“I wouldn’t mind getting out of here,” Aspen said, their voice dropping to a sultry whisper.
Noah nuzzled his nose into Aspen’s bubblegum pink hair. “I think we’ve all had a fair amount to drink. I don’t think we’ll be getting up to too much tonight.”
“Maybe not anything sexy, but the night is still young. I’m sure we can get up tosomething.”
Aspen smacked a loud kiss on his lips before waving at Charlie. He tilted his head in question, and Aspen gestured at the door with their thumb. Charlie’s dimples were visible, even from across the room, and he turned to presumably wish Rachel and Talia a goodnight.
They got up and gathered their things, wishing everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day and thanking all the roommates for hosting. It was quite grotesque out, and even though Charlie’s car could probably handle it, they opted to walk back. Charlie had two umbrellas in his trunk, and he took one, and Noah took the other. Aspen spent the walk pinballing back and forth between them, regaling them with all the latest gossip they’d gathered at the party. Noah didn’t absorb most of it, too busy trying to keep Aspen from slipping on the icy ground, but he did pick up that apparently Rachel had begun dating her former next-door neighbor. As far as Aspen knew, it didn’t change their arrangement in the slightest, but Noah added it to his mental to-do list of things to figure out.
“Oh! And I can’t believe I completely forgot to tell you both, but I might be making a breakthrough for the shelter!” Aspen said, clinging to both Noah’s and Charlie’s arms so they were forced to walk practically on top of each other. Charlie’s umbrella smacked into Noah’s, and a sheet of icy rain cascaded off the umbrella, narrowly missing Noah.
They were close enough to their building that Noah opted to close the umbrella and crowd in with Aspen under Charlie’s. Charlie took this in stride, extending his arm out to wrap around Aspen and rest his hand solidly on the back of Noah’s neck.
“What’s the breakthrough?” Noah asked, once it seemed like none of them were in danger of getting rained on.
“I don’t want to jinx it,” Aspen said, slotting their hand into Noah’s back pocket. “But Susie wants to meet with me first thing Monday morning!”
“That sounds promising,” Noah said.
“I really appreciate it, pumpkin. You’ve been such a big help.”
Aspen bounced on their toes the rest of the way, and when they got to their floor, they shouted, “I’ll be right back!” before skipping down the hall to their apartment.
Noah led Charlie to his place and set a pot to boil to make them all some of Aspen’s leftover peppermint hot chocolate from Christmas. He figured since it was pink, it would pass the Valentine’s Day vibe check.
“Do you think they’re going to come back with gifts for us even though we all swore we weren’t doing gifts?” Charlie asked as he pulled out two envelopes from his back pocket. “Because I sort of hope they do, so I don’t have to feel bad about this.”
With a laugh, Noah pulled out first the folder and then the card. Charlie pursed his lips at the folder but didn’t comment.
Noah had just finished pouring milk into the final cup when Aspen burst into the apartment. They had changed into Valentine's Day pajamas and were holding two packages wrapped in fabric identical to the pants they were wearing.
“Surprise! I got us all Valentine's PJs!” they said, waving the two packages in the air as they joined Charlie and Noah at the kitchen island.
Aspen looked absolutely adorable in their pair, and the thought of Charlie looking all soft and snuggly made Noah’scheeks heat up. Aspen took this in with a small smile, but their face dropped when they looked at Charlie. His expression was pinched, almost as if in pain.
“Are you…mad? Cause we said we weren’t doing gifts?” Aspen asked.
Charlie’s hand slid into his pocket, probably finding his worry stone. He stared at the packages in Aspen’s hand for a moment before finally shaking his head. “No, I…sorry. I’m not mad, pumpkin. That’s really sweet of you, actually. I was just remembering how one of my earlier foster moms used to buy us all matching pajamas for the holidays–not because she cared, but because she liked to send out Christmas Cards to all her business associates of what a ‘happy family’ we were.”
Charlie cast Noah a knowing look, and that tangle of emotions his mother always seemed to elicit rose up the back of Noah’s throat. He could remember being marched off to photo studios his entire childhood so his father would have an updated photo to display on his desk. Those stopped when Braxton began acting out, and instead, Noah was required to take stuffy headshots, crammed into whatever outfit his mom had bought him at the boutique her best friend worked at. Noah hated all of them, but what was he supposed to say? No, don’t buy me nice clothes and have Dad show me off? He would have been called ungrateful–even more than he usually was.
He’d had no idea that Charlie had experienced something similar. Maybe that was why he was always so hard on Noah’s parents.
“Oh…I’m really sorry. I didn’t know,” Aspen said, hugging the packages tightly to their chest.
“No, of course you didn’t. You didn’t do anything wrong,” Charlie said, straightening his shoulders and standing up taller. “The memory makes me feel…not great, but the idea of youreplacing that memory with something happy feels really good. Thank you.”
Aspen still looked unsure. They cast a glance at Noah and then looked down at the floor.
“Noah and I exchange fuzzy socks for holidays and birthdays. I wasn’t sure if that was something that would remain between just the two of us or if we’d want to loop you in. I was standing in the store, and wanted to get us all something fun, but it didn’t really seem like the kind of question I should ask Noah over the phone, and I know the end of our trial is coming up anyways, and we’ll probably be having even more conversations, so I figured the clothing aisle wasn’t the best place to start one, so instead, I sort of just panicked and grabbed the first thing I saw.”
Aspen managed to say all of that without taking a single breath. The second they finished, they took in a ragged gasp and shoved the garments at Noah and Charlie.
Noah accepted his and then caught Aspen’s wrist, pulling them in for a tight hug. “I’m more than happy to include Charlie in our fuzzy sock tradition–if he likes fuzzy socks.”
“I like fuzzy socks,” Charlie said, holding his new pajama set in one arm and stepping around the counter to wrap his other arm around Noah, sandwiching Aspen between them. “This is such a sweet gift, pumpkin. I really appreciate it. I know this probably isn’t the Valentine’s Day you both were envisioning when you chose your trial relationship to end right around…”
Charlie trailed off as Noah aggressively shook his head. “It was a total accident. It just coincided almost exactly with six months.”
