Chapter Twenty-Five
Blake shuffled his way into the darkened living room, blinking against the light. He’d fallen asleep earlier, and then woken up alone, in the dark, unsure what time it was.
The answer was five minutes to midnight. Which meant he’d missed the rest of the wedding.
He’d seen the important part. He’d watched his sister glowing at the altar, promising herself to a man she clearly, for some reason, loved. Blake wasn’t in the mood to judge her anymore.
He hoped this was the beginning of her living a happier, more fulfilling life.
Rusty was sitting on the couch, his tie hanging loose around his neck and his top three shirt buttons open, jacket nowhere to be seen. His head was tilted back, his eyes closed, the light spilling in from the kitchen just enough to highlight his two-day stubble.
He started awake as Blake approached, looking over at him and blinking.
“Oh,” he said, a tiny smile spreading across his face. “I told people you had a headache.”
“Thanks.” Blake smiled at that. Rusty really had been the perfect husband, in more ways than Blake thought he realized.
Most of it seemed to come naturally.
His stomach twisted as he looked down at the papers in his hand. He didn’t want to do this, but a promise was a promise, and Rusty had more than held up his end of the bargain.
Blake’s mom was never going to worry about him again, as long as Megan didn’t tell. That was all he’d wanted. For his family to think he was okay.
And he was okay, mostly.
He just would have liked to have someone like Rusty for real.
Well, no. Not someone like Rusty.
Rusty, specifically.
But he couldn’t ask for that, and he knew it. Rusty had come all the way out here for a divorce, and he’d been kind about it, but it was obviously what he wanted.
It’d been fun while it lasted.
“Here,” Blake said, holding the papers out before he could get any more upset over it. “As promised. You’ve been amazing.”
Rusty blinked at him again, taking the papers with a frown. His eyes widened a moment later when he looked at them.
“I’d almost forgotten,” he said. “Thanks. For not making this harder than it had to be.”
Blake raised an eyebrow. “Dragging you to a wedding and making you pretend to be my husband wasn’t harder than it had to be?”
Rusty shrugged, shuffling over on the couch to make room for Blake. Blake couldn’t resist the urge to sit with him, letting himself indulge in curling up beside him, his head resting on Rusty’s shoulder.
Since he didn’t get any complaints, he assumed that was okay.
“Hasn’t been so bad,” Rusty said, rubbing his thumb against Blake’s shoulder, encouraging him to let him take more of his weight. “I’ve made friends, got to play a gig, scored free room and board for a few days… I’ve had worse weeks.”
Blake laughed softly. Rusty was a glass half full kinda guy.
“I’m gonna miss this,” Blake confessed, not sure he should be saying so, but not wanting Rusty to think he’d be glad to be rid of him. “I’d like to think of you as a friend, if that’s okay?”
Rusty chuckled. “Don’t worry, you’re stuck with me now. Friends for life.”
“Good.” Blake let himself snuggle closer, happy to soak up Rusty’s presence while he still had it.
“You should come visit me sometime,” Rusty said. “You’d like Melbourne. It’s like this place, but bigger.”
“What would you show me, if I did come visit?”
“The waterfall wall at the NGV,” Rusty said.
“The what now?” Blake asked, not sure what either a waterfall wall or an NGV was.
“At the national gallery, they’ve got this big glass wall, and it’s got water running down it. It looks like magic. When I was a kid I loved going there, just to reach out and touch the glass and let the water run over my hand. That’s what I’d show you first.”
“Huh,” Blake said, surprised that Rusty had such a detailed answer. Maybe he’d been giving it some thought.
“Then I guess we could go inside and see the art,” Rusty said. “Head somewhere nice for lunch. Maybe a pub or one of the little hidden away restaurants no one knows about. Coffee in a laneway somewhere. And then when it got dark I’d take you to one of the city parks to feed the possums.”
Blake raised an eyebrow. “Should you feed the possums?”
“Probably not, but they’ll eat out of the bins if you don’t. We have cute possums. You’d love them. But they will bully you into sharing your sandwich if you go near one.”
Blake chuckled. He liked the sound of all that. Rusty was clearly just as much fun to go on a date with at home as he was here.
“I think I’d like that,” Blake said.
“Spoken like someone who’s never had a slice of pizza stolen out of their hand by a possum,” Rusty responded.
“Well, now I’m convinced. I have to meet these possums.”
“Anytime,” Rusty said. “I’ll pay your airfare. Pick you up at the airport.”
Blake’s heart hurt at the earnestness of that offer. Rusty really did want to be his friend. Maybe even his boyfriend.
It was a shame they hadn’t reconnected differently. They’d met twice now, at different times of their lives, but it had never been the right time.
They could have been so perfect for each other if it had been.
Blake yawned widely, his earlier nap apparently not enough to satisfy him. He felt as though he could sleep for a week right now, especially with the thought of the way he was about to change his entire life.
It was a good thing. He was glad he didn’t have to go back to his crappy office job.
It was just a lot, and he felt like he was losing something huge. Something he should have been fighting to hold onto.
But right now, he was leaving Rusty as a friend. He liked that option better than being mad at him for not being willing to change his entire life for Blake.
He wasn’t mad about that. He understood that Rusty had a life of his own, and that it was bad timing for both of them.
He just wished things were different.
“Go to bed,” Rusty said. “I’ll be up in a minute.”
“We’re like a real married couple,” Blake joked.
Rusty smiled wryly. “For the record, I’m gonna miss this, too,” he said.
Blake nodded, understanding that Rusty was trying to tell him this was hard for both of them. Not just him.
That helped.
“Night,” Blake said, padding away toward the stairs.
He turned back as he reached the bottom of them, seeing Rusty playing with his phone.
Probably texting his father or his lawyer to say he had the signed divorce papers.
Blake’s stomach turned at the thought. He headed up the stairs, his heart sinking with every step he took away from Rusty, knowing that all the time they had left was borrowed, and they wouldn’t have any more of it.
He wished it could have gone another way. He didn’t want to watch the man he loved leave all over again.