, then held it closer to the light from the fire pit. He read it. Disbelievingly, he lifted his gaze to him, this expression of complete incredulity wavering in the heat. Aleksey shrugged.
Silently, Tim handed the document to Squeezy who also held it closer to the light. He looked up sharply when he was done.
‘What?’ Ben plucked it from Squeezy, studying it. ‘A land registry deed for the cottage…in the names of Dr Tim Watson and Mr Michael Heathcote. Huh.’
‘Yes. I have given you the whole room…and the house surrounding it. I have built my sandcastle and now I am bored of it. Do not make anything more out—’
‘—you’re giving usthis house. With the…’ Tim gazed in complete adoration at the teak patio set, the extension, the glass and oak kitchen, even the garage. ‘Ben…?’
Out of the corner of his eye, as he pretended to watch the flames, smoking, and dismissing this gift as nothing more than a careless gesture born of ennui with the whole thing, Aleksey could see Ben studying him intently.
Ben nodded he was listening to Tim, never taking his gaze off his subject.
Tim just concluded wanly, ‘Kiss him for me. Please.’
Ben grinned and cupped Aleksey’s face. ‘I’m going to do a lot more than that to him tonight.’
‘Oh. I’ve just put brand new thousand-thread-count Egyptian cotton sheets on your bed. Please don’t…’ Tim’s genuine dismay for his four hundred-pound sheets over his million-pound-plus house broke the tension. He just laughed at his own foolishness. ‘Sorry. Feel free to…well…do anything you like on them.’ He took the deed back from Ben. ‘Is this actually real? I mean, is it even legal to do this?’
Aleksey inclined his head seriously. ‘That is the one stipulation I must insist upon. I have to stay alive for at least another seven years, or you will have to pay all the tax.’ He turned to Squeezy and added slyly, ‘I thought it a nice motivation for you to work a bit harder to ensure that.’
Squeezy gave him an equally devious look back. ‘Paying the tax might be better for my health.’
Aleksey smirked in acknowledgment of this.
Tim leaned back in his seat. ‘This will entirely change my life. Our lives. Sorry, Michael.’
Aleksey pursed his lips. ‘Yes. It could. Everyone needs to feel secure to plan a future.’ He thought about this and amended it to, ‘To secure the future you have to own things.’ He thought some more and added, ‘To protect the future you have to have a stake in it that you value.’
He felt someone watching him and looked across the fire pit to the moron. Squeezy was watching the flames, but Aleksey was fairly sure the man had been observing him just before. Uncharacteristically, he had made no comment, inane, profane or otherwise, on this exceptional gift.
* * *
‘What…are you wearing?’
