With my eyes now on his dick, Dax does one final turn in the mirror, then retreats to his dressing room, muttering “on to bigger and better,” a fitting mantra and one I’ve used a lot this week as Dax has adjusted to his new digs and new life.
It’s been a week, to put it kindly. As expected, things did not go well with Dax’s insurance. His account is in arrears. There’s not much he can fight them on, even if he could afford a lawyer. The power scales are tipped in the wrong direction.
Dax is also struggling with his new living situation.
Dougie and Brandon are welcoming and supportive. They’re just both really set in their ways. Brandon likes to do his virtual CrossFit every morning at five-thirty. Normally, he does it in the basement, but he happily moved to the living room to accommodate Dax. However, that means Brandon’s doing burpees above Dax’s bed. It’s like waking up to a violent thunderstorm every morning. But Dax feels terrible about sleeping in Brandon’s usual burpee space, so he feels like he can’t complain.
Then there’s Brandon’s regular bacon craving and Dougie’s continual memory lapses and failure to stick to the secret knock when he’s on a mission for the freezer. We’ve started to have sex with shirts on just in case Brandon gets hungry because we only have twelve thumps on the staircase before Dougie’s head appears, asking us if we’re hungry.
This shopping trip was an attempt to get Dax out of the house. We need costumes for tomorrow night’s party. Dax needs something to take his mind off the fact that he has to go in for his orientation session in the morning to start training on Monday.
“I think I found the winner. How sexy am I in these?”
He draws back the curtain. If the last pair of pants were tight, these are painted on. They look like leggings. Dove gray, and I enjoy how they cling to every muscle and curve of his body.
“I’m sure we could find you a vest and a puffy shirt. You’d make a very dashing Prince Charming.” The party theme Dougie and Brandon finally settled on, Lovers in a Dangerous Time, leaves lots of room for interpretation. I don’t recall Cinderella’s story being filled with danger, but I’m sure the prince carried a sword, and Cinderella’s shoes were made of glass.
I leave Dax to scour the racks for anything that could work for the rest of his costume. As I search through piles of secondhand clothes, my mind turns to the same place it has gone whenever I have a moment to think: the invisible hourglass looming above me, with only a few grains of sand left before time runs out. Tomorrow night the moon moves into waning gibbous, and I’ve yet to make a decision. Actually, that’s a lie. I’ve made my decision several times over the last few days, but then changed my mind an equal number of times. Do I leave behind my glass slipper or turn around and run into the arms of my prince?
Maybe it’s fitting that I go to the party as Cinderella. She too had a curfew. A ticking clock counting down until her dreams turned to dust. But even when she ran out of time, things worked out for Cinderella and Charming, right? Their love prevailed. In the end, their happily ever after was worth all the angst that led up to it. Maybe that’s a sign? In the end, Dax and I will be fine. He might be a tax associate. It may take us some time to get on our feet, but we will be happy.
I find the perfect white shirt, as well as a purple velvet vest and a hat that’s a bit more Pan than Charming but that I bring to Dax anyway. He disappears behind the curtain, then reappears a few moments later, looking like full thrift shop royalty.
“I think we have a winner, my prince.”
Dax’s eyes linger on his image in the mirror. He does a quarter turn one way, then the other. “I like it. Although I’m getting more Montague vibes. What do you think? Are we better suited as Romeo and Juliet? It’s far more dangerous.”
He does have a point. As soon as he says it, I see it. His outfit is all Romeo. Except that story is not the type of ending I’m aiming for. But Romeo and Juliet’s issue wasn’t a lack of love. It was logistics and preteen-level communication skills. Dax and I don’t have any big secrets to hide unless, of course, you count the fact that I’ve somehow created a slip in time.
Conflicted, I return to the racks. It’s time for me to find something equally amazing to stand beside Dax. I find two old prom dresses that, with the right costume jewelry, could transform me enough that I’ll look the part once everyone has had a couple of beers. When I step out of the changing room, Dax is staring at his phone, looking like his dog just died. Or maybe like his life’s work burned to ash, and the wound is still very fresh.
“What’s wrong?”
He looks up at the sound of my voice, shoving his phone into his back pocket.
“Got my work schedule for the next week followed by a flash of what the next fifty years of my life are going to look like.” He forces a smile, but his eyes give him away. He’s miserable.
“It’s my problem to adjust to, Gems.” He tugs my arm so I fall against his chest, and he wraps me in a comforting hug that both of us need. “I’ll be fine. There’s only one thing you can do, and you’re doing a pretty bang-up job of it.”
“Oh yeah?” My face stays pressed to his chest because I’m not sure what I’ll do if I meet his eyes right now.
“Yeah. You being here with me. That’s all I need.”
Chapter 27
Even before I open my eyes, I know that I’m not in my own bed.
You’d think I would have gotten used to it by now, seeing as waking up in beds that are not my own is apparently my thing now. This time, what sets me off is the blaring of “Fergalicious” somewhere far above me and the smell of men’s cologne mixed with basement musk and the sound of water running. A shower.
I stretch my hand across the cotton sheet and find Dax’s side of the bed still warm. I roll over and plant my face in his pillow, breathing in that perfect combination of cologne and soap and the lingering smells of sleeping Dax that I somehow find intoxicating. I could do this every morning. Forever. Wake up next to him.
I roll over and stare up at the ceiling just as the water turns off. There isn’t exactly a bathroom in this basement. I guess the previous homeowners were told they could increase their property value by putting one in, so they installed a shower, sink, and toilet but never finished the floors or walled any of it in, so they just linger, open and exposed in the far corner of the basement.
Dougie and Brandon never needed it until now. It’s a quirky little feature of Dax’s new bachelor pad that I find endearingly unconventional, though he finds it horrifying.