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Fate hates Noah. That much is clear to him. Why would he be in this situation otherwise? At this very moment he stands in the doorframe of his apartment staring out at the man standing on his doorstep. That man was Alejandro Burromuerto, and Noah could honestly say he’d never expected to see him again.
Alejandro is Noah’s ex boyfriend. They started dating in high school, and one day Alejandro just…broke things off with him. No explanation given. It had devastated Noah. Even now two years later seeing him rubbed those feelings raw. Needless to say, Noah was not happy to see him.
“What are you doing here? In fact, how did you find where I live?” Noah asked.
“I looked it up online?” Alejandro replied as though it was obvious. Now that he’d said it Noah almost felt embarrassed. Alejandro knew his full name, of course he could look him up. “As for why I’m here…I didn’t know where else to go. My parents kicked me out.”
Noah winced. It was three days until Christmas, and now was when his parents decided to kick him out? “So you came to me? Don’t you have like a million girls who would love to have you stay with them?”
The Spaniard sighed. “I haven’t really gotten to know any of them the way I know you, and well it didn’t feel like the right thing to do.”
Noah raised an eyebrow. “Alejandro, I happen to know you’re a manipulative bastard. How do I know this isn’t some ploy to get my guard down?”
Alejandro sighed. “I can see how you’d come to that conclusion, but I swear I’m genuine. You know, I’ve been thinking about you a lot. How I left things. I think I owe you an explanation.”
Noah paused. He had expected Alejandro to pull some cheesy line about thinking of him. That would have been simple to brush off, even if he did admittedly hold some feelings. What he couldn’t brush off was the other thing. Alejandro was offering an explanation for their break up.
Some people dream of their ex coming back and pleading with them to take them back. While Noah had some of these directly after the break up, it wasn’t long before he was past that. One thing he’d never gotten past though, was the desire to know why their breakup had happened. Sure he’d tried to tell himself that Alejandro was just a jerk but it felt like more than that.
Moreover, it was Christmas, a time of year when people have a tendency to be more open and honest. The time of year where people did reflect back on their actions, and want to make amends. So perhaps Alejandro was being genuine.
Noah sighed hoping he wouldn’t regret this. “Fine, you can come in.”
“Gracias Noah, I-” Alejandro began.
“Yeah save the verbose speech about how grateful you are and get in here before I change my mind.” Noah huffed.
The Spaniard smirked. “Still the same Noah. I always found that kind of refreshing.”
“Whatever. Just sit down on the couch.” The cynic said.
Alejandro did as he was bid and Noah sat down next to him. The couch was a cushy three cushion affair in red.
“Not a lot of decorations.” The Spaniard noted.
“I didn’t let you in to judge the decor. What’s this explanation?” Noah asked.
Alejandro gave him an apologetic smile. “I do apologize, but can I trouble you for a cup of coffee? I am quite cold.”
Normally Noah wouldn’t give the Spaniard the time of day let alone a cup of coffee, but if he was honest he was cold too. Plus if he got them coffee he’d have something hot to throw at Alejandro if his explanation wasn’t good.
“Fine. You stay here.” Noah told him.
As Noah prepared the coffee he took a moment to gather himself. Sure, Alejandro was getting time to brush up on his story, but he was getting him to calm himself. If there was one thing he refused to do it was get upset in front of his ex.
By the time he was pouring the coffee Noah had managed to get himself into a more apathetic state of mind. He returned to the living room where Alejandro sat on the couch. “Here.” He handed him the coffee and sat down next to him.
“Gracias,” Alejandro said, taking a sip.
“Now spill.” Noah told him. “It’d better be good.”
“Where to begin?” The Spaniard thought aloud. “I suppose it should be a little before our breakup. You see, I had not told my parents about us.”
That made sense enough. Just because you were openly dating, didn’t mean you’d let everyone know.
“There was a reason for that. I knew they wouldn’t approve of you. I was hoping that I could date the person I truly wanted without getting on their bad side, but it could only last so long. My brother Jose found out eventually, and told my parents.” Alejandro chuckled hollowly.
“Naturally they were furious and immediately told me I needed to end things off with you. I tried to protest, saying that your grades were the highest in the school and pointing out that you were student body president, but they would not hear of it.” The Spaniard sighed. “As I knew they wouldn’t for they would never allow me to date another man.”
At this point Alejandro tearing up. “They threatened to disown me.” He took a long sip of coffee, clearly trying to calm himself.
Noah sighed. “So it was your family or me? And you chose them.” He said, allowing the hurt he felt to come into his voice. While it did make him feel better that Alejandro had been strong armed into breaking up with him, it hurt that he had done so.
“Yes. I was sixteen and I wasn’t sure I could make it on my own. Not only that, but I was naive enough to think that perhaps I could keep my parents' love. So I broke things off with you. I didn’t explain because I was worried you’d try to change my mind and I couldn’t bear that.” Alejandro admitted.
“You have no idea how much that hurt me. All these years I’ve been wondering why you left me. Why someone who seemed so smitten with me do that? After we broke up and you started dating so many girls I tried to convince myself that you were a jerk who’d never loved me. Yet I couldn’t convince myself of that.” Noah told him. It was really cathartic, something he’d been wanting to do for a long time.
“I know. If you’re wondering the reason I had so many short lived relationships with women after our break up, it was because I was trying to convince myself I was doing the right thing.” Alejandro explained. “I figured if I kept trying, eventually I would find a woman who made me feel like you did. Someone my family would accept. I never did.”
“Recently, I’ve been thinking about you. I’ve spent years trying to convince myself that since I’m bi, hiding my inclination towards men to keep my family happy was worth it. It isn’t. I’m still hiding part of who I truly am. So earlier today, I finally told my parents exactly what I thought of their bigoted views.” The Spaniard drank more coffee.
“And that’s why they disowned you.” Noah finished taking a sip of his own coffee. “And why you came to me.”
“Exactly. Look Noah I don’t need to get back together with you. I would like to try to earn enough of your trust to get the chance, but I don’t necessarily expect it to ever happen. I just want to make up for the biggest mistake I’ve made in my life.”
If Alejandro had said anything else Noah would have gotten angry. If he’d tried to seduce him, or acted like they could just go back to how they were, Noah would have kicked him out. He wasn’t doing that though. All he was asking for was a chance to make up for it. If it led to romance eventually then that was fine, but he didn’t need that to happen. Or so he said. This was Alejandro he was talking about.
After a long pause Noah answered. “I’ll give you that chance. Let’s make things clear though. You push me too far, or try to make things happen that I don’t want to and I’ll cut ties. We rebuild our connections at my pace as the injured party.”
Alejandro beamed. “That seems fair enough.” He sighed. “I suppose I should leave.”
“You can stay here for a couple nights.” Noah told him. “It’s Christmas after all; how heartless would I have to be to leave you out on the street with nowhere to go?”
Alejandro smiled. “Gracias.”