19 Bromance

“Good evening, Mr. Ashton, Mr. Ashton,” Jim greets us from behind his desk as we walk, hand in hand, into our building.

Smiling, I nod my head, “Evening, Jim. I told you to call me Day and you can call him Topher. I don’t want to have to figure out which one of us you’re talking to.”

“Very well,” he acknowledges as he opens a drawer. When his hands come back into view, he’s holding a white letter-sized envelope. “This came for you today, Mr. Ashton.”

Shaking my head in amusement, I look over at my husband, “Probably you.”

“No sir, It’s addressed to a Mr. Damian Moore-Hill,” Jim holds the paper out to me.

“Why isn’t it in the letterbox?” I ask a little suspiciously as I make my way over to him.

Like the magnet he is, Chris moves with me, “Did this get sent by messenger?”

“No sirs, a business man in a grey suit came to drop it off,” he explains politely.

My stomach drops instantly as I take the piece of parcel, “Could you tell us what the business man looked like?”

Jim looks uncomfortable as he takes a step back, “He wasn’t a tall man; probably about the same height as you, Mr. Ashton.”

“Could you please use our first names?” My husband grows a little louder, his voice etched with irritation. “This is important.”

“Yes sir, I mean, Mr. Topher. He was about the same height as Mr. Damon. In fact, he looked a lot like Mr. Damon, except older with blue eyes,” a thoughtful look passes our doorman’s face. You could see when the realization hits him, “He was your father. I didn’t really make the connection because your accent; he didn’t have one. But now that I think about it, it makes sense given what he said.”

I could feel myself start to shake as Chris’ arm snakes around my waist. My voice is meek when I try to speak, “What did he say?”

“He said ‘Tell my boy that I’ll be seeing him soon.’ But that was it. He just turned around and left,” Jim shrugs nonchalantly.

“If that guy comes back, don’t let him in. In fact,” Toph’s voice become murderous, “if he comes back here, you call the damn police.”

Turning to press my palm on his chest, I press my lips lightly to his cheek, “No need to get mad at Jim. It’s not his fault.” Leaning back into my husband, I sigh, “Thank you, Jim. But he’s right; please do not let that man upstairs. No need for the police.”

“Yes sir, understood sir. Is there anything else I can do for you two tonight?”

Shaking my head, I add, “No visitors.”

I grab my best friend’s hand as we walk to the lift.

Once we’re inside, he pushes me against the wall and presses his lips hungrily to mine. With his hands on my hips, the blonde-haired blue-eyed every-woman’s-fantasy pins me with his body. Keeping my eyes open, I study his face.

His eyes are tightly closed as if he’s straining to keep them that way. His eyebrows pushed together in concentration. I can tell he’s worried, but I’m almost positive there’s nothing I can do about it.

Pushing on him slightly, I manage to unlatch our lips, but he only rests his forehead against mine.

His eyes are still closed, but not as tightly, when I start to speak, “We’re going to be alright.”

“I’m coming with you to Los Angeles,” he tells me as he opens his eyes and takes a step back. His hands still on my hips as he continues, “What if he finds out your there and tries to follow you and I’m not there. How am I going to protect you if I’m not by your side? I’ll just go with you.”

Smiling slightly, despite the lump in my throat, I put on of my hands on either side of his face, “You can’t go with me. You have stuff to do here.”

“I don’t need to do that shit as much as I need to be with you,” he looks straight into my eyes as he explains.

Chuckling, I place a small peck on his mouth as the doors open. Grabbing his hand, we walk into our flat, “Christopher, I’ll be fine. We still have a couple days. I’m sure it’s not a big deal. He just wants to scare us.”

“It’s working, Day. Anything that threatens your life scares me - terrifies me. I just got you; I’m not giving you up.”

“You don’t have to give me up,” I say as we stop inside our home. I take a second to lock the front door before leading him to our bedroom, “I’m not going anywhere. Now,” I stop in front of our closet and place a hand on either side of his face, “stop worrying so we can go to bed. We have to be up early tomorrow, yea?”

“Are you going to open the envelope?” He asks me, pulling me against his body.

Shaking my head, I toss it on the nightstand next to us, “No, I don’t want to see what he has to say. We’re not meeting him and he’s not coming back.”

Sighing, he kisses me again, “Fine, but I don’t like this.”

“That’s alright,” I kiss him in return then start to strip off my clothes, getting ready for bed. “You don’t have to like it. He’s still not going to matter to us.”

After we’re undressed and climb in bed, Chris wraps his arms around my waist from behind to pull me closer to him. His puts his lips at my ear and whispers, “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Turning me over to face him, he situates us so that we’re both comfortable, but pressed together. His legs intertwine with mine managing to eliminate all the air between us.

Placing a hand lightly on his cheek, I speak softly, “There’s no need to worry.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do know that. He may be a horrid man, but he’s still a government official. He won’t do anything to jeopardize that.”

“Damian.”

“No, listen. You have no reason to be upset. I’m right here.” Taking his hand from my hip, I place it over my heart, “Nothing is going to take me away. He can’t make me leave; I’m dual-citizen through my genetics. Even if I wasn’t, I’m married to you. I’m completely legal.”

Snaking his hand from my chest to behind my neck, his only response is to crash our lips together.

In truth, I’m terrified. But, I know that I need to be strong because Topher is worrying enough for the both of us. Instead of voicing that, I mold my mouth to his.

My hand reaches his lower back as we sink into each other. He kisses me heavily, using this embrace to show me what he feels. Even though I can feel his excitement on my leg, he doesn’t try to push it any further.

Taking control, I roll us so that I’m pressed on top of him. Just as I’m about to really get into it, my phone rings.

“Leave it,” Topher mumbles as I pull away.

Shaking my head, I lean to the side still sitting on him, “What if it’s important?”

“Nothing is more important than this,” he props his body up with his elbows, attaching his lips to my abdomen.

Chuckling slightly, I answer my phone, “Hello?”

“Damon, what took you so long to answer?” my manager’s voice rings through the speaker.

Rolling my eyes, I look down at Chris, “You were right, not as important.”

His famous smirk spread across his face as he pulls his body all the way up to wrap his arms around me. Laying the side of his head on against my stomach, he heaves a sigh.

“What do you want, Johnny?”

“I’ve called to tell you that you’ve been nominated for two awards at the CTV movie awards this year.” he starts.

My mind goes blank with shock as a smile spreads across my face. The CTV’s were a big deal. I mean, when I first found out that I was chosen for GQ magazine, I was ecstatic. I practically threw myself a party, but this is CTV. Comedy Television - one of the biggest television networks in the world. They were nominating me for two different awards. The best part is that everything is chosen by the general public. This means, I have actual fans that love me.

After my brief stun, I hear Johnny on the other end of the line, “First one is Best Breakout Performance Male. The other one is with your husband,” he says the last word like it physically hurts him.

“What is it?” I find myself even more interested as I move to settle down on the bed. My best mate moves with me.

“It’s a new award this year,” he explains before clearing his throat. “It’s called Best Bromance.”

I can’t help the laughter that boils out of me. Between chuckles, I manage, “Are you serious?”

“What is it?” Toph asks looking up from where he’s settled on my chest.

Holding up a finger silently telling him to hold on, I turn my attention back to the phone, “Tell them we accept. Or at least I do.”

“Already done,” he tells me grumpily. “But I need to tell them who you’re bringing as a guest.”

“Is that a serious question?”

“I just have to make sure.”

“I will be bringing my husband. And make sure they know my new last name. I don’t want to be announced as Damon Jacobs. That’s not me anymore,” I make sure to add at the end.

When I eventually hang up my mobile, I turn to the man laying on my chest, “I got nominated for two CTV movie awards.”

A brilliant smile breaks across his face, “What for?”

“Well the first is Best Breakout Performance Male,” I tell him.

“You’ll get that, easy. What’s the other?”

I chuckle a bit before placing my lips against his, “That one we both got nominated for.”

His smile falters a little before being replaced with a confused look, “I’ll back out. I don’t want to compete with you.”

“No, no, no,” I clear up quickly. “We got nominated together, as a pair.”

“Oh,” he nods as his smirk appears again. “What’re we nominated for?”

“Maybe I should wait until Linda calls you,” I look away pretending to ponder that for a minute.

Suddenly, he’s hovering over me, “You better tell me.”

Chuckling again, I wrap my arms around his torso and pull him toward me, “Calm down, love. I was only kidding.”

“So what is it?”

Lifting my head and puckering my lips, I wait for him to kiss me before continuing, “We got nominated for Best Bromance.”

He blinks a few times before cocking an eyebrow, “Are you serious?”

I nod as a smile stretches even larger across my face.

“That’s fucking awesome,” he starts to laugh as he rest his forehead to my chest.

Absentmindedly, I run my fingers through his hair as we chuckle, “I think we may have an unfair advantage, though.”

“I think we’ve surpassed bromance, Day. I think we were out that window the night of the premiere. I think I was out of that window since the day we met,” making himself comfortable on my chest, he sighs in contentment.

“Topher?” I ask after a minute or two.

He makes a noise telling me to continue, but doesn’t make any other moves.

Clearing my throat awkwardly, I ask what I’ve been wondering for a while, “How long have you had feelings for me?”

“I told you, I always kind of knew.”

“Have you always been gay?”

“I don’t think I am now.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“Are you gay?” he tilts his head to look up at me.

Taking a second to think it over, I shake my head, “No, I don’t think so.”

“I guess I could be bisexual if you want to put a name on it,” he shrugs before settling back in. “But to be honest, I’ve never felt like this for anyone else – male or female.”

Nodding a little, I decide I know what he means, “You think it’s because we were such good friends?”

“I think, sometimes someone comes into your life and you know they’re going to be there forever. It’s just so easy to be around you that I never even thought twice about it. Everything just came so natural between us that I never even questioned anything. I knew that one way or another we would always have some sort of special bond. I never really believed in soul mates or anything, but if there was such a thing, you would be mine.” With that, he wraps his arms tighter around me and the conversation ends.

I want to reply, I really do. But in all honesty, I couldn’t have said anything as wonderful as that. I couldn’t even think of anything that would come close to that.

He’s right though. It’s always been so easy to be around him. There’s never been an instance where I couldn’t rely on him to be exactly what I needed. He was always so effortlessly there.

Maybe, we were meant to be in each other’s lives.