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The alarm went off on Aaron’s side of the bed, and Robert crawled across him to switch it off. He collapsed back onto the bed and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. When his boyfriend showed no signs of waking up, Robert pushed his arm.
‘Oi!’ he snapped. ‘You’re the one who set the bloody alarm!’
Aaron grunted and folded the pillow over his ear.
‘Aaron!’
Robert rolled his eyes and slid his hand under the covers, down Aaron’s bare stomach, to his pelvis. Aaron groaned in appreciation.
‘Is this your way of gettin’ me outta bed?’ he slurred, half-asleep, half-hungover.
‘This is the only thing that works,’ Robert said. He stroked his boyfriend until Aaron was writhing on the mattress, the pillow clenched in his hands. ‘Mmm, c’mon, Baby.’ He kissed Aaron’s neck, and smiled when Aaron came over his fist. He pecked him on the lips and grinned. ‘Awake?’
‘Very,’ Aaron said smiling, though his eyes were still closed.
Robert wiped his hand on the duvet and pushed it off him. ‘Come on, then. You have to get ready for the wedding.’
Aaron’s eyes popped open at that. ‘What, you’re not coming with me?’
Robert, sitting on the edge of the bed, turned to face him. ‘Well, it’s a Dingle thing, isn’t it? Y’know, “family only”.’ He put on a broad Yorkshire accent and Aaron laughed.
‘Yeah, and you are family,’ Aaron said matter-of-factly.
Robert grinned. ‘Aaron Dingle, are you inviting me to be a member of your uncouth lot?’
‘Hey, our bar is set really high, you know. Not everyone gets into the Dingle clan!’ Instead of getting up, he crawled to where Robert sat and kissed his shoulder. ‘Besides, it’d be nice for you to see what getting drunk actually means, Mr “I can’t hold my liquor”.’
‘Er, I can hold my liquor just fine, actually,’ Robert said.
Aaron finally got out of bed and grabbed a towel. ‘Yeah, whatever!’ He leaned on the back of the door and looked Robert up and down. ‘I’d invite you to shower with me, but we need to hurry.’
‘It’s alright. You carry on. Hey,’ he grabbed Aaron’s attention again. ‘You sure that I’ll be welcome there? At the wedding?’
‘Course you will. I’ll make sure you are.’
****
Whilst Robert showered, Aaron dressed so that half an hour later, when Robert emerged from the bathroom, Aaron had already left their room. He mourned the loss of being able to taste his boyfriend’s shower-clean skin, but promised himself that they’d indulge tomorrow. Tonight, if they both weren’t completely plastered.
He wasn’t sure what he felt about going to Zak and Joanie’s wedding. The Dingle clan had all but shunned Zak when he first left Lisa, and it was only recently that they had started to come round, most of it courtesy of Chas who had alerted them to how much Zak meant to them. But whilst he didn’t really care all that much about Dingle politics, he was worried how he’d be treated at the wedding. After all, he had left his wife to be with Aaron. Of course, he and Chrissie hadn’t shared a thirteen year marriage, and she wasn’t the love of his life. He remembered the conversation he and Aaron had had last night, during Zak’s stag do, when Robert had returned from work to find Aaron celebrating with his family.
‘It’s like Lisa stopped existing for him,’ he had said. ‘Like, I dunno, he suddenly forgot about her. Is that what it was like for you and Chrissie? After she kicked you out?’
Robert shifted uncomfortably on his seat. He didn’t like discussing his life with Chrissie with Aaron. Not because he had secrets to keep, or because he was ashamed of it, but because Aaron was his future, and he didn’t want to dwell on his past in that way. ‘It was different for me,’ he said quietly, all too aware of the party going on just a few feet from them, from where they sat close to each other in the corner of the pub. He played with Aaron’s hands, lacing their fingers together, an action he could only get away with in private, or when Aaron had been drinking. ‘I hadn’t been with Chrissie for as long as Zak had with Lisa. And no, she didn’t stop existing for me, but I realised that you matter more to me.’ He shrugged. ‘It must be like that for Zak as well.’
Without realising it, he had already donned his suit. He looked into the mirror and raised his eyebrows. Looked like he was going to the wedding then.
Robert found Aaron downstairs and smiled. He always looked so good in a suit. He walked over to him, stood in the kitchen and making two mugs of coffee. He put his hands on his waist and smiled when Aaron turned his head and kissed him on the cheek.
‘You smell good,’ Aaron said.
‘Yeah? It’s your shower gel.’
Aaron made a soft noise of surprise. ‘It’s never smelled that good on me before.’
Robert grinned. ‘Must be my natural irresistible scent then.’ He laughed when Aaron rolled his eyes.
‘Yeah, that’ll be it, mate.’
Aaron turned and kissed Robert properly, ‘snogging his face off,’ Liv had unattractively put it once. True though. Robert pushed Aaron against the kitchen counter, intent on getting what he hadn’t this morning, or last night when Aaron had collapsed in a drunken heap into bed.
‘Ahem.’
They jumped apart, but Aaron kept his hand on Robert’s shirt sleeve. Chas stood in the doorway, her eyebrow raised but with a smirk playing around the corner of her mouth. ‘Aaron, love, you’re going to be late.’
Aaron frowned. ‘Wedding doesn’t start until the afternoon.’
‘And it’s already almost lunchtime.’ She pointed to his shirt. ‘Besides, you don’t even have a tie.’
He shrugged. ‘I was gonna wear my blue one.’
‘The theme is pink.’ She looked at Robert as if seeing him for the first time. ‘And why are you so dressed up? Big meeting?’
Robert felt Aaron clench his hand tighter on his sleeve. ‘No, I asked him to come to the wedding.’
Chas looked at her son. ‘The wedding?’ she said. ‘You asked Robert to come to the wedding. You know it’s family only, don’t you?’
‘Robert is my family,’ he said. Robert wanted to kiss him then and there, but held off for Aaron’s sake. Aaron shrugged. ‘Besides, it seems like Bailey’s gonna be there, and Belle’s only known him five minutes.’
Chas pursed her lips, clearly unimpressed, but with no adequate reason why Robert shouldn’t be there. ‘Fine,’ she relented. She smiled at Robert: all teeth like a cat who had spied a bird with a broken wing. ‘Have fun with the Southampton Dingles!’ She made to walk off again, and Aaron drew Robert back to him. ‘Oh, Aaron! Tie!’ she said suddenly. Robert sighed in agitation. ‘You need a pink tie!’
‘I don’t own a pink tie; I only have a blue one!’
‘You can borrow mine,’ Robert said.
Aaron smiled. ‘Cheers. There you are, Mum. Happy now?’
She sniffed. ‘S’pose he has his uses,’ but she smiled at Robert all the same.
When she left (properly this time), Robert shook his head. ‘I swear she has schizophrenia sometimes,’ he said with a laugh. Then he caught Aaron’s downturned face and remembered her recent visit to the rehabilitation unit. ‘Sorry. Bad taste.’
Aaron smiled briefly. ‘Nah, you’re alright.’ He kissed him. ‘Bullshit keeps fallin’ out of your mouth without thinkin’ sometimes.’
Robert smirked. ‘I must be a true Dingle then, eh?’
Aaron punched his arm. Robert grabbed him and was about to pull him in for another kiss when they heard Sam’s loud cheer from the pub. ‘Sounds like your family’s here,’ Robert said with a laugh.
‘Yeah.’ Aaron took a mighty gulp of his coffee. ‘Best go and see them.’ He pointed at the next mug. ‘Yours is there, by the way.’
Robert took the coffee and went back upstairs to fetch the tie whilst Aaron went to greet Sam and Zak. He put on his own maroon tie (the one he always remembered as his Christmas tie, the first time that he thought he could really fall in love with Aaron) and went back downstairs, taking a deep breath first to calm himself.
****
The Dingles were even rowdier than he remembered them being during Aaron’s name change party. Of course, back then, Robert was on the sidelines. This time, Aaron had him firmly by his side, only letting him go when Robert had to go to the loo. When he first entered the pub via the backroom, he had got some stares off Sam and Zak (he wasn’t sure if they knew about his and Aaron’s new living arrangement), but that soon changed, and he was buying rounds for everyone within the first ten minutes.
There had been some light-hearted ribbing from the men when Robert put his pink tie around Aaron’s neck and tied it for him. He felt Aaron’s eyes on him the whole time, not deterred in the slightest by the chorus of ‘aww’s coming from Dr Bailey and Zak, or the pretend heaving from Sam. When Robert kissed him on the nose though, that was when Aaron pushed him away. Robert only smiled.
Then, just as Aaron was leaning over the bar, his trousers stretching wonderfully over his bum, Kerry ruined the moment by proclaiming that Joanie had gone missing.
‘Are all your family weddings this exciting?’ Robert asked teasingly as Aaron and he went their own way to look for her.
He nudged Robert. ‘Could ask you the same thing, couldn’t I?’
Robert nodded. ‘Touche. Come on then, where do you think she’d go?’
‘Well how should I know? Thought I’d just go ask in David’s.’
Robert breathed a laugh. ‘Good plan.’ He watched as his boyfriend entered the small shop and emerged five seconds later. ‘Any joy?’ he asked with a grin.
He shook his head. ‘No one’s seen her.’
‘That’s strange. I wonder why she’s gone.’ He spied Sam and Marlon, Dan and Kerry out looking for her and decided that they could find her on their own or not at all. He and Aaron weren’t going to do much good. ‘You know,’ he said seriously, ‘I think I saw her back in the pub.’
‘Nah, don’t think so, mate. She wouldn’t go back there.’
‘No? Not to the back? Up to, I don’t know, our bedroom maybe?’
Aaron grinned. ‘Nice try, Suggers.’ He laughed when Robert’s face immediately dropped at the nickname. ‘But I’ve had my orders from Mum: if we can’t find her, we’re supposed to entertain the Southampton lot.’
‘Or,’ he pulled Aaron closer, but not right to his own body the way he would have done had they been alone. ‘You could entertain me.’
Then they heard the ‘clop clop clop’ of horses’ hooves, and shouts of merriment. They both turned to see a group of men in a horse drawn carriage, drinking and laughing. Aaron grinned and Robert grimaced.
‘God, it’s like a bunch of drunk Gandalfs just turned up. I bet that’s your lot, isn’t it?’
‘Yeah, obviously!’ Aaron snorted. ‘C’mon. I’ll let you buy them a drink. That’ll win them over right away.’
Charity was laughing and giggling along with the newly arrived Dingles when Aaron and Robert got to the Woolpack, and she immediately spotted them. ‘Aaron! You haven’t seen our Aaron in years, have you!’
There followed a ritual of backslapping and recalling exactly who Aaron was, who he belonged to (Gordon was thankfully skimmed over, as it seemed that nothing was kept out of the Dingle loop), before they turned to Robert.
‘This your boyfriend then is it, lad?’ one of them said. And for one terrifying moment, Robert didn’t know what to do. He looked at his boyfriend for guidance, and Aaron smiled and winked at him.
‘Yeah, that’s him. Robert.’
The Dingle hooked an arm around Robert’s shoulders and pounded him on the back. ‘Hafta say, thought your taste ran more to the burly, bearded sort, not this soft lad here!’
‘Yeah well he’s gonna buy us all a drink, so he can’t be that bad, can he?’ Aaron said. A round of cheers went up again. Robert gladly pulled his card out of his wallet.
****
Two drinks in, and Robert was getting to know Barney (‘Barnabus,’ he had said with a shake of Robert’s hand, ‘but no one ever calls me that’). Maybe it was him hanging around Dingles too much, but all of their jobs seemed dodgy in some way. They were all good company though, and he couldn’t complain about the way they had taken him under their waistcoat wearing wings so quickly when the rest of the Dingles took months to convince he was only looking out for Aaron.
Speaking of his boyfriend, Robert had lost him around about the time that Abel had dragged him off (Robert had commented, rather wittily he thought, about whether Abel and Cain were brothers. Aaron had frowned and shook his head), and Robert cast his gaze around the pub.
‘Looking for your boy?’ Barney said. ‘I saw him go outside with our Abel. Now,’ he pulled Robert closer by the elbow. ‘We’ve heard about Aaron and that scumbag that called itself his father. And our Cain told us about how you were there for him.’ Barney nodded sagely. ‘Not many people would do that for someone. Zak did for Lisa, but well…’ They both looked uncomfortable at the thought of Zak marrying someone else, before Robert cleared his throat.
‘He’d kill me for saying this,’ he said. ‘But I love Aaron. More than anything. I don’t know how much you know of how we—uh, met, but I want to prove to him that I’m here for him.’
‘I’ve heard enough about how you two started,’ Barney said. ‘And don’t worry, lad, we’ve all done a lot worse!’ He gestured to the pub at large, and Robert smiled. He didn’t know how much they had been told, bar the two of them having an affair behind Robert’s wife’s back, but he wasn’t about to elaborate any details.
They were called soon after to the church. ‘Did they find her, then?’ Robert asked Aaron.
He shook his head. ‘I think uncle Zak is just gonna go and hope for the best.’
Robert couldn’t help feeling incredibly bad for Zak, standing at the altar and waiting for his bride who had obviously jilted him. Maybe this would be like the movies, and Lisa would emerge instead, beautiful and radiant, and Zak would realise how much he still loved her.
Instead, they got Sam and his bird impressions. Robert couldn’t look at Aaron for fear of giggling too loud. But when it seemed as though Zak was being realistic about it, Robert looked at Aaron in concern. As much as he knew his boyfriend had mixed emotions about Zak and Joanie as a couple, he also knew that Zak meant a lot to Aaron. Aaron had had so many father figures here in the village, growing up, and Robert could not have been more grateful.
But Joanie had shown (Robert could feel equal parts relief and disappointed thrumming from Aaron’s pores), and the ceremony had gone ahead. During the vows, Robert couldn’t help but take Aaron’s hand. He had dreamt about them saying those words to each other, once. And now that they were together, the words seemed to hold even more potency. Aaron looked down at their clasped hands and back at Robert. He gave him the softest of kisses and smiled. ‘Soft lad,’ he mouthed to Robert.
When they kissed and Aaron cheered, Robert couldn’t help but be even more endeared to his boyfriend. Despite everything, all of his hold-ups about Zak and Joanie, he put it all behind him to show his support for his uncle. The Dingles were an amazing family in that way, Robert decided. He somehow felt more welcomed after spending a few hours in the company of the Southampton lot than he ever had after years with the Whites.
The celebrations moved into the pub after photographs. Robert chuckled when Chas roped Aaron into more than one photo with her and Charity, and one with her and Zak. He wanted so badly to take a photo of himself and Aaron together, but after seeing the murderous look when Marlon asked Aaron for another picture, he decided against it. Boyfriend rights, unfortunately, didn’t stretch that far.
He contented himself with lacing their little fingers together for a moment on the way back to the pub.
****
It must have been seven, maybe eight pints. Whatever it was, Robert was merry as all hell. The Southampton Dingle lot kept buying drinks, and Aaron kept encouraging him. He kept a bowl of chips always on hand though, to make sure that they both didn’t get drunk enough to be sick.
‘’M not hun-hungry,’ Robert had slurred after the third pint.
‘I don’t want you gettin’ sick,’ Aaron had said, pressing a beer-scented kiss to Robert’s cheek. ‘Need you in working order for tonight!’
Robert had bit his lip and kissed him messily and Marlon, turning away from their table, had blushed bright red.
He kept putting his hand on inappropriate places on Aaron’s body. It had started off innocently enough: his shoulder, his hands, but had soon moved to his thigh, his arse. When his hand grabbed Aaron’s crotch as his boyfriend stepped in front of him to get out of their booth, Chas threatened to throw cold water on him.
‘Oi oi! Enough of that!’ Zak laughed. ‘It’s my wedding night, not yours!’
Chas cringed. ‘Yeah, thanks for that, uncle Zak! Don’t know what I prefer: them two about to go at it, or the thought of you and Joanie going at it!’
‘Oh, thanks, babe!’ Charity groaned. ‘Way to put me off these chips! Another round!’ To which everyone cheered, and all thoughts of groping was forgotten for at least ten minutes.
Aaron was talking (or trying to talk) to Belle when Robert stumbled over to him at ten minutes to midnight.
‘Aaron. B-baby.’
Belle grinned, but Aaron tried his best to ignore him. ‘Think your boyfriend wants you,’ she said. Belle was, of course, sober. She kept throwing glances over to her Dad and Joanie. Robert wanted to say something about it, about how she should be happy for them, but knew in the back of his mind (the sober part) that that wasn’t wise.
When Aaron studiously ignored him, Robert started to sloppily kiss his neck until Aaron pushed him off. ‘Stop it!’ he hissed.
Robert blinked. ‘You’re nnnot drunk!’
‘No! I thought we were gonna, y’know,’ he lowered his voice. ‘You made such a big deal about it last night.’
‘I can still get it up!’ Unfortunately, when Robert thought he was whispering he was in fact shouting really quite loudly indeed. A few of the girls whooped and cheered, and Aaron turned red again. When he glared at him, Robert leaned in. ‘Sorry! Sorry, Baby!’
Aaron shook his head, but didn’t back off when Robert kissed him. ‘You’re gonna have such a hangover tomorrow. Gonna be worse than him,’ he nodded to the booths, where Bailey was getting gazeboed with some of the Southampton lot.
‘Nooo! Course I won’t!’ He kissed Aaron again, all tongue and teeth. ‘I can show you a proper good time!’
Aaron smiled, though it looked like it was dragged out of him. ‘Yeah? So, how about you lay off those for a while,’ he nodded to the pint in Robert’s hand, ‘and then we go upstairs later?’
‘Done! Just lemme finish this!’ Robert downed the pint in one (quite a feat as there was more than half left in the glass) to shouts of ‘DOWN IT! DOWN IT!’ from the Dingles. Even Chas was laughing. ‘Right. Th-that’s me done.’ He swayed dangerously, and Aaron immediately stepped forward to support him. ‘Gimme half an hour, and I’m all yours!’
But they both knew that wasn’t going to happen, and forty-five minutes later, Aaron was watching Robert snore and drool on the bed next to him.
****
He woke when Aaron poked his nose for the third time. He opened his eyes and immediately closed them again. ‘What’re you doin’?’ he slurred. ‘Oh god, am I still drunk?’
‘Wouldn’t surprise me.’ He sounded at once annoyed and in love, and Robert shuffled closer to him.
‘Sorry, Baby,’ he said. Robert kissed Aaron’s chest, licking at whatever he could reach. ‘And after I said I’d—’ he hiccupped and burped, ‘urghh… show you a good time.’
‘Oh so you remember that then?’
Robert nodded, then had to stop. ‘Make it up to you?’
Aaron sighed. ‘Yeah, whatever.’ He pushed his hand through Robert’s hair, then just started playing with it until Robert started snoring gently again. ‘You enjoyed yourself then?’
Robert started awake. ‘Yeah. Was good fun. Your lot’s mad!’ he said with a chuckle.
Aaron laughed as well, and the movement jolted Robert’s head. ‘You fit right in then, don’t you.’ He rubbed at Robert’s scalp affectionately. ‘I’m glad you were there yesterday,’ he said. ‘It was nice, seeing my lot getting along with you.’
Robert smiled. ‘Made a change, eh?’
He drifted back off to sleep, Aaron’s hand in his hair, his scent in Robert’s nose, and knowing that he’d have to make it up to him later. He grinned and burrowed himself in deeper to Aaron’s side.