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“But it’s Tuesday,” Shane said, staring at the absolutely giant bottle of wine in Ilya’s hand.
Ilya was standing behind the island in the kitchen, holding his prize. A giant bottle of white wine in a clear glass bottle with a label that had a watercolor drawing of a lake with a red canoe on the label. It made him think of the lake at the cottage where he and Shane were currently holed up, enjoying their summer off season.
“Yes. But it’s summer. We’re on vacation. We’re at the cottage. Perfect time to get afternoon wine drunk,” he reasoned, holding the bottle up, making sure Shane saw the perfect watercolor that reminded him of their perfect oasis in the woods.
He’d run to the store to grab some stuff to put on the grill for dinner that night. They’d been at the cottage for summer break for almost a week now and they had been grilling every night because the weather had just been too perfect to cook inside. After coming out of the grocery store with enough supplies to last a few days, Ilya went into the liquor store next door. He wasn’t necessarily looking for anything in particular, but just browsing to see if anything looked good to him. He’d decided that this huge bottle of a nice, crisp white wine that he was pretty sure he could get Shane to drink also was coming home with him and he was going to try to talk Shane into drinking it out on the patio this afternoon.
Shane considered his reasoning. He was kind of right. A little day drinking on a gorgeous summer day? Sitting outside on the patio while the grill cooked their dinner, the sun starting to make its descent across the sky, watching the boats cruise across the water. Shane usually didn’t drink at all on weekdays and certainly not during the day, but it was summer, it was a beautiful day. There was no hockey to be played in the near future and they had nowhere to go. There was no reason to not make an exception.
“Fine,” he said, turning toward the cupboards. He stood on his tippy toes and reached two stemless wine glasses from the top shelf.
Ilya smiled, pleased with himself and glad that he didn’t have to do too much convincing. He opened the silverware drawer where they kept the corkscrew. He twisted the knob down until the top of the screw was completely embedded in the cork and then pulled the cork with a satisfying pop. He poured a half glass for himself, and a half for Shane. He held a glass out toward Shane.
Shane took the glass from him and sipped. Not super sweet, not dry. Didn’t have that gross hairspray taste Shane didn’t like. Didn’t burn going down but he could feel the warmth of the alcohol in his belly. It was a nice sip of wine. Ilya picked up his glass and sipped also.
“Not bad,” he mused, swirling the wine in his glass. Shane nodded in agreement. He followed Ilya out to the patio.
__________
Shane was not a regular wine drinker so even though he was built like a brick house, it didn’t take long for the effects of any kind of alcohol to hit him. Somewhere around his third glass, Ilya noticed the effects starting to take hold on him. He couldn’t stop talking, his hands were flying around wildly, gesturing with every word and point he felt like he needed to make. His eyes were glassy and he was laughing a lot more and a lot easier than usual. Ilya was feeling the effects too but not as much as Shane was.
Shane finally stopped talking and looked at Ilya, who was staring back at him with his little heart eyes. He smiled. He loved him so freaking much. Even though he was feeling pretty buzzed, he could tell that Ilya was definitely not as tipsy as he was.
He leaned forward in his chair and whispered to Ilya, “Can I tell you a secret?, he asked, eyes shining and a small grin on his face.
Ilya raised his eyebrows a little in response. He took another sip of wine. Shane Hollander offering up a secret over wine? This should be good.
“Obviously,” he encouraged, setting his wine glass on the table.
Shane sat back in his seat, “The other day, when I went to that meeting, I didn’t have a ton of time in the airport before I had to get on my flight but I was starving and needed something to eat,” he started,”The closest thing was McDonalds,” he said, starting to laugh. That shouldn’t be an absurd sentence, but coming from him? Even he knew it sounded downright hilarious.
He continued, “It was still breakfast time, and I was sad you couldn’t come with me and I was thinking about you so…” he trailed off.
Ilya smirked a little. He was impressed that Shane had even considered McDonald’s to be an option for himself.
“And…what did you get?”
Shane smiled a little, “A McGriddle.”
Ilya stood up and punched the air, “Yessss!” he yelled, a little too loudly. Shane dissolved into drunken giggles and covered his face with his hands.
Ilya plopped himself back down in his seat and pulled Shane’s hands away from his face. Shane squeezed his eyes shut and started giggling again. He pinned Shane’s hands against his lap.
“Open your eyes! You liiiiiked it, didn’t you?” he teased.
Shane cracked one eye open to look at him, “It was okay,” he admitted with a smile, “But I’m never doing that again.”
Ilya let his hands go and sat back in his seat, smiling brightly at him. He didn’t know why but he felt a little….proud? He knew that one day he’d break him down just enough so that his curiosity would get the better of him and he’d just have to see what the big deal was about them. He kind of wished he’d have been there to see it though.
“You want to hear my secret?” Ilya asked, quirking his eyebrows a little toward Shane.
“Obviously,” he said, mimicking Ilya’s accent and the response he’d given Shane just a few minutes prior.
He needed to pick a silly one. They were both too far gone for any kind of real secrets, not that there were many left between them, but it just wasn’t the time for anything too real or too heavy. He thought for a second and then said,
“One time, when I was home alone, I put your glasses on to see what things look like to you.”
Shane laughed, “Seriously? You’re so weird,” he said. “I feel like I barely even need them though. I don’t think they even do anything.”
Ilya shook his head, “No,” he said definitively, “You need those things. I only made it a few minutes before I had to take them off. Made my head very spinny and everything looked way too big. And I’ve seen you try to read without them. Your eyebrows do that thing,” he said, imitating Shane, drawing his eyebrows close together and furrowing them.
Shane kicked his shin lightly, “Shut up,” he said, with absolutely zero bite to it. Ilya would say anything to get him to wear them more. He knew what his glasses did to Ilya. If it were up to Ilya, he’d have them on 24/7.
Ilya decided it was kind of nice to see Shane this way. Not drunk, but just letting himself be a little silly. Less uptight. A little more carefree and with less inhibitions, just letting his guard down just a little in the name of some summertime day drinking at his cottage. Shane spent so much of his life with a wall up, not letting anyone in in the name of keeping his secrets safe. Ilya felt happy that he was able to see that wall crumble a little from some liquid courage and from feeling safe enough with Ilya to let go like that. And it was fun to tell each other the silly things they’d been keeping from each other for absolutely no reason at all.
“You wanna hear something else?” Shane asked. He paused and then laughed outloud, thinking about what he was getting ready to say. He didn't even wait for an answer, spilling over before Ilya could respond.
“I wear your underwear. Like, all of the time. I can’t remember the last time I wore my own.”
Ilya’s eyebrows shot up his forehead. He was both shocked and turned on by it. He almost couldn’t believe that Shane of all people would be okay with sharing underwear with him. Yeah, they were clean when he put them on but for him, that had to be just as intimate as sharing a toothbrush. Even though they were all in each other’s business and there wasn’t a germ they hadn’t shared yet, Ilya was still surprised by this confession.
It also explained why it felt like he never had any to choose from.
“I think you buy better underwear than I do,” Shane said thoughtfully, “It’s just like, softer than mine or something? And it makes me feel close to you.”
Ilya was getting ready to balk but once Shane revealed to him that wearing them made him feel close to him, any smart ass remark he was getting ready to retort melted away.
“You don’t need to steal my stuff, malysh. You can wear it whenever you want,” he said, tapping the side of Shane’s foot with his own. Shane smiled and nodded. He had zero plans of stopping anyway.
“I have one more silly thing to tell you,” Ilya said, smiling shyly, like the thing he was going to say was embarrassing.
“Oh god,” Shane said laughing, “Why do you look embarrassed about it? What is it?”
“When we’re here and you’re taking too long in the bathroom, I just pee outside.”
Shane stared at him and said nothing for a second. Ilya was sure he was going to be pissed or find it disgusting but he had his reasons! He didn’t like using the guest bathroom. First of all, it wasn’t theirs and second, he hated cleaning it when guests came. If he didn’t use it, he didn’t have to clean it if anyone came over and might use it.
“You think that’s a secret?” he said, huffing out a laugh, “I’ve come out of the bathroom and have watched you peeing behind that tree over there,” Shane said, jerking his thumb behind his back toward the treeline behind him.
Ilya threw his head back and laughed at the top of his lungs. He definitely didn’t realize he’d ever been caught in the act.
“So you’re not mad?” he asked.
Shane shook his head, “No. I do it all the time too. I’ve peed all over this property,” he said, waving his hand in a circle above his head.
He picked up his glass and drained the last dregs of his now warm wine.
“We should probably eat something,” he said, scrubbing his hands up and down his face, trying to get some feeling back in it, “I’m a liiiitle bit drunk.”
Ilya stood up and grabbed both wine glasses from the table. He went into the house with Shane trailing behind. Ilya stood in the door to the open refrigerator, “What do you feel like?” he asked Shane.
He came up behind him and looked over his shoulder at the contents of the fridge.
“Burgers.”
Ilya slid the pack of burgers out of the refrigerator, removed them from the plastic tray and put them on another plate. He also took the two leftover hot dogs out of the ziplock bag and laid them on the plate next to the burgers.
“Do you want a salad?” Shane asked, but paused and considered another option and answered his own question. “Nevermind, we’re having fries tonight,” he said, putting the lettuce back in the drawer and pushing the reheat button for the oven.
Ilya kissed his cheek and headed back out with the meat platter. Shane turned around to the freezer to get the bag of fries Ilya had bought earlier. He spread them on a baking tray and slid them into the oven.
He turned around to look out the window to see if Ilya had put the meat on the grill yet. He could see the plate on the table but Ilya was nowhere to be seen. He frowned and walked closer to the windows. He looked all around the yard, craning his head left and right. Something caught his eye in the treeline.
If he squinted and angled his head just right, he could see Ilya’s white tshirt between the trees.
He waited in the window until Ilya came back to the grill. He stood still as a statue until Ilya felt him looking at him and he couldn’t help but look at what was staring him down. He caught Ilya’s eye, shook his head and smirked at him. Ilya pointed at him and smiled.
Caught again.