Chapter 6.

 

Ed brooded on the way back to his apartment, and through his second shower of the day – stopping for a smile at how he’d managed to get so sticky and in need of another shower – and then all the way down to the Community Garden. Was he getting paranoid, or his new lover expecting him to be shelling out for meals already? Surely not. Please not.

The gardens were nothing like what he’d expected, and he managed to stand there with his mouth open looking like an idiot for quite a while after the cab drove off. He’d seen pictures of the garden plots, of course, but those hadn’t done justice to the riot of activity and noise that covered several acres by the abandoned railway tracks. This wasn’t a few immigrants and low-income families growing zucchini, this was a large-scale social enterprise that seemed to involve half the population of the city across a wide demographic.

A cluster of children, all stuffing their faces with empanadas and various other kinds of food that he didn’t recognize, separated from the crowd and charged at him, yelling with delight. Apparently they recognized him from last night and were quite happy to include him in their circle of best friends. Two of the smaller boys dragged him over to a table loaded with food, and he recognized the nice lady from the night before who was now holding court and making sure that all the little ones got some hot food.

She gave him a knowing smile, and looked across the Garden towards where his red-head was standing with his back to them, talking to some teenagers.

“Connie Velázquez, we met last night. Good to see some smiles on faces this morning!”

“Um, yes, ma’am.” Brilliant, Ed. Well known for his ability to converse articulately on any number of subjects, in several languages, Ed was reduced to mumbling incoherently. Connie grinned and handed him a plate.

“Here, eat.”

“Um, I guess you’re celebrating the award today, are you?”

“What? Oh, no, well, yes, of course, but we do this every Saturday. You’re welcome to join us, everyone is. We all get together as long as the weather is decent. We need a building for when it isn’t, that’s next on the list.”

She nodded towards Jon.

“Go talk to him, and send those boys over, they’re not too old for a good meal. The taller one is my Miguel, his brother Rafe is around here somewhere, probably wherever the most teenage girls are.”

Ed found himself with a pile of hot empanadas and other finger food on a paper plate in one hand and napkins in the other, making his way between groups of people and flourishing garden beds, dodging children and dogs and the general kind of chaos that he didn’t find in his normal life. Obviously his normal life had been severely lacking in many respects, even if was somewhat tidier. Which, he thought, was possibly over-rated.

And not a single person here gave a damn what color his credit card was, he realized, including his sweet man, who had probably paid for a lot of this food himself just because he could. He identified a few local politicians and businessmen, all wearing well-used gardening clothes and happily stuffing their faces, and amended that. He really had to stop leaping to conclusions. Possibly everyone gave what they could, in whatever way they could, and everyone looked out for the children? His brothers would be appalled. Then he felt guilty. His brothers weren’t bad people, they were just absorbed in a different kind of life and the pursuit of different goals.

One of the teenagers looked up as Ed approached their group and Jon turned to see who the boy was looking at, and his face lit up. Bright green eyes, sparkling at him, and it was all real and no one here cared what his last name was. He pulled Jon into his arms for a hug and a kiss, and no-one cared about that either.

Something that had been locked up inside of him since his parents had died started to break loose. He wasn’t sure quite what was happening, but damn it felt good.

“So, show me around this place. I had no idea it was so big.”

Jon kissed him again and smirked, rubbing his groin against Ed’s hip. Then, “Oh, you mean the Garden.”

“Well, right after they first started the Community Garden here, they expanded by creating smaller gardens scattered all over the city, and there’s still a few of those where they’re needed, but then Connie and a couple of the other founders realized that the social aspects of the Garden were every bit as important as the food they grow. And they grow a lot of food.”

Jon eyed the empanadas that Ed was still holding. “Were you going to eat all of those yourself?”

They both munched happily away for a while, wiping bits off of each other’s chins, and watching the activity swirl around them.

“Connie makes these. Isn’t she awesome?” Jon sighed and handed the last one to a small child who had a starved look on her face. The minute she had the savory pastry in her hand she laughed and took off running.

“Anyway, this gives everyone a place to get together and meet people and share stories, and there’s a lot of healing going on as well as gardening. And it gives the teenagers somewhere to belong, so they stay out of the gangs and out of trouble. Mostly, anyway. Not saying there’s never trouble.”

He looked back towards the boys he’d been talking to. “We do what we can, though.”

“So, with the grant that we got last night, we’re going to double the area of the gardens along these old tracks, fence it all off properly so it’s safer for the little ones, add fifty new raised beds, and put in some community beds of potatoes and garlic and such that we can grow in bulk. Changing the world, one zucchini at a time.”

He smiled at Ed. “You can tell your people that their money is going to be doing a lot of good here.”

“Um, yeah, about ‘my people’ ...”

“Hey, it’s okay, we don’t hold it against you who you work for. Come on, let me introduce you around.”

Ed was introduced to a lot of people, some of whom he knew already, but no-one seemed to hold his family against him. His view of the world started shifting. He’d had no idea that there were so many different kinds of beans, or that there were black tomatoes, or that richness was properly measured in the productivity of the soil rather than the size of the bank account.

He was dazed and confused by mid-afternoon, and his green-eyed lover was laughing at him.

“Come on, you look like you need a nap.” Jon wiggled his eye-brows at him. “If you ask nicely I’ll show you my zucchini.”

By the time they made it out of the Garden they were both covered in dirt and sticky hand-prints from his new small friends. He offered to call a cab, and Jon seemed to think he was joking. He didn’t think it would be a good idea to tell Jon that he couldn’t remember ever having been on public transit. There was a bus stop at the entrance to the garden and another one a block away from Jon’s apartment, so he managed to survive the trip, although Jon laughed at him for not having the right change or even knowing what that amount was.

They fell into Jon’s big bed after a fast shower, but didn’t end up getting much sleep, what with all the touching and kissing and caressing, and a great deal of crying out in need and pleasure. When they woke up again Jon ordered in some strange and delicious food from a Thai restaurant Ed had never heard of, and no money changed hands at all.

Jon shrugged it off. “I run an account with them. Between that and what Connie sends home with me I don’t bother with cooking too much.”

When they finally did get to sleep late that night they were both exhausted and there were no dream lovers invading Ed’s sleep. He had the real man right where he wanted him.

He woke up in the middle of the night wrapped around a warm body, his face buried in a soft throat, and his body reacted instinctively. He hardened and thrust between Jon’s legs, and wasn’t surprised when Jon moaned softly and rolled over on his back, opening himself up in invitation.

“Oh yeah, babe, wake me up anytime …”

There was no urgency now, just warm acceptance and something that was very much like love. He rubbed against Jon’s soft body and nuzzled into his neck with a growing certainty that this was where he wanted to spend the rest of his life. Beside this man, inside of him, sharing everything with him. He kissed the skin under his ear, and then nibbled at his earlobe.

“Sweetheart? I …”

He couldn’t make himself say the words, it was too soon, or he was too scared. He showed him, though, with strong hands touching every inch of his body, mouth worshipping, relishing every gasp and soft cry. When Jon was finally writhing incoherently under him he slicked himself up and eased into him, and Jon’s body welcomed him, pulling him into that smooth channel like they were two parts of a whole.

 He was the one moaning now, arms wrapped around Jon’s neck, pounding in, trying to get as much skin to skin as he could while Jon wrapped his long legs around Ed’s waist and pulled them closer together. He shifted until he was sitting back and Jon was on his lap, and every thrust of his hips rocked him deeper and deeper into his sweet lover, until finally he exploded inside of him.

He reached forward to grasp Jon’s hard leaking shaft but Jon laughed at him, gasping, pushed him over backwards and then shifted and drove into him in turn, taking his breath away. With his knees bent up and Jon driving into him all he could do was cry out mindlessly, fingers sinking into Jon’s firm buttocks as he thrashed under him. He felt the beginnings of Jon’s climax as his lover’s whole body tightened up, and then Jon was shooting into him, crying out.

“Oh my god, yesyesyes, my god …”

If this wasn’t love he didn’t know what was.

Monday morning hit hard. He kept the pillow over his head for as long as he could, but eventually he had to face reality, and he couldn’t do it in the old clothes he’d worn to the garden. Would Jon still love him when he saw the tailored suits that Ed wore to work every day? Whatever love was, and whatever work was? His whole world was shifting towards the rabbit hole.

“Babe? Don’t you have to go to work? I work weekends and get Monday and Tuesday off, except when I don’t, but you probably work Monday to Friday?”

Ed groaned and muttered, but finally rolled out of bed, being careful not to run over a cat in the process. He’d already made that mistake once, and it had cost him several plump Thai shrimp.

“Lord, yeah. Reality sucks.” He suddenly was uncertain. “Um, when can we see each other again?”

Jon looked surprised, then uncertain himself. He propped himself up on the pillows, and stared at Ed.

“Um, I don’t know. Like, are we dating or something, that we have to decide on a time and place? I haven’t done this for a long time ...”

Ed hadn’t felt this awkward about anything since he was a pimply teenager.

“Um, I’ll call you?” That was surely better than ‘How about I bring all my stuff over tonight and I just move in with you?’, but it came out as a cliché, and he saw Jon flinch.

“Sweetheart, I haven’t done this in forever, as in caring this much about someone, wanting to be with them so much. Just ignore me if I’m stupid about it sometimes, okay?” The last thing he wanted was to hurt this sweet man.

Jon seemed to relax a bit, and Ed did too.

“I don’t want to ignore you, babe, ever, and you’re not stupid. I just don’t know how to do this either. And I’m glad you don’t do this all the time, cause then I’d have to tie you to the bed and never let you go.” He grinned as Ed’s eyebrows went up. “We’ll figure it out. The cats seem to like you, and that counts for something.”

Ed smiled despite himself. This polite disdain was the cats liking him? He was glad they didn’t hate him.

“I’ll call you tonight, after work, after supper, as soon as I can, okay? I usually get in late, but it’ll all be good. I want to spend some time at the garden with you next weekend.” Next weekend and always?

He really wanted to say “I love you”, but it was way too soon. Wasn’t it? How soon was too soon?