Epilogue
One year later...
Ezra stuck his hand deep in his coat pocket, taking a few deep breaths as he found what he was looking for in there. He ran his thumb over the smooth surface, smiling just a tiny bit, imagining the look on Mike’s face when he saw it.
Or at least, imagining the look hehopedwould be on Mike’s face.
“Hey,” Mike said, stopping in front of him and kissing his cheek. Ezra laughed softly, thrilled at how far they’d come in just a year. From Mike being nervous about holding his hand to being eager to put his arm around Ezra’s waist and kiss his cheek in public.
Ezra couldn’t have been more proud of him.
“Hey yourself,” he said. “Thought you’d stood me up.”
“Couldnotget away from Janet in accounting,” Mike responded. “I mean, you know I love her, but she wouldn’t take ‘I’ve got a date with a beautiful man’ as an excuse to let me out of filing my monthly expense report. Can you believe?”
Ezra chuckled. He was glad Mike had found a place to work that he seemed tolike. Not only that, but somewhere he had a nice, regular schedule that matched up nicely with Ezra’s and gave them plenty of time together.
He even had Monday afternoons off to drop by the sanctuary, which made Mondays a lot less painful for both of them.
Things weregood. Ezra had never seen Mike this happy, and he was thrilled to be a part of that happiness.
“Hard as it is to believe that you actually have to do your job, I think I can stretch to it. Hungry?”
“Starving,” Mike responded, pushing the door of the restaurant open for Ezra.
It wasn’t anythingtoofancy, just a place where they could sit together and enjoy a meal somewhere other than their kitchen, for once. Not that Ezra didn’tloveeating at home with Mike, but sometimes it was nice to let someone else do all the work so they could just sit back and enjoy it.
Besides, tonight was special.
“Jeez, December fourteenth already,” Mike said, settling down. “You sure this is our one-year anniversary? I feel like it’s Christmas day.”
“This is the anniversary of the first time you kissed me andmeantit,” Ezra said. “Way more important. I’d been waiting for that a long time.”
“So had I.”
Ezra smiled a tiny smile at that, happiness blooming under his ribcage. They’d talked, a lot, about their shared history and their feelings for each other. Mike had been waiting for it, too. He just hadn’t known what to call it.
Which was fine. He was making leaps and bounds, and Ezra was hoping to drag him along to Pride in the summer. Mike would be ready for it by then, he was sure.
Or at least, he really hoped, or he’d miscalculated tonight horribly.
“So other than Janet in accounts insisting that you do what you’re being paid for, how was your day?” Ezra asked, pouring them each a glass of water from the jug in the middle of the table.
Mike laughed, accepting the glass of water Ezra pushed toward him and drinking greedily. Ezra watched his throat work as he swallowed, transfixed, as though this was an exciting first date all over again.
He never got tired of looking at Mike. That was love, he supposed.
“Pretty good. Nothing special, everyone’s looking forward to the holidays, I think.”
Ezra nodded, draining his whole glass of water in one long draught and pouring himself another one.
“Are you okay?” Mike asked, leaning forward a little.
“Fine,” Ezra said, though he knew he looked nervous. Hewasnervous.
How was he supposed to get through dinner when he knew his whole life might be about to change for good?
“Uh huh. And I’m Donald Duck,” Mike said.
