Work Text:
🛝🍃
“Uncle Chaaaaarlie!” Stella whined, pulling her uncle’s arm as they walked down the street. “Hurry it up! We have to get to the playground before it closes!”
“Stelly, it’s a playground,” Charlie replied, yawning dramatically. “Playgrounds don’t ‘close.’ Mum just said that to you to get you out of the house so she could get back to sleep!”
Stella pouted, and kicked a stone on the pavement. “Mummy likes sleeping.”
“Yeah, I know she does,” Charlie said, in a tone that was halfway between affectionate and annoyed. “Some things never change.”
“Arlo likes sleeping too,” Stella added.
“Yep, he does. Little babies sleep a lot. Just not when you want them to,” Charlie yawned, remembering Arlo’s three A.M. screaming showcase that woke everyone in the house, except, mercifully, for his older sister Stella.
“I do not like sleeping,” Stella declared. “It’s boring. Nothing happens.”
“I know you don’t like sleeping,” Charlie replied, ruffling his niece’s hair. “And that’s why we’re at the playground at seven-thirty in the morning — on a Saturday! My twenty-year old self would hardly recognise me.”
“Huh?”
Charlie smiled at his niece, who he loved just about more than anybody on earth. “Never mind.”
“How much longer are you staying with us, Uncle Charlie?” Stella asked.
“Until next Sunday. Another week. So, until the last day of the school holidays.”
“And when’s Daddy back?”
“He’s back on Sunday, late. He’ll be back in time to take you to school on Monday.”
“I miss Daddy when he’s away on work trips.”
Funnily enough, Charlie missed Michael too — god love him. “I know. But he only goes twice a year.”
“Yeah. And that means you get to stay and help look after us!” Stella trilled happily.
“I love coming to stay,” Charlie said, taking her hand to hold as they crossed the street.
“Me too.”
Michael had to go to two conferences every year for his work, and the August one always coincided with the end of the school holidays. Charlie, who lived around a twenty minute drive from Tori and Michael’s place, had, for a few years now, come to stay with their family to help Tori look after the kids while Michael was abroad.
Charlie undid the lock on the fence around the playground, as Stella bounded towards the spring rider, which was shaped like a pink pelican, probably on her way to make friends with it or something.
Charlie sat on one of the playground parent benches and rubbed his bleary eyes with the bottom of his palms. He wished Tori was right, and that playgrounds did in fact have opening and closing times. Maybe then he could have convinced Stella the playground didn’t open for another hour, and fallen back asleep on the couch while she sat on his feet and watched Paw Patrol.
Charlie gazed listlessly at Stella, who had now moved to the large middle structure of the playground, which had two slides, a wobbling footbridge, and a small boulder wall to get to the top of a flagged tower. Underneath, there was a little opening, covered by the top of the slides, with a flat countertop, ostensibly for playing shops or houses or something. Stella was nattering away to herself, something about fairy princesses stuck at the top of castles.
After about five minutes, Charlie turned around when he heard the lock on the playground fence click open.
He saw a gorgeous hulking Redwood of a Man Tree enter the playground, holding hands with a little girl, around Stella’s age.
“Off you go, honey,” said the man, in a voice that sounded just about as sleepy as Charlie felt, and he settled into the bench a few feet away from Charlie’s, both of them facing the play equipment.
“Hi!” Stella said to the little girl, who had horse galloped directly over to her.
“Hi!” the little girl replied.
“Want to play cafes with me?”
“Oh, yes please!”
“Yay!”
“My name’s Lizzie.”
“My name’s Stella.”
“I’m five.”
“I’m five and three quarters.”
“Have you got any brothers or sisters?” Lizzie asked.
“Yeah, I have a baby named Arlo. He’s still asleep at home though with Mummy,” Stella replied.
“Oh. I don’t have any brothers or sisters. I really want one, but, I asked Mummy and Daddy, and they both said no.”
“Oh. Well, maybe after we play cafes, we can build you a brother or sister out of twigs?”
“Okay!” Lizzie replied cheerily.
At this, Charlie felt a pair of eyes on him, and turned to see Mr Sexface Hunk of DILF Daddylicious Man Meat on the bench next to him, looking directly at him, and as their eyes met, the man smiled, a rosy, glowing smile that lit up his whole face, and nodded politely at Charlie.
Charlie felt himself flushing up bubblegum pink and nodded back at the man, as casually as he could muster. The last thing he needed was an unrequited crush on a married father or a bout of flirtatious banter while he was meant to be acting as the responsible caregiver to his niece.
He redirected his attention back at the two girls.
“Let’s make blueberry pancakes,” Lizzie began. “My daddy makes really good blueberry pancakes, but ours will be even the yummiest of all in the whole world.”
“Okay,” Stella replied.
“I’ll be the chef for our first game, okay? And you can be my sous chef. Then we can swap for the lunch service,” Lizzie suggested.
“What’s a soup chef?” Stella asked.
“Sous chef,” Lizzie corrected her. “It's French. It means the helper chef to the main chef.”
“You speak French?”
“Yeah, my dad's French, and he speaks to me a lot in French,” Lizzie replied, and Charlie took the opportunity to shoot another sly glance at the man on the other bench, who was now even hotter now that Charlie could apply a French language filter to him.
Oui oui, monsieur, Charlie thought to himself, and tried not to laugh. Sometimes he swore he was still fifteen instead of thirty-seven.
“Ah, that's cool,” Stella replied. “Right-o, main chef, here are the ingredients you need for the pancakes. Flour,” Stella bent over and scooped up a pile of woodchips and dumped them on the counter of the play countertop, “milk,” she then found a leaf and tossed it on top of the woodchips, “and don’t forget the coconut.”
“Silly billy!” Lizzy squealed. “You don’t need coconut to make pancakes!”
The two girls erupted in giggles and they spend the next few minutes whispering clandestinely. Charlie would have usually opened his phone and begun scrolling Insta by now, but they were just too much fun to watch together.
“It’s ready!” Lizzie announced, after another moment, and she threw one of her hairclips on top of the pile as some sort of garnish.
“Let’s take the customers’ orders!” Stella exclaimed.
“What customers? We don’t have any customers!”
“Dad!” Lizzie yelled.
“Uncle Charlie!” Stella yelled at the same time.
“Will you be our customers?” the two girls yelled in unison.
Charlie looked at the man, at Lizzie’s dad, and they gave each other an embarrassed little shrug.
“Shall we?” the man asked Charlie, rising out of his bench.
“Knowing Stella, we don’t have a choice,” Charlie replied, smiling at him, mimicking his action of standing up.
They both trudged over to the play equipment, where there was an impossibly tiny plastic table and two chairs affixed to the ground. Charlie tried to fold his long legs under the table as elegantly as he possibly could, while Lizzie’s dad, who was a really big guy — like, knows-how-to-throw-a-punch big, like, can-flip-you-over-in-bed-without-even-trying big — wrestled himself onto the chair in a somewhat ungainly fashion.
“I’m Nick,” the man said, his smile still glued to this face, as he held out his hand to Charlie.
Charlie shook his hand and smiled back at him. “Charlie.”
“Good morning! This is a café, and you two are friends out for breakfast,” Lizzie announced, her hand curled as though holding a pencil, poised at the open palm 'notepad' of her other hand. “What would you like to order?”
“I’ll have a cup of tea, please,” Nick said, looking fondly at his daughter.
“No, Daddy!” Lizzie scolded. “We don’t have tea. This is a blueberry pancake café. Order properly, please”
“Oh. Okay,” Nick replied good-naturedly. “Well, I suppose I’ll have the blueberry pancakes please. With maple syrup.”
Lizzie turned to Charlie to take his order. She was a very sweet little girl, with a kind face, and her Dad’s big brown eyes. She was wearing an Iron Man t-shirt, a purple tulle skirt, rather garish spotted red-and-white tights, and sparkly gold gumboots.
She must insist on dressing herself, like Stella does, Charlie thought affectionately.
“And for you, serve?” Lizzie asked Charlie.
“'Serve?'” Charlie looked at Nick, hopeful for a translation.
“She means, ‘sir,’” Nick chuckled.
“Oh!” Charlie giggled. “Well, um, I…”
“I hear the blueberry pancakes are really good,” Nick whispered to Charlie, and winked at him. If Charlie had been standing he was sure he would have felt his knees go weak.
“I’ll have blueberry pancakes too, please. Also with maple syrup.”
“Okay, two plates of pancakes,” Lizzie repeated, nodding at Stella in confirmation of the order. “Coming right up.”
“With maple syrup!” Nick and Charlie said at the same time, and smiled at each other.
Charlie opened his mouth to ask Nick a question, some sort of G-rated, child-friendly variation of 'so, you come here often?' which he hoped to make sound as unhorny as possible given the circumstances, when the two girls popped up by their side again.
“Here you go. Two helpings of pancakes,” Stella said, presenting two large bits of tree bark with a flourish in front of Nick and Charlie.
“Tap here, please,” Lizzie piped up, holding out the flat of her palm. “That’ll be fifty pounds.”
“Fifty pounds?!” Charlie said, feigning shock, stifling a laugh. He pressed his hand into his chest as though deeply affronted.
“The maple syrup costs extra,” Stella said, her face a mask of seriousness.
Nick shifted as though reaching for his back pocket. He pulled out his phone. “Inflation, am I right?” he said to Charlie.
“Oh, this country’s going downhill fast,” Charlie beamed at him.
Nick laughed, and used his phone to go 'tap,' on Lizzie’s palm.
“Mmm, sorry. That didn’t work,” Lizzie frowned at her father. “You don’t have enough money, Dad. You must have spent it all on glitter and cupcakes.”
“Huh," Nick smiled to himself, an amused and happy expression awash on his face. "Yeah, I suppose I did! Well, I do really like glitter and cupcakes.”
“You only have enough money for one helping of pancakes,” Lizzie told Nick.
“You’re going to have to share!” Stella swiped away Charlie’s piece of bark, as she and Lizzie scuttled back to the café, giggling to themselves.
Nick picked up his piece of bark and pretended to take a bite. He sighed deeply, as though downcast, and handed it to Charlie.
“They forgot the maple syrup,” he whispered, pretending to sound disappointed.
Charlie giggled — god, this guy was so cute and funny — he felt a hot rush of something stirring up inside.
Oh no.
Tori was going to dine out on this story for months.
My clucky idiot brother took my daughter to the park and within ten minutes fell in love with a straight, married dad.
“So, you all get up early in your house too?” Nick asked Charlie, as Stella and Lizzie busied themselves at the slides.
“Well, sort of,” replied Charlie, smiling at this beautiful man. “Any normal Saturday and you wouldn’t find me awake before at least ten. But at the moment, I’m staying with my sister and her kids while her partner is away for work. Arlo, Stella’s little brother, is only six months old, so my sister couldn’t look after them alone for so long. Our parents moved to Costa Del Sol when they retired.”
“That is so nice of you to stay with them!” Nick said, in this warm, rich voice that made Charlie feel all melty.
“Apart from the five thirty A.M. wake ups, it’s such a joy, honestly. I love kids. Being an uncle is amazing.” Charlie paused, and tried to think of a question for Nick, but he was feeling a little tongue-tied. “So, um, I guess you all get up early in your house as well?”
“Yeah,” Nick said, stretching his hands over his head. Charlie tried to keep his eyes on Nick’s face rather than taking a peek at his chest or stomach. “Lizzie is usually up around five. I’m used to it now. Even on the weeks she doesn’t stay with me, I still find myself getting up at five anyway.”
“‘Stays with you?’” Charlie echoed, confused.
“Yeah. Gemma and I are divorced, so I only have Lizzie every other week,” Nick seemed to be watching Charlie closely as he said this. Charlie wondered why? “And I get to look after her throughout the whole school holidays, ‘cause I’m a teacher, but Gemma works in an office, and can’t get that much time off.”
Okay, so a crush on a single straight father is ever-so slightly less mortifying than a crush on a married straight father.
Marginally more morally acceptable at any rate.
“Do you live close by?” Charlie asked, hoping this was not too personal a question. He was sifting through his brain, searching fruitlessly for respectable conversation topics that didn’t involve complimenting Nick on the way his reddish hair was flecked with strands of gold, or offering to show him a whole new world on a magic carpet ride through the sultry evening air of Istanbul.
“Oh yeah, just around the corner. We come to this playground all the time.”
“Ah, right. My sister lives just on Fleming Road.”
“Oh, cool!” Nick’s smile was as cheery as a sunbeam. “So, on your way home today, you know the big beech tree, at the start of that road? If you look closely, just above head height, Lizzie and I engraved our names there last year. I’d be curious to know if they’re still there — we haven’t walked past that road in a while.”
Charlie’s heart did a little swoop as he smiled back at Nick, who had not broken his gaze for a few minutes now. “That’s so sweet! Of course I’ll take a look.”
“Uncle Charlie?” Charlie was just able to bear tearing his eyes off Nick for long enough to regard his niece, who was standing beside him, holding hands with Lizzie. “Can we go to Lizzie’s house for breakfast? She invited me.”
“Oh, um,” Charlie glazed up with a blush, and moved to stand up awkwardly. He and Nick locked eyes for a second but both their gazes fell away to the floor promptly. How embarrassing. “Stelly, no, I don’t think so. We should probably get going. Mum will be up with Arlo by now.”
“Yeah,” Nick looked rather flustered. Naturally. Nobody wants want two total strangers in his house at eight in the morning to cook them breakfast. “Yeah Liz, we had better get going too.”
“Oh, okay,” Stella said, accepting Charlie’s direction without argument, thank goodness. “Well, bye Lizzie!”
“Bye, Stella! Can I have a cuddle?”
“Yes! I love cuddles!”
The two girls gave each other a big hug, giggling and squealing as they bounced up and down, holding one another.
Charlie glanced back up at Nick, who was already looking at him. How to say goodbye in the face of such an affectionate farewell unfolding at their feet?
“Ah, um, well, it was nice to meet you, Nick,” Charlie stuck out his hand for Nick to shake, which he did.
“It was lovely to meet you, Charlie,” Nick replied, in a tone that was a little more fond and soft than Charlie’s, and Charlie wished he wasn't so awkward. “Look out for that engraving for me on the way home, yeah?”
“I promise,” Charlie smiled, and reluctantly let go of Nick’s hand.
On their way home, Charlie and Stella stopped at the beech tree. He smiled and sighed happily, staring at the engraving, which was faint, and said “N+L,” surrounded by a love heart.
🛝🍃
“Did you two have a nice time at the park then?” asked Tori over breakfast half an hour later, as she fed Arlo his bottle.
“I did,” Stella replied, arranging her toast crusts in a star shape. “I made a new friend. Her name is Lizzie and her favourite animal is a possum and she has her own pair of tap shoes. Uncle Charlie had a nice time too.”
“Oh yes?” Tori asked.
“Yes. He made a friend too. Lizzie’s daddy.”
“Is that right?” Tori raised an eyebrow at Charlie.
“Well, I wouldn’t say we’re friends yet,” Charlie interjected.
“Why not?” Stella demanded.
“We only just met!” Charlie said, trying to keep his blush under control in front of Tori.
“But, do you like him?” Stella insisted, staring at him with her shiny blue eyes.
“Well, yeah, he was nice,” Charlie admitted.
“So, there. So that means you’re friends,” Stella said triumphantly.
“It’s not the same with adults as with kids, sweetie,” Charlie tried to explain. He should definitely have brewed more coffee this morning. “Adults take longer to make friends.”
“Well, just how long is it going to take for you to make friends with Lizzie's dad?”
“I don’t know. A little while.”
“Well, I don’t see why if you think Lizzie’s daddy is nice, and he thinks you are nice, then, why you aren’t friends? We could have been having breakfast with them instead by now.”
“They invited you for breakfast?” Tori interjected, her eyebrows shooting up.
“No,” Charlie replied, wondering how he had suddenly become the subject of the Spanish inquisition over breakfast. “Lizzie, Lizzie, the little girl, she invited us, but, the dad stepped in and talked her out of it. Thank god.”
“How long will it take you to be ready to have breakfast with Lizzie and her daddy?” Stella demanded, frowning at her uncle.
“I dunno, Stels. We might not even ever see them again.”
Stella gasped, as though horrified. “But Lizzie is my best friend!”
“I’ll add her to the list,” Tori mumbled under her breath, smiling at her daughter, who was identical to Michael in every particular.
Ten minutes later, after Stella had parked herself in front of Paw Patrol, Charlie helped Tori stack the dishwasher while Arlo gnawed on a rubber giraffe in his high chair, watching them.
“So, we vibing on Lizzie’s dad, or what?” Tori asked.
“Well, he did have a bit of a Taron Egerton-y vibe about him, it can’t be denied,” Charlie smiled at his sister.
“Orientation? Marital status?”
“Straight. Ex-wife. It’s fine, Tori, honestly, it made for a nice change to have a bit of pre-9am eye candy.”
“Mmm hmm,” Tori said in that irritating, knowing, non-committal way of hers, as she shut the dishwasher door and pressed the button to switch it on. “Well, maybe when you see him again at the playground tomorrow morning, you’ll have more information to go off.”
“Who said I’m going back to that playground tomorrow morning?”
“Oh, please. We all know you’re going back to that playground tomorrow morning.”
🛝🍃
Charlie and Stella did, in fact, go back to that same park the next morning.
And the next morning.
And the next morning.
And for five mornings in a row, actually, sometimes staying for almost two hours.
And each morning, Nick and Lizzie were there too, sometimes arriving five or ten minutes after Charlie and Stella did, sometimes before. And each morning, Nick and Charlie had a wonderful chat, sitting at the tiny play table, while Stella and Lizzie flitted around them like two sweet little gnats, serving them piles of dirt masquerading as croissants (Nick sounded adorable when he pronounced the word ‘croissant,’ in a proper French accent. He told Lizzie and Stella it was blasphemous to serve croissants with melted cheese on them, and grumbled to Charlie that the staff at this café were just too young) and making them ‘cappuccinos’ out of puddle water (Charlie pretended to spit out his drink, exclaiming ‘hey, this isn’t soy!,’ which made Nick giggle) and just generally providing some excellent entertainment to accompany Nick and Charlie’s talks, which were pleasant and fun and interesting and just downright lovely.
They talked about a charming variety of pleasantries: where they each grew up, what they did for work, favourite holidays they’d been on, favourite movies and books, swapped stories about cute and annoying things Stella and Lizzie did.
Charlie found he was in lockstep with Nick with so many things, and it didn’t take him long to learn that Nick was an excessively kind, gentle, patient, intelligent man, who loved his daughter and was hardworking and saw the world in much the same way Charlie did.
On the third morning, the four of them played a game of chasing around the play equipment. After the girls had served them their blueberry pancakes (they forgot the maple syrup again; Nick made Charlie laugh when he threatened to leave them a bad Google review), Charlie and Nick ate them all up, then ran away without paying for them. The girls ran after them, screeching with delight, chasing them up the rock climbing wall and across the rickety footbridge and down the slide and then back up the tower, where Nick extended his hand to Charlie and said, “quick, Charlie, up here with me!” and the two of them held hands for the tiniest of seconds while they huddled up in the tower, while the girls scampered up to try and catch them.
Charlie couldn’t remember ever having had so much fun.
And at the end of each morning, when Stella or Lizzie started complaining of being hungry, one or both of the girls would beg Charlie or Nick to go to the other’s house for breakfast, which was a little awkward, in spite of the increasingly fun and intimate banter between them, and both men continued to inelegantly sidestep the issue and make vague promises of 'maybe some other time' to the kids.
Each morning, on their way back to Tori’s house, Charlie stared at the engraving Nick and his daughter had made on the beech tree at the end of Tori’s street, and, each morning, the bundle of butterflies dancing around in his belly grew ever more active and joyful and more numerous, as he imagined some day etching a similar love heart with “N+C” inside.
He replayed all the interactions to Tori each morning when they returned, who seemed positive Nick was queer, but Charlie was unwilling to allow himself this faraway and dizzying hope. He lay in wait for more clues on the subject.
On the fifth morning at the park, Nick and Charlie were sitting side by side on the bench, watching the girls on the see-saw, when their conversation about their favourite memories of their grandparents hit a natural lull, and they tuned in instead into what Lizzie and Stella were discussing.
“Do you have a boyfriend or a girlfriend?” Lizzie asked Stella, as the two of them alternated going up and down and up and down.
“Nope,” Stella replied. “Do you?”
“Yeah. I have a boyfriend. His name is Declan. He knows how to hop on one foot.”
“Oh, cool. I’ve never had a boyfriend or a girlfriend,” Stella replied.
“It’s okay, you’re still young. You’ll meet someone. There's still plenty of animals in the zoo,” Lizzie nodded knowingly.
Charlie glanced at Nick, who was stifling his giggles up until this point, then as soon as he locked eyes with Charlie, they spilled out of his mouth like music, and Charlie laughed and laughed too.
“Where do they get this stuff?” Charlie asked, shaking his head and affectionately rolling his eyes at Nick.
“Who kno—” Nick began to reply, when he was cut off by Stella, who was calling out to them.
“—hey, Lizzie’s dad, do you have a boyfriend or girlfriend?”
Charlie’s upper brain became momentarily seized by fear and paranoia.
God, what if Nick thought he had prompted Stella to ask that question?!
And he suddenly instantly regretting conspiring with Michael and Tori to make sure Stella knew that people can fall in love with whomever they like, and it doesn’t matter if they’re boys or girls.
What if Nick took offence to the inference he was gay?!
Admittedly, Charlie didn’t think Nick was the type of person who would necessarily mind, but, you never know — straight guys can get weird about things like that, after all!
Charlie quickly swallowed down some dread.
“Stella,” Charlie intercepted before Nick had a chance to respond, although he had opened his mouth like he was ready to answer the question. “That’s not a polite question to ask somebody.”
“But Lizzie asked me!” Stella protested.
“Yeah, but you two are kids,” Charlie made up this alleged social custom in real time to try and guide Stella away from further questions. “It’s rude to ask an adult that question.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s private information.”
Stella screwed up her nose at Charlie. “So, you don’t want Lizzie’s dad to know you don’t have a boyfriend?”
Charlie chuckled in a half-hollow, nervous manner, his throat tightening up, and his face flared up with heat. He wished that the heavens would open and that the Archangel Gay-briel would descend to earth, bundle him up in his arms, and take him somewhere secluded to die a slow and painful death by embarrassment.
“I think it’s time for us to go,” Charlie stood up and tried to reassert some authority. They’d been there for almost an hour anyway, Nick was likely sick of Charlie droning on at him about this and that. “Come on, Stella, let’s go. Double time.”
“But Uncle Chaaaarrrrrlieeeeeee,” Stella whined, but hopped off the see-saw all the same.
“Oh, you’re leaving,” Nick stood as he said this. Charlie thought he sounded disappointed.
“Yeah, I think we’d better,” Charlie said. Nick was just staring at him, his eyes so soft and kind.
“In case it…” Nick began to say to Charlie, then bit his lip and shook his head, as though thinking the better of it.
Then, he ducked down on his knees, so he was eye-level with Stella.
“To answer your question sweetie,” Nick said to her, a small smile on his face. “I don’t have a boyfriend or a girlfriend. But, there is a really cute boy who I have a crush on at the moment. I’m just a little nervous to tell him, because we only met a few days ago, and I’m not sure how he feels about me. Also, I was convinced that somebody like him was bound to be taken.”
Charlie had to grab at the back of the park bench to prevent himself falling over.
His mouth dropped open and he stared at Nick, who was not looking at him, and was, instead, concentrating on his conversation with Stella.
“You should just tell him,” Stella said, and Charlie made a mental note to buy Stella a pony for her next birthday. “You’re a nice man. I’m sure he will like you back. Then you can have a true love’s kiss and invite me to your wedding.”
“Yeah, Daddy, you should definitely tell him. You’re not getting any younger,” Lizzie chimed in.
Nick smiled widely at the two little girls in front of him, and stood up slowly, bringing his eyes to meet Charlie’s, who was just standing there, gawping at him.
“You know, I think you kids are probably right,” Nick said, the smiling not leaving his face. “I probably should just be brave and tell him.”
Charlie was staring at Nick, and the two of them were just beaming like simpletons, when Charlie felt a small hand tugging at the hem of his jumper.
“Uncle Charlie,” Stella cupped her hand around her mouth and whispered loudly up to Charlie. “Can Lizzie and Lizzie’s dad please come over for breakfast today? Puh-lease?”
“Uh…um,” Charlie stammered, redirecting his gaze to Nick, who was still smiling encouragingly at him. “Look um…yeah. Only if it’s okay with Lizzie’s dad, though. It’s pretty late notice.”
“Please Daddy, puh-lease,” Lizzie held out her hands, clasped together, and shook them at Nick beseechingly. “Please can we go to Stella’s house for breakfast?”
“Um, yeah. That would be lovely, thanks Charlie and Stella,” Nick grinned.
“YAY!” the girls yelped in sync, jumping up and down clapping their hands, which is sort of what Charlie felt like doing too, to be fair.
🛝🍃
Charlie made blueberry pancakes for everyone.
Nick declared them to be the best he’d ever had, but, Charlie was pretty sure Nick just had nice manners. Lizzie said they were good, but not as good as her dad’s, and that, next time, Charlie and Stella (and Tori and baby Arlo too) had to come to their house so that they could try Nick’s and judge for themselves. Nick cooed over Arlo, and asked Tori if he could hold him, and Tori said he was welcome to try, warning that Arlo tended not to take kindly to strangers. But Arlo sat contentedly on Nick’s lap while Nick fed him tiny bits of pancake with a tiny fork, and Charlie didn’t think that any human being had ever looked so gorgeous whilst holding a baby, and he watched Nick with stars in his eyes. Lizzie and Stella chatted non-stop, combing Stella’s Barbie’s hair while they ate, getting maple syrup stuck in there in the process, and Nick suggested a hair salon appointment for Barbie at the kitchen sink after breakfast, which they both loved. Tori and Nick had an excessively civil conversation, considering it was so early in the morning, and considering that Tori was, well, Tori, and Charlie watched on happily as Nick insisted to Tori that he and Lizzie clear the table when they were finished breakfast, and Tori smiled at him, which she tended not to do with new people she met until she’d known them for at least a year or so, so, Charlie took that as a positive signal that Tori liked Nick. That, and the fact that while Nick helped Lizzie stack the dishes in a neat pile next to the sink, she flashed Charlie two thumbs up, and then announced in a loud voice she needed help from at two volunteers to water Michael’s hollyhocks in the garden, and who was going to come and hold the watering can for her? She ushered Stella and Lizzie out the back door, holding Arlo on her hip as she followed them out, leaving Nick and Charlie in the kitchen.
The room was thick with silence in the absence of the children.
Charlie was still sitting at the kitchen table, and Nick was standing near the sink, next to the pile of dirty dishes, looking down at Charlie.
It was the first time they had ever been alone.
Charlie stood up purposefully, hearing the scrape of his chair on the kitchen floor as he pushed it back.
He walked over slowly to where Nick was standing, and stood at the sink beside him.
The kitchen overlooked the back garden, and there was a large window above the sink, to see out onto the vibrant green grass, dotted with clover, the weathered wooden shed painted in soft blue, with rusty old garden tools hanging by hooks on the door, a small plastic red slide for the kids, and the climbing ivy on the trellis.
For a moment, Charlie simply looked out onto the garden, at Tori helping Stella and Lizzie water the drooping hollyhocks, some of which were deep purple, and others which were red with yellow throats. Nick was standing beside him, but was leaning against the sink, still facing the kitchen table, where Charlie had just been sitting a moment earlier.
The fact that neither he or Nick weren’t saying anything made Charlie feel as though a spell had been cast all over the room.
All Charlie was aware of was the lingering smell of butter and sugar in the room, of the squeaks of delight he could hear emanating from the garden, and of Nick, who was turning around ever so slowly, his breathing slowed to a lull. Charlie dipped his gaze downwards, towards Nick, to watch as Nick positioned himself just behind Charlie.
Then, he felt as Nick’s hands moved leisurely towards his waist, where Nick cuddled up to Charlie from behind, wrapping his arms around Charlie, while Charlie gasped, and melted backwards into Nick’s touch, and let his head fall against Nick’s chest, while Nick lowered his head and nuzzled up into the space where Charlie’s neck met his shoulder.
They looked out the window together for a moment like this, at the beautiful scene in front of them.
After a few more seconds, Charlie felt Nick’s fringe fall on his collarbone. Charlie reached up and stroked Nick’s freckled forearms, hugging himself on top of Nick’s arms, and breathed deeply, enjoying the warmth of Nick’s strong body, closing his eyes, and moaning softly as Nick ran the tip of his nose up the length of Charlie’s neck, before giving Charlie a whisper-sweet kiss, just underneath his earlobe.
“By the way,” Nick murmured to Charlie, his smile evident in his voice, in the thudding beat of his heart, which Charlie could feel, pressed against his upper back. “Just in case I hadn’t already made it completely obvious: the cute boy I have a crush on is you.”
Charlie giggled, euphoria washing through him like a waterfall. He turned around to face Nick, and looked up at him adoringly. Nick’s eyes fell to Charlie’s lips, and Charlie brought his hands up around the back of Nick’s neck and kissed him, while Nick held his waist, running his thumbs just under Charlie’s jumper.
“Would you like to stay for lunch, too?” Charlie asked Nick when they broke away from their kiss, by which of course he meant, would you like to stay forever?