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“It’s your turn, Charlie.”
With a melodramatic sigh, Charlie stood up from the bench where he and Nick were seated. As he watched Charlie approach their dog, Daisy, Nick couldn’t help the small chuckle that escaped his lips. It was the fourth time now that Daisy had stolen a ball from one of the other dogs at the park, and Charlie was struggling to wrestle the toy away. While Charlie was fast, Daisy was still small enough to easily dart between Charlie’s legs, apparently too excited to care that Charlie was calling her name, pleading for her to sit.
“MISTER NELSON!” Turning towards the sound of his name being called, Nick smiled when he recognized the tiny face running toward him.
“William, hi!” Nick reached out his hand to high-five William before looking up, seeing someone he recognized as William’s sister quickly approaching.
“Will, don’t make me chase you like that!”
“Sorry.” Muttering, William tilted his head down slightly in remorse.
“It’s alright, just don’t do it again.” William perked back up as his sister mussed his hair before she extended a hand to Nick. “I’m Alice.”
“Mr. Nelson. You’re William’s sister, right? I think I met you after the spring play.”
“That’s right, good to see you again!”
Nick felt a small hand on his forearm, and looked down to find William staring up at him, eyes wide. “Mr. Nelson! It’s my birthday next week so my sister is taking me to the cinema later and we’re going to share a big thing of popcorn and maybe a slushie, and we’re going to see the minions!” William bounced up and down, still holding on to Nick's arm.
Chuckling, Nick tried to muster up a fraction of William’s enthusiasm. “You have one very nice sister!”
Looking up at Alice, William grinned widely. “I know! They’re the best.”
Alice smiled down at William and then turned her attention to Nick. “What are you up to today, Mr. Nelson?”
“Well, I’m actually here with my dog Daisy and-” As if on cue, Nick saw Charlie approaching, looking over his shoulder at a now leashed Daisy who was clearly wanting to go the opposite direction.
“She has lost her off-leash privileges for the day.” Charlie huffed before turning around to find his husband was no longer alone. “Oh, hi! I’m Charlie.”
“Charlie, this is William, one of my students from last year, and his sister Alice.”
Reaching out with his free hand, Charlie greeted Alice with a handshake. “It’s nice to meet you.”
William was crouching down in front of Daisy, tentatively reaching out his hand to let her sniff him and giggling as Daisy jumped up and tried to lick his face. “It tickles!” Eyebrow furrowed, William looked up at Nick. “Why is her fur like that?”
Charlie smirked at Nick as William pointed to Daisy’s head, which had a large strip of fur about a centimetre shorter than the rest of her coat. Chuckling, Nick ran his hand through his hair before responding. “Oh, uh, we had a little incident involving a razor a couple of weeks back.”
Raising his eyebrows at Nick, Charlie was indignant. “We?! That was all you.”
Alice joined Charlie in laughter. “Ok, I have to hear this story.”
While Charlie recounted the haircut casualty to Alice, Nick stooped down to where William was still playing with Daisy. “Daisy seems to like you.”
“I like her too!” William gave Daisy a gentle pat on the head before pointing to Charlie, who was still talking with Alice. “Who’s that?”
“That’s my husband, Charlie.” It had only been two months since their wedding, and Nick couldn’t help but grin whenever he had the opportunity to call Charlie his husband.
“Your husband?”
“Yes, we got married right after school let out for summer.”
“Boys can get married?” William’s jaw was hanging open.
“Yes, two boys can get married. People can marry someone of any gender!”
“What?!” It took all of Nick’s self-control not to laugh at how wide William’s eyes had gotten. Given that Nick taught year one, nothing about the five-year-old’s reaction surprised him. “Is he a teacher too?”
“No, he’s a book editor.”
“He writes books?”
“His job is to help other authors write their books.”
“That doesn’t sound very fun.”
Nick chuckled at William’s indifference. “Well, he thinks it’s fun, but he does other fun things outside of work too.”
“Like what?”
“He is writing his own book, he likes to play board games, and he plays the drums.”
“The drums? That’s cool.” William nodded in approval, and after a moment, his face lit up. “Maybe I’ll have a husband one day, just like you!”
“Maybe.” Smiling, Nick peered up at Alice and Charlie. He suspected they were laughing at him, and when Charlie looked back at him with a smirk on his face, Nick took that as confirmation.
Alice placed a hand on William's shoulder. “Alright, William. We need to get going so we have time to grab popcorn before the film starts.”
“Ok.” Beaming up at Nick, William waved. “Bye, Mr. Nelson! Bye, Mr. Nelson’s husband!”
“Bye, William! I hope you have a good birthday!”
Taking William’s hand, Alice waved goodbye to Nick and Charlie before heading off to the parking lot. Charlie took a seat on the bench, and Nick joined him, taking the leash from Charlie’s hand. “William was adorable, and his sister was really nice.”
“Yeah, I really enjoyed having him in my class. He was very excited about us being married.”
“Oh?” Charlie smiled, reaching over to grab Nick’s free hand. “I’m excited about that too.”
As they intertwined their fingers, Nick smiled. “It was cute, he wondered if he would have a husband someday. I know kids William’s age just want to imitate the people they look up to, but I don’t know, it still made me feel good.” Drawing his eyebrows together, Nick struggled to put his feelings into words. “He was so surprised at first like he didn’t know it was an option. It makes me wonder what would have happened if I had known one of my primary teachers had been in a same-sex relationship. Maybe I wouldn’t have been so confused, or I would have figured things out sooner.”
“Maybe.” Charlie tightened his grip on Nick’s hand. “Maybe you’ll get to be that teacher for some of your students.”
“I hope so.” Meeting Charlie’s soft gaze, Nick leaned in and kissed him softly for a few moments before slowly pulling back. “So, husband, shall we take our mischievous puppy home?”
“Yes, let’s go.” Charlie took the leash back and stood up. “The sooner we get home, the sooner we can keep up our post-wedding streak.”
“Our streak? Our streak of what?”
“Think, Mr. Nelson.” Eyes dancing, Charlie waggled his eyebrows.
“Oh. OH.” Nick jumped up and grabbed Charlie’s hand, pulling him in the direction of the parking lot, looking over his shoulder. “Well, in that case, let’s hurry!”