Starting with the Unexpected (14 page)

In my heart, I suspected that would actually be the case. I was completely, irrevocably in love with him. I hadn’t told him—neither of us had said the words, though I’d come close a couple of times—but I hoped that my actions said it for me. We’d say the words when the time was right.

On top of the smooth sailing in our relationship, my parents adored him. My mom had started making noise that I really ought to ask him to marry me (never mind that neither of us were ready for that, especially considering we’d only been together for about three months), and my dad would send Marcus texts to see if he’d read the latest book by their favorite author or to invite him to go fishing. Even Brandon seemed to like him, which was a minor miracle. Brandon appeared to have called a truce with me too, though things were still strained. At least he wasn’t being a complete asshole to me anymore.

So, yeah. Things were wonderful, except for the fact that we hadn’t heard anything from Marcus’s sister or his ex since he moved into the studio above the garage, and I had a hard time believing they’d just walk away without trying anything else. I expected it was only a matter of time before the drama hit again, as people like them tend to dislike being forgotten about, whether there was a restraining order involved or not.

It was the events of one unseasonably warm evening that, unbeknownst to all of us, would prove me right.

I probably would have enjoyed walking to work that evening just for the weather, but spring has a way of being capricious, so I didn’t trust the weather to be as beautiful when I left work in the morning. I learned my lesson the last time I walked to work and had to have Kat drive me home when we were done so I didn’t get hailed on. So I pulled into my usual parking spot at my usual time and dragged myself into work. Marcus was studying at our coffee table when I left, laughing at Jordan’s very vocal complaints about not being able to beat the level of the video game he was playing, and I hadn’t wanted to go.

“Trust me, you’ll want to go in today,” Marcus had answered mysteriously when I told him as much. I wasn’t sure what to make of that, but I was afraid to ask.

And so, there I was, Kat’s caramel whatever in one hand and a chai in the other as I entered the station.

“I brought donuts,” Kat said. I handed over her coffee and dropped into my chair. “You obviously need some, considering you look like someone kicked your puppy.”

“It’s a beautiful night, and I’m stuck here,” I grumbled. “I should be out stargazing with Marcus.”

She gave an indelicate snort and rolled her eyes. “Is that what they’re calling it these days?”

I grinned despite myself. “There’d be some of that involved too, but we happen to actually enjoy stargazing.”

“To each their own,” Kat said with a shrug. “Go grab a donut and shove it down before we throw together the rest of today’s script. Oh, and I have a song dedication I’m playing at the end of the broadcast.”

I glared at her over the edge of my cup. “We don’t do
requests,” I reminded her. “Ever.” There was a really, really good reason for that too. She’d apparently forgotten about the time we played a dedication and the person it was intended for showed up at the station, furious. It turned out that her girlfriend had requested the wrong song and everything was worked out, but we swore we’d never chance that sort of thing again.

“I cleared it with the boss,” Kat said. She raised an eyebrow as if daring me to question her choices ever again. “We’re doing it.”

“Fine,” I said, and I grit my teeth. “Then you can field every single call that comes in requesting dedications for the music breaks. Because it’s going to happen.”

“No it won’t, Grumplestiltskin. Go get a donut and trust me, for God’s sake.”

I did go get a donut. There wasn’t much I could do about the situation, not if the boss had approved it. That’s not to say I quit glaring at her, though. In fact, when she muted the mics for the traffic report, she shot back, “Quit with the making faces at me, will you?”

“Do you remember why we quit taking requests?” I asked. “There’s a reason behind it, you know.”

“I do know, but trust me when I say it won’t be like that this time,” Kat said. “This is a one-time deal.”

I squinted at her suspiciously. “Then tell me about the dedication.”

“Oh look, traffic report’s done,” Kat deflected swiftly, turning the mics back on to seamlessly follow up the day’s traffic report to remind our listeners that the spring art festival was coming up, and that we’d be there, broadcasting live and in person the Saturday it opened.

I’d forgotten we had to do that gig, and I wondered if Marcus would want to go with me. I’d have to pretty much stay at the broadcasting location until our time was up, but he and I would have time to walk the festival before it shut down for the day. Maybe we’d be able to hunt down someone selling fried Twinkies to take home to Jordan. I’d have to ask.

As our day came to an end and Kat was at a point where she could talk about the music she was about to play, I glanced out the window that looked out of the studio to the rest of the station, only to see Marcus waiting for me. He waved when he saw me looking, and I waved back with a smile on my face. My day had just improved drastically.

“And so, before we let you guys off the hook,” Kat was saying into her mic. “We’re actually going to do a request. As long-time listeners are well aware, we don’t do song dedications anymore, thanks to the debacle from two years ago, so don’t go thinking we’ve changed our minds on that rule. This is kind of special, though, and was planned in advance.”

I noticed that Marcus was bouncing in place, grinning ridiculously as he did. “What’s up?” I mouthed silently at him.

He waved a hand at me and pointed at Kat. “Listen,” he mouthed back. Or maybe he actually said it. It’s not like I could hear through the glass.

“Anyway we leave you guys with a song dedication for our own Zach Blaise, from his boyfriend Marcus, who notes that it’s about time one of them said it.”

It took me a moment to realize what Kat had said, and my eyes grew wide as Van Halen’s “Why Can’t This Be Love” started to play. I bolted out of my chair, not caring whether Kat had muted the mic or not, and threw open the door. I practically launched myself at Marcus, who was laughing happily as I wrapped my arms around him. “It’s love,” I whispered in his ear, ignoring the fact that my eyes were trying to leak all over the place. “It’s definitely love.”

“Yeah,” Marcus whispered back. “It is. I love you.”

I nodded against his neck. “I love you too.”

I don’t know how long we stood there like that, all wrapped up in each other, but eventually a hand on my shoulder startled me out of our reverie. “See, you glared at me all morning for nothing,” Kat said grinning at me. Her eyes were suspiciously moist too, which shocked me. Kat rarely displayed any sort of sentimentality that didn’t involve biting sarcasm. “Go take your lunch.”

“Hell yeah,” I said, letting go of Marcus to give her an impulsive kiss on the cheek. “Thanks.”

She made a disgruntled noise and waved her hand dismissively, which I took to mean she was done with the whole tender-feelings thing. I didn’t comment. I only grabbed Marcus’s hand and led him out of the station. “My car or yours?”

“Mine,” Marcus said with a grin. “I have a surprise for you.”

“What, you mean basically declaring your love for me on air wasn’t surprise enough?” I asked, sounding far too smug.

Marcus laughed and unlocked his car. “Just get in.”

Feeling far too pleased to bother arguing, I got into the car and buckled up. My mood was so good that I didn’t even harass him to tell me where we were going as he drove. When he pulled the car up and parked in front of Jubilation, I turned to give him a confused look. “What are we doing here?”

He didn’t answer, just raised an eyebrow and got out of the car. I followed suit, though I was confused. Jubilation didn’t open for breakfast, so there was no reason to be there. Marcus obviously wasn’t bothered by that, though, considering the way he simply walked up to the restaurant’s doors and knocked. The door opened a crack, and I saw Nate peek out. He ushered us in, grinning. “So how did it go?” he asked Marcus.

“Perfectly,” Marcus said, his smile widening. “I really appreciate you and Christophe doing this.”

“As if we’d say no,” Nate said, and led us to a table. “Take a seat. No menus this morning, but Chris will take care of you.”

“Of that, I have no doubt,” Marcus said. “Mind bringing me a coffee, though?”

I wrinkled my nose at him because he’d grown to expect me to make faces every time he ordered coffee. Then I asked Nate for a soda. When he headed into the kitchen to take care of the drinks, I crossed my arms and narrowed my eyes at Marcus. “Just how many people knew about this?”

“Kat, your boss, most of the morning crew at the station, Christophe, Nate, your parents, Brandon, Jordan…. The station actually offered to give me a copy of this morning’s show so we could keep it. I told them yes, obviously”

“So everyone knew, basically?” I asked.

“Except you,” Marcus said innocently and gave me a kissy face before he grinned again. “Was it a good surprise?”

“The best,” I replied honestly, rubbing his calf with my foot. “Thank you.”

Marcus smiled and reached across the table with one hand, which I immediately took in mine. “I just…. It’s like I wanted the whole world to know, you know? And then after I started planning the thing at the station, I started thinking about how I wanted to take you where we went on our first date, so I called the restaurant. They didn’t have anything available for the afternoon, but when Christophe found out what I was doing, he offered us a private breakfast here during your lunch hour.”

“You don’t do anything halfway, do you?” I asked, giving his hand a squeeze. I already knew the answer to that, of course. The thought of Marcus doing anything halfway was an absurdity.

Lunch—or rather, my second breakfast of the day—turned out to be the most delicious crepes I’ve ever eaten, filled with a fruit and cream cheese mixture that I’d be dreaming about for the next several months. To their credit, Christophe and Nate didn’t hover, but left Marcus and me alone to eat and enjoy each other’s company.

“So,” I said between bites, “the spring art festival is coming up.”

“I heard,” Marcus said with a nod. “You and Kat are going to be there, right? I caught that, this morning.”

“Yeah, we did it last year too. It’s actually a lot of fun, since we do contests and things at the event. I was wondering if you wanted to go. Sitting around in the booth we broadcast from wouldn’t exactly be exciting for you, so if you wanted you could wander the festival or meet me there when the broadcast is over.”

“Or I could stay in the booth you broadcast from and do homework while you work, which would enable me to both get some studying done and spend time with you while not interrupting your work.” Marcus gave me a pleased look and held out his fork, offering me a bite of his breakfast.

It was the exact same thing I was eating, but I let him feed it to me anyway. If my boyfriend wanted to be romantic, I was going to soak it up. “I like that idea,” I told him after I’d swallowed. “I’ll check with Kat and my boss and make sure they don’t mind, but I don’t see why they would. Kat’s boyfriend came last year and helped us with the contests. He was at Pride with us too. He made a fantastic drag queen for a straight guy, and I have the pictures to prove it.”

“Are you serious?” Marcus asked. He laughed when I nodded. “Oh my God. That’s priceless.”

“Seriously. A group of them ambushed Erik at the booth, and Kat let them drag him away to make him up. Erik’s a good guy,” I said, offering a bite of my own breakfast. “You’ll like him. I’ve never met a more laid-back person, but it kind of offsets Kat’s natural attitude. They suit each other.”

“Sounds like it,” Marcus agreed. “So we have a plan, then. I’ll join you and Kat at the festival.”

“Works for me,” I said, settling back into finishing my food.

When it was obvious we were done, Christophe and Nate came back to the table. Nate gathered up plates, and Christophe pulled out a chair to sit with us. “Your brother was here the other day,” he told me.

“Brandon?” I asked, my eyebrows lifting in surprise. “Was he with someone?”

“Don’t be nosy,” Marcus chastised.

“He was with someone from the hospital, I think,” Christophe said with a shrug, completely ignoring the fact that Marcus was trying to keep us from gossiping. “Looked like a coworker-lunch type of thing. I was just surprised to see him come in. I thought he was avoiding anyone who had anything to do with you.”

“He’s gotten better lately,” I admitted. “Dunno what happened, but he doesn’t appear to hate my guts now. And he really likes Marcus.”

“He’s a good guy, underneath all the issues,” Marcus said. “Besides, nobody’s perfect. Not even Ollie.”

“I still can’t believe he can get away with calling you that.” Nate rejoined us, handed Marcus the check, and pulled out a chair of his own.

I tried to take the check from Marcus, but he yanked it out of reach. “The last time we came here, I told you I’d be paying the next time, and you agreed,” he reminded me.

The last time we’d been to Jubilation had been for our first date, and I remembered that conversation. Dammit. “Fine,” I said. “I get the next one, then. We ought to see Christophe and Nate outside of this place, though. Barbeque after the festival on Saturday? We could invite my parents too.”

“What, the art festival?” Christophe asked. “I could go for that. I’d even cook.”

“I’ll go, providing you don’t mind hanging with the baby,” Nate said with an adoring smile. His daughter was barely a month old and already had him wrapped around her tiny finger.

“My mom would be thrilled to have baby time,” I assured him. “How’s Shanti feeling?”

“You mean aside from being happy to have a normal-sized bladder back?” Nate asked with a snort. “She’s good, thanks. I’ll tell her you say hi. She’ll be glad to finally meet Marcus.”