Page 109 of Say It Again

“You sure you don’t want to join?” He stretched his neck as he filled a glass of water from the sink. “And I know what you’re thinking. Just because we’re engaged now doesn’t mean we suddenly need to start taking baths together. What’s next? We sit on a log somewhere, brewing our own kombucha? It’s actually really tricky with two people in a bathtub, and they always make it look so easy in the movies—” He halted when he spun around to find Aaron frowning down at his phone. “Everything okay?”

Aaron peeled his gaze away from the screen and offered him a lukewarm smile. “Sorry. What now? You want kombucha?”

Daniel glanced down at Aaron’s screen, but then his brain reminded him that he was safe with a still frame image of Aaron on bended knee, saying, I choose you. I’ll always choose you. Please hang in there with me.

“No.” He pecked Aaron’s cheek, then winked on his way to the bathroom. “Drinking kombucha in a bathtub is somehow more ridiculous than drinking it on a log.”

He filled the tub and eased inside, his muscles unkinking as water crowded them. Engaged. They were engaged. He chuckled to himself, biting his thumbnail while fluttering the finger his new accessory hugged. In all the embarrassing amount of time he’d spent picturing his future husband, he’d never pictured someone so desperately swoon-worthy. Someone he couldn’t get enough time with.

He snapped a picture of his ring, sent it to a few people, and had nearly drifted off to sleep when the sound of the front door startled him.

A few minutes later, he’d toweled himself off and padded into the kitchen. Their apartment had a way of feeling a bit like an institution at times. It was all the dove gray and sterilized steel. It was worse when Aaron wasn’t home. Which… Aaron wasn’t home?

“Aaron?” he asked the shadowy apartment, meandering into the bedroom. He wasn’t there either. He was seconds from calling him when he spotted a note on the pillow:

Didn’t want to disturb your bath. Sorry, I had to leave. Get some rest. I’ll be back soon.

He blinked down at the note, his attention divided between it and the texts that began to pour in.

No WAY?!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Dawwww! So happy for you two!

Congrats, sweet Daniel! Can’t wait to meet Aaron. I’m sure he’s wonderful.

He tried to recall the same snapshot from moments ago—I choose you. I’ll always choose you. Please hang in there with me—but as he gazed at their empty bed, the only image his mind could conjure looked like this. Him tucked in alone at night. Him wondering when Aaron would be home. Him grasping on to the hope that there was an ending worth hanging in there for.

A single streak of moonlight laced in through the window as he crawled into the bed, twisted the ring off, and held it up. Something was engraved on the inside, but he couldn’t see it. He could never just see what was written. Even with it in front of his face.

I choose you. I’ll always choose you.

He held the ring against his heart, curled away from the moon, and closed his eyes.

“FORGIVE ME.” It was Aaron’s deep whisper coaxing him from sleep.

It had the hazy impression of a dream, but it wasn’t. Daniel blinked his eyes open to find the streak of moonlight had transformed into tones of orange, gold, and pink. Or maybe that was the flowers.

“Please forgive me.” Aaron was in bed behind him, holding a plastic-wrapped bouquet of gas-station roses in front of his face. “Please.”

Daniel rubbed his eyes, his vision blurry with sleep as Aaron edged the flowers to the nightstand. “What time is it?”

“It’s early, but I brought you a coffee and a cinnamon danish thing. Or would you rather go out to breakfast? We can go out to that beignet place you like—”

“You should’ve told me to my face. You should’ve told me you were leaving. It was unfair to leave it in a note.”

Aaron swallowed behind him, inching their bodies flush. “I know.” His whisper sounded weak and sheepish. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to hurt you, but of course I still hurt you.”

Daniel inhaled long and slow. “How long does hanging in there with you mean?”

Aaron didn’t respond for a while. “What do you mean?”

“That’s what you said last night. You said to hang in there with you. How long do you think that’ll be?”

Aaron huffed out a gush of air. “Well. I didn’t mean it would happen right away. We still need to get our ducks in a row, but let me finish things up with Marco, then I promise we can talk about it. He’s the only guy I’m seeing right now anyway—”

“Client.”

Aaron blinked behind him, his long eyelashes scraping the pillowcase. “What?”