Page 9 of Back to You

***

Trying to find time in the chaos of a typical workday was a struggle, that was for sure. But Ethan doggedly persisted, managing to carve out 30 minutes for an actual lunch break. Now, what to do for Brandon? It had to be something perfect.

“There’s always flowers and a fancy dinner,” said Nia, a senior associate who’d become a friend. “Can’t go wrong with a classic.”

“Nah, that kind of thing makes Brandon itch,” said Ethan.

Nia snort laughed. “What doesn’t make Brandon itch? A more ornery man I never did meet.”

Ethan grinned. “I know, I love that.”

“You are one sick puppy, my friend. Okay, what is your perfect day?”

“Who has a whole day free anymore?”

“Uh, that would be me, because unlike you I understand the concept of work-life balance. Pretend you can’t come to work, the office blew up.”

“The office blew up?” Huh. He wasn’t as disheartened by that as he’d have thought.

“Yes. No way to work, you have a whole day off with nothing to do. What is your perfect day?”

“Wow. I guess … I guess it would start with us sleeping late. We’d eventually leave the bed, and make a huge, indulgent brunch. Then we’d snuggle up on the couch and watch shitty movies while making fun of them. I’m talking like 12 Disasters of Christmas level shitty. And we wouldn’t leave the house. It would just be the two of us, in our own private bubble, being together.”

“See there? I knew you could do it.” Nia was smug. Smug Nia was never a good thing. “Now to make it a reality.”

“Take a whole day off? I wouldn’t know how to make that possible.”

“Baby, just take a day off! Put off the work for one day, it’ll still be here when you get back.”

Ethan thought for a minute. If he shifted a few things around, worked his ass off the next two days … he could probably take all of Sunday off. That was one of Brandon’s regular days off.

“Nia, you’re a very smart woman.”

“Baby, I know.”

***

Ethan stumbled in the door at 11 p.m., exhausted. He’d worked harder today than he could remember, but it was looking good for him to take Sunday off. Not that he wasn’t always supposed to have Sundays off, but hey. Such is the life of an overly ambitious law associate.

He continued blindly into the bedroom, pausing to give a sleeping Brandon a forehead kiss, then stripping off his clothes and falling into bed. Just one more day, he thought as he fell into sleep.

CHAPTER 3

BRANDON STOOD IN his sister’s kitchen, wondering why his invitation to dinner hadn’t included the news that he would be cooking the dinner.

“Don’t be a baby,” Michelle said when he complained. “You know you’re a much better cook than me, and you love cooking anyway. I’m just giving you the chance to do what you love.”

“Nice, good lie,” Brandon said with a grin, turning back to the fish he was seasoning. “At least you bought food for me to cook this time.”

“Sorry, I really did intend to cook,” Michelle said. “But then Riley needed help with her math homework, and Samuel was just being a butt, and that thrice-damned vacuum cleaner is on the fritz again.”

“I can take a look at it after dinner.”

“And do what? You don’t know anything more about machinery than I do.”

“Yeah, but I can open it up and stare at it in a manly fashion.”

Michelle snorted. “Sure, you do that.”

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