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“Mmm. Don’t even think about trying to pay when the bill comes.” Buck leaned across the table towards Tommy, who had a particularly bad habit of never letting Buck pay for anything when they went out. Buck set his wallet on the table to show he meant business.
“Come, I…You paid for takeout last night,” Tommy protested. God, he looked so good tonight. Okay sure, Tommy always looked good, and it wasn’t like he was particularly dressed up, just another one of his endless henley/flannel combos, but maybe it was the hair. Something about it made Buck just want to dig his fingers in and never let go.
“Well, tonight is special,” said Buck. “Do you know why?” He smiled and tilted his head.
Tommy almost kept a straight face, but Buck could tell he desperately wanted to roll his eyes in that fond way he had, the one that made Buck feel more than a little adored. “So, I’m going to guess,” Tommy began, reaching for something on the chair next to him. “It’s our six-month anniversary.” He produced a box the size of one of the encyclopedias Buck’s parents used to have a full set of. The one’s he’d sneak looks at when it was too rainy to do anything outside and Maddie was out with Doug. Tommy set the box on the table in front of Buck. How had he snuck that in without Buck noticing?
“I-I didn’t get you anything.” And God, Buck felt like such an idiot. Tommy was so sweet and thoughtful and of course he’d known what today was and he’d thought far enough ahead and gotten Buck a gift.
“You’re paying for dinner,” Tommy pointed out.
“Right.” Buck laughed at himself. At least he hadn’t forgotten to get Tommy something for their one-year anniversary. For six months, he could get away with footing the dinner bill, right? God, sometimes being with Tommy it felt like he’d forgotten how to make the big romantic gestures he’d used to make. Like, he’d booked a hot air balloon ride for Abby when they were barely a month into dating. He knew how to be the romantic boyfriend. Maybe it was because he was so comfortable with Tommy. Maybe it was because for once he had a partner who wanted to take care of him as much as – if not more than – Buck wanted to take care of him. Though, maybe Buck could step up his game a little bit more. It wouldn’t do to start taking Tommy for granted.
It was just that for the first time in a relationship it felt like it was enough for Buck to just be himself.
“Um. Wow. Okay.” Buck reached for the box and pulled out two tickets. “Lakers tickets? No way.” Buck may have hated playing basketball – it brought out his worst, most aggressive tendencies, as evidenced by Eddie’s sprained ankle – but he had fun watching it. And who wouldn’t want to go to a game in-person?
“And you don’t even have to take me,” said Tommy. “Take Eddie if you want.”
“Uh…” Buck fixed Tommy with one of his more confused expressions because Tommy loved basketball. Heck Buck could barely get his attention whenever there was a game on. That despite the fact that at any other given time Buck could look over and find Tommy just staring at him with an expression that made Buck’s heart swell with warmth and his stomach flip despite six months having passed. “Really?”
“And die,” said Tommy in that totally sincere, deadpan way he had that drove Buck just a little bit crazy. Okay, it drove Buck more than a little crazy. It made Buck want to crack open Tommy’s chest, entwine himself around Tommy’s heart and lungs, and never leave.
Buck laughed. “Okay, that sounds right.”’ He smiled down at the tickets. God, Tommy had put so much effort into getting them tickets, into planning another thing for them to do together and Buck had what? Offered to pay for dinner? He had a lot to make up for when their full anniversary came round. At least he had six months to start planning the perfect one-year anniversary extravaganza. Buck tucked the tickets back in the box and set it aside. “Okay. Well, thank you.” He looked up to find Tommy gazing at him with so much crinkle-nosed affection Buck wasn’t quite sure what to do with the emotions it stirred.
He only knew that those emotions were enormous and intimate, and he wanted to shout them from the rooftops at the same time he wanted to curl them to his chest and keep them as a secret for only himself and he didn’t even have the words to describe what they were because he’d never felt this way before.
“I am so sorry to bother you guys.” A woman in a little black dress walked up to their table. She touched Buck’s shoulder, which was weird. “Do you mind taking a picture for us? We’re having a girls’ night to celebrate my friend Sarah’s divorce. Don’t worry he sucked.”
She pointed over at a table of women and Buck followed her gaze as Tommy waved at them, the most hilarious bemused expression on his face. Buck would’ve laughed at him if he hadn’t been feeling a bit confused by the fact that this woman had walked up to two people who were clearly on a date and then acted all flirty and now her friends were waving all flirtatiously at Buck and he wasn’t entirely sure what to do.
“We wanna get one of all of us together.” Buck looked back at the woman who was now eying him up and down with a little smile like she liked what she saw. Which was flattering and she was definitely his type, but it was a little rude to do in front of his boyfriend.
Buck thought back to their first date – at this same restaurant – when he’d been so nervous and Tommy had reassured him that no one was looking at them, that they were just two guys having dinner. Is that what they looked like? Just two dudes hanging out platonically having dinner? Or was it just that people tended to assume heterosexuality unless it was explicitly stated otherwise. Which, Buck understood because hey, he’d assumed he was straight right up until Tommy had kissed him.
Still, it made him sad that this stranger couldn’t see the fact that he was sitting here thinking about spending another six months with the guy across from him. So, he said, “Um, we’re actually here for our anniversary.”
The woman’s eyes widened in surprise, though it was fleeting. “Oh. Oh my God, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have assumed.” For the first time, she really seemed to look at them together, not as individuals and she smiled. “You guys make a really great couple,” she said.
“Uh, thanks,” Buck said and he couldn’t help but tilt his head and smile and sigh, staring into Tommy’s eyes as he did so. He reached across the table and squeezed Tommy’s hand on impulse.
Tommy smiled that big crinkly smile of his and squeezed back before turning to the woman and said, “Tell you what, how about we trade? You take a picture of us, and we’ll get one of you and your friends?”
“Yeah, that’s perfect,” the woman said.
Buck couldn’t get his phone out of his pocket fast enough, fumbling it as he unlocked it, opened the camera and handed it over.
“Okay, lean a little closer together,” the woman said, angling Buck’s phone.
Buck smiled at Tommy as they both leaned over the table until their foreheads were almost touching. For a moment, Buck got lost in Tommy’s eyes almost forgetting that they were supposed to be getting their picture taken until he heard the camera shutter sound.
He turned towards the woman, blinking.
“Okay, you guys are seriously adorable together,” she said. “I can’t believe I thought you were out for bros’ night.” She shook her head incredulously. “Now let’s get one of you looking at the camera.”
Tommy chuckled and so did Buck as they both smiled and looked towards the camera.
After a few seconds, the woman said, “Perfect.” She handed Buck’s phone back to him and before Buck could stand to return the favour, Tommy was already on his feet accepting the woman’s phone. He followed her over to where her friends were waiting and maybe Buck paid more attention to how good his boyfriend’s ass looked in those jeans than to the women posing for the camera.
When Tommy returned, Buck reached for his hand again, never wanting to let go.
Tommy smiled. “You know, I had a bit of a horrific vision when that woman first came over,” he said.
“Really?” Buck said.
“Yeah,” Tommy shook his head. “She started flirting with you and you were trying so hard not to flirt back, but I could tell you thought she was hot – not that there’s anything wrong with looking.”
Buck shook his head. “I mean, yeah she’s my type but you’re the only one I was looking at.”
Tommy grinned. “Anyway, my brain went on a bit of a spiral. We had a whole conversation about you not knowing what the Kinsey scale was.” He shook his head in disbelief.
Buck rolled his eyes because he had Googled the shit out of the Kinsey scale in between their first date and Tommy agreeing to be his date to Maddie’s wedding. While he could see that it was imperfect system that didn’t take all of the nuances of sexuality and asexuality into account, it had been a useful tool for Buck to start defining his own sexuality (Kinsey two).
“I know,” said Tommy. “And then for some reason, my brain decided to introduce the scenario of us having dated the same Abby.”
Buck laughed. “Okay, now that would be truly crazy.” They’d had a bit of a chuckle in the early days of their relationship when they’d had the ex-talk and learned that they’d both dated someone named Abby. Well, Tommy had almost married his Abby and Buck had felt a little weird about that, but hey, he’d done enough research and talked with Tommy enough to understand that internalised homophobia and compulsory heterosexuality had played a huge role in that relationship.
So, Buck had gotten over it because hadn’t his own internal biases kept him from realising he was bisexual until Tommy had kissed him?
“Not to mention a little weird,” said Tommy.
Buck laughed as their server brought the check, quickly putting his card in the book before Tommy could beat him to it. “Happy six months!” he said.
“Here’s to six more,” said Tommy, cocking his head.
Buck grinned. “You know I love you right?” he said. It just sort of slipped out. But six months wasn’t too soon for that was it? They were both adults in a high-risk line of work. What was the point of holding back?
Tommy’s eyes widened in surprise before his entire being softened. “I love you too, Evan.”
Buck smiled and sighed and barely managed to keep himself from launching into a whole spiel about them moving in together and getting married and having kids.
That could wait ‘til their one-year anniversary.
Maybe.