When it was time to order dessert, Aspen insisted they get anything except cake, and Charlie didn’t argue. The tiramisu they got was actually the best part of the meal, and when Charlie offered Aspen the last bite, they ate it off his spoon, all the while making flirtatious eye contact. For just a moment, heat flashed in his eyes, and he threaded his arm behind Aspen’s back and pulled them tightly against his side.
All touching stopped when they left the restaurant, even when they managed to find a secluded corner to sit in a few gates down from their own. They both buried themselves in their phones, and Aspen flipped back through some of their photos with Noah. The last one had been taken by Charlie in his living room. Noah and Aspen were asleep against each other on the couch, Noah’s arm protectively thrown across Aspen’s waist. Charlie had sent the photo to their group chat, and Aspen had been tempted to make it their background, but it felt somehow incomplete. Just like he felt now, sitting here with Charlie. The three of them worked so well together. If Noah were here, he would probably know exactly what to say and what support toprovide Charlie, while also entertaining Aspen and keeping their ADHD and anxiety from spiraling.
Things didn’t get any better once they were on the plane. Or, more accurately, they didn’t get any better for Aspen. Charlie seemed to relax, sinking against the window and taking Aspen’s hand once again. Unfortunately, Aspen was now practically vibrating out of their skin, and they didn’t want to stim on Charlie the way they did on Noah, so they pulled their hand back and sat on both hands right up until takeoff.
“Are you nervous about flying, surprising Noah, or about potentially seeing his family?”
Aspen jiggled their leg up and down as they watched the plane pick up speed out the window. The noise of the engines and wheels speeding across the runway was nearly deafening, and Aspen wished they’d thought to pack over-ear headphones as well. “All of the above.”
Charlie pulled up the armrest between them and wrapped a heavy arm around their shoulders. They tried to resist, for all of two seconds, and then the nose of the plane lifted up, and Aspen turned and buried their face in Charlie’s chest.
“I’ve got you,” Charlie said, and that was all he said for the next twenty minutes until they hit altitude. Anytime Aspen would shift or whimper at whatever dinging, clanking, and creaking the plane did, Charlie would just repeat, “I’ve got you.”
When the captain came on the loudspeaker to announce they could move about the plane, Aspen undid their seatbelt and crawled into Charlie’s lap. They knew they wouldn’t be able to get away with this for long, but they needed a full body hug so they didn’t vibrate themself to pieces.
“I’ve got you, pumpkin. You’re okay. I’m right here,” Charlie said, crushing Aspen to his chest for a long hug, before shifting Aspen back into their seat. He turned sideways and encouragedAspen to sort of sprawl against his side, which they did for the entire rest of the flight.
They still missed Noah fiercely, but with Charlie’s hand in their hair, they were able to slowly drift off to sleep, dreaming that when they arrived, they’d be reunited with Noah.
Chapter 14
Aspen
Aspen woke up with a horrible crick in their neck. They had been meaning to buy a new pillow for their bedroom, but they slept at their place so infrequently nowadays, it kept moving to the bottom of the to-do list.
Aspen shifted, reaching up to try and adjust the pillow, but their hand came into contact with bare skin and a hairy chest. They lifted their head up and blinked down at Charlie in confusion.
How did…where…what?
Aspen glanced around and found they were in a hotel room, their bag and its contents spread out across the desk, while Charlie’s bag sat neatly on top of the dresser. Aspen was wearing one of Charlie’s shirts and their own short boxer briefs.
They just barely remembered landing at the airport and catching a rideshare to the hotel, but they were half asleep the entire time, letting Charlie lead them to the check-in desk, where they handed over their ID and stumbled to their room. They had absolutely no recollection of climbing onto Charlie to sleep, but one of his arms was securely tucked around their waist, so hopefully, they’d done it while Charlie was still awake.
Their butterfly fluttered happily in their chest, happy to wake up with Charlie and hopefully be in the same building as Noah.
Unfortunately, the rest of their body was now waking up, and they desperately had to pee. They did their best to extract themself from Charlie’s grasp, but Charlie startled awake, and it was clear he wouldn’t be getting back to sleep after that.
They took turns in the bathroom, and when they were done, Aspen scooted up close to where Charlie was sitting on the bed, waiting until he grunted permission to climb into his lap.
“So, what’s the plan? Should we just text or call him and see where he is?”
Charlie absently rubbed his hand up and down Aspen’s back. “The hotel has free breakfast, and if I know Noah, he will definitely be down there, even if just to get some coffee.”
“That’s true. Okay, so operation grand romantic-ish gesture is still a go?”
Charlie dropped his hands behind himself and leaned back, staring up at the ornate light fixture on the ceiling. It looked like it had tiny swans in it, which matched the swan painting above the bed and the bronze curtain rod holders above the window. Aspen didn’t have anything against swans, but damn, this was definitely a decoratingchoice.
“Do you think that’s okay? For us to still do romantic or romantic-ish gestures?” Charlie asked.
Aspen ran their fingers through Charlie’s chest hair, playing with one of the curls between his pecs. “I think that’s part of what we still need to discuss with him, but since our trial period istechnicallystill on until tomorrow, I say we do it, and it can be one of the things we suss out together.”
Charlie’s soft laugh vibrated through Aspen’s fingers. “I actually didn’t know it was tomorrow.”
“I guess if we’re being specific, it started exactly six months ago today, at eight pm our time, but I’d always had tomorrow as the official end date in my head.”
With an ease that would never stop being impressive, Charlie threaded an arm under Aspen’s legs and another around their back and picked them up. “Well, why don’t we take a quick shower, and then we can go make one last big trial gesture?”
They arrived in the lobby fifteen minutes into breakfast service, and Aspen thought it was pretty safe to assume Noah hadn’t come down in the first fifteen minutes. It was still almost an hour earlier than he usually woke up on his own. Charlie led them through the buffet line and then over to a table in the corner where they’d be able to see the whole dining room. They ate in a peaceable silence, and when Aspen stretched their foot out to rest against Charlie’s calf, he pressed into their touch. They remained like that until all their food was gone and Charlie got up to refill their coffees.
