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Alex
Alex will never tell anyone because he loves the praise he gets— wow, you’re so committed! —but he secretly loves running in the rain. There’s less people to navigate around and the water actually feels good most of the time. He also won’t admit that if he’s focused on dodging puddles and the feeling of his tank top soaking with rain, he’s not focused on how he lonely he is or how he hasn’t talked to his sister in six months.
He can focus on the rain and this path through Central Park and his body and the kid darting in front of him and oh shit —
Alex swerves to avoid the toddler that’s appeared out of nowhere and gets tangled up in his own feet, tripping and colliding with a solid mass of a man that was not there two seconds ago. When he looks up, he’s straddled across this mystery man’s lap, and there’s a dog nosing his ear, and a child poking his cheek, and what the hell is happening?
“I’m terribly sorry,” says the person he’s sitting atop in the most spectacular British accent, and it isn’t lost on Alex that the last time he was in this position he was also naked and riding the shit out of some guy he picked up in a bar. He hasn’t had a real relationship in eons and he’s perfectly fine with that. He is. He’s not lonely or upset about it at all. Anyways.
He pauses to take a moment to look at the stranger and then he averts his eyes because God , this man is beautiful. He’s not rugged or handsome or anything like the men Alex usually goes for, but he is gorgeous and his lips are plump and his hair is blond and just this side of too long, falling into these brilliant pools of blue eyes, and Alex is suddenly, irrevocably in love with this stranger. He feels his heart pull and he is unaware that he’s just staring until the man squirms underneath him.
“Oh, yeah, no, it’s fine, no worries,” Alex says, standing up to get off the stranger and immediately tripping and falling in a large puddle.
Alex takes it back. He hates running in the rain.
He hears the lilt of a tiny giggle as he picks himself up out of the puddle, and for the first time he takes a look at the kid that caused all of this in the first place. He wants to be angry–this little monster has made him trip and fall into a gorgeous man and then get himself soaked in a puddle, tangentially, anyways–but he’s smitten with her right away. She’s got her dad’s blond hair, pulled back into two messy pigtails, and she’s wearing what can only be described as a filthy princess dress. Alex clocks her at about 2 years old, and she’s adorable. She’s giggling at him from behind her hands and he can’t help but let a wry grin escape onto his face.
He takes in the whole scene–kid, dude, dog–and wrings out the bottom of his tank top. The other man winces as he does it. “Terribly sorry, again, Charlie just…she loves the rain, and she saw a great puddle and took off, and so did David, and…”
He’s babbling, this magnificent stranger, and Alex smiles and touches his shoulder. It comes completely naturally, laying a hand on this man’s shoulder, and he’s grateful to feel him relax underneath it. “Hey, seriously, don’t worry. It’s what I get for being lost in my own thoughts. And running in the rain, I guess.” Alex is about to introduce himself when the soaking wet child tugs on his shorts and looks up at him with a smile.
“I’m Charlie. I’m this many,” she says, proudly holding up two fingers, and Alex smiles back. He crouches down to meet her.
“Hi, Charlie. I’m Alex,” he says, crouching down and shaking her tiny hand. “You like the rain, huh? You got me all wet, what do you think of that?” She giggles and jumps up and down. “Oh, it’s funny, eh?” The little girl nods and Alex smiles back at her again. Then Alex looks up at Charlie’s dad. “And you are…?”
“Henry. Fox. Henry Fox,” says the man nervously, and Alex is even more smitten with him.
“I’m hungry,” Charlie announces adamantly, and Alex smiles.
“Let me buy you breakfast,” Henry blurts out, and Alex looks over at him, surprised. He’d assumed that this handsome stranger and his adorable child would disappear from his life completely after this interaction.
“No, that’s really not necessary,” Alex starts to say, but Charlie takes his hand and looks up at him solemnly.
“Breffast,” she says in the cutest voice Alex has ever heard, and that’s it. They’re going to breakfast.
——
Henry
Why, on God’s bloody green earth, had he invited this man to breakfast? What could’ve possibly been running through his rain-soaked head? What he should’ve done was grab his child and his dog and taken off running in the opposite direction, away from this brilliantly handsome Adonis of a stranger who he’d completely and totally inconvenienced. He should’ve shut his mouth, turned tail and pretended this had never happened, the way he always did when things got too real. It was what he’d done with Charlie’s mother, and it was what he should’ve done here.
As they walk through the park, however, getting more and more spectacularly soggy as they go, he realizes that was never an option. Not with Alex, not this time. Not with the way he’d gotten down and said hello to Charlie, not with the way Charlie’s eyes had lit up with him. They had both fallen already for this man with the sopping wet dark curls, Charlie maybe more than him, if the way she’d grabbed his hand and marched off with him was any indication.
“So, there’s this dog friendly restaurant that we frequent, if that’s okay with you, it’s called–”
“Oh, the Barking Dog? Yeah, I’ve been to that place a million times with my sister and her dog and…” Alex trails off and looks at his feet, clears his throat. It isn’t lost on Henry but he doesn’t comment on it. Where have you been all my life, he thinks as he daydreams about pushing Alex’s hair out of his eyes.
They get a table and Henry gets a squirmy Charlie settled into a booster seat. “Anything you want, on me,” Henry says, handing a menu over to Alex, who shakes his head.
“Pancakes,” Charlie pipes up, and Alex smiles at her.
“You want pancakes, princess?” he asks, and after Charlie beams at him he looks at Henry. “Really, you don’t have to get breakfast. I’m just glad to…” Alex shakes his head again, his face flushing lightly. “It’s nice to be out with other people. I moved here a few months ago and it’s been kind of…well, it’s been kind of lonely. I guess.” Henry notices that Alex sits up a little straighter after he says it, as if he’s shaking it off, and he nods at him.
“Well, we’re always looking for new friends, aren’t we, Char?” Henry asks his daughter, who nods and pleads her case for pancakes again. Alex visibly relaxes, and Henry does the same.
Their waiter comes around with a bowl of water for David, who’s relaxed under the table, and takes their order. Henry orders a plate of apple cinnamon raisin pancakes for he and Charlie to share, and Alex orders some chicken hash dish that has kale and sounds like exactly the thing that a runner would eat.
“Games, daddy?” Charlie asks, and though Henry ordinarily wouldn’t, he pulls up her favorite game and hands her his phone.
“So we can talk a little,” Henry says sheepishly, gesturing at his daughter, and Alex waves him off.
“Are you kidding? If I had one of those, it would be in front of the television 24/7 so I could have some quiet,” Alex says jokingly, and Henry relaxes further.
“It’s hard, trying to do what’s right all the time,” Henry says softly, looking at his daughter. “I try my best, but…” What is he doing? Why is he opening up to a stranger about his deepest struggles with parenthood?
“But who knows what best really is?” Alex fills in, looking Henry right in the eye, and Henry nods in response. Oh . That’s why. Because this apparently single, childless man can see into him enough to know that his darkest fears are that he’s merely guessing at raising this tiny person and that he’s guessing wrong. Henry shakes his head as if to clear it and gives Alex a smile.
“You’re pretty insightful,” Henry says, and Alex shrugs.
“I can just tell that you’re a good Dad. She’s a great kid,” Alex says, looking over at Charlie with fondness, and Henry’s heart swells with pride. He doesn’t allow himself often to think that he’s a good father. He thinks about it all the time, of course, and he worries almost constantly that he’s not. The days he can’t wrestle Charlie out of that filthy princess dress and into regular clothes, the days she doesn’t eat a single vegetable, the days they both spend just staring at the television because the overwhelming sadness he occasionally feels won’t let him get off the couch. Being a good father is at the forefront of his mind, constantly, and to have someone he just met tell him he’s doing a good job…it means a lot to him.
“Thank you,” he says sincerely, and Alex smiles back.
—-
Alex
Henry’s smile is something that Alex could stare at all day, and he saves it for himself, tucks it into his pocket for later. It’s a smile that Alex trusts, and is the only explanation for why he felt comfortable enough to tell him that he’s lonely. Alex knows he should be mortified by this, but as the waiter comes back and sets heaping plates of food in front of them, as he watches Henry take a spare plate and patiently cut up pancakes into small bites for Charlie, he realizes that he’s not.
He hasn’t felt mortified once. Vulnerable, yes, but no embarrassment. And he realizes that he likes feeling that way. It’s been a long time since he’s trusted anyone, let anyone in. It feels like…oh fuck, it feels like he’s already falling for this handsome blonde devil. He wills himself not to blush again. He shovels in a bite of his food. He’s probably not even available , Alex thinks to himself as he chews. He’s probably got a wife and a beautiful house and a beautiful life and he just invited me out because he feels bad about what happened at the park. His eyes dart to Henry’s ring finger and finds it empty, and he tries to tamper the spark of hope that blooms in his chest. That means nothing, they’re just not married yet. What year is it, Diaz? People have kids without being married.
He swallows and watches as Henry coaxes Charlie into taking a bite, the gentle way he speaks to his daughter, the way he tickles her belly to make her giggle. Alex is on the verge of melting into a puddle of goo on the floor.
“So, is your wife from England, too? When did you move here?” Alex asks in what he hopes is a casual, nonchalant voice but in reality is probably completely transparent. Henry chokes–actually chokes, for a brief moment–on a bite of food. When he’s cleared his throat, Charlie looking up at him in alarm, he reassures her and then takes a drink of water, his own face flushed now as he looks back at Alex.
“I’m, uh, not married. At all. Like, at all,” Henry says, and a wry grin settles on Alex’s face.
“Okay, so you’re not married, then?” he asks in amusement, and Henry fake scowls.
“No, I’m gay.” Henry blurts the words out and then ducks his head, and Alex can tell he’s mortified. “I have…no idea why I just blurted that out,” he says softly to the table.
“Hey. Henry?” Alex says, and Henry looks up and meets his eyes. “It’s fine. You don’t have to be embarrassed, okay? I’ll even match you: I’m bi.”
Henry nods and looks a little less tense. “Sorry, I just…things with her mom…” Henry inclines his head towards Charlie, who’s currently in the process of covering her whole face in syrup and pancake crumbs and paying no attention to them. Henry lowers his voice regardless. “I come from a very homophobic family, and I’ve been in the closet until recently. I dated her mom for a couple of months and then she got pregnant, and after she was born…I told her the truth, and she was furious. She wanted nothing to do with us, and when I told my family, they felt the same. We moved here six months ago. Fresh start.”
Alex feels a lump in his throat. “I’m really sorry, man. I don’t know what to say besides…that’s awful.” Henry nods and stares off across the room for just a moment before throwing a bright smile on his face, and Alex can tell that’s how he deals with things, by tossing on a smile and pretending like it doesn’t bother him. “It must be hard, moving to a new country with a kid all by yourself. I only moved from Texas and it’s been hard.”
Henry shakes his head, smiling again. “Oh, I’ve got a friend here. My best friend since childhood, Percy, has several youth shelters that he runs that he comes to check on frequently, so we’re not alone. We have Uncle Pezza, don’t we, sweetpea?” He asks Charlie, smoothing down her hair.
“It’s Auntie Pezza, Daddy,” Charlie corrects, and Alex looks at him quizzically, but Henry just chuckles.
“So, Texas?” Henry asks. “What’s brought you here?”
Alex thinks for a moment, and is about to give him his polished story: finished law school, wanted a change, got a job here, the rest is history. Instead, he finds himself launching into the truth. “I had to get away from my family. They were suffocating me.” He tells Henry the long, sordid tale, about his mother who’s involved in local politics, his father who he never sees, his sister and their monster of a fight that’s left them not speaking for longer than they ever have before. By the time he’s done ranting, he looks up and expects to find Henry bored to tears, but he’s just looking at Alex with concern and interest in his eyes, and Alex feels soothed. He feels as though a weight has been lifted off of his shoulders, and he actually sighs.
“Sorry about that.”
“Don’t be sorry. I find you fascinating,” Henry says, and when the waiter drops off the check, they both reach for it, fingertips brushing ever so slightly.
—----
Henry
As Alex talks, Henry marvels at the easy ways in which he incorporates Charlie into their conversation. He tells her jokes in between sentences, doesn’t get angry or irritated when she interrupts him to show him something, and pretends to steal bites of her pancakes to make her giggle. Alex fits in with them so quickly that Henry can’t even chastise himself for thinking I could love this man.
He sits, full of pancakes, and wipes Charlie’s mouth before taking his phone back from her. He busies himself with digging out his wallet to put down his credit card to avoid looking Alex in the eyes.
Alex, who now knows the long tale of his sordid past. Alex, who now knows everything that has hurt him the most. Alex, who decided to follow it up by sharing his own pain. Alex, who treats his child like he actually likes her.
Eventually, he does look up, and he snatches the check from where Alex has taken the opportunity to peruse it and quickly hands over his credit card and the bill to the waiter, who’s swooped by.
“Absolutely not, I said it’s on me,” Henry says, bringing Charlie’s water to her mouth and making her drink a little more.
“I’ll just have to get it next time,” Alex says softly, and Henry feels his heart thud, loudly, in his chest.
“Next time?” He asks, and Alex fidgets with his napkin.
“Yeah, I mean, only if you want to…” his words trail off, he looks nervous and chews on his bottom lip. “I just…I had a really great time.”
“Me, too,” Henry says, and signs the receipt with a generous tip for the waiter who’d obviously seen the sparks flying, if his aptly timed returns to their table meant anything.
Charlie has been quiet for the last twenty minutes or so, ready for a nap, Henry surmises. They’re on their way out, her little hand clasped in his own, when she trips on her own feet as she’s walking through the door and tumbles to the ground. She’s tired so it becomes a bigger deal than it ordinarily would, and her shrieks of surprise and pain rip through the air. “Oh, baby,” Henry starts, and he stoops down to pick her up but…Alex beats him to it.
Alex scoops up Charlie, who clings to him instantly, and whispers soothing words into her ear. “You’re okay, cariño, you’re okay,” he tells her, rocking her back and forth, and Henry’s heart jumps into his throat. They look so natural together, and just like that, Henry sees an entire future unfold before his eyes. He and Alex holding Charlie’s hand as they drop her off at her first day of school, taking her trick-or-treating in matching family costumes, hanging ornaments on the tree, building a snowman. An entire life, fleshed out right before him with this man.
While Henry’s been thinking, Alex has soothed the crying right out of his overtired toddler, and he tugs on one of her pigtails playfully and gets her giggling again. Alex turns and looks at him, Charlie still in his arms, and shrugs. “Sorry, I just…”
Henry doesn’t think, doesn’t think about how crazy this is, doesn’t think about the fact that he’s known this man for two hours. He just leans forward and kisses him with abandon, kisses him like it’s the only thing on his mind, because it is. They break apart and he realizes what he’s done, but he doesn’t have to wonder for long how Alex feels about it because he’s grinning, rubbing a thumb lightly along his lower lip.
Henry opens his mouth to say something when he’s interrupted. “Ew!” Charlie shrieks with a giggle and Henry laughs and takes her from Alex.
“So, I guess there’ll definitely be a next time for breakfast, then?” Alex says teasingly, and Henry nods.
“There definitely will be.”