Work Rules

by Jacki James

  “Okay, then you get with your young man and find out when he is off next on a Sunday. You two can come to church with us, and then have Sunday dinner.”

  “Mom, I’m not sure how Nathan would feel about that. His parents told him he was going to hell, threatened to send him to a conversion camp, and kicked him out when he was fifteen. So church might be a touchy subject.”

  “Fifteen? They threw him out at fifteen? How did that poor boy survive?” my mom asked with tears in her eyes.

  “Well, he was very lucky, and his best friend’s family took him in and made him one of them. He has a great family, Mom. You don’t have to worry about him.”

  “I say we skip inviting him to church the first time we meet him,” Dad said, always the rational one. “Even though our church isn’t like that, and we have a bunch of gay and lesbian couples that attend, I don’t see any reason to make him uncomfortable. Y’all just come for lunch.”

  Then my dad did the last thing I expected when coming here today. He pulled me into a hug, and while he held me, he said, “Son, we love you and we’re glad you found someone. We can’t wait to meet him.” He stepped back and looked into my eyes. “You hear me?”

  “Yeah, Dad. I hear you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Nathan

  I left Alex’s house and headed back to my apartment. My head was still spinning, and I was worried about Alex. He loved his family. You could tell they were tight by listening to him talk about them. I hoped it was going to go okay.

  I walked in the front door, and Linc was sprawled out on the couch with Sassy curled up in a ball asleep.

  “Oh, thank God you’re here,” he exclaimed. “The cat fell asleep on me so now I’m obligated to stay put and not move until she wakes up. I need sustenance which you can help me with, and to pee, which you can’t.”

  “Oh, but I can help with both because cat rules be damned, I need some kitty cuddles.” I swooped my sleeping cat into my arms and plopped down in the chair. She struggled unhappily for a minute, but eventually, she settled in and went back to sleep.

  “What happened to bring on the need for kitty cuddles? I didn’t expect you back this early if at all this weekend. Is everything okay?”

  “Yes, no, I don’t know. I accidentally outed Alex to his brother this morning.”

  “Oh shit, what happened?”

  I told him all about it. From coming into the room to spending the morning eating donuts and talking with Tony.

  “Tony is good people. So everything worked out okay, and now you guys don’t have to worry about it.”

  “Luckily, they did, at least with Tony. They’re over at his parents’ house telling them right now. But whether or not it went okay isn’t the point.”

  “Then what’s the point?”

  “Lincoln, seriously, did you hear what I said? I outed him. No one should get outed. Everyone should get to pick when they tell the world they’re gay, or bi in his case. No one should ever have that choice taken away. I feel horrible.”

  “You’re right, they shouldn’t, but honey you can’t un-ring that bell. The only thing you can do is be happy that it turned out as well as it did. It isn’t going to do anyone any good for you to beat yourself up over something that wasn’t intentional.”

  “I know, I'm just worried about how things are going now,” I said as my phone buzzed in my pocket. I shifted carefully trying not to wake up the cat and looked at the screen.

  Alex: Headed home now. Want me to come pick you up?

  Me: Sure. Is everything okay?

  Alex: Yes fine. But now you have to go to lunch Sunday my parents.

  Me: When?

  Alex: The next Sunday you’re off work.

  Me: Do I have a choice?

  Alex: no

  Me: Okay *shrug emoji*

  Alex: I love you. see in a few.

  Me: <3 you too.

  “Well, with the way you’re smiling at your phone, I take it things are okay.”

  “Yeah.” I put the cat down and flashed my phone in his face showing him the text message. Then I did a stupid little happy dance around the couch chanting, “He loves me, he loves me, he loves me…” Linc just looked at me and shook his head laughing.

  Alex

  I’d never seen anyone so worked up about a Sunday dinner. I swear, Nathan was going to give himself a heart attack. He stressed over whether or not to bring anything, then over what to bring. He stressed over whether he should dress up or go casual, then over how casual was too casual. He stressed over whether or not to wear makeup, then over if he should put color in his hair. It was like watching a juggling act.

  “Do you think sequins and glitter are over the top? Because I feel much better when I’m shiny. But that’s because the people see the shiny, and they don’t look too closely at me. But I want your family to meet me and like me, not my glitter. But the shirt with the glitter unicorn is adorable. I do adorable so well. They might take me more seriously without though, and I think I want them to take me seriously. Hey, what do you think says serious… my solid pink sweater or the one with stripes that I wore when we went to see the leaves? I know it has that yellowish-colored stripe in it, and I just bought some pants that color. That would be so cute! Oh, but then I couldn’t do the pink in my hair because it would clash something horrible. Does your mom like roses or something simpler like daisies?”

  I didn’t realize he’d stopped talking and fussing around with everything until he said my name. “Lexi!” he snapped.

  I looked up from my tablet, and he was standing there, hands on his hips, glaring at me.

  “What? Was I supposed to answer that one?” I tried not to laugh.

  “Yes, duh. I mean how else am I supposed to know what kind of flowers to get?”

  “I thought we decided not to take anything.”

  He rolled his eyes and sighed “No, Lexi. You decided we shouldn’t bring anything, but Patty raised me better.”

  “Well, it is fall. She loves the purple asters that grow along the road and the dark red mums. She really likes those.”

  “Okay, good. Thank you.” He gave me a quick kiss and resumed his fretting.

  By the time Sunday rolled around, he was remarkably calm. I wasn’t sure what to make of the change, but I was happy to see it. I wasn’t asking either because no one ever accused me of being stupid.

  “You look fantastic,” I told him as I pulled him into a hug.

  “Hey! Don’t squish your mama’s flowers,” he laughed.

  “Sorry, they are beautiful though. She’ll love them.” Leave it to Nathan to pick the perfect bouquet for my mom without ever meeting her. The yellow sunflowers and purple asters contrasted perfectly with the red of the… "What are the red ones?” I asked, studying them.

  “They’re called Red Alstroemeria. They’re used to symbolize affection for a friend. The sunflowers symbolize longevity and the purple asters are for royalty. And while I’m sure your mom is the queen in your family, they’re there because you said your mom likes them.”

  “How do you know all that?”

  “I worked at a flower shop during college. It was a fun job. I learned a lot.”

  I leaned in and gave him a kiss. “My mom is going to love you.”

  He tilted his head to the side and grinned. “That’s what I decided too. I mean what’s not to love?”

  “Let’s go,” I said laughing.

  And sure enough, he was right. She loved him. From the first moment he handed her the flowers, he had her. My dad liked him too, but his biggest fan was easily Maddie.

  “Hi, Mr. Nathan. Did you bring Emma?” was the first thing out of her mouth when she arrived with Tony and Cindy.

  “No, I didn’t bring her, Maddie Mae, sorry.”

  She looked at him for a minute trying to figure out what she was going to do next. Then she grabbed his hand, pulling him towards the living room. “That’s okay, maybe you’ll remember to bring her next time. But for now, you
’ll do. You were fun to play with at Emma’s house. So let’s go play while we wait for food. Mommy says Gran is making peach cobbler because Uncle Alex told her you liked it. I do, too. But we can’t have any unless we eat real food first,” she said with a dramatic eye roll. She turned around and looked at me with both her hands out to her sides, palms up, giving me the universal sign of wtf, even in five-year-old speak. “Uncle Alex, are you coming? He’s yours, you brought him, so you have to stick with him.”

  I looked back at Cindy, and she was trying not to laugh, “Yep, that’s the way it works, you brought him so he’s yours.”

  “Damn straight,” I told her as I headed into the living room to play Legos.

  By the time the night was over, he had talked hockey with my dad; convinced Cindy to come to yoga with him and Debbie; swapped Facebook friend requests with my mom; and promised Maddie another trip to the aquarium with Emma. Needless to say, my whole family was charmed. When he left the room to go to the restroom, my mom looked at me and said, “He is perfect for you, Alex. I adore him.”

  “Well, it’s about time I finally got a son who likes hockey. I don’t know where I went wrong with you two,” my dad said shaking his head.

  “Hey, I like hockey. I’ve been to a couple of games with Nathan and his friends, and Tony and Blake are going with us next time.”

  “Going to a game to humor your boyfriend is not the same thing as being a fan,” he scoffed.

  Nathan walked back into the room to Tony fake pouting, Cindy and my mom laughing, and me trying to convince dad I did like hockey.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “Dad likes you best,” Tony grumbled.

  “Well, of course he does,” Nathan grinned. “I'm fabulous.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Alex

  “So, he seems like a great guy,” Blake said as Nathan walked off.

  “He is. Just wait until you see him and his friend Mark at the hockey game later.” I chuckled thinking about what they were in for. “They’re hilarious. Mark is serious about his hockey and Nathan is… well, Nathan.”

  “Shit,” he said looking over my shoulder. “Incoming.”

  I turned my head the direction he was looking and saw Jessica was making her way over.

  “Fuck. I’m not in the mood for this,” I grumbled. The night had been going so well. Nathan had been at ease with my brother and Blake. We were going to hang out with his friends at the hockey game. Everything was meshing perfectly, and then boom, fucking Jessica.

  “Alex,” she said in what she thought was a sexy tone. “How’ve you been?”

  “Fine. How about you?” I figured coldly polite was the best way to get my point across.

  “Not too bad. I miss you, though. Why don’t you come join me over at the bar? We can catch up.”

  “I’m seeing someone, Jessica, so I’m going to have to pass.”

  “Well, I don’t see anybody here, so what would one drink hurt? It would give me a chance to remind you how good we were together and what you’re missing.” Again, in that annoying come fuck me voice. I wonder why I didn’t realize how annoying she was before. Nathan had a come fuck me voice, too, but his was sexy and sultry, nothing like hers.

  “I’m not missing a thing, Jess.”

  “Oh yeah, what can she give you I can’t?” Now she was pouting, so annoying.

  “You have no idea,” Blake muttered under his voice. I kicked him under the table.

  “Ouch, what?” he asked as he shared a look with Tony, and they both started laughing.

  Jessica looked at them confused for a minute until finally she said “Why don’t you come over here to the bar, so we can talk in private. Where these idiots can’t butt into our business.”

  I was about to tell her no when I felt a hand softly trail along my shoulders. Man, I was hoping she would be gone before Nathan got back, but no such luck.

  “Oh, honey,” Nathan said looking at Jessica like he felt sorry for her. “Alex can’t join you at the bar because he is otherwise engaged.”

  He looked at me and winked as he slid into my lap. My arms naturally wound around him, and he settled in.

  “As for what I can give him that you can’t, sugar, that is…” He rolled his eyes. “Well, I really doubt you want to hear about that. All you need to know is he is taken care of.” He shooed her away with his hand like she was an annoying insect. “Now you just go on back over to the bar, and don’t worry about Alex because He. Is. Mine.” He accented each of the last three words with his finger.

  Then as the cherry on top, my sassy, bitchy boy leaned over and whispered in my ear loud enough for everyone to hear, “You dated her? Lexi, baby, what were you thinking?”

  “I was thinking that I hadn’t met you yet,” I told him as I rubbed my beard against his neck the way he liked.

  “Mmm,” he sighed. “Good answer.”

  “Alex, what the hell?” Jessica asked.

  I just shooed her away with my hand like Nathan had earlier and kissed my man.

  Nathan

  Okay so maybe I shouldn’t have let my bitchiness show, but miss thing needed to keep her hands off my man. Of course, Alex was handling it just fine on his own, but still, she didn’t seem to understand the word no.

  I figured if the way he was kissing me was any indication, Alex didn’t mind my reaction too much though. He pulled back from the kiss and smiled at me, shaking his head.

  “I kinda like it when you get jealous,” he said with a grin.

  “I was not jealous, she just didn’t seem like she was planning to go away any time soon, and I wanted her to leave.”

  “Either way. It was sexy as hell,” Alex said as he rubbed his beard on my neck.

  “You know I can’t think when you do that,” I complained with a shiver.

  “I know,” he said as he chuckled. “Want me to stop?”

  “Hell no!” I insisted at the same time I heard Blake say, “Yes, please! You guys are so fucking sweet you’re going to give me cavities.”

  I laughed and slid off Alex’s lap onto the chair next to him.

  “Well, sugar, we wouldn’t want to be responsible for your dental issues, so we’ll try to behave. Besides, it’s about time for us to go to the hockey game. I’m ready for this game. We’re so gonna kick Cincinnati’s ass.”

  We paid our tab and headed over to the rink for the game. Mark, Justin, Lincoln, and Casey were already there when we arrived. Once we joined them, we made introductions and got situated just in time for the game to start. It wasn’t long until I’d left Alex’s side to join Mark and Justin in our normal game behavior. We were yelling, high fiving, hip bucking, and acting all kinds of crazy. Just a regular night at the hockey game for us. I turned and looked over my shoulder at Alex, Tony, and Blake. They were sitting behind us. Alex looked amused, but the other two looked at us like we had lost our minds. We continued on like that for the first part of the game, and eventually, Blake was up there with us acting a fool and having a good time.

  When the game was over, we all headed our separate ways. Ever since the shower outing—as I referred to it—we had started spending the nights we were together at Alex’s house, but we had to run by my apartment, so I could feed Sassy.

  “I have an idea. Why don’t you bring Sassy with you?” Alex suggested.

  “Bring her with me? I can’t do that. She needs her toys and her hammock. And a litter box. She definitely needs her litter box. It would just be too much to carry back and forth.”

  “Well, I may have gone to the store and bought all her favorite things for my house. Just in case, you know. I thought it would make it easier for you to stay at my place if you didn’t have to worry about her.”

  “Oh, Lexi! That’s so sweet. I bet she would love to come with me. Let’s ask her.”

  “You do realize she doesn’t speak English, right?”

  “Don’t you dare let her hear you say that. You’ll hurt her feelings. She and I carry
on conversations all the time and she understands me perfectly.”

  “If you say so, Sunshine.”

  “If you say so,” I mocked with an eye roll as we headed inside to get my totally English-speaking cat. I didn’t care what anybody else said.

  Once Sassy agreed to go, we got her loaded up and headed to Alex’s house. On the drive over, I thought about our evening. “Our first time combining our friends seemed to go okay. Don’t you think?”

  “Yeah,” he agreed. “Blake had a blast at the hockey game, and he hit it off with Mark and Justin. And Tony loves baseball, so he and Justin clicked as well.”

  “Yep, now we just have to survive the holidays.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Alex

  The day before Thanksgiving, Nathan, Lincoln, and I loaded up to head to the Reynolds’ ranch. Stevie was staying in town, so he agreed to stay at Linc and Nathan’s apartment to cat sit, As we got loaded up, Nathan grabbed Stevie and pulled him into a hug.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?”

  “No, this isn’t the first time my parents decided they’d rather fly to New York and go to a show on a holiday instead of spending it with me. Don’t worry about it. The fact that my parents would rather travel is just a poor little rich boy problem. There are a lot of people who have it much worse. Besides, I’m going to go eat with some friends at school, so I won’t be alone. The Queer Student Alliance is hosting a dinner for the students who don’t have a home to go to.”

  “Okay, but if it happens at Christmas you’re going to spend it with us, do you hear me?” Nathan insisted, giving the young man another hug.

  We had fun on the drive. Linc and Nathan shared stories about growing up on the ranch and crazy things their siblings did. I learned there were two girls, Meg and Kayla. Meg was the quiet one and took after their dad, and Kayla was a spitfire like their mother. Lincoln was the oldest, Meg was next by three years, and last was Kayla. She was eighteen and would graduate this year.