The cobalt blue had suited him so much better that Blake had never even considered asking for it back.
“It’s served me well, but it belongs to you,” Rusty said. “Thanks for letting me borrow it.”
Blake pulled the sweater into his lap, gripping it tightly. It was the only thing that made sense right now, so he wasn’t about to let go of it.
“You didn’t track me down halfway across the world to return my sweater,” he said after a moment.
He was pretty sure that was true, though he couldn’t think of any other reason for Rusty to be here.
The thought that maybe Rusty was here to declare his undying love crossed his mind briefly, but he chased it away. That didn’t even qualify as wishful thinking. Rusty would always have a place in his heart, but they’d both moved on.
They’d only spent five days of their life together. It’d been fun, and it would always be a fond memory to Blake, but…
“Correct. I came here for a divorce,” Rusty said before Blake could finish that thought.
His heart sank.
Maybe he hadn’t really been expecting Rusty to come and sweep him off his feet, but...
Wait.
Divorce?
“But we’re not married,” Blake said.
He was sure of that. He had the novelty marriage certificate to show for it.
“Surprise?” Rusty smiled a sheepish smile at him. “We are. Or we arenow, anyway. I’m not clear on how marriage laws work. My lawyer tells me that since we finally passed marriage equality laws… it’s a thing.”
Blake’s head spun.
He’d been married to Rusty all this time. Itmusthave been the real deal back then. Neither of them had taken it seriously, but…
“I heard about that,” Blake said, clinging to the part hecouldprocess. “I thought of you. When I heard it’d passed.”
Rusty smiled a small, wry smile. He was always smiling. Blake remembered that about him.
Not much about him had changed. He still had the bright, sun-kissed red hair Blake had been so excited about when he first met him, the same dark blue eyes.
He seemed a lot less happy than he had, though. He had dark circles, and his eyes didn’t glitter so much in the light.
Maybe that was just age. They’d both gotten older.
Not that twenty-five wasold. It just… wasn’t twenty-two. Blake felt as though he’d grown up a lot in the last three years.
“Thought about you, too,” Rusty admitted. “Thought about a lot of things, actually.”
“So… did you meet someone?” Blake asked. He assumed that was why Rusty wanted a divorcenow, all of a sudden. “What’s he like?”
Rusty shook his head. “No, no one special. I just…” Rusty paused, glancing at the window behind Blake’s head. Not lookingoutit, but at it.
“Look, I’m not gonna lie to you. Dad’s planning on running for parliament and I’m under orders to sort this out. I’m sorry this is how we’re seeing each other again.”
“So that’s like… politics, yeah? And he’s trying to shove his gay son back in the closet?” Blake asked, horrified at the thought. Rusty deserved so much better than that.
“Yeah, nah, that ship has well and truly sailed.” Rusty laughed. “I bet he wishes he could, but nah. He just doesn’t want you showing up later and having every headline be about his idiot son getting drunkenly married. Plus we’ve had some, uh, citizenship issues lately. Wouldn’t look great if the papers could spin this into a green card marriage or something.”
Blake stared at Rusty, taking a few moments to process all of that. His father was a politician. Or was about to be, anyway. Blake wasn’t entirely sure how Australian politics worked. And citizenship issues? He really had to watch the international news more often.
