Chapter Thirty-Five
Spencer shifted theSullivan Street Bakery bag into the hand carrying a bag of bottles so he could buzz Barry’s apartment.At the sound of the click, he held up his bags to announce his arrival.
“Turn left, and then third door from the end,” his manager rasped over the intercom.He followed the directions inside and was reminded of visiting friends’ houses as a kid.
He opened the door to see a large group already gathered.He recognized some people from the gym, but others were total strangers.One group was gathered in front of a football game in the living room, and a few intrepid souls were gathered outside in the private garden.
In his cashmere sweater and khakis, Barry looked more formal than Spencer had ever seen him.His professor husband, Patrick, whom Spencer had seen dropping stuff off at the gym a few times, was working at the stove.The two of them looked like a particularly progressive Williams Sonoma advertisement or made-for-TV holiday movie.
“Nice place,” he said, putting the bag of rolls down in the kitchen.
“Thanks.We knew we didn’t want to leave the city, but the idea of a yard and a little more privacy wouldn’t let go.”
As Spencer would have been going home to a similar environment if he wasn’t here, he understood where his boss was coming from.“I got this one to go with the turkey”—he held up a bottle of wine—“and this for people who don’t drink.”He put the wine down and held up a non-alcoholic sparkling drink.
“Good call.It’ll still be an hour or so before everything’s ready, so chill out until then.”
“Is there anything else I can do?”
Barry croaked out a laugh.“There isn’t room for that in this kitchen.The biggest help anyone can be is by not getting underfoot.”
With that in mind, Spencer went out to join the gym crowd outside in a cutthroat game of Uno.Barry’s military precision must have still been a part of him, because he and Patrick were calling everyone to dinner after almost exactly an hour.The table was fairly groaning under the weight of the turkey, the traditional sides, and the more unconventional dishes.Spencer wanted to try as much as he could, but even one bite of everything would have filled him up before dessert.
The non-alcoholic sparkler went faster than the wine, but conversation didn’t suffer for it.The woman next to him was a makeup artist working on an off-Broadway show with performances that weekend, the guy across from him had come from Indonesia to do his Ph.D.at NYU, and everyone had interesting stories to share.
Maybe there were too many other interesting things to discuss, or maybe it just wasn’t part of the day.Either way, no one dwelled on why they were spending Thanksgiving here instead of with their families, and Spencer followed suit.He himself had had to cut some past Thanksgivings short because of travel to tournaments, and if he’d seen the engagement through to marriage, he would have spent some time with his in-laws.It shouldn’t have been as big a deal as his family had made it out to be.
When no one could eat another bite, the group got the table cleared in no time at all.Spencer drew a long straw that allowed him to kick back outside while other people cleaned the kitchen.Not being a fan ofIt’s a Wonderful Life, which was now on the big screen, he headed outside for some fresh air with his hosts and some of the others not on cleanup duty.
A guy whose name Spencer hadn’t caught poked his head out the door.“I smell something burning,” he said over the noise of the smoke alarm.
Patrick jumped.“Shoot.I should get the dessert out of the oven.It’s been in the warmer since before dinner, and I forgot all about it.”
“Go.”Barry kissed his husband and watched him walk back inside.
Spencer allowed him a moment before asking, “How long have you two been together?”
“We got married in 2019 but have been together since...early 2010.”
Spencer exhaled.“Wow.That’s impressive.”
“Well, on and off starting in early 2010,” Barry corrected himself.“We first met shortly after Obama had signed the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, but it didn’t become official for several more months.We tried to keep it low-key, didn’t imagine anything would come of it, but we kept finding our way back to each other.”
He looked Spencer in the eye.“So as you can see, I’m no stranger to ambiguities.”
“I’d say not.”It was the first time Barry had alluded to their discussion since that day in the office, and it pulled Spencer out of his impending food coma.
“The whole time I was in the service, I respected our rules and policies.But the more I saw of him, the less sure I was that one size fits every situation, and it’s a lesson that’s stayed with me all this time.For example, if I have one guy who’s screwing around with all his clients, that creates trouble for him and the gym as a whole.But if another kept things professional and didn’t act on any urges until his client was no longer in that capacity...that’s not a problem.”
“Thanks.”It came out more as breath than speech, so he spoke again.“Thank you.”
