Fidelity | Pinto | R | 4/4
“What’s eating at you?” Joe asked as he wandered into the living room.
Zach tucked his feet under him and remained fixated on the screen. He shovelled a spoonful of Phish Food ice cream in his mouth. “Nothing. You wanna watch with me?”
Joe looked from Zach to the television and back again. “Yeah, no. I’m not interested in a marathon of America’s Next Top Model, but thanks.”
“Your loss.”
Joe heaved a sigh and flopped on the couch beside Zach. “Did you have a break-up with someone to whom I’ve been oblivious?”
“Nope.”
“Did you have a break-up with a celebrity that you’ve never met and are in mourning?”
“Hey, that only happened once.” Zach shoved another oversized glob of Ben & Jerry’s in his mouth. “I told you, I’m fine.”
“Is this about that Pine guy?”
Zach choked. Coughed and then choked again. “No,” he eked out.
“You’ve always been the liar in the family.”
Zach shot Joe a half-hearted glare. “I take that as a compliment.”
“Don’t I know it.” Joe nabbed the melting carton from Zach’s grip and sat it on the coffee table. He ignored Zach’s incredibly vocal protests and flicked off the television as well. He stared hard at Zach. “Spill.”
“Well, I did spill some melted ice cream on my hoodie. But this one is old and I have like four other purple ones because there was this sale at -”
“Zach, man the hell up,” Joe snapped with a furrowed brow. “I’m not going to judge you, okay? I know you like to think the world is paying attention to you and only you, but it’s actually not. So if you tell me a secret, E! News and TMZ aren’t going to broadcast it.”
Zach tried his very best not to pout. Instead he shrugged and looked down as he began to play with the zip of his sweater. “Kay...”
“So?”
“So some stupid stuff may’ve happened.”
“How eloquent of you,” Joe said dryly.
“Well it’s not like it’s any of your business, so -”
“Are you trying to sound like a teenaged girl right now? Because you’re doing a bang-up job.”
“Chris fucking kissed me, okay?” Zach nearly shrieked. Oh my god, he was absolutely turning into a hysterical mess. How had he managed to keep cool for so long? How had he not screamed and started to chew on the table cloth when Chris had first walked into that restaurant? “And I practically got a taste of his tonsils before I remembered that life is a game where you’re supposed to at least pretend to be a decent human being.”
“Shit.” Joe looked a bit lost for a moment before he laid a hand on Zach’s shoulder. “Everyone makes mistakes, man. You just... learn from that, I guess.”
“What if I learned that I’m a home wrecker? A slattern - a man of loose morals!”
“Okay, number one, don’t make me go all the way into the kitchen for a paper bag into which you can hyperventilate. Number two, this... well, I mean there is really only one thing you can do.”
“What?” Zach hurled himself back against the armrest of the couch and hugged his knees against his chest. This sucked, and it sucked to feel like a girl, and it sucked to realise that he really needed to stop this crap. This was just a massive suck-fest, and not in any of the good ways.
“You need to distance yourself from the guy as much as possible.”
“Really? Because I was planning on climbing into his bedroom window naked and perving on him,” Zach said flatly.
Joe gave him a quelling look. “We both know how you are, Zach. You’ll justify reasons to be around him, to hang out with him a few minutes longer, to touch him when it’s unnecessary. When Ma told you not to press the buttons, you pressed the buttons. When she told you the stove was hot, you had to put your hand on it just to make sure. When there’s gore in movies and you know you should look away because it gives you nightmares, you peek between your fingers. You’re that guy.”
Zach could feel his face burning, but it wasn’t like he could bullshit Joe - or himself - over this. His brother knew what he was talking about.
“It’s not like I want to ruin their lives and consequently my business, you know.”
“Well, obviously.” Joe rested a heavy hand on Zach’s knee and squeezed. His small smile was familiar and reassuring. “Just remember that your actions affect everyone around you. I think sometimes you forget that in your little world where it’s all about you and no one else.”
“I enjoy my little world,” Zach shot back. “It’s very comfortable.”
“You’re such a snot,” Joe said with a laugh. He used Zach’s leg as leverage to stand. “Just get your shit together, little brother. You’re walking a dangerous line, yeah?”
Zach thought of Chris’ laugh, and the way his cheeks went cherry red when he really smiled.
“Yeah.”
***
“Zachary!”
“Beau.” Zach frowned at his cellphone and the tone emitting from it. “You okay?”
“I really don’t know.” Beau sounded more annoyed than anything - and for a perpetually perky person, that was a point of concern. “I was hoping you could tell me.”
Zach didn’t have the brain power to react. Everything just shut down as he froze.
“Zach? Are you there?”
“I - yes.”
“Okay. So -” Beau took a huge, audible breath. “I like, suggested we buy a puppy after our honeymoon to, I don’t know, be like a practice baby I guess - and also because I love those Labradoodles. Have you seen those Labradoodles, Zach? They’re like half-Labrador and half-Poodle and yeah - but Christopher had like an absolute meltdown at the mere mention. I might as well have pulled a gun on him, you know?”
“Um, B-”
“You know how Christopher is, Zachary. What bee’s in his bonnet? Is he like allergic to dogs and he’s insulted because I forgot?”
“Um, Beau?”
“Yes?”
“Not to sound like a total dick, but isn’t there anyone else you can talk to about this? As amazing as I may be, I’m not actually a relationship therapist.”
“Oh my goodness, no - I totally know, I know. It’s just that I’m not exactly friends with any of Christopher’s cohorts. I probably wouldn’t recognise them on the street. But you know Chris - pretty well, if I had to guess.”
Well enough that I’ve had my tongue down his throat.
“This isn’t really -”
“Zachary, please.”
Zach rubbed a hand over his face, his voice coming out muffled. “He and his ex-girlfriend adopted a dog together. When they split she took it with her. As far as I know, Chris was upset about it.”
“Oh.” Beau was silent for a moment. “How did you know that?”
Christ, there was no pleasing some people.
“He mentioned it once.” Zach stared blankly at the paperwork laid out before him. “Look, I’ve gotta go. I’ll -”
“Of course, darling! I’ll talk to you later. Thanks!”
Zach hung up and took some time to repetitively thump his forehead on the desk. He couldn’t wait for the Pine-Garrett party to be out of his life.
Except that was a total lie. Whatever.
His phone rang again. Zach reminded himself to change the tune away from ‘Maneater’, because now it was starting to feel wrong.
Zach considered not answering. When he saw it was Chris calling, he really considered not answering.
“Hey.”
“Do you know what the hell a Labradoodle is?” Chris asked in a voice laced with panic.
“My sources say that’s a cute dog.”
“Beau wants to get one.”
“As a practice baby.”
There was a sigh on the other end. “She got to you first, didn’t she?”
“I’m a valuable commodity.”
Chris laughed weakly, but at least it was something. “I totally overreacted. I’m still overreacting.”
“We all do. This one time my assistant spilled coffee on my Armani jeans, so I fired her.”
“You didn’t.”
“Okay, I didn’t, but I wanted to make you feel like less of an asshole.”
Chris chuckled again, a bit stronger. “Now you’re definitely the biggest asshole here. And I’m at a Whole Foods.”
“Ouch, I shop at Whole Foods.”
“Point proven.”
“You shop at Whole Foods.”
“Observation stands. Hey, you wanna get together for a drink?”
Zach swallowed hard as his face flooded with heat. “No.”
There was a quiet breath and then, “Was that you lying?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Well, thanks for talking me down, Zach.”
“You’re welcome, Chris.”
***
Luckily for Zach, he had five weddings the week of Chris and Beau’s ceremony. His attention was stretched in all directions as he attended one grand shindig after another. There was little time to moon over Chris or worry about Beau or to do much of anything aside from work.
His work was nice, fulfilling. Zach liked weddings - well, the parts without the boring vows and smelly old relatives. He got a kick out of the parts with cake and the electric slide, and little kids in adorable suits and dresses. He revelled in knowing he was a part of something special, even if it wouldn’t last.
With broken fairy tales circulating through his thoughts, Zach sat on a tacky, neon-coloured beach chair under the cover of his tiny back porch. He sipped from a sweating beer bottle and watched Noah bound around the yard, basically playing fetch with himself. A soft mist floated down from the dimming sky and made the grass glisten and sparkle in the waning light. The twilight breeze was cool on Zach’s face and bare feet as he zoned out for the evening.
He needed to turn his brain off. Stop thinking about marriage for two seconds, stop thinking about everything. Because tomorrow was -
Zach’s phone buzzed in his ratty jeans. He sighed and lifted his hips from the chair, nearly toppling backwards as he unearthed his cell from his back pocket. A drawn-out groan followed Zach’s realisation that it was Chris calling.
Don’t you dare answer.
“Hey, Chris. What can I do for you?”
“Zach. Hi. Um.”
Zach dragged his hand over his face. “Your articulacy is astounding.”
Chris breathed a faint laugh. “I just - tomorrow’s the big day, y’know?”
“Is it? Gosh, I think I forgot. I’m not sure I can cancel my dentist appointment.”
“Ha-ha, fucker.”
“What? You don’t get perfect teeth like mine without meticulous oral hygiene.”
“Right.” Chris sounded nervous again.
Zach forced himself to slouch back in his seat and relax. “Can I help you with something?”
“Uh, don’t freak out or anything, but I’m kinda outside your house right now.”
Zach’s heart knocked hard against his ribcage. He squeezed his eyes shut and forced levity to his voice. “What a coincidence. So am I.”
“Are you - where? I don’t see you.”
Don’t do this. Don’t play with fire. You are not Drew Barrymore. You are not the Firestarter. You are an idiot!
“Come around back, there’s a gate to your left.”
There was a hesitation on the other line. “I mean, is that okay - that I’m here?”
“I can’t stop you,” Zach said quietly.
“You’re such a vague asshole.” But Chris’ voice was echoing around the side of the house, and Zach could hear the rusty latch of the gate squawk. “Who taught you to speak, Yoda?”
“So says the king of the one-word answers.” Zach hung up before Chris could retort.
He watched Noah run toward the side of the porch with gleeful barks, just as Chris’ profile appeared. His hair had grown out since the first time they’d met - it was less fuzzy, electric shock now, and more bed-head disarray that would comb well into a retro side-part for wedding photos. Not very Chris-like, in Zach’s opinion, but the guy could pull off whatever the hell he wanted.
Chris’ raspy voice was breathy with excitement as he greeted the dog and allowed Noah to jump all over him.
“Noah,” Zach said, stern and sharp enough to have the dog snapping back to the ground. Noah was just like his master - far too exuberant and open with handsome blonds.
Chris rounded the porch, his lips curving with that familiar shyness as he took the stairs up to Zach. They didn’t meet each other’s eyes - they both just barely grasped that silent, mutual agreement to avoid such contact. Not for the first time in Chris’ presence, Zach felt both disappointed and relieved.
“Have a seat.” Zach gestured to the pink lawn chair beside him. “I’ve got classy digs, I know.”
“I love your house,” Chris said as he sat down and splayed out his legs. Black jeans clung dangerously to his thighs and calves, ending on those stupid poppy red high-tops that Zach had grown to adore. “Lawn chairs and all.”
“Yeah?” Zach concerned himself with grabbing another beer from a half-empty six pack beside him. He passed it off to Chris, who snapped off the cap with his thick, turquoise ring. The dull shine of the stone had Zach flashing back to the kitchen - soft lips, pleading eyes, insistent fingers and hot, desperate gasps of breath.
Chris tilted his chin and brought the bottle to his mouth for the first slow sip. The gentle rain had settled on Chris’ skin like a thin layer of dew and darkened his hair with tiny beads of moisture. Zach’s pulse hammered in his ears as he watched the damp line of Chris’ throat shift as he swallowed.
Like clockwork, Zach’s skin began to hum with the proximity of Chris. Zach was permanently aware of Chris’ presence, whether he wanted it or not.
“How’re you holding up?” Zach asked, for lack of anything better.
“Fine,” Chris said, even if they both knew he was probably lying. They needed to remain on this course. Any divergence would end badly. “Beau’s staying with her girls overnight, so we don’t see each other until the aisle the next morning. I didn’t feel like being alone, I guess.”
Zach didn’t ask why Chris came to him instead of some closer friend. Couldn’t allow himself to ask.
“Well, you know me. My door’s always open.”
“Really?” Chris said in a strange tone.
Zach got the distinct impression that a pair of laser-blue eyes were burning into his profile. He didn’t reply, just brought the beer to his lips and took a long swig.
“And afterwards?” Chris said, with his voice low and intent. “What then? You’ll be done with us once we’re no longer your clients?”
Zach refused to choke on his drink like a fool. He swallowed tightly, slouched further in his seat, and began to pick listlessly at the bright Corona label. “It’s not like married couples need the wedding planner after they’re married, Chris.”
“I need you,” Chris whispered fiercely.
Zach froze, staring at the soggy paper in his hand. Breath didn’t come, neither did words. His heart felt like a moth fluttering manically against a pane of glass, attempting to flee its prison. More than anything, Zach wanted to run.
More than anything, Zach wanted to stay.
“Don’t say that,” Zach said, barely audible. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Ridiculous,” Chris hissed beside him. He huffed a laugh - and before Zach could react, Chris’ chair knocked back, and a mostly-full beer bottle toppled to the floor and rolled away.
The clamour of Chris’ approach should have startled Zach into an escape attempt, but still he didn’t move. Chris was between Zach’s spread legs, kneeling snug between his thighs. Large, rough palms cupped Zach’s cheeks - same as the time in the kitchen - although this time no lips came.
Chris looked up at him with angry, glistening eyes and a mouth both hard and soft at once.
“Ridiculous?” he bit off, pressing forward so that Zach could feel the heat of Chris’ belly against his crotch. “Do you think what I feel is stupid, Zach? Do you think that I want to want you? Do you think I’m not as pissed with you as I am myself? Fuck.”
“Chris, stop.” Zach didn’t know how his beer ended up on the ground, or how the musky hops and summer rain and Chris’ citrus scent drove him to hunch forward and cup his hands around the back of Chris’ neck. “Chris.”
Zach’s heart felt dislodged, beating crooked and painful in his chest as he dropped his forehead to Chris’ damp brow. Their lips were so close, Chris’ mouth open, gulping in breaths as he tipped his head up with a sharp little whine. The pad of his thumb smeared over Zach’s bottom lip, the skin salty and so fucking tempting to suck.
Zach groaned and dug his nails into the hot skin at Chris’ nape. He pulled back just enough to bump his head against Chris’, as if that would knock some sense into both of them. “Stop, stop. We need to -”
“Stop,” Chris said in a hoarse voice, as if he’d been screaming or getting a good fuck. “Need to stop. Yeah.” His nose bumped and brushed over Zach’s, their lips orbiting each other’s with a proximity that bit at Zach’s skin.
They remained in place, curled in toward each other, fingertips nesting in beating temples and rough jaws and in soft hair, breathing each other’s air.
Hushed and low, Chris said, “Why am I doing this?”
Zach didn’t know if he meant this, or the wedding, or his life, or something else. Regardless, the answer had to be the same. Because Zach really, deeply, terrifyingly cared for Chris. The answer had to be the same.
“It’s none of my business.”
Chris snapped back, his hands falling in time with Zach’s. He searched Zach’s immobile expression with wet eyes entreating an explanation that wouldn’t come. Still kneeling between Zach’s thighs, still prone in position but with steel forged in his spine, Chris’s face went hard and stony.
“You really are an asshole, you know that?”
Zach swallowed the pleading, the begging, the pursuing. He was above that. He wasn’t actually, but he needed to play pretend right now. He needed to in order to survive this.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Chris.”
Zach sat alone, long past dark.
***
Zach burst through the door to Beau’s ready room, all fluttering hands and brusque, but warm tones. “What are we doing here? Beau, what are you doing here? You look ravishing, by the way. Very modern Grace Kelly in all that lace.”
“Zach?”
“But we really need to be going. We’re already late, and soon you’ll have bored children squealing in the aisles and elderly folk falling asleep or needing the bath-”
“Zach.”
Zach placed his hands on his hips. “What, darling?”
Beau’s eyes were too huge, her fingers clad in flimsy lace gloves twisted at her wrists. “Christopher’s disappeared.”
Zach blinked. “I’m sorry, what? I was in his room with his frat boy buddies not twenty minutes ago, and he was looking devilishly handsome and nervous as all hell.”
It was then that he realised one of aforementioned friends - John? - was in the room too. He cleared his throat and looked away. “He just said he was gonna take a piss. Then he was kind of... not in the bathroom, and not anywhere else.”
The litany of curses that swarmed Zach’s brain came out as, “He’s probably lost in the maze of this house. I’ll find him.”
He smiled at Beau and walked forward to take her hands in his. “I’ll find and return your man, honey.”
Beau went pale, and her voice was watery as he carefully extracted her hands from Zach’s. “That’s what you said last time.”
Zach absolutely didn’t flinch. He just nodded silently and swept out of the room.
Fuck.
Zach stalked through the old, renovated mansion, past sweeping staircases and grand halls and gargantuan, glittering chandeliers. But there was no sign of Chris.
He wasn’t going to make this easy, was he? He and Beau’s marriage - and the consequent end of all this temptation dangled in front of Zach’s poor self-control - would be set in stone any minute, and Chris was skipping away from the aisle like a kid playing tag.
What the hell was Chris doing?
Zach ground his molars as he swept through the bustling kitchen. The beauty of holding the wedding and the reception in the same building was that Zach could be everywhere at once.
The downside was that people who wanted to disappear had a lot of places to hide. Zach had hunted down the runaway bride/groom on more than one occasion, but this was the first time he wasn’t totally sure he wanted to find this missing member of the wedding party.
He’d have to talk to Chris. He really didn’t want to talk to Chris.
Zach busted out of the double doors of the kitchen that led to the back garden - and found Chris. He was sitting on a wrought-iron green bench, all hunched as he stared at his feet. Even from this distance, from this angle, Zach was braced by the beauty of his profile.
More than that, Zach was constantly struck by the earnestness of Chris’ disposition. Zach didn’t know when it started, but at some point Chris had become embedded in Zach’s chest. Each moment with him had hammered the nail in harder, messier, deeper into Zach’s heart.
Shit like that didn’t heal overnight, especially if Zach was too frightened to pull the barb out of his chest in the first place. It already ached enough.
“Where are you?” Zach asked quietly.
Chris jerked up in his seat, suddenly and intensely focused on Zach. His pupils were like pinpricks in a sky of blue. “You’re always the one to find me, aren’t you?”
Zach shrugged. “So are you.”
No one had pursued Zach like Chris had. No one had looked through him, searched for him - felt so passionately about him. No one had ever cared enough. In turn, Zach had felt gravitated to Chris very early on in their relationship, and had wanted to befriend him despite his usual rule of keeping it professional with clients.
They’d developed a strangely symbiotic relationship without meaning to - without wanting to. Zach made Chris feel cared for, and Chris made Zach feel like a good person, a fun person.
Chris looked away, his expression still and staid. “I’m considering what to tell her.”
Zach swallowed a lump of fear. “Chris -“
“Scratch that. I’m considering how to tell her. How to tell her that I’m a coward.”
Zach couldn’t breathe. He realised they’d been speaking to each other from across the garden, and Zach had yet to take a single step forward. And wasn’t that how he always was? A coward, too. Frightened to put himself out there in the ways that mattered, in the ways that could potentially get him hurt.
Still, he didn’t move.
“You could just say that,” Zach said lamely.
Chris snorted without humour and stood. “Yeah. Okay.” He pulled at the hem of his tux, looking every inch the prince as he strode towards Zach.
“Chris,” Zach said, feeling gripped with a choking panic that he couldn’t put to words. “If this is because of us, don’t you think we should -“
“Zach.” Chris stopped beside Zach, their shoulders parallel. He glanced over in time with Zach, and there was something in Chris’ eyes, in the strength of his expression that was unrecognisable. One corner of his mouth tipped up. “At the end of the day, this really isn’t about you.”
“Wait, what -”
“I’ll see you around.”
The only sign that Chris was ever there was the lingering scent of cologne, and the thunder of Zach’s heart.
***
“Beau?” Zach knocked on the door again. “Honey? Most of the guests have left now. It’s just your mom waiting for you.”
There was no reply.
“So I’m coming in, and I hope you’re not in any potentially embarrassing states of undress.”
She wasn’t. She sat at the makeup table, just staring dry-eyed at her reflection. Meticulous as ever, Beau was already out of her unused wedding dress and dressed down in sparkly, white velour sweats. Zach was absolutely not going to comment on that poor life choice, especially considering the sheer amount of awful decisions he’d made in these past months.
“Beau?” Zach didn’t know what Chris had told her, or how much. Again, he found himself hesitating at the threshold out of sheer self-preservation.
“He just said everything we already knew,” Beau whispered, her voice scraped up. “That he was scared and that I hadn’t cared. That I was trying so fucking hard and he hadn’t cared. God, he was more straightforward with me today than since we first met.”
“That was all he said?” Zach said.
Beau flashed him a look like an arctic wind. “It’s none of your business.”
Zach took a step back and bumped against the closed door. “Yeah, I mean of course, obviously. I’m sorry, Beau.” He took a deep breath and met her eyes. “I mean, I’m really sorry.”
Beau inclined her chin and looked nothing like a lover just scorned. “Maybe you are. Either way, I don’t think I ever want to see you again.”
Something cracked within him, and the sound splintered through his chest like icicles. “Yeah,” he croaked. “Of course.”
Zach left without saying goodbye.
***
The months passed like someone had injected anaesthetic into Zach’s life.
He didn’t do the whole Ben & Jerry’s drill. He didn’t bury himself in debt due to endless mood-lifting shopping sprees. He didn’t cry or curse or complain.
All of that would have told people that something was wrong, anyway. Zach didn’t like people realising he was broken. He’d rather lick his wounds in private and come back healed, a bit scarred, but alive.
He avoided questions with smiles and jokes and a cheerful attitude, because he could. So maybe he was less bitchy than usual and a lot less selfish under certain circumstances - and all that attracted attention. But he attributed it to finally getting around to reading The Power of Now, and people believed him because he loved that New Age crap.
But in reality, it all came down to Chris.
Zach had briefly considered pursuing Chris. After all, it was because of Zach that everything had fallen apart.
Wait, no - it hadn’t been about Zach. He’d been the catalyst for something that merely needed the spark to ignite and explode and change. All along, it hadn’t really been about him.
Even still, Zach hadn’t exactly come out unscathed.
Dammit, he missed Chris. Zach hadn’t been able to delete Chris’ - or Beau’s - phone number from his cell. Hadn’t been able to stop looking for Chris in every LAMILL window, or thinking of him every time he bought a blue slushie. He missed that full, raspy laugh, and all of those stupid shoes, and the late-night crossword phone calls that had been an excuse to hear each other’s voices.
“Blegh!” Zach said as he threw the morning newspaper across the kitchen, where it managed to land in the sink with a rustle. Zach scowled at his coffee cup and half-eaten pancakes, and realised this would be one of those days he couldn’t stand to be alone with himself. To be honest, even before Chris he’d hated to be alone without distraction, but these days the symptoms of cabin fever came on something fast and fierce.
Zach tugged on some grey sweats, a striped t-shirt, and was about to unearth some socks when a knock sounded at the front door. Noah went into a flurry of barks as he skittered down the hallway - closely followed by Zach, who grabbed Noah’s collar just before he could physically pounce the door.
“Methinks someone needs to return to the academy for misguided canines,” Zach said as he wedged himself between the energetic dog and the door. He twisted and yanked at the knob -
“Hi,” Chris said with a wavering smile.
Zach gaped. Blinked and gaped some more.
“Uh,” Chris said, shifting from one foot to the other. “My name’s Chris.”
Zach’s eyebrows rocketed up as he dragged a hand through his hair and laughed incredulously. “Yeah, I heard that somewhere.”
“I mean.” Chris wet his bottom lip and held Zach’s eyes in an unwavering look. “My name’s Chris. A lot of the time I’m a complete asshole. I don’t like confrontation, but when I do it, it’s in a wildly over-dramatic fashion that has even been termed as ‘divalicious’. I’m a cry baby and a pushover, and a snarky, emotionless dick to cover that up. I have frat boy tendencies when left to own devices, and I think I can cook about two meals that don’t involve a microwave. I spend too much money on sunglasses, I inwardly lose my temper more times a day than I care to count - oh yeah, and I’m a total coward. Do you wanna fuck and maybe have babies one day?”
With Noah barking and flailing circles around their feet, Zach pulled Chris into his arms and kissed him soundly. Chris hummed his approval low in his throat, and the sound of happiness shot straight through Zach’s heart. He buried his hands in Chris’ dishevelled hair, and coaxed open that perfect, willing mouth with hot, thick swipes of tongue and dainty nips and sucks on Chris’ full bottom lip. Chris went plaint against him, all firm and warm lines and hands at his waist.
When they finally parted, it was only to gasp for breath and nuzzle lips and noses, and gently bump foreheads.
“I do,” Zach said.
The End
PS: Beau lived happily ever after. She started breeding Labradoodles and fell in love with the yoga instructor she met that one time, way back when. A year later, she met Chris and Zach at a dog park. Her Labradoodle peed on Zach’s leg, so she called all debts even.
Zach tucked his feet under him and remained fixated on the screen. He shovelled a spoonful of Phish Food ice cream in his mouth. “Nothing. You wanna watch with me?”
Joe looked from Zach to the television and back again. “Yeah, no. I’m not interested in a marathon of America’s Next Top Model, but thanks.”
“Your loss.”
Joe heaved a sigh and flopped on the couch beside Zach. “Did you have a break-up with someone to whom I’ve been oblivious?”
“Nope.”
“Did you have a break-up with a celebrity that you’ve never met and are in mourning?”
“Hey, that only happened once.” Zach shoved another oversized glob of Ben & Jerry’s in his mouth. “I told you, I’m fine.”
“Is this about that Pine guy?”
Zach choked. Coughed and then choked again. “No,” he eked out.
“You’ve always been the liar in the family.”
Zach shot Joe a half-hearted glare. “I take that as a compliment.”
“Don’t I know it.” Joe nabbed the melting carton from Zach’s grip and sat it on the coffee table. He ignored Zach’s incredibly vocal protests and flicked off the television as well. He stared hard at Zach. “Spill.”
“Well, I did spill some melted ice cream on my hoodie. But this one is old and I have like four other purple ones because there was this sale at -”
“Zach, man the hell up,” Joe snapped with a furrowed brow. “I’m not going to judge you, okay? I know you like to think the world is paying attention to you and only you, but it’s actually not. So if you tell me a secret, E! News and TMZ aren’t going to broadcast it.”
Zach tried his very best not to pout. Instead he shrugged and looked down as he began to play with the zip of his sweater. “Kay...”
“So?”
“So some stupid stuff may’ve happened.”
“How eloquent of you,” Joe said dryly.
“Well it’s not like it’s any of your business, so -”
“Are you trying to sound like a teenaged girl right now? Because you’re doing a bang-up job.”
“Chris fucking kissed me, okay?” Zach nearly shrieked. Oh my god, he was absolutely turning into a hysterical mess. How had he managed to keep cool for so long? How had he not screamed and started to chew on the table cloth when Chris had first walked into that restaurant? “And I practically got a taste of his tonsils before I remembered that life is a game where you’re supposed to at least pretend to be a decent human being.”
“Shit.” Joe looked a bit lost for a moment before he laid a hand on Zach’s shoulder. “Everyone makes mistakes, man. You just... learn from that, I guess.”
“What if I learned that I’m a home wrecker? A slattern - a man of loose morals!”
“Okay, number one, don’t make me go all the way into the kitchen for a paper bag into which you can hyperventilate. Number two, this... well, I mean there is really only one thing you can do.”
“What?” Zach hurled himself back against the armrest of the couch and hugged his knees against his chest. This sucked, and it sucked to feel like a girl, and it sucked to realise that he really needed to stop this crap. This was just a massive suck-fest, and not in any of the good ways.
“You need to distance yourself from the guy as much as possible.”
“Really? Because I was planning on climbing into his bedroom window naked and perving on him,” Zach said flatly.
Joe gave him a quelling look. “We both know how you are, Zach. You’ll justify reasons to be around him, to hang out with him a few minutes longer, to touch him when it’s unnecessary. When Ma told you not to press the buttons, you pressed the buttons. When she told you the stove was hot, you had to put your hand on it just to make sure. When there’s gore in movies and you know you should look away because it gives you nightmares, you peek between your fingers. You’re that guy.”
Zach could feel his face burning, but it wasn’t like he could bullshit Joe - or himself - over this. His brother knew what he was talking about.
“It’s not like I want to ruin their lives and consequently my business, you know.”
“Well, obviously.” Joe rested a heavy hand on Zach’s knee and squeezed. His small smile was familiar and reassuring. “Just remember that your actions affect everyone around you. I think sometimes you forget that in your little world where it’s all about you and no one else.”
“I enjoy my little world,” Zach shot back. “It’s very comfortable.”
“You’re such a snot,” Joe said with a laugh. He used Zach’s leg as leverage to stand. “Just get your shit together, little brother. You’re walking a dangerous line, yeah?”
Zach thought of Chris’ laugh, and the way his cheeks went cherry red when he really smiled.
“Yeah.”
***
“Zachary!”
“Beau.” Zach frowned at his cellphone and the tone emitting from it. “You okay?”
“I really don’t know.” Beau sounded more annoyed than anything - and for a perpetually perky person, that was a point of concern. “I was hoping you could tell me.”
Zach didn’t have the brain power to react. Everything just shut down as he froze.
“Zach? Are you there?”
“I - yes.”
“Okay. So -” Beau took a huge, audible breath. “I like, suggested we buy a puppy after our honeymoon to, I don’t know, be like a practice baby I guess - and also because I love those Labradoodles. Have you seen those Labradoodles, Zach? They’re like half-Labrador and half-Poodle and yeah - but Christopher had like an absolute meltdown at the mere mention. I might as well have pulled a gun on him, you know?”
“Um, B-”
“You know how Christopher is, Zachary. What bee’s in his bonnet? Is he like allergic to dogs and he’s insulted because I forgot?”
“Um, Beau?”
“Yes?”
“Not to sound like a total dick, but isn’t there anyone else you can talk to about this? As amazing as I may be, I’m not actually a relationship therapist.”
“Oh my goodness, no - I totally know, I know. It’s just that I’m not exactly friends with any of Christopher’s cohorts. I probably wouldn’t recognise them on the street. But you know Chris - pretty well, if I had to guess.”
Well enough that I’ve had my tongue down his throat.
“This isn’t really -”
“Zachary, please.”
Zach rubbed a hand over his face, his voice coming out muffled. “He and his ex-girlfriend adopted a dog together. When they split she took it with her. As far as I know, Chris was upset about it.”
“Oh.” Beau was silent for a moment. “How did you know that?”
Christ, there was no pleasing some people.
“He mentioned it once.” Zach stared blankly at the paperwork laid out before him. “Look, I’ve gotta go. I’ll -”
“Of course, darling! I’ll talk to you later. Thanks!”
Zach hung up and took some time to repetitively thump his forehead on the desk. He couldn’t wait for the Pine-Garrett party to be out of his life.
Except that was a total lie. Whatever.
His phone rang again. Zach reminded himself to change the tune away from ‘Maneater’, because now it was starting to feel wrong.
Zach considered not answering. When he saw it was Chris calling, he really considered not answering.
“Hey.”
“Do you know what the hell a Labradoodle is?” Chris asked in a voice laced with panic.
“My sources say that’s a cute dog.”
“Beau wants to get one.”
“As a practice baby.”
There was a sigh on the other end. “She got to you first, didn’t she?”
“I’m a valuable commodity.”
Chris laughed weakly, but at least it was something. “I totally overreacted. I’m still overreacting.”
“We all do. This one time my assistant spilled coffee on my Armani jeans, so I fired her.”
“You didn’t.”
“Okay, I didn’t, but I wanted to make you feel like less of an asshole.”
Chris chuckled again, a bit stronger. “Now you’re definitely the biggest asshole here. And I’m at a Whole Foods.”
“Ouch, I shop at Whole Foods.”
“Point proven.”
“You shop at Whole Foods.”
“Observation stands. Hey, you wanna get together for a drink?”
Zach swallowed hard as his face flooded with heat. “No.”
There was a quiet breath and then, “Was that you lying?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Well, thanks for talking me down, Zach.”
“You’re welcome, Chris.”
***
Luckily for Zach, he had five weddings the week of Chris and Beau’s ceremony. His attention was stretched in all directions as he attended one grand shindig after another. There was little time to moon over Chris or worry about Beau or to do much of anything aside from work.
His work was nice, fulfilling. Zach liked weddings - well, the parts without the boring vows and smelly old relatives. He got a kick out of the parts with cake and the electric slide, and little kids in adorable suits and dresses. He revelled in knowing he was a part of something special, even if it wouldn’t last.
With broken fairy tales circulating through his thoughts, Zach sat on a tacky, neon-coloured beach chair under the cover of his tiny back porch. He sipped from a sweating beer bottle and watched Noah bound around the yard, basically playing fetch with himself. A soft mist floated down from the dimming sky and made the grass glisten and sparkle in the waning light. The twilight breeze was cool on Zach’s face and bare feet as he zoned out for the evening.
He needed to turn his brain off. Stop thinking about marriage for two seconds, stop thinking about everything. Because tomorrow was -
Zach’s phone buzzed in his ratty jeans. He sighed and lifted his hips from the chair, nearly toppling backwards as he unearthed his cell from his back pocket. A drawn-out groan followed Zach’s realisation that it was Chris calling.
Don’t you dare answer.
“Hey, Chris. What can I do for you?”
“Zach. Hi. Um.”
Zach dragged his hand over his face. “Your articulacy is astounding.”
Chris breathed a faint laugh. “I just - tomorrow’s the big day, y’know?”
“Is it? Gosh, I think I forgot. I’m not sure I can cancel my dentist appointment.”
“Ha-ha, fucker.”
“What? You don’t get perfect teeth like mine without meticulous oral hygiene.”
“Right.” Chris sounded nervous again.
Zach forced himself to slouch back in his seat and relax. “Can I help you with something?”
“Uh, don’t freak out or anything, but I’m kinda outside your house right now.”
Zach’s heart knocked hard against his ribcage. He squeezed his eyes shut and forced levity to his voice. “What a coincidence. So am I.”
“Are you - where? I don’t see you.”
Don’t do this. Don’t play with fire. You are not Drew Barrymore. You are not the Firestarter. You are an idiot!
“Come around back, there’s a gate to your left.”
There was a hesitation on the other line. “I mean, is that okay - that I’m here?”
“I can’t stop you,” Zach said quietly.
“You’re such a vague asshole.” But Chris’ voice was echoing around the side of the house, and Zach could hear the rusty latch of the gate squawk. “Who taught you to speak, Yoda?”
“So says the king of the one-word answers.” Zach hung up before Chris could retort.
He watched Noah run toward the side of the porch with gleeful barks, just as Chris’ profile appeared. His hair had grown out since the first time they’d met - it was less fuzzy, electric shock now, and more bed-head disarray that would comb well into a retro side-part for wedding photos. Not very Chris-like, in Zach’s opinion, but the guy could pull off whatever the hell he wanted.
Chris’ raspy voice was breathy with excitement as he greeted the dog and allowed Noah to jump all over him.
“Noah,” Zach said, stern and sharp enough to have the dog snapping back to the ground. Noah was just like his master - far too exuberant and open with handsome blonds.
Chris rounded the porch, his lips curving with that familiar shyness as he took the stairs up to Zach. They didn’t meet each other’s eyes - they both just barely grasped that silent, mutual agreement to avoid such contact. Not for the first time in Chris’ presence, Zach felt both disappointed and relieved.
“Have a seat.” Zach gestured to the pink lawn chair beside him. “I’ve got classy digs, I know.”
“I love your house,” Chris said as he sat down and splayed out his legs. Black jeans clung dangerously to his thighs and calves, ending on those stupid poppy red high-tops that Zach had grown to adore. “Lawn chairs and all.”
“Yeah?” Zach concerned himself with grabbing another beer from a half-empty six pack beside him. He passed it off to Chris, who snapped off the cap with his thick, turquoise ring. The dull shine of the stone had Zach flashing back to the kitchen - soft lips, pleading eyes, insistent fingers and hot, desperate gasps of breath.
Chris tilted his chin and brought the bottle to his mouth for the first slow sip. The gentle rain had settled on Chris’ skin like a thin layer of dew and darkened his hair with tiny beads of moisture. Zach’s pulse hammered in his ears as he watched the damp line of Chris’ throat shift as he swallowed.
Like clockwork, Zach’s skin began to hum with the proximity of Chris. Zach was permanently aware of Chris’ presence, whether he wanted it or not.
“How’re you holding up?” Zach asked, for lack of anything better.
“Fine,” Chris said, even if they both knew he was probably lying. They needed to remain on this course. Any divergence would end badly. “Beau’s staying with her girls overnight, so we don’t see each other until the aisle the next morning. I didn’t feel like being alone, I guess.”
Zach didn’t ask why Chris came to him instead of some closer friend. Couldn’t allow himself to ask.
“Well, you know me. My door’s always open.”
“Really?” Chris said in a strange tone.
Zach got the distinct impression that a pair of laser-blue eyes were burning into his profile. He didn’t reply, just brought the beer to his lips and took a long swig.
“And afterwards?” Chris said, with his voice low and intent. “What then? You’ll be done with us once we’re no longer your clients?”
Zach refused to choke on his drink like a fool. He swallowed tightly, slouched further in his seat, and began to pick listlessly at the bright Corona label. “It’s not like married couples need the wedding planner after they’re married, Chris.”
“I need you,” Chris whispered fiercely.
Zach froze, staring at the soggy paper in his hand. Breath didn’t come, neither did words. His heart felt like a moth fluttering manically against a pane of glass, attempting to flee its prison. More than anything, Zach wanted to run.
More than anything, Zach wanted to stay.
“Don’t say that,” Zach said, barely audible. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Ridiculous,” Chris hissed beside him. He huffed a laugh - and before Zach could react, Chris’ chair knocked back, and a mostly-full beer bottle toppled to the floor and rolled away.
The clamour of Chris’ approach should have startled Zach into an escape attempt, but still he didn’t move. Chris was between Zach’s spread legs, kneeling snug between his thighs. Large, rough palms cupped Zach’s cheeks - same as the time in the kitchen - although this time no lips came.
Chris looked up at him with angry, glistening eyes and a mouth both hard and soft at once.
“Ridiculous?” he bit off, pressing forward so that Zach could feel the heat of Chris’ belly against his crotch. “Do you think what I feel is stupid, Zach? Do you think that I want to want you? Do you think I’m not as pissed with you as I am myself? Fuck.”
“Chris, stop.” Zach didn’t know how his beer ended up on the ground, or how the musky hops and summer rain and Chris’ citrus scent drove him to hunch forward and cup his hands around the back of Chris’ neck. “Chris.”
Zach’s heart felt dislodged, beating crooked and painful in his chest as he dropped his forehead to Chris’ damp brow. Their lips were so close, Chris’ mouth open, gulping in breaths as he tipped his head up with a sharp little whine. The pad of his thumb smeared over Zach’s bottom lip, the skin salty and so fucking tempting to suck.
Zach groaned and dug his nails into the hot skin at Chris’ nape. He pulled back just enough to bump his head against Chris’, as if that would knock some sense into both of them. “Stop, stop. We need to -”
“Stop,” Chris said in a hoarse voice, as if he’d been screaming or getting a good fuck. “Need to stop. Yeah.” His nose bumped and brushed over Zach’s, their lips orbiting each other’s with a proximity that bit at Zach’s skin.
They remained in place, curled in toward each other, fingertips nesting in beating temples and rough jaws and in soft hair, breathing each other’s air.
Hushed and low, Chris said, “Why am I doing this?”
Zach didn’t know if he meant this, or the wedding, or his life, or something else. Regardless, the answer had to be the same. Because Zach really, deeply, terrifyingly cared for Chris. The answer had to be the same.
“It’s none of my business.”
Chris snapped back, his hands falling in time with Zach’s. He searched Zach’s immobile expression with wet eyes entreating an explanation that wouldn’t come. Still kneeling between Zach’s thighs, still prone in position but with steel forged in his spine, Chris’s face went hard and stony.
“You really are an asshole, you know that?”
Zach swallowed the pleading, the begging, the pursuing. He was above that. He wasn’t actually, but he needed to play pretend right now. He needed to in order to survive this.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Chris.”
Zach sat alone, long past dark.
***
Zach burst through the door to Beau’s ready room, all fluttering hands and brusque, but warm tones. “What are we doing here? Beau, what are you doing here? You look ravishing, by the way. Very modern Grace Kelly in all that lace.”
“Zach?”
“But we really need to be going. We’re already late, and soon you’ll have bored children squealing in the aisles and elderly folk falling asleep or needing the bath-”
“Zach.”
Zach placed his hands on his hips. “What, darling?”
Beau’s eyes were too huge, her fingers clad in flimsy lace gloves twisted at her wrists. “Christopher’s disappeared.”
Zach blinked. “I’m sorry, what? I was in his room with his frat boy buddies not twenty minutes ago, and he was looking devilishly handsome and nervous as all hell.”
It was then that he realised one of aforementioned friends - John? - was in the room too. He cleared his throat and looked away. “He just said he was gonna take a piss. Then he was kind of... not in the bathroom, and not anywhere else.”
The litany of curses that swarmed Zach’s brain came out as, “He’s probably lost in the maze of this house. I’ll find him.”
He smiled at Beau and walked forward to take her hands in his. “I’ll find and return your man, honey.”
Beau went pale, and her voice was watery as he carefully extracted her hands from Zach’s. “That’s what you said last time.”
Zach absolutely didn’t flinch. He just nodded silently and swept out of the room.
Fuck.
Zach stalked through the old, renovated mansion, past sweeping staircases and grand halls and gargantuan, glittering chandeliers. But there was no sign of Chris.
He wasn’t going to make this easy, was he? He and Beau’s marriage - and the consequent end of all this temptation dangled in front of Zach’s poor self-control - would be set in stone any minute, and Chris was skipping away from the aisle like a kid playing tag.
What the hell was Chris doing?
Zach ground his molars as he swept through the bustling kitchen. The beauty of holding the wedding and the reception in the same building was that Zach could be everywhere at once.
The downside was that people who wanted to disappear had a lot of places to hide. Zach had hunted down the runaway bride/groom on more than one occasion, but this was the first time he wasn’t totally sure he wanted to find this missing member of the wedding party.
He’d have to talk to Chris. He really didn’t want to talk to Chris.
Zach busted out of the double doors of the kitchen that led to the back garden - and found Chris. He was sitting on a wrought-iron green bench, all hunched as he stared at his feet. Even from this distance, from this angle, Zach was braced by the beauty of his profile.
More than that, Zach was constantly struck by the earnestness of Chris’ disposition. Zach didn’t know when it started, but at some point Chris had become embedded in Zach’s chest. Each moment with him had hammered the nail in harder, messier, deeper into Zach’s heart.
Shit like that didn’t heal overnight, especially if Zach was too frightened to pull the barb out of his chest in the first place. It already ached enough.
“Where are you?” Zach asked quietly.
Chris jerked up in his seat, suddenly and intensely focused on Zach. His pupils were like pinpricks in a sky of blue. “You’re always the one to find me, aren’t you?”
Zach shrugged. “So are you.”
No one had pursued Zach like Chris had. No one had looked through him, searched for him - felt so passionately about him. No one had ever cared enough. In turn, Zach had felt gravitated to Chris very early on in their relationship, and had wanted to befriend him despite his usual rule of keeping it professional with clients.
They’d developed a strangely symbiotic relationship without meaning to - without wanting to. Zach made Chris feel cared for, and Chris made Zach feel like a good person, a fun person.
Chris looked away, his expression still and staid. “I’m considering what to tell her.”
Zach swallowed a lump of fear. “Chris -“
“Scratch that. I’m considering how to tell her. How to tell her that I’m a coward.”
Zach couldn’t breathe. He realised they’d been speaking to each other from across the garden, and Zach had yet to take a single step forward. And wasn’t that how he always was? A coward, too. Frightened to put himself out there in the ways that mattered, in the ways that could potentially get him hurt.
Still, he didn’t move.
“You could just say that,” Zach said lamely.
Chris snorted without humour and stood. “Yeah. Okay.” He pulled at the hem of his tux, looking every inch the prince as he strode towards Zach.
“Chris,” Zach said, feeling gripped with a choking panic that he couldn’t put to words. “If this is because of us, don’t you think we should -“
“Zach.” Chris stopped beside Zach, their shoulders parallel. He glanced over in time with Zach, and there was something in Chris’ eyes, in the strength of his expression that was unrecognisable. One corner of his mouth tipped up. “At the end of the day, this really isn’t about you.”
“Wait, what -”
“I’ll see you around.”
The only sign that Chris was ever there was the lingering scent of cologne, and the thunder of Zach’s heart.
***
“Beau?” Zach knocked on the door again. “Honey? Most of the guests have left now. It’s just your mom waiting for you.”
There was no reply.
“So I’m coming in, and I hope you’re not in any potentially embarrassing states of undress.”
She wasn’t. She sat at the makeup table, just staring dry-eyed at her reflection. Meticulous as ever, Beau was already out of her unused wedding dress and dressed down in sparkly, white velour sweats. Zach was absolutely not going to comment on that poor life choice, especially considering the sheer amount of awful decisions he’d made in these past months.
“Beau?” Zach didn’t know what Chris had told her, or how much. Again, he found himself hesitating at the threshold out of sheer self-preservation.
“He just said everything we already knew,” Beau whispered, her voice scraped up. “That he was scared and that I hadn’t cared. That I was trying so fucking hard and he hadn’t cared. God, he was more straightforward with me today than since we first met.”
“That was all he said?” Zach said.
Beau flashed him a look like an arctic wind. “It’s none of your business.”
Zach took a step back and bumped against the closed door. “Yeah, I mean of course, obviously. I’m sorry, Beau.” He took a deep breath and met her eyes. “I mean, I’m really sorry.”
Beau inclined her chin and looked nothing like a lover just scorned. “Maybe you are. Either way, I don’t think I ever want to see you again.”
Something cracked within him, and the sound splintered through his chest like icicles. “Yeah,” he croaked. “Of course.”
Zach left without saying goodbye.
***
The months passed like someone had injected anaesthetic into Zach’s life.
He didn’t do the whole Ben & Jerry’s drill. He didn’t bury himself in debt due to endless mood-lifting shopping sprees. He didn’t cry or curse or complain.
All of that would have told people that something was wrong, anyway. Zach didn’t like people realising he was broken. He’d rather lick his wounds in private and come back healed, a bit scarred, but alive.
He avoided questions with smiles and jokes and a cheerful attitude, because he could. So maybe he was less bitchy than usual and a lot less selfish under certain circumstances - and all that attracted attention. But he attributed it to finally getting around to reading The Power of Now, and people believed him because he loved that New Age crap.
But in reality, it all came down to Chris.
Zach had briefly considered pursuing Chris. After all, it was because of Zach that everything had fallen apart.
Wait, no - it hadn’t been about Zach. He’d been the catalyst for something that merely needed the spark to ignite and explode and change. All along, it hadn’t really been about him.
Even still, Zach hadn’t exactly come out unscathed.
Dammit, he missed Chris. Zach hadn’t been able to delete Chris’ - or Beau’s - phone number from his cell. Hadn’t been able to stop looking for Chris in every LAMILL window, or thinking of him every time he bought a blue slushie. He missed that full, raspy laugh, and all of those stupid shoes, and the late-night crossword phone calls that had been an excuse to hear each other’s voices.
“Blegh!” Zach said as he threw the morning newspaper across the kitchen, where it managed to land in the sink with a rustle. Zach scowled at his coffee cup and half-eaten pancakes, and realised this would be one of those days he couldn’t stand to be alone with himself. To be honest, even before Chris he’d hated to be alone without distraction, but these days the symptoms of cabin fever came on something fast and fierce.
Zach tugged on some grey sweats, a striped t-shirt, and was about to unearth some socks when a knock sounded at the front door. Noah went into a flurry of barks as he skittered down the hallway - closely followed by Zach, who grabbed Noah’s collar just before he could physically pounce the door.
“Methinks someone needs to return to the academy for misguided canines,” Zach said as he wedged himself between the energetic dog and the door. He twisted and yanked at the knob -
“Hi,” Chris said with a wavering smile.
Zach gaped. Blinked and gaped some more.
“Uh,” Chris said, shifting from one foot to the other. “My name’s Chris.”
Zach’s eyebrows rocketed up as he dragged a hand through his hair and laughed incredulously. “Yeah, I heard that somewhere.”
“I mean.” Chris wet his bottom lip and held Zach’s eyes in an unwavering look. “My name’s Chris. A lot of the time I’m a complete asshole. I don’t like confrontation, but when I do it, it’s in a wildly over-dramatic fashion that has even been termed as ‘divalicious’. I’m a cry baby and a pushover, and a snarky, emotionless dick to cover that up. I have frat boy tendencies when left to own devices, and I think I can cook about two meals that don’t involve a microwave. I spend too much money on sunglasses, I inwardly lose my temper more times a day than I care to count - oh yeah, and I’m a total coward. Do you wanna fuck and maybe have babies one day?”
With Noah barking and flailing circles around their feet, Zach pulled Chris into his arms and kissed him soundly. Chris hummed his approval low in his throat, and the sound of happiness shot straight through Zach’s heart. He buried his hands in Chris’ dishevelled hair, and coaxed open that perfect, willing mouth with hot, thick swipes of tongue and dainty nips and sucks on Chris’ full bottom lip. Chris went plaint against him, all firm and warm lines and hands at his waist.
When they finally parted, it was only to gasp for breath and nuzzle lips and noses, and gently bump foreheads.
“I do,” Zach said.
The End
PS: Beau lived happily ever after. She started breeding Labradoodles and fell in love with the yoga instructor she met that one time, way back when. A year later, she met Chris and Zach at a dog park. Her Labradoodle peed on Zach’s leg, so she called all debts even.