Luckily, Matt was tasked with makingreservations. Too bad Vic hadn’t asked him to order himself a nicebouquet of roses while he was at it.
Friday morning, Matt let Vic sleep. Hedeserved it, and had come home the night before almost too tired toeven eat dinner. Matt had known how hard Vic was working and keptit simple—hot cheese steak hoagies he made himself and oven friescrisped in the broiler. Vic could hardly keep his eyes open whilehe ate; their conversation was decidedly one-way, with Matt doingall the talking and Vic dozing above his plate. When he finallyfinished the last bite, Vic said he’d take a shower to perk up andducked down the hall to their bedroom. Thirty minutes later, afterMatt had cleared away the dishes, he realized he hadn’t heard theshower start and came looking for his lover, only to find Vic fastasleep on the bed, half-undressed.
He told Vic all about it when he calledFriday morning to wake Vic up. According to the display on Vic’sphone, it was ten o’clock, and from the light streaming in betweenthe slit in their curtains, it was morning. He held the phone tohis ear and kept his eyes shut as Matt rattled on about…well, Vicwasn’t quite sure what all Matt was going on about, really. He justliked the sound of his lover’s voice, and the faint hum of hislover’s thoughts he could feel tickling somewhere in the back ofhis head, which sometimes happened when they talked on the phone.“I came back there looking for a little loving,” Matt said, hisgrin evident in his voice, “and there you were, zonked out on topof the sheets. Like you’d started to get naked and then just fellout. I almost pulled a muscle getting you tucked in right.”
“Hmm,” Vic moaned. He was slow to waking, andwasn’t quite able to form a complete sentence yet. He should getup, though. He had to feed Sadie.
Sadie…
As Matt launched into something else, Vicinterrupted him. “Where’s the dog?”
“I took her to daycare,” Matt told him with alaugh. “You needed your sleep, and I know she’d just bother you.Well, she bothers me when I’m trying to lay down. You, sheprobably leaves alone.”
Vic relaxed. The dog was taken care of—good.So he really had nothing he had to get done for the rest of the dayuntil later in the evening, when he took Matt out to eat…
Matt continued, “But since you’re up,I left you a short list of things to get done on your day off.”
“What?” Vic asked, not so much wanting toknow what was on the list, but needing to hear Matt tell him aboutit again. What kind of list?
“You know, just some honey-dos,” Matt said.“I need some things from the store, and there’s laundry in thewasher that can probably go in the dryer now, and the toilet seat’sloose again.”
Vic rubbed a hand down his face and sighed.So much for a day off. “All you have to do is tighten thescrew—”
“Exactly, so get to it,” Matt joked. Then,sobering a little, he said, “I haven’t gotten my flowers yet.”
“Your what?” The words were out a secondbefore Vic realized what Matt was talking about.
Oh fuck.
He hadn’t had a chance to order flowers, andwho’d deliver any now? Would anyone deliver this late? Maybeif he went to a florist he could pick up a bouquet and drop it offat the gym himself…
Matt had known Vic long enough to recognizeexactly what his silence meant. “You did send me flowers,right?”
Thinking fast immediately upon waking wasn’tVic’s strong suit, but a sudden jolt of adrenaline cleared anylingering sleepiness from his mind. He sat up in bed so fast, healmost swooned. “No, I didn’t send them,” he admitted. “I’m goingto bring them instead.”
Matt’s voice brightened. “Seriously?”
“A dozen roses,” Vic assured him. “That’swhat you wanted, right? All colors, or just red?”
Matt laughed. “I think they say red’s fortrue love, isn’t it?”
“Then red it is.” Vic swung his legs out ofbed and tucked the cell phone between his ear and shoulder as hehurried to straighten the sheets. “Let me get the laundry done andsee what else is on this list of yours—”
“There isn’t much,” Matt said.
“And I’ll be by to take you out to lunch,how’s that sound?” Vic asked. He was making it up as he went along,but if he could find a florist who still had a dozen red roses thatweren’t spoken for yet, maybe he could salvage Valentine’s Dayafter all. “I’ll bring the flowers with me. Roxie wouldn’t daretoss them out if I’m standing right there watching.”
“She refuses to say Valentine’s, did I tellyou that?” From the smirk Vic heard in Matt’s voice, it was obvioushis lover was already halfway to forgiving him for not having theflowers delivered.
“What’s she calling it, then? Just Friday?”Vic headed for the bathroom—he usually slept in the nude, and eventhough he hadn’t managed to undress before falling asleep, Matt hadstripped him down before tucking him in. No wonder Matt almoststrained something! Vic outweighed him by an easy eighty pounds,maybe more, all of it solid muscle.
“She says it’s Happy Hoopla Day,” Mattsnorted. “I was like what the fuck? And she goes, because what’sall the damn hoopla about? Where’s she come up with this?”
In the bathroom, Vic flicked on the light. Hecaught a glimpse of his nakedness in the mirror, then ducked downto tighten the bolt that held the toilet seat in place. “Babe, Ihate to cut this short, but I’m going to see you in a few hours forlunch—”
“You’re in the bathroom, aren’t you?” Mattasked. “I hear the echo.”
“I’m fixing the toilet seat,” Vic told him.“You just have to tighten it.”
Matt laughed. “Yeah, well, Mr. Muscles,tighten it so
