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“Everything seems to be in order,” Rhett mused aloud as he scanned the list of tasks his wife had laid out for him. Their church had planned an autumn festival up near Granada Hills, and Rhett and Link had signed up to supervise the day’s events. They had made the drive up to finalize the rental agreement on the community center and do some early setting up. Another member of the congregation had driven them both, being on her way to another volunteer event nearby, and Jessie had promised to come pick them up after she got back from diving practice with Locke. Rhett peered through his other notes, nodding in approval at the list of games and activities they had organized to try and suit kids as young as toddlers to as old as pre-teens.
“Sure we’ve got enough food?” Link raised an eyebrow as he grabbed the list of dishes that people had agreed to bring, which looked long enough to feed a small army. “Apple pie, pumpkin pie, pumpkin fudge, apple-pumpkin crisp…wow. I’ve been eating samples from everything Christy put in the fridge and I’m almost sick of pumpkin already. We‘re gonna have leftovers for months.”
“And Jessie smacked me with the spoon for tryin’ to eat a little bit of cookie dough last night,” Rhett said mournfully. She hadn’t even let him lick the spatula she used to scrape the bowl clean.
Link handed the list back and pushed his glasses up his nose. “Well, I think everything will go over pretty well, unless some kid has too much sugar and vomits on the hay ride.”
Rhett made a face. “Guess who signed up to drive that thing?”
Link giggled. “Well, I think we deserve a drink,” he declared, opening the fridge and taking out the pitcher that Rhett had noticed amongst the trays of baked goods and other items Link had already brought from home.
“Apple cider?” Rhett guessed, and Link nodded.
“Christy was trying out a new recipe so she can bring some for everybody this weekend,” he explained, taking two paper cups from the sleeve on the counter. “This is just a sample. We’re gonna bring up a couple of those huge coffee traveler containers to keep it warm. You want to try it cold, or should I microwave it?”
Rhett shrugged, trying to read Link‘s secretive body language. His friend was up to something, and he couldn’t figure out what it could be. “However you want it, bo.”
Link popped the cups in the microwave. The old nickname put a grin on his face and a boyish twinkle in his eyes. “Oh, hey, and since we’re getting a ride back…”
“Link!” Rhett raised his eyebrows in surprise as the smaller man procured a bottle of spiced rum. “When did you get that?”
Link shrugged and twisted off the cap. “I figured we’d finish early and end up with some time to kill, and we’re gonna be stuck playing responsible adults all weekend, so…” He poured a generous splash into each cup and lifted his in offer of a toast. “Cheers.”
Rhett took the second cup and gently tapped it against Link’s. “Cheers, Link.”
“Dink it ‘n sink it,” Link sang, before tipping his head back to take a generous drink.
Rhett could only laugh at his friend’s behaviour as he took his first cautious sip. He generally didn’t consume hard alcohol, except once in a long while after a date night with Jessie while Link and Christy were babysitting his kids. The flavour of cinnamon and apples was pleasing and the warmth from the rum spread all the way down to his stomach, bringing a feeling of immediate relaxation.
“Dang, that’s good,” Rhett exclaimed. “Not too sweet, just enough spice…and that rum, it reminds me of - ” A tiny inkling of foreboding made him pause. His forehead creased slightly.
“That party at Mark’s when we were seventeen?” Link asked eagerly. He seemed not to have noticed Rhett’s frown.
“I was going to say our first house party in college,” Rhett said, rather lamely.
“When we were trying shots, and I almost threw up in Dave’s shoes?” Link put his hands on the counter and hoisted his butt up to sit on the edge. “Oh man, what a night that was. I remember you having to help me up the stairs and get my shoes off for me so I could go to bed.”
Rhett chuckled at the memory and took a longer drink, letting the flavours swirl over his tongue. His eyes closed in bliss and he leaned against the counter. For several long moments, the men sipped their drinks and enjoyed a companionable silence. Rhett liked the way the rum was working on his muscles, relaxing his whole body slowly and warming his extremities. It was nice to take a break and enjoy a drink on the weekend, away from their hectic schedules at work and his busy life at home. Rhett knew he was lucky to be able to work alongside his best friend, but between filming a movie, a daily show, their new project and music video, plus flying off for Locke’s diving events every other weekend and trying to fit in visits home to North Carolina, Rhett sometimes felt like he didn’t have much time to just enjoy Link’s presence. With his eyes shut and the smell of rum flooding his senses, Rhett easily slipped back in time for a moment. Back to the days when he was young enough to think that the future would never really come. That life would forever be just himself and Link in North Carolina, their other friends and dates and girlfriends just welcome but temporary guests. He couldn’t ever have predicted the strange turns his life would end up taking, and it still sometimes struck him as surreal that he was lucky enough to have had Link along for the ride all the way. In his mind’s eye Rhett was suddenly the gangly, awkward, beardless man he’d been at twenty and Link was goatee’d and short-haired, his hopeful blue eyes spoiling the otherwise bad-boy image he had tried to cultivate at that time. Something niggled at Rhett as he recalled those days but his brain quickly smothered it.
“Hey,” Link said suddenly, breaking Rhett’s reverie. “Did I ever thank you for that?”
“Thank me?” Rhett echoed, blinking away the ghosts of yesterday.
“For taking care of me that night. I really appreciated it.”
“Is the alcohol makin’ you mushy already?” Rhett teased, despite the blush he could feel staining his cheeks. He stepped closer anyway, leaning in to press their upper arms together. With Link sitting on the counter, they were close to the same height.
“Naw,” Link shrugged one shoulder. “Just - kinda takin’ a trip down memory lane, you know? How nostalgia sometimes sneaks up on you out of nowhere?”
Rhett nudged Link’s shoulder affectionately. “I know exactly what you mean.”
Their eyes met and held for one intense moment before they both looked down at their cups, their movements unconsciously synchronized as they swirled the remainder of their cider and tossed it back. Rhett felt rather like he had something important to say, but couldn’t for the life of him think of what it could be.
“It’s always autumn that does it to me,” Link said as he swallowed noisily and smacked his lips. There was a tiny smear of cinnamon at the corner of his mouth.
“Does what?” Rhett pretended not to watch as Link’s tongue flicked out to lick it away.
“You know,” Link gestured with his empty cup. “I’m never normally homesick, and I don’t like livin’ in the past, but sometimes, around this time of year, it’s like I’m nineteen again. But not really - it’s more like I feel…like I’m about to begin something new and exciting, but I don’t know what it is.”
“It’s the academic calendar,” Rhett suggested. “For over fifteen years, fall was the start of the school year, which was more significant than the actual start of the new year. I feel the same way. Anticipatory. Like last year’s slate’s been wiped clean and you get to start all over again.”
“Could be,” Link nodded. “Whatever it is, I’m glad you feel it too.”
Rhett didn’t notice how much he had tilted to the side during their conversation, bringing their bodies close together. Link’s leg was pressing into his stomach and one of Rhett’s arms had made its way casually around to rest on the counter behind Link’s back. The burning in his throat from the rum and the anticipatory feeling both grew stronger and Rhett felt suddenly short of breath. He felt the need to avert his eyes from Link’s face, and they fell on the window once again.
The grounds were large and well-kept. From this angle, Rhett couldn’t see the pumpkin patch or the playground, but he could see hay bales planted decoratively around the large field and the gently undulating golden corn stalks in the distance.
“We should try out the corn maze,” Link suggested, following Rhett’s gaze. He slid off the counter. Rhett felt unpleasantly cold in the places where they had been pressed together. “Let’s go see how hard it is.”
“It’s for kids,” Rhett pointed out. “It’s not gonna be too hard.”
Link poured another cup of cider and rum, leaving it cold this time. “Maybe if we have a few more of these, it’ll be a challenge.” When Rhett hesitated, Link’s tone turned pleading. “Come on, Rhett! It’ll wear off by the time we get picked up, right? I think it’ll be fun.”
“Such responsible adults we are,” Rhett shook his head, grinning, and held his cup out for more. It was hard to say no to Link. He waited for Link to refill his own drink, keeping his arm held up for Link to touch their cups together.
The second cup seemed to disappear too fast, and Rhett found himself making a third. The mellow edge was wearing off and filling him instead with a restless urge for adventure. The corn maze, which had sounded silly at first, now seemed like the best idea they’d had all week.
Link made to grab the pitcher of cider too, then shook his head and took a swig right from the bottle of rum. His face twisted up as he forced the swallow down. “Whoa,” he gasped. “Forgot how much that burns.” He coughed once and swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down.
“Pass it here.” Rhett reached for the bottle, feeling bolder than ever. He tried to keep a straight face, as if he weren’t affected at all, but the heat and the shockingly strong taste made his eyes tear up and he gasped. “Oh, wow. Yeah, man, you’re right. Haven’t done that in a while.”
They laughed at each other, equally surprised by their ridiculous behaviour and the way this evening was playing out.
“You had a lot.” Link looked impressed as he peered at the level of the liquid in the bottle. “You don’t want any more, do you?”
“Nah. We’re probably set, don‘t you think?”
“Yeah, I’m feeling pretty good. I’m such a lightweight,” Link admitted. He tucked the little bottle back into his pocket and wiped his mouth on his sleeve.
“Me, too,” Rhett agreed. He always had been, for his size. “You ready to try ‘er out?” he asked with a nod at the maze outside the window.
“Definitely,” Link agreed eagerly. He stowed the cider in the fridge once again and grabbed his jacket from the coat hook by the door.
They left out the back door. A gust of wind slammed it shut behind them, making Link jump and laugh at himself. Rhett watched him zip his jacket and pull its hood up, looking for all the world like a college student on his way to class. Rhett was aware of how the lines on his own face were deepening every year, but Link was as smooth-faced and bright-eyed as ever despite the few grey strands in his hair and the way his beard grew in speckled with salt-and-pepper on the rare occasion he decided to forgo shaving for a few days.
“Is it just me, or does it smell like fall?” Link asked as they crossed the field together.
“LA never smells like fall, man,” Rhett said, even though he knew what Link meant. There was something in the air, a pleasant crisp scent that reminded Rhett of Halloween nights and Thanksgiving dinners, carving pumpkins with his brother back home, and eating countless leftover turkey and Wonderbread sandwiches at school in the cafeteria with Link beside him. The sunshine was warm on the back of his neck and he found the slight chill of the wind refreshing.
“You ready?” Link asked, bouncing on his heels. Rhett recognized the type of mood he was in. Link’s bursts of energy made him unpredictable at times, and he often relied on Rhett to provide the calming contrast to his peculiarity.
“Sure,” Rhett said easily, glad to know Link was having a good time too.
“Maybe we should race.”
“The pathways aren’t big enough for us to pass each other,” Rhett laughed. “One of us would wind up twistin’ an ankle or something.”
“That’s true,” Link nodded, resigned. “Alright. It’ll be a team effort.”
The two men entered the maze beneath a cheerful wooden sign hand-painted with smiling jack o’ lanterns and black cats. The ground was dry and clear, well maintained and carefully swept free of debris, and the path between the cornstalks was wide enough that Rhett could stretch his arms out on either side and only just brush his fingertips against the leaves. He’d thought that his enormous height would enable him to easily see the way ahead, but the endless field of corn looked the same in every direction. The corn was just a shade taller than he was.
“This is fun,” Link decided immediately. “It’s like entering a different world. It’s so quiet!”
The cornstalks seemed to be absorbing the noises of traffic from the road. Rhett nodded in agreement. “It’s like we could be back home, in the middle of nowhere.”
“Do you think that’s why cornfields are associated with Halloween and spooky stuff?” Link queried.
“I’m not sure. Scarecrows can be pretty creepy. Maybe that’s why.”
“And crop circles,” Link added. “They’re sometimes made in cornfields, aren’t they? Alien navigational systems. Directions. So they can come down and probe all the farmers.”
Rhett raised his eyebrow slightly, amused by the way Link’s brain worked. “There’s also Children of the Corn. The book is way freakier than the movie.”
“Do you remember Signs, that movie with the freaky aliens who could only be killed by water?” Link asked. His old accent was coming through strong, either in excitement or as an effect of the rum. “We saw that when it came out, didn’t we? In Raleigh, I think. You know that part, where they’re in the cornfield in the dark chasin’ after noises, and Mel Gibson drops his flashlight and picks it up and - whoosh - the alien leg just disappears into the corn real fast - ”
“Oh, yeah, that made me jump.”
“It made me jump so hard I spilled half my popcorn in my lap. I was tryin’ to act natural so you wouldn’t make fun of me.”
“I wouldn’t have made fun of you. I like haunted houses and scary movies, but cornfields are disturbing. You know, I’m not so sure I’d like this so much at night,” Rhett gazed around. “I don’t think you could pay me enough to get me out here in the dark with just a flashlight. I’d be crappin’ my pants.”
“Me, too,” Link agreed fervently.
They were approaching their second fork in the path, after both instinctively turning left at the first one. This time they both turned right. There was nothing to distinguish this path from the previous two. Rhett looked over at Link. “I think there’s also something instinctively disturbing at the sight of so much repetition,” he said. “Just rows and rows of evenly-spaced corn, all looking the same. Like you’re walking without going anywhere at all. Suburban neighbourhoods when all the houses are alike can give me the same feeling.”
Link hummed appreciatively, as if impressed by this observation. “It is weird, isn’t it? I can’t tell how far we’ve gone at all.” He motioned up ahead. “Three way fork,” he pointed out. “Left, right, or straight ahead?”
“Right,” Rhett decided. “Straight’s too obvious, and so is doing a left-right-left pattern.”
“You’re the boss,” Link shrugged, and turned right obediently.
Time seemed to move in a strange way, aided by the rum and the isolation from the world around them. Rhett’s stomach felt fluttery, and the sensation intensified whenever he looked at Link instead of at the path ahead. It seemed to him that he was looking at Link even more than usual, and whenever he did, Link was looking right back at him. The twists and turns that led nowhere began to take on a mystical nature, as if they were stuck in a loop, doomed to repeat their steps forever until they found the answer to the riddle or confronted the truth.
What truth? Rhett asked himself in frustration, wondering where that thought had come from.
“We should be out by now, shouldn’t we?” Link asked as they turned yet another corner. His brow creased. “Rhett, how long have we been walkin’?”
The cornfield was big, but it wasn’t that big. Rhett thought Link was right. “I didn’t think it would take us more than ten minutes, but it’s definitely been longer than that.” He looked down at his phone. “Do you know when we started?”
“I didn’t check. It can’t be too much longer now, though.”
“Scared?” Rhett teased, jostling Link’s arm.
“Naw, just embarrassed that a kids’ maze is actually confusin’ me.” Link gave Rhett his signature aw-shucks grin, which Rhett had always found to be -
“Super cute and funny and cute and funny as hell,” he mumbled under his breath.
Link let out a surprised laugh that sounded almost like a honk. “What?”
Rhett coughed, the embarrassment catching up to him. He hadn’t meant to say it out loud. Was the alcohol really having such a strong effect on him already? “Never mind.”
“You think I’m super cute?” Link, normally not one to push these occasional moments, peered up at Rhett from beneath his hood.
Rhett rolled his eyes, but didn’t respond. He didn’t want to lie and say no, and he wasn’t sure how Link would react if he said yes, and he knew the easiest way out would be to turn the whole thing into a joke but he couldn’t think of how to do it. Deflecting the tension between them seemed so natural on the set of their show, in front of the cameras and the crew, but somehow here in the corn maze things were - different..
“You’re bein’ weird,” he said finally, as they reached a dead end and turned around. He reached out and yanked Link’s hood down. His hand moved to smooth Link’s hair back in place, but he pulled it away at the last second.
“I usually am,” Link said placidly. “I think you’re super cute and funny too, Rhett.”
He didn’t laugh or even smile after he said it. The tips of Rhett’s ears burned and he ducked his head. He felt as if he had been walking along the crest of a steep hill for some time and was beginning to slip and fall. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw Link open his mouth to speak and then quickly shut it again. The wind made the corn whisper behind them as if the stalks were gossiping amongst each other.
“Which way?” Link asked again. “Straight?”
“Left,” Rhett invented, sounding confident as if he had come to this answer through careful deductive reasoning.
“I’m pretty sure we just go straight.”
“Trust me, Link. It’s left.”
“You don’t know that. You just like arguing with me.”
“Well yeah, but I’m also usually right.”
Link followed Rhett, and after a few minutes he nodded pointedly ahead as they approached another dead end. His face was smug.
“This is ridiculous,” Rhett frowned. “It’s impossible. I swear, we’ve gone back to that same fork in the path three times now, and taken a different way each time. Haven’t we?”
“I haven’t been paying attention,” Link admitted. “I figured if we just kept walkin’ we’d get out eventually.”
“If you hadn’t been paying attention, why were you so sure I was wrong?”
Link shoved at Rhett’s shoulder playfully and didn’t answer.
“Wanna just walk right through the corn?” Rhett suggested, but Link made a face.
“We’re not gonna cheat, Rhett! Where’s the fun in that?”
“Fine,” Rhett relented. “You guide us, then. I give up.”
Link’s fingers closed around his wrist, worming their way beneath the sleeve of his jacket to touch his bare skin. Rhett tensed, suddenly fighting to keep his head straight. Memories were bubbling up in his head, memories that had been buried deep within himself for more years than he cared to count. They were vague and fuzzy and half-formed like the images of dreams he tried to recall in the morning.
“Are you okay?” Link asked, and Rhett realized he’d been staring.
“Yeah,” he muttered.
“You looked like you were off in dream land for a bit.”
“Just thinking of old times,” Rhett said vaguely.
“I bet I could guess what you’re thinking about.”
Rhett didn’t know where Link was trying to go with that. “No, you can‘t.”
“Yes, I can.” Link sounded oddly urgent. “Way back, summer before college. Am I right?”
The wind died completely, and the gentle whisper of the corn stalks turned into an eerie silence. Link, what are you doing? “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Do I?
“Don’t play dumb.”
“I’m not,” Rhett protested. “Unless you mean that night when - ” The words caught in his throat. He barely noticed that they’d come to another dead end and nearly walked straight into the corn. He stopped, facing the golden moving wall, his face tickled by the swaying leaves. For a moment he considered diving in headfirst and running from the truth - as Link had once run from the -
“That was in October too, wasn’t it?” For once, Link was being the bold one.
“Don’t, Link.”
“Do you remember how - ”
“What I remember,” Rhett said stiffly, the words painful as he forced them past his clenching throat, “is how you told me that you never wanted to talk about it again, even though I tried all year to sort things - ”
“I was young, I was scared, an’ I had a headful of all that shitty stuff the church was teachin’ us,” Link said matter-of-factly. “I’m a little better equipped to talk about it now. I’m older, I’m wiser, I’m - ”
“ - tipsy in a kids’ corn maze at a community center?” Rhett couldn’t help but finish, dryly.
“I’m not really that tipsy. And you gotta let me be irresponsible sometimes,” Link said, sitting down on a patch of bare earth and looking up at Rhett. “I’m having fun. Even if I am scared to death.”
“Scared of what?” Rhett asked, feigning ignorance as his stomach churned. He wasn’t sure he was prepared to face what had been lurking just beneath his conscious mind, even with the courage of rum in his veins.
“You know what,” Link’s chin jutted out defiantly. “It’s all coming back. Don’t do that, Rhett. Don’t make it out like I’m the only one who - ”
But he couldn’t finish, either.
Rhett took a deep breath but it did not clear his swirling head. He sat down too, facing Link, his legs crossed in front of him. Link didn’t look him in the eye but tapped his shoe against Rhett’s to make contact. When Rhett didn’t speak, Link reached out and grabbed his hand.
“Link.” Rhett tried to inject warning into his voice, but it came out soft and warm.
“Yeah,” Link answered quietly. “Yeah, I know.”
“That was a long time ago.”
“Twenty years. It doesn‘t feel that long, does it?”
“Back then, you…What we did, that was…It wasn’t the alcohol, even though you tried to…”
“Tried to deny it, yeah. Tried to shift the blame all over to you. I know. But I wasn’t drunk. I’d only had one drink that night. And I hurt you, makin’ you think I didn‘t want it too. I’m…I’m not proud of it. I never really forgave myself.” Link looked him right in the eyes. “I’m sorry.”
Rhett let out a breath, unaware of how badly he’d needed that apology. “I forgive you.”
Link chewed at his lip. “Have things…have things changed, for you?”
“Everything’s changed. And yet nothing’s changed.” Rhett shook his head, frustrated by the way his brain couldn’t find the right words. “You ran. You chickened out and ran. I tried to make you talk about it. I would have preferred that you just said that you never wanted to do it again. I never got closure. Maybe if I had, I wouldn’t still want it.”
“I couldn’t lie to you, Rhett. And I’m not running now. Not this time. I have to - ” He leaned forward.
“Wait - Link - what are you - ”
Link kissed him firmly, cutting off his protests.
Rhett sucked in a breath through his nose. For one awful second he thought that he was about to wake up in his bed, the familiar dream slipping through his fingers as reality took over. It was too good to be real, this wonderful feeling of kissing his best friend, the satisfaction of revisiting an old place in his heart that he had nearly forgotten ever existed. But this was real, this was actually happening, and Link tasted like sweet apples and fond memories. The sound of the corn rustling all around them was drowned out by the blood roaring in his ears.
Rhett wanted more. It wasn’t enough. He wanted to take Link’s plump lower lip between his teeth and make him gasp, wanted to use his mouth to explore Link’s neck and sharp collarbones, feel his fingers winding through dark silky hair. He wondered what it would be like to feel Link’s weight pinning him down and the thought made him go weak.
It seemed like an eternity had passed before Link broke the kiss tenderly, his lips parted and his eyes dazed.
“What…” Rhett began. He wet his lips and tried again. “Link, what are you…Why now, after all these…”
“It’s like Groundhog Day,” Link said, and it was such a Link thing to say that Rhett almost laughed. But he refrained, as Link‘s face was solemn. “I’m stuck in a loop, Rhett. I got us stuck in this maze. I had to fix the mistakes I made so we could go forward.”
“It’s just a corn maze, and we’ve been drinking,” Rhett said, but he wasn’t sure if he believed it himself.
“I dunno.” The rueful look was back on Link’s face. “It just really feels like…like anything could happen in here. Like magic.” He paused. “Does Jessie know how you feel?”
“God,” Rhett groaned. “Of course she does, Link, I couldn’t have hid this for so long. We’ve been terrible at hiding it.”
“And she’s not…she’s not angry?”
“She loves me. She loves you, too. And she’s not selfish enough to take it as an offense to her. If we decide to take it further, to explore how we feel, I’ll have to talk to her first, but - ” Rhett laughed. “She already gave her permission, years and years ago.”
“Christy did, too. She was mad at me for how I treated you, but she knew why I did it. She’s…gosh, Rhett, she’s just so understanding. You two are more than I deserve.”
Link deserved the world and more, and so Rhett cut off this line of thought with another kiss. Link was startled into a moan that made Rhett’s heart beat double-time.
He wasn’t sure how much time passed, out in that cornfield, his senses overwhelmed with the sight and touch and smell of Link as they kissed, long and slow, Rhett’s hands caressing Link’s shoulders as Link carded his fingers through Rhett’s hair. It seemed like an eternity and yet it still wasn’t enough make up for the lost time.
“We’d better stop,” Link murmured finally. His colour was high and his hands were shaking. “Or else I’m gonna rush into something again and ruin everything. I want…” He swallowed. “Gosh, I want to touch you so bad…”
Link often trusted Rhett to be the responsible one. That weight settled heavily upon Rhett’s shoulders as he struggled not to push Link flat on his back and straddle him, giving him everything he asked for. Rhett gritted his teeth, took a deep breath, and reluctantly let go of Link’s shoulders. “We’ll…we’ll have a good long talk back home, before we go any further,” he told Link. “And even if we don’t go further, we still have to deal with what already happened.”
“I know, I know. Don’t worry.” Link suddenly sounded sober. “I’m not gonna run again, Rhett. I’ve wasted too many years doing that.”
“I’ll hold you to that.” Rhett cupped the curve of Link’s jaw and brushed a kiss to his nose.
“Come on, baby,” Link was blushing as he hopped to his feet and dusted the dirt from his jeans. He held out his hand to help Rhett to his feet. “Let’s solve this thing.”
Hand-in-hand, they continued down the path away from the dead end. Rhett frowned, suddenly aware of the buzz of traffic that had certainly not been present a minute ago.
“You hear that?” he asked.
“Is that traffic?” Link wondered aloud. “Are we close to the road?”
“No way. Why didn’t we hear that before?”
“Maybe there just weren’t any cars,” Link said hesitantly. He was just as aware as Rhett of what the traffic was like in LA during rush hour. They shared a brief wide-eyed look. Suddenly Rhett could hear birds chirping, a far-off siren wailing, someone’s lawnmower or weed trimmer buzzing away on a property nearby. It was as if someone had pulled cotton from his ears. The world was coming back to life.
“Which way should we go?” Rhett started to ask as they approached the familiar three-way intersection, but the words died in his throat. His eyes widened even further. “Link…”
“What?” Link snapped to attention, and then visibly jumped as he saw what Rhett was looking at.
The neatly mowed field at the back of the rows of corn was very visible through the wide and obvious back exit to the maze.
“Isn’t this - ”
“The same left turn that we went down at least three times?” Link finished, incredulously.
“It can’t be. The exit is right there. We would have seen it. We hit a dead end and turned around!”
“Look,” Link turned back to the intersection of the pathways and pointed at the multitude of looping footsteps. “We’ve been here before, all right.”
They stood in silence for a moment, considering.
“Well…we must have been pretty distracted.” Rhett boldly reached down to cup Link’s ass, giving it a little squeeze.
Link seemed to like that. His blue eyes sparkled and Rhett thought he felt him push back slightly into his hand. “Well, I was definitely distracted…but maybe there’s a little Halloween magic in cornfields after all.”
“Hmm,” Rhett said, not really listening as his fingers continued to explore.
Link laughed and grabbed Rhett’s wandering hand. “Come on, there’ll be time for that later. You ready to finally get outta here?”
Rhett was reluctant to leave this peaceful little sanctuary. “Before we go, can we…”
“Enjoy the magic a little longer?” Link tilted his head invitingly and stood up on his toes.
Rhett bent his head and kissed him again, his hands slipping down to hold Link’s small waist. He marvelled at how perfectly they fit together.
“I love you,” Rhett breathed against Link’s lips, the same words that had made Link run and hide twenty years before. Now, the smaller man echoed them with equal passion.
Link’s warmth lingered on his mouth for a long time after they parted. It made him dizzier than the spiced rum cider ever could.
Fifteen minutes later, they were sitting together on the porch stairs of the community center - Link on the top stair with Rhett in front, one step down, settled comfortably between Link’s knees. Outside of the shelter of the cornfield, the wind was stronger than ever, and Rhett was grateful for the warmth and comfort of Link’s body. He closed his eyes and tipped his head back against Link’s chest. Link placed his chin on the top of Rhett’s head and watched the distant road in peaceful silence.
“I think that’s your car,” Link said after a while, pointing.
Rhett roused himself and looked. “Yeah, I see it. I think it’s her.”
Sure enough, the car slowed and turned onto the small lane that led up to the community center’s front door, its tires kicking up dust as it came. Rhett saw the familiar profile behind the windshield and lifted a hand in greeting with a touch of regret. The magic of the autumn day was over for now, and it was time to return to the real world. Before they stood up, Link touched the nape of Rhett’s neck, the intimacy of it sending little shocks of pleasure down his spine.
Their eyes met and, without words, they understood each other perfectly.
Rhett knew now why he felt that fizzy anticipatory feeling in his stomach. Autumn was a time of change, a time to choose which path to walk in life. And this autumn they had been given a rare chance to go back and choose again. The weight of adulthood was lifted by the incredible feeling that there was, indeed, a new adventure to look forward to, with Link by his side, always.