“Yeah?” Rusty asked, turning onto his side to face Blake.
Blake finally mustered the energy to move over, giving Rusty a little more space on the bed.
“Yeah. Don’t laugh, but I kept the marriage certificate. Still have it somewhere,” he said.
“Not laughing,” Rusty said. “But why?”
Blake shrugged. “I guess… I guess because it reminded me that one time, someone had picked me. And that if it’d happened once, it could happen again.”
“Lucky it didn’t, really,” Rusty said. “I didn’t exactly sign that one with my full name.”
Blake laughed again. “If I’d wanted to get married, I would have been looking for some guy called Rusty, from Australia.”
“There’s probably only a few thousand,” Rusty said. “You would’ve found me eventually.”
“Yeah, well, you found me first.” Blake sighed, post-sex sleepiness starting to get the better of him.
“I’m sorry for disappearing on you in the first place,” Rusty said.
Blake yawned widely. “Consider absolutely everything forgiven. I’m easily swayed by great sex.”
“Great?” Rusty asked.
“It was pretty great,” Blake confirmed. “For me, anyway. I missed you,” he added.
Part of him regretted it immediately, but it was true. He’d missed Rusty, and he didn’t really want to pretend he hadn’t.
Blake closed his eyes, letting his head sink into the pillow and promising himself that he’d just take a nap, that he wouldn’t sleep all night without getting up to clean up.
He promised himself that a lot, and it never quite went the way he promised, but he was sure he’d manage it one day.
Rusty had fallen silent, and Blake assumed he was napping, too.
Right as the edges of his consciousness started to get fuzzy, though, Rusty spoke up again.
“I missed you, too,” he said.
Blake was too tired to respond to that, but his heart soared as he fell asleep.
