“What would that make Charlie?” Noah asked, glancing between them.
“What do you want me to be, peanut?”
Noah stared off into space, and his jaw began to pulse.
“Gordy Simple,” Charlie murmured, pressing tighter against both Aspen and Noah’s sides.
Noah puffed out a soft breath. “I think you’re my rock. You don’t have to be there every day—unless you want to be, of course, but I feel like you’ve been this constant in my life for many years, and I don’t want anything about that to change. The sex is amazing, and I love the, uh, romantic-ish things we do like quiet nights in and going out on dates, but…at the end of the day, it’s that you’re my?—”
“Anchor!” Aspen shouted triumphantly.
Noah tipped his head to the side. “Yeah, I guess you could call it that.”
“Remember we talked about that with Rachel? She’s looking for her own anchor, too. Someone who is a central part of your life and that you lean on, again not necessarily meaning they’re the most important, but they can be.”
Aspen was going to have to buy Blair a thank you gift. They were pretty impressed with themself for remembering all this, but it was probably because when they’d been reading it, they’d been thinking about Noah. He was their anchor, and hopefully one day he’d also be their bird nesting partner. They weren’t entirely sure what Charlie was yet.
“I can’t help but notice that all of these do have the word partner in them,” Charlie said. “Would it be okay if I just use partner for both of you? I’m not as hip with the vocabulary as you are, pumpkin.”
“That’s fine with me. Can I also call you my partner?”
Charlie nodded, placing another soft kiss on Aspen’s cheek.
“What about you, babe?”
Noah's jaw began to pulse again, but this time neither of them interrupted him.
“I think,” he finally said, “I’m fine with you both calling me your partner. Honestly, it might just be easier if I do the same for you, but I kind of like the idea that…you’re my bird, and you’re my anchor.”
Aspen was pretty sure they were going to pull a muscle with all their excited-shimmy dancing, but they couldn’t help it. “I’d love to be your bird!”
“And I’m honored to be your anchor.”
Noah let out a surprised laugh. “That’s actually sort of funny. The theme of my hotel room seems to be nautical, so there are anchors everywhere.”
Aspen couldn’t contain their squeal of excitement. “Oh my god, and our room iscoveredin swans! It’s like we were meant to chase you across the country and start our relationship on this really uncomfortable couch!”
Noah tried to stand up, but Charlie held him in place to kiss his cheek, and then Aspen took their turn, covering his face in kisses until he stopped squirming and just let it happen.
When they finally released him, he stood up on shaky legs. Charlie put a supportive arm around his shoulder and led him to get breakfast, Aspen skipping happily behind them.
There wasn’t anywhere to sit, so they returned to the uncomfy couch, which Aspen would now forever think of astheir couch. Noah was only able to eat a few bites and take a few sips of coffee before he asked if they could all go upstairs to figure out a plan.
As they piled into the elevator, Aspen asked if they could stay with Noah for the rest of the week.
“Of course. I’m so sorry you had to book your own flights and pay for a night in this ridiculous hotel.”
“It wasn’t that bad since it was so last-minute. Probably a cancellation or something,” Aspen said as they reached their floor.
Their room was only one door away from the elevator, and Aspen fumbled for their key, only for Charlie to easily pull his out of his front pocket and unlock the door.
“Still. I’d really like to pay you both?—”
Charlie interrupted Noah with a kiss.
“Hey, that’s my trick,” Aspen said, waiting until Charlie was done to steal their own quick kiss from Noah. They had to practically climb up Charlie’s body to steal one from him, but it was worth it cause they got to see his dimples for the first time that trip.
Noah’s jaw was pulsing again, but Aspen ignored it in favor of throwing all their things back in their bag and grabbing their toiletries and phone charger. Charlie only had to grab his charger and toiletries, and he was giving Noah a disapproving look.
