24 Dates

Chapter 2

Chapter 2December 2nd

Victor hurried through Northfield on his way home from work. He should have stopped to buy some groceries, but he didn’t have the energy. They’d walked around the forest for a long time before deciding on the perfect tree, or Victor deemed it perfect. Jian claimed it was way too big.

It had taken him half an hour to convince Jian it was the tree they were meant to have, so he’d gone to bed later than normal.

As he neared their house, his heart jumped to his throat. The tree was gone! He jogged down the sidewalk, noting Jian’s truck as he sprinted up the stairs. Instead of searching for his key, he tried the door handle. When it opened, he ran into the hallway. “Jian!”

“In here!”

“The tree! It’s gone. Oh…” Victor stared into the living room where Jian was wrestling the tree.

“It’s too f*****g big.” His growl made Victor grin.

“It’s not.” It better not be or Jian would have been right. He shrugged off his jacket, kicked off his snowy shoes, and went to help Jian. “Why didn’t you wait until I got home? It’s a lot easier to get a tree up with help.”

“I was preparing it for our date.”

“The tree? Are we having another date?”

Jian stared at him. “Obviously.”

“Obviously?”

Jian gestured at the living room table. There was a white cloth on the table, and it was set with candles, fancy wine glasses, and a flower arrangement in a wicker basket with white roses, spruce, and some other plants he couldn’t name.

Victor looked from the table to Jian. “You’ve cooked again?”

He shook his head. “If I had, it would have been a repeat of yesterday, wouldn’t it?”

Victor stared. A chuckle bubbled up inside of him. “Cooking two nights in a row would be a repeat?”

Jian nodded at the same time as there was a knock at the door.

“Sit.” He squeezed his arm, and Victor almost moved along with him toward the hallway simply to prolong the touch. Jian hadn’t touched him in ages.

Victor sat and heard Jian chuckle at something the man at the door said and frowned. It didn’t sound like Owen, who most often delivered from the cafe.

Jian carried two bags into the living room.

“Thai?” Victor took a deep breath. It smelled like Thai food, but there was no Thai restaurant in Northfield.

Jian nodded and placed one dish after the other on the table. “I ordered a little extra, figured it could go in the lunch boxes tomorrow.”

Victor swallowed as his throat grew tight. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had Thai food—not since they moved here. “This is lovely, Jian. Thank you.”

Jian frowned at him. “Are you okay?”

Victor nodded, not trusting his voice to hold steady.

“So, I figured we’d eat and decorate the tree after.”

Victor nodded again. “How was your day?”

“Good, great.” Jian avoided his gaze. “If only we can get the tree in place, it’ll be great.”

Victor frowned. “So…what are you working on?”

“Finalizing some plans. You?”

Several seconds went by before Victor replied. “I answer phones, report absence into the program when someone calls in sick, keep track of records. Same as I do every day.”

“Right.” Jian nodded and ate.

Something was going on, but Victor didn’t want to ruin the night, so he kept his mouth shut. “Do we have any Christmas decorations for the tree?”

Jian nodded. “I brought the box in from the garage.”

“It was in the garage?”

Jian nodded again.

They hadn’t ever had a tree in the house. They’d had a plastic one when they’d lived in the apartment in Courtland, but Victor had given it away when they’d moved. He’d had this idea of having a real Christmas.

When you owned a house, you had to have a proper Christmas with nice decorations, a real tree, homemade food. But Jian always worked, and Victor didn’t want to do everything on his own, especially not if Jian wouldn’t care. Jian wasn’t uncaring, but he didn’t notice things either. He was always exhausted when he came home, fell asleep on the sofa almost every night after they’d eaten. Victor sat up watching TV, increasing the volume when Jian snored, and woke him when it was time to go to bed. On the weekends, Jian was often away helping friends with their private projects, and in the beginning, Victor had thought it was great, but now he’d do anything to have a weekend alone with Jian.

“What are you thinking?”

Victor faked a smile. “Nothing special.”

Jian narrowed his eyes. “You looked sad.”

“I’m not. This is great!”

Jian kept a close eye on him for the rest of the night.

They ate, drank some wine, and listened to Christmas music while decorating the tree. It was a great evening; an evening that made Victor’s heart ache. He missed Jian, despite seeing him every day, he missed him so much it hurt.