“Yes, yes. I get it. Sorry. I’m just surprised because your dad and I had no idea you had a… partner.” She said the word as if it was unfamiliar. “Maria never mentioned you were in a relationship.”
Shit. Nick hadn’t planned for that. He’d have to call Maria and explain. He knew he could trust her to go along with the pretence, and she’d convince Adrian to do the same. “Well, why would she?” he asked breezily. “It’s not her news to tell, and she doesn’t like playing go-between.”
“Yes. Of course.” She sounded abashed. Nice save. Nick mentally patted himself on the back as she continued. “Well. That’s nice, Nick. What’s his name?”
“Jackson.” He let his gaze settle on his friend, whose focus was back on his game.
“Jackson? Isn’t that the chap you share a flat with? Maria’s mentioned him.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“I thought you were just friends.”
“We are. I mean….” Nick floundered for a second. “We were. But one thing led to another.” He grimaced at Jackson, who was chuckling at Nick’s conversational flailing.
“Well, of course he’s welcome to join us for Christmas. It will be nice to meet him at last.”
“Are you sure Dad’s not going to have a problem with it—with us?”
“No, no,” she replied a little too quickly. “He wants the family back together for Christmas too, so he’ll be fine, love. Don’t worry.”
Given his father’s dubious attitude to homosexuality in the past, Nick doubted his father would be very happy with the situation. But if he wanted Nick back for Christmas, he was going to have to put up with him having a boyfriend. Jackson was part of the package.
“Okay, great.” Nick was starting to like the idea now it was unfolding in his imagination. What better way to stick two fingers up at his father than rocking up for Christmas with Jackson in tow, and subjecting him to lots of PDAs. “I’ll see you in a few weeks then. Bye, Mum.” Maybe he could get used to calling her that again by Christmas if he kept practising it in his head.
“Bye, darling.”
As Nick set his phone down he was feeling quite chipper.
“Partner, huh?” Jackson raised his eyebrows. “Sounds intense.”
“I didn’t think ‘boyfriend’ lent enough gravitas. I want my parents to take our fake relationship seriously.”
Jackson snorted. “Of course you do.”
Nick turned his attention to the screen, watching while Jackson threw his virtual opponent to the mat. “Nice move. You wanna watch something on TV when you’re done with this match?” he asked.
“Sure.”
As Nick settled down to wait, it occurred to him that it shouldn’t be too hard faking that he and Jackson were together. After sharing a flat for over a year and being best friends for nearly a decade, they were already like an old married couple.
This was going to be easy.
Two
December
Jackson gave a deep sigh of impatience as he waited near the tills in John Lewis. The queues were ridiculous, and Nick had only just joined the end of the line. He didn’t see why Nick couldn’t have ordered stuff online like any sane person. Christmas was still over a week away, so there would have been enough time. The shops might have been pretty with their lashings of fake snow, glitter, and excessive amounts of fairy lights, but they were also rammed with other shoppers.
“It’ll be fun,” Nick had said. “And I hate ordering online. I’d rather see what I’m getting.”
Damn Nick for being so persuasive.
Jackson had skipped his morning trip to the gym to help Nick lug his shopping around, and surrounded by crowds of people he was feeling increasingly antsy and impatient. Tension was building in his back and shoulders. Helping Nick carry his bags to the car wasn’t going to be enough to burn it off.
He caught a woman looking at him nervously and realised he was scowling. With his height and build, Jackson looked pretty intimidating when he was in a bad mood. He smoothed his features into something more neutral and got out his phone as a distraction. Maybe if he played some of his music loud enough, it would drown out the annoying Christmas carols pealing through the speakers.
With the holidays fast approaching, Jackson was increasingly anxious about how things were going to go over Christmas. But he didn’t regret his decision to go home with Nick.
Nick needed his support. Going back to visit would put Nick right in the thick of everything he’d worked so hard to detach from. Even if his father had stopped drinking, that couldn’t take away from all the times he’d hurt Nick in the past. Jackson knew the hurt had been emotional rather than physical, but that didn’t make it any easier for Nick to return. Anger rose as Jackson remembered how hard it had been for Nick to walk away, to cut himself off from his family—especially from his mum, and from Maria who’d still lived at home then.