“Okay, something’s bothering you, I can tell,” said Miguel before biting into a crunchy pickle. He leaned against the counter in the kitchen at Dominic’s parents house. Nearby Dominic arranged their ingredients for another night of cooking. He’d apparently given up the idea of fixing his sleep schedule any time soon.

Dominic looked over at Miguel with an unreadable expression on his face. He crept to the kitchen entrance and looked out into the living room as if making sure that they were alone.

“What are you doing? Your parents are asleep, there’s no one else here.”

“I was just making sure,” said Dominic in a hoarse whisper.

“You realize that’s just as loud as your normal voice, right?” Miguel finished off the pickle he was eating and dried his hands on a towel. “Just tell me what’s going on.”

“I went to see my grandfather today,” said Dominic in his normal voice as he returned to the counter where he’d been working.

“That’s why you look like you didn’t get any sleep today.”

“I didn’t. I ended up talking to him all afternoon. He was never around when I was growing up, so I thought he just didn’t care about us. Turns out I was wrong. Sure, he’s still suspicious of everyone and kind of a hardass, but I think overall he’s a decent person who just lost his way.” Dominic seemed thoughtful.

“Okay, but that look on your face was more ‘crap how do I tell Miguel this’ and less, ‘I just reunited with my long lost grandpa.’”

“I’m quitting my job at the bar,” blurted Dominic. He turned to face Miguel. “My grandfather owns Kenny’s Shellfish, I’m sure you’ve heard of it. He’s going to give me a job. It’ll pay better than the bar so we’ll have more than enough income to deal with hospital bills and whatever else comes our way.”

“But…?” Miguel could feel something else coming his way. Some detail that would expose this too-good-to-be-true job for what it really was.

“But...the job is pretty intense. See...there are two low tides every twenty-four hours, right?”

“Dom, I live on an island. Just like you. I know about the damn tides.”

“So yeah, basically we spend four hours collecting shellfish during low tide every day. So that’s eight hours a day, which isn’t bad. But the tides kind of shift a bit so it’s never the exact same four hours.” Dominic looked uncomfortable as he explained the situation.

“When are we going to cook?” asked Miguel with a frown. “When are you going to sleep?”

“We’ll figure it out, it shouldn’t be too bad,” Dominic tried to reassure him. “I can sleep between onset of tides and we can cook between another. There’ll be a few extra hours in there for other stuff. Sure it’s a bit awkward, but I think we can make it work.”

It was clear that Dominic had put a lot of thought and effort into trying to set this whole thing up. If the money really was as good as he was saying, it would be stupid to pass it up based on the slight inconvenience of the schedule.

“I’m still going to go back to work once my arms are better. We’re a team, I’m not letting you do all of this alone.” Miguel reached out and touched Dominic’s arm.

“Just don’t go falling out of anymore trees,” Dominic teased as he pulled Miguel close and kissed him on the forehead.

“I’m not going to be able to climb after a while. I can’t imagine my dad would let me anywhere near the climbing gear when my belly starts to show,” Miguel chuckled as he leaned against Dominic’s chest. “I’m not going to be the kind of guy that just sits around and lets you take care of me though.”

“I know you’re not,” said Dominic, hooking a finger under Miguel’s chin and gently tilting back his head. “That’s just one of the many reasons why I love you.”

Miguel’s heart skipped a beat at the sound of those words. He hadn’t expected to hear them so soon. Sure, he had nearly said them himself earlier that day but he’d held back. It was difficult to judge exactly what Dominic thought or felt about their relationship.

It was clear that he cared and that he intended to see things through. What had been unclear, however, was whether he was making all of this effort because he wanted to be with Miguel or because he felt obligated.

“Do you mean that?” asked Miguel as he tried to bite back the flood of emotion inside him. “Because I don’t know if you understand just how much those words mean to me.”

Dominic leaned in and gently pressed his lips against Miguel’s. The kiss was sweet, unhurried, and gentle. As their lips parted Dominic pressed his forehead against Miguel’s.

“I’ve known you longer than everyone except my parents. In all of our fights and rivalry over the years, no one has gotten to know me as well as you have. No one challenges me like you do. No one pushes me to be more than I am the way you do.” Dominic’s voice was deep, thick, and sent chills down Miguel’s spine as he spoke. “I can’t think of anyone else I would rather have by my side. So yes, Miguel, I meant what I said.”

Miguel closed his eyes for a long moment as he tried to clear his thoughts. “All of this, it’s happening so quickly.”

To his surprise, Dominic chuckled. “By some estimates, it’s a relationship that’s thirty years in the making.”

Opening his eyes, Miguel found Dominic staring back at him. “A month ago you hated me.”

“A month ago...” Dominic sighed and pulled back his head. He looked up at the ceiling. “It feels like a lifetime now.”

“It does,” agreed Miguel. “Good thing it wasn’t though or we’d be in trouble. That contest is barely over three months away, and we’ve still got a lot to do.” He stepped back from Dominic and forced a smile. They’d had too much melancholy in their lives these last few weeks. They needed to stay focused.

“Easy for you to say,” chuckled Dominic. “You’re not the one slaving over the grill every night.”

“Maybe not, but I am the one keeping us on track,” said Miguel. He reached for the notebook sitting on the kitchen table. Page after page had been filled with notes on their current project. Every adjustment to the recipe, every test, was noted down in detail. Serving ideas and potential arrangements were written down as well.

“Do you have one of those for every contest?” asked Dominic as he returned to the prep work he’d been doing.

“Yeah, I do. Most of them are in storage, but I keep some of the more recent ones in my room,” he explained as he flipped through the pages. “The writing in this one is atrocious though. You can barely even make out the first few entries.”

“I looked through it the other day, I can’t understand any of it,” teased Dominic.

Miguel had struggled to write properly in his cast. He didn’t have the full range of motion his hand needed to form letters and numbers the normal way. He had been forced to use motions that incorporated his entire arm which resulted in large lettering of various sizes and legibility. He’d gotten a little quicker and more accurate over the last several weeks but the end result was still barely readable.

“Well, at least we don’t have to worry about anyone stealing our secrets,” retorted Miguel. “I’ve had contestants try to do that in the past you know.”

“I’m aware. It happened to me a couple of times too. Part of why I don’t write anything down.”

“I thought it was just because you were too lazy to bother.” Miguel chuckled and sat down at the table with the notebook.

“I take offense to that,” said Dominic in mock annoyance. “I prefer the term ‘artisan chef.’ I follow my instincts as I cook. I don’t have time for recipes.”

“Which is why you rarely manage to win two years in a row,” Miguel mumbled in a barely audible tone.

“I heard that.”

“Either way,” continued Miguel without missing a beat, “we’ve got a lot of work left to do and a lot of distractions trying to pull us away. If we’re going to win this, we can’t afford to waste what little time we’re going to have to cook.”

Dominic was silent for a long moment before he turned back towards Miguel. “There’s one more thing we need to discuss.”

“What’s that?” Miguel looked up from his notebook and was surprised to see a somewhat serious look on Dominic’s face.

“When are we going to tell our parents about all of this?” Dominic pulled out one of the chairs and the table and sat down across from Miguel. “We’re not going to be able to keep it a secret for very long. I already had to tell my abuelo about it in order to get him to even speak to me. I doubt he’ll tell anyone else, but word’s going to start spreading eventually.”

Telling his parents wasn’t very high on Miguel’s to-do list at the moment. It wasn’t that he didn’t want them to know about the pregnancy, he just didn’t want them to know right now. He wanted to have his life together and an exit plan in place so that he could easily side-step their offers of assistance.

“I don’t know about your parents, but mine are going to bombard me with advice as soon as I tell them.” Miguel took a deep breath. “I love my parents, but I think one of the biggest mistakes I ever made was moving back home after my last boyfriend kicked me out.”

“It worked out. Living on your own with two broken arms would probably suck.” Dominic grinned. “I...I honestly don’t know how mine will react. My dad will probably be okay with it. He’s usually pretty relaxed about everything. My mom...”

“The medication the doctor gave her seems to be working,” Miguel tried to reassure him.

“Even so, I don’t think she’ll handle it well if she finds out from someone else. We’re going to have to tell them before you start to show,” said Dominic.

Miguel sighed placing his head on the table with a solid ‘thunk.’

“Can we at least wait until we find somewhere to live first?” he asked after a moment. “That way I can politely tell my parents I don’t need any help.”

“Fine,” agreed Dominic. “As long as it doesn’t take too long. I’m giving Guillermo my notice tomorrow. Abuelo wants me to start working as soon as possible. Once I get my first payment from him we should be able to start looking for something.”

“I should have my first cast off by then.” Miguel lifted his head off the table. “I’ll talk to my dad about going back to work doing something easy after that. What are you going to tell your parents when you quit? Your dad’s at Guillermo’s almost every night.”

“I’ll...figure something out.” Dominic rose from the table and returned to the counter once more. “My dad’s relationship with my abuelo has always been a little rough, so I’m not sure how he’s going to handle that either.”

“Sounds like we’re in for a rough couple of weeks,” said Miguel with a dry laugh. “Nothing’s ever easy, is it?”

“If things were easy, we probably wouldn’t have ended up together,” Dominic reminded him. “It’s all going to work out. We just have to stick together.”

A small smile touched Miguel’s lips. He couldn’t imagine his life going any differently any more. This was the natural course of things now that Dominic was in his life. A problem would arise, and they would face it head on.

“Hey, Dominic?”

“Yeah, Miguel?”

“I love you.”

“Love you too.”