Page 131 of Full Body Hit, Part 1

Somehow, Auston very much doubted that. “How much longer are you staying?”

“Just like two days. I convinced her that I needed to prepare for work at mine before the break was over.”

Well, thank God for that. “Okay. What can I do to lower the stress?”

Charlie sighed. “There’s nothing…” He paused. “I mean. Can we maybe not talk about my days? And, like. Can you tell me about what you did today?”

“ ’Course, honey. Well, first of all, I was absolutely tormented by my sister all day.”

Charlie giggled. “Oh, no.”

“But, actually…I did tell her about you.”

“Really?” Charlie breathed.

“Yeah. She was pretty impressed I managed to bag such a catch. Compromise is that you gotta meet her eventually.”

A few beats of silence passed. “That would be really nice,” Charlie rasped eventually.

“Yeah, wait until you meet her to say that.”

Charlie laughed. “You’re just scared we’re going to gang up on you.”

“Oh, my God. I hadn’t even thought of that. Never mind, you’re never meeting each other.”

“Daddy. Too late, you promised.”

“Fuck. Fine, I guess.”

The smile in Charlie’s voice was obvious as they kept talking, the exhaustion replaced by the sleepiness Auston had been searching for.

“How about you get some rest? I’ll text you first thing tomorrow.”

“M’kay,” Charlie mumbled. “Can we…I know it’s stupid, but can we leave the call going?”

Auston’s lungs compressed into a tight ball. “Yeah, sweetheart. Of course. I’ll be there with you all night. I’ll put it on speaker so I can wake up if you say anything.”

“You don’t have to do that. I just meant—”

“I want to.”

A pause. “Thanks, Daddy.” His voice was soft but not small—not hurt and trying to take up as little space as possible, as it had been at the beginning of the conversation.

“Of course, baby. Go to sleep. I’ll be right here.”

***

The apartment felt yawningly empty after his family left. His sister had to go back to work and to her wife. His parents had booked a cruise over New Year’s, and Auston had a game the next day, so everything had aligned, but their sudden absence still left black, shimmering holes in the air made out of silence.

It’d be different if he lived with someone, of course. If after the holidays were over, he could crawl into his partner’s nest and settle there with him, their scent suffusing everything, calming his nostalgic soul down.

Auston’s body ached for a reality that allowed that. That didn’t have him staring at his phone, hoping it would buzz.

Don’t play it safe, his sister had said.

Auston wondered how close he was to the time when playing it safe wasn’t an option anymore.

At least Charlie was home too, sending Auston pictures of his nest, of him in it, a blue baby-doll set on.