“Sorry,” Elliot says.
“I’ll get over it,” Mattie says, lips pursed. “You want a beer, Elliot?”
“Sure, thank you.”
Mattie gets up to grab him a beer, then he wanders over to the grill to help out Katie.
Blake reaches over, fingertips brushing against Elliot’s wrist.
Elliot pulls his arm away, glancing over at Mattie and Katie, who aren’t even looking at him, Katie poking the tongs in Mattie’s direction.
“It’s okay,” Blake says, “they already know.”
“Yeah, but…”
Blake puts his hands in his lap. “I won’t if you don’t want me to.”
“No, that’s not it,” Elliot says and holds out his hand so Blake can do whatever he wants with it. He shoots another glance in Mattie and Katie’s direction when Blake takes his hand, thumb rubbing back and forth against his palm. “I’ve never… really…”
He’s never touched another guy like this in front of other people. He’s not used to being in a place where he doesn’t have to hide this, unless that place is his or Blake’s apartment.
It’s nice, sitting here with Blake like this.
He takes some more potato salad and Blake starts stealing it off his plate. “Hey,” Elliot says. “Get your own.”
Blake sticks out his bottom lip and Elliot can’t help but kiss him. Blake kisses him back and puts his arm around him after, playing with the fabric of his shirt, fingers tapping out a gentle rhythm.
“Do you kids want steak? Burgers?” Mattie asks as he comes wandering back over to them. “Both, because you’re hockey players who’ll eat everything?”
Elliot fights the impulse to shake off Blake’s arm.
“Like you’re not one of them,” Katie says.
Neither of them is batting an eye at how close Blake and Elliot are sitting.
“Not anymore,” Mattie says.
“Hey,” says Blake, offended.
“Aw, kiddo.”
Blake shrugs. “I’ll miss you.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Mattie says. “At least not any time soon.”
Blake smiles a little now.
“Anyway, I’m not too worried,” Mattie goes on. “You have someone to spend Christmas with now.”
“Oh,” Blake says, like he hadn’t even considered that. Elliot hadn’t considered it either.
“Or you can both come to our place,” Mattie says.
“I’ll make the potato salad,” Katie adds. “Elliot, steak?”
“Yes, please.”
Elliot eats way too much food, and they throw balls for the dogs in the backyard, and Mattie and Katie are all over the cookies they brought, and they both take them to the door when they leave. Elliot gets a hug from both of them and Mattie tells him to take good care of Blake.
“All good?” Blake asks when he pulls out of Mattie’s driveway.
“Less scary than I thought it would be.”
“Mattie’s all right,” Blake says.
“Now I’m scared about you meeting Adam.”
“Why?”
“Adam isn’t nearly as chill as Mattie.”
Blake laughs.
“Promise you’ll still love me after I’ve introduced you to him?”
Blake looks over at him.
Elliot doesn’t knows why until he realizes that he just said love. “You know what I mean,” he says quickly.
“Yeah,” Blake says. “I know what you mean. And, yeah, I’ll still… yeah.”
Elliot smiles.
#
They’re literally about to walk into Central Park where they’re going to have lunch with Adam Ishida, when Elliot stops in his tracks and grabs Blake’s arm. “Oh, shit.”
“You okay?” Blake asks. Elliot is really careful about touching him in public. He looks panicked when their hands brush, and now his fingers are digging into Blake’s skin.
“I forgot to tell him that it’s you.”
“What?”
“I… When I said I was bringing my…” Elliot looks around, voice turning into a whisper, “boyfriend, I didn’t tell him it was you.”
“So, what, he’s expecting some random guy?”
“I don’t know. Probably?”
“Okay,” Blake says. “Can’t wait to see his face.”
“You still wanna go?”
“Yeah, sure,” Blake says. It’s honestly the opposite of a problem. “Come on. It’ll be funny.”
Elliot lets go of him and leads the way down a path that looks exactly like all the other paths. Blake is glad that Elliot knows where they’re going, because he would get hopelessly lost in this park. To him, it’s probably one of the scariest places in New York City, mostly because you can walk in here with the intention of going for a quick stroll and then end up on what’s practically the other side of the city. He told Elliot that and he laughed at him. For at least five minutes.
It took Blake by surprise when Elliot told him that they’d be meeting Adam in the park for a picnic, because it’s in public, although it’ll just look like two teammates and another hockey player friend hanging out together during the offseason.
“Oh, there he is,” Elliot says, and nudges Blake to the left.
Adam Ishida is sitting on a blanket, surrounded by bags, pulling plastic containers out of a backpack. He does not see them coming.
“Hey, Adam,” Elliot says and Adam looks up, grinning. “This is Blake.”
“Hey,” Blake says.
“Oh, hey,” Adam says, clearly recognizing Blake. His eyes dart from Blake to Elliot, then back to Blake. He’s definitely going through something, connecting dots in his head. “Oh, hey. Hey, hey. Have a seat.”
They do and Elliot starts unpacking the food they brought. Elliot made it in his own kitchen, with his own pans, whistling as he prepared the food. Blake paid for the ingredients, so he at least made a contribution.
“It’s really nice to… well, not meet you, but…” Adam shrugs. “You know what I mean. Meet you in this very official capacity.”
“Yes, very official,” Blake says.
“You could have told me, you know?” Adam says to Elliot. “So I could have, like, not made a complete idiot of myself?” He turns to Blake and adds, “I’m sorry
