Not tonight.
Tonight his dad grumbles about the NHL Awards, because he never agrees with who wins and his mom makes popcorn and grabs the leftover cookies and they settle in to watch the ceremony.
Elliot knows all of those guys, has at least shaken hands with them, has met many of them at the All Star Game, but tonight he really only cares about the Vezina. Everyone agrees that Blake should be the one to win it, everyone acts like it’s a sure thing, basically already decided, but Elliot is still nervous, stomach in knots, until they say Blake’s name on TV.
“Tell him we’re happy for him, eh?” Elliot’s dad says, apparently for once in agreement with how the Awards are going.
“Yeah,” Elliot says and grabs his phone.
It takes him a good fifteen minutes to find the right words, knowing that Blake likely won’t reply for a while. Then he adds a, can’t wait to see you, because it’s the truth and because he thinks he’s going to explode if he doesn’t say it.
Adam calls him later that evening and Elliot goes out the back door and sits in his favorite chair, hoping he won’t get eaten alive. He lights one of the candles that are supposed to keep the mosquitoes away.
“Sorry, it’s kinda late, but Lou just went to bed and we spent all day trying to figure things out and looking for houses online and shit,” Adam says.
“You okay?” Elliot asks.
“I’m still getting used to the idea that I’m gonna have to move to fucking Arizona. I mean, this isn’t… We know this can happen to anyone at any point, but it still took me by surprise. I thought I was gonna stay, you know? I thought they wanted me to stay. Guess not.”
“We’ll miss you.”
Adam takes a deep breath on the other end of the line. “We painted the fucking nursery. In New York,” he says. “I’m gonna pay someone to paint the nursery in Arizona, I’m not doing that shit again.”
“That’s probably a good idea,” Elliot says.
“How’s everything back home? Your folks okay?”
“Yeah, they’re fine.”
“And you?”
“Also fine,” Elliot says.
“Can you say more than two words, Moo? Distract me from my misery. Tell me all the hot Oshawa gossip.”
“I met Riley Walsh the other day.”
“Aw, he was such a good guy. It sucked when he got traded.”
“Yeah. I’ll probably have dinner with him when I’m back from New York.”
“What are you going to New York for?” Adam asks.
“Oh, uh… visiting someone.”
“In New York? We live in New York. I’m in New York. Visit me.”
“I can swing by and say hello,” Elliot says. Blake will understand if Elliot ditches him for a couple of hours to hang out with Adam, considering that Adam will be moving to Arizona.
“Please, we’ll have some quality Adam-Elliot time, Lou won’t mind. We can–”
“Adam,” Elliot says, “I don’t think I’ll have time.”
“Wait, so you are visiting someone? I thought you were just fucking around. Who?”
Elliot breathes in and out very slowly. “It’s complicated.”
“You’re not sick or anything, right?”
“No, it’s…” Elliot squeezes his eyes shut. Adam already knows. He won’t suddenly have an issue with this. “A guy.”
“A guy?”
“Yes, a guy.”
“What kind of guy?”
“A guy, Adam.”
“I don’t ge– Wait. A guy?”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
“Like,” Adam says slowly, “a boyfriend?”
“No, not really.”
“But there’s a guy.”
“Yeah.”
“Okay,” Adam says, “tell me about the guy.”
“I can’t.”
“Come on, Moo, I won’t… I’m not an asshole, we’ve talked about this. Tell me about the guy. You’d tell me if it was a girl. Is he hot?”
“Adam.”
“Is he?”
“Yeah.”
“Nice. You have a picture of him? Oh, oh, wait, can I meet him?”
“I’ll ask him,” Elliot says, voice low, because he’s scared it might crack under the weight of everything he’s feeling right now.
“For how long have you known him?”
Elliot thinks about Blake lying in the grass with him, seventeen years old, on a summer day he’ll never forget. “A while.”
“So it’s serious?”
Blake’s not even his boyfriend. Is it serious? “I’m in love with him,” Elliot says.
#
Elliot’s flight to New York is delayed.
Maybe he shouldn’t have booked a flight to Newark. He doesn’t know what he was thinking. The flight to LaGuardia that left thirty minutes ago was on time. Maybe he should have gone to LaGuardia instead.
But Newark is where Blake lives and when Elliot sent him his flight info, the first thing Blake said was, cool I’ll pick you up. So he’ll probably go to Blake’s place first and they’ll take things from there. Maybe they’ll go to Elliot’s, too. It’d be weird to be so close to home for a week and not spend some time at his own place. Blake can come.
“Excuse me.”
Elliot looks up and finds himself face-to-face with a very small child. She’s wearing a dress that probably belongs to a Disney princess. Her mother is hovering a few steps behind her, looking apologetic. “Hey, there,” Elliot says.
“Are you Elliot Cowell?”
“I am,” Elliot says, “and what’s your name?”
She holds out her hand for him to shake and says, “I’m Evie.”
“It’s very nice to meet you, Evie.”
“My brother didn’t believe that it was really you,” Evie tells him. “He wanted to get a sandwich instead.”
“Well, it really is me.”
The mom clears her throat, tugging at the kid’s hand. “Sweetie, let’s go, okay? Mr. Cowell is on vacation.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Elliot says. People do shoot him looks when they see him at the airport and sometimes people think
