Page 85 of A Little Bit Naughty

Remi stood in the aisle of the plane, hands braced on two seats while his back screamed in agony. He never wanted to fly again. The tiny seats, the forced angles, the constrained space for walking it all out…

The best he could do was hover near the restroom when he’d already gone twice. He’d stupidly packed his codeine in his checked luggage, thinking he had an extra tablet in his backpack, and now he was suffering for it. The elderly woman sitting next to him had kindly given him a paper packet with two acetaminophen tablets, but those wouldn’t decrease swelling. They hardly even took the edge off the pain.

He tried to gently stretch his shoulders up and down, tried to do some gentle bends without twisting. A few movements seemed to help, if only for a moment. He should have asked Isaac for some exercises to do on the plane. Isaac would surely have had them.

God, Isaac. He was what made everything worth it.

Remi hated coming to him like this—wiped out with pain and likely out of it this evening once he took the opioids. There was a good chance he wouldn’t be able to function in the morning either. Maybe even the whole trip.

Every hour that he was going to miss with Isaac was already hurting him more than the knives digging into his spine.

But he figured that any time with Isaac was better than none. Hopefully Isaac would feel the same.

They were still just friends. He’d slipped and called Isaac baby boy that one night, but Isaac hadn’t called him Daddy again. And by mutual agreement, there hadn’t been even a hint about age play. But for almost three months now, Remi had claimed all of Isaac’s free evenings. And oh, how his sweet boy had beamed every time they talked about Remi flying out for his birthday.

Remi kept Isaac’s grinning face in mind when the Fasten Seatbelts lights came on and he gingerly returned to his seat for the descent. He wasn’t sure how he made it through the next forty minutes, teeth gritted and hands clenched against the agony. But soon he was at least in the airport, where he could move freely. And then he was dry-swallowing a pill, remembering only afterward that he’d have a stomach ache if he didn’t eat something. He bought a lackluster cling-wrapped muffin to make it through.

He stood on the subway, or the T he supposed, while the pain meds kicked in, and finally had the presence of mind to text Isaac and see if he would mind horribly meeting him at the bottom of the subway steps to help with his luggage.

He could already feel that he was going to be out of commission for a whole day. Maybe more. He hadn’t hated his disability this much even when he first acknowledged it.

Isaac texted back that there was an elevator, but he would meet him anyway.

And then Remi was there, falling apart on the subway platform while Isaac was crushing him in his arms, not quite kissing him, but rubbing his cheek against Remi’s jacket like a kitten who wanted to wriggle his way inside.

Remi squeezed him back, all of his joy and pain and exhaustion catching up with him at once. “Hey, Isaac,” he murmured against his hair, barely keeping back some more intimate term. “I think I’m going to be a bit of a mess tonight. I had all these plans, but I think I just need to lay down.”

Isaac nuzzled his forehead against Remi’s chin. “Doesn’t matter. You’re here. We’ll do ice packs first, then heat packs, and if it doesn’t make it worse, I’ll give you a massage.”

“That sounds heavenly.”

Isaac slung Remi’s backpack over his shoulders and grabbed the handle of his suitcase. Remi didn’t even try to remember the path as Isaac led him to his apartment, a six-story brick building with a creaky elevator. He just concentrated on the warmth of Isaac’s hand in his. The bounce in Isaac’s step and the way Isaac kept sneaking looks at him and then smiling a private little grin.

That and trying not to whimper in pain.

“Into bed with you,” Isaac announced as they walked through the dented and scraped mint-green door to his apartment.

Remi’s lips quirked up at Isaac’s professional bossiness. He ushered Remi through stripping down to his boxer briefs, then laying down on that double bed that he’d seen so many times in their video chats.

Two ice packs, placed in exactly the right locations, finally let him release some of the tension the pain brought. And then Isaac’s warm, strong hands were kneading their way down his spine and working their way up his arms.

God, he was such a lucky guy. This wasn’t the evening he had planned, but just being in Isaac’s presence was enough.

The pain receded, but now he was groggy and tired, remembered aches still seeping through and his coordination all shot to hell.

Isaac eventually coaxed some food into him, then placed two lavender-scented heat packs on his back. Remi drifted off into a restless sleep with Isaac curled up next to him, pouring over two heavy textbooks and sneaking him little smiles.

Hopefully he’d be back on his feet tomorrow. But right now, there still wasn’t anywhere else he would rather be.

Watching Isaac check out the delivery from the hardware store was like seeing a kid at Christmas. Or Hanukkah? Was that even the same? Were there other Jewish gift-giving holidays? Remi would have to ask sometime, but right now he was just taking in Isaac’s delight.

Remi had paid the delivery people extra to bring everything up onto the roof, and Isaac was walking around it, leaning in to touch a two-by-four and then darting back like he could hardly believe it was real. Remi had thought about building the whole thing from PVC pipe, which was easier and cheaper, but he was glad he’d gone with wood. It would feel more like Isaac was constructing something.

Isaac hadn’t even noticed the delivery bags from the grocery store yet, but they were waiting a few feet away. Remi’d had no idea what to order, but the store had pre-set selections for Sukkot with lots of root vegetables and things, so he’d just gone with it. Along with them, he’d brought up the navy blue box with the bumpy lemon that he kept forgetting the name of and the longer white box with the bouquet of leaves from Isaac’s fridge.

He really hoped he’d gotten everything right, but from Isaac’s expression, missing one or two things probably wouldn’t do any harm.

“Is this…” He reached out to touch one of eight-foot wooden beams again, then a paper bag with the hardware store logo. “Remi, did you do all this for me? Is this a sukkah? Oh, it is! This is why you sent me the lulav and etrog. I’ll have to get them from downstairs. But oh, is it really going to be a sukkah?”