The Cardmaker and the Caretaker - 15. Chapter 15 Dinner with friends

Once Patrick had put everything away and locked up, the two couples left for the restaurant. Because they were early and the weather was mild for February, they decided to take a longer walk. Patrick suggested going north to the British Museum and turn east along Bloomsbury Square Gardens before making their way down to The Ship Tavern south of Holborn Station. Perhaps they would even have time to nip up and see where Peter would be working, close to the Great Ormond Street Hospital.

For a moment as they stood outside his shop, Patrick wasn’t sure how to act. He’d never walked down the street with a boyfriend or in the company of another gay couple. Last weekend Peter and he had been new-friends-getting-to-know-each-other, and Michael had been with them. Now he realized they hadn’t actually been on a date together. Peter seemed oblivious to Patrick’s hesitation or else he knew exactly how to handle it. He took the cardmaker’s hand and grinned at their new friends.

“Let’s go, I’m starving and Patrick tells me there’s great food and drink to be had.”

John smiled at them and took his husband’s hand. “Congratulations on the engagement. While you were closing the shop, Peter told us about why you’re wearing your rings on the left hand. They’re beautiful.”

“Thank you. He’s made me the happiest guy in the world.” They began moving along the street with John and Anthony in front.

“I guess I’ll be explaining this Danish custom every time I meet some of your friends, until we’re married.”

“Uhm, I don’t have any other friends,” Patrick admitted. There was a shocked silence as the couple in front stopped and turned to stare at him.

“You’re joking, right?” John asked.

“No, that’s why I was so pleased you said yes to go out for dinner.” Patrick gave Anthony a pleading look and the dark-haired man tugged on John’s hand to get them walking again.

“Hey, that means we get to make friends together as a couple, rather than me having to convince your old friends to accept me,” Peter joked and Patrick wanted to kiss him for always looking at the bright side of things.

The talking moved on to random remarks about their surroundings. It was too difficult to keep up a joint conversation when walking two and two. But once they arrived at their destination and had been seated in the restaurant upstairs, they began getting to know each other.

Patrick was pleased at the way Peter connected with both men as if they were old friends. He had John in stitches with funny stories of the escapades of him and his cousin Kim, and it turned out both of them were avid Star Wars fans. Anthony and Patrick bonded over books and art, and all of them talked about music, movies, and fitness centres worth trying out. When Peter and Anthony began discussing which management courses he could recommend, Patrick focused on John. The redhead told him about starting out with a BA degree in education, before doing a master’s in social work. Patrick mentioned his cousin Fiona being a teacher. They talked about the pros and cons of co-ed versus all-boys and all-girls schools for a while. Finally, Patrick made up his mind.

“Could I ask you a favour?”

“Sure, what do you need?”

“I want to get in touch with Fiona. I haven’t seen her since my parents’ funeral. I’m going to send her an email and ask if she would meet me for coffee or something. But I don’t want to go on my own. Would you mind coming with me?”

“Of course not, but why don’t you ask Peter?”

“I’m not out to anyone in my parents’ families, but I don’t want to lie to Fiona. If you’re with me I can tell her you’re a friend. Assuming things go well, I can introduce her to Peter, if not I can forget about the relatives once more.”

“What do you mean, once more?”

This lead to an abbreviated version of the reasons for his lack of contact with his aunts and uncles, and John was predictably indignant.

“Christ, I thought some of Tony’s relatives were annoying, but yours take the prize. But hopefully your cousins might be worth knowing.”

“At least I know Fiona has expressed an interest in getting in touch.” He’d explained about Mr. Wickham giving him her contact details.

“I agree that’s a good sign.”

Towards the end of the meal the matter of marriage came up again.

“When do you plan to tie the knot?” John asked.

“I don’t know,” Patrick replied. “Right now Michael is our main priority.”

The couple across the table nodded; they were already aware of the reason Peter had come to London.

“Falling in love and committing to Patrick was easy, although I think we’re still a little shocked at how fast it has happened. But when it feels right…” Peter spread his hands in a helplessly-happy gesture and all of them laughed.

“But getting married, now that will take a lot of preparations and decisions, including some sort of pre-marriage agreement, or whatever it’s called.” The Dane waved his fork around to emphasize his lack of vocabulary.

“Ah, you mean pre-nuptial.” The dark-haired lawyer leaned forward. “You’ve told Peter of your financial assets, then?” he asked Patrick.

“You know about him being rich?” After his question to Anthony, who nodded, Peter gave his fiancé a surprised look.

“I asked Anthony’s advice as a lawyer, but also because he and John faced the same issue.”

“My family is rather wealthy,” Anthony explained. “John’s parents are middle class, so the gap wasn’t insurmountable, but he did worry in the beginning.”

“Oh, right, Britain is a lot more class-divided as a society than I’m used to from Denmark. But how did you know about this, Patrick?”

“It came up when they ordered their Valentine’s cards. And by the way, I showed Peter my pictures of your cards and the photo I took of you in my shop when you came to tell me of your engagement. I hope you don’t mind?”

“No, of course not. Was this a way of figuring out whether he was gay or bi?” John grinned at both of them.

“Not exactly, but it did lead to him asking me to be his Valentine.” Patrick placed his hand on Peter’s arm and gave it a grateful squeeze.

“Aaww, it’s so romantic you met on Valentine’s Day,” the redhead gushed. “Perhaps you should get married on that day too.”

“Hmm, not a bad idea, it’s a Saturday next year,” Peter mused.

“My parents used to say I was conceived on Valentine’s Day.” Patrick blushed a bit as the other three men chuckled.

“Well, since your birthday is November 14^th it certainly fits,” the Dane joked and turned to kiss the cardmaker’s cheek.

“In that case I guess you were conceived on New Year’s Eve, or more likely after midnight,” Patrick teased back.

There was a brief pause, and then John said, “Your birthday is October 1^st?”

“Yes, that’s right, but my mum always complained I made her wait a week before deciding to arrive, so I guess Christmas Eve is more likely.” Peter shrugged and changed the subject. “How did you two meet? Was it love at first sight, too?”

Patrick wanted to hug Peter for the casual way he said the sweetest things. He loved the fact his man was completely cool and certain about their whirlwind romance, not denying how sudden and unexpected it was but almost insisting their love was meant to be. He made do with a fond look and a hand rubbing his fiancé’s thigh.

“Maybe fascination at first sight would be a better description,” Anthony said, and John rolled his eyes. “John may not agree but it was romantic for me.”

“You’re not going to tell them the whole story, are you?”

“Oh please do,” Patrick and Peter begged in chorus, and John slumped back in defeat and focused on his plate as his husband began the tale.

“We met five years ago at the stag night of a mutual friend, John’s brother-in-law, in fact. To me Matthew was more of an acquaintance because we shared student housing during our last years in law school. I suspected he mostly invited me in order to make sure there was someone sober, who could be trusted to get him home relatively unscathed – and he later admitted I was right. Anyway, it was a Friday night two weeks before the wedding, so the party was all out and went to several bars. I didn’t join them until around eleven, and the first thing I saw was this exuberant redhead doing his best to murder an Elton John song via karaoke.”

It was clear Anthony had told the tale many times before, and had it down to a fine art. He paused long enough for his listeners to chuckle and his husband to mutter ‘I’ll get you back for this, Tony,’ before resuming.

“I wasn’t really out then. My parents, my brother and a few close friends knew, but not Matthew or anyone else in the group. I spent the next two hours staring at John and trying to work up the courage to ask him to dance, on a date, or even for his phone number. Especially after I found out he was definitely gay and single.” He paused to drink some wine.

Patrick decided to oblige him and ask the obvious question. “How did you figure it out?”

“It wasn’t so much my gaydar pinging, but the way some of the other guys acted around him. Accepting, but at the same time keeping their distance and wincing at some of his jokes even when they laughed. I finally managed to go to the men’s room at the same time as Matthew’s best friend and ask while we were taking a leak.”

“You could simply have asked me, silly.” This time the men’s chuckles were aimed at Anthony who smiled and nodded.

“Yes, but I was too scared to approach you, and considering your reaction when I did, with good reason.”

“What did he do?” From John’s facial expression Patrick had the feeling it would be funny. “No, wait; go on with the fact-finding mission.”

“I asked Adrian ‘The redhead, is he...’ and before I got any further, he said ‘queer? Yep, he sure is and proud of it too. But he’s a great guy, we’ve known each other forever, ‘cause our mums are cousins and really close.’ So that was the gay and out part confirmed and the single status was obvious from the things John said.”

“What happened when you asked him out?” Peter said.

“Predictably, the party ended up in a club with ‘exotic dancing’ since the majority of the guys were single. It wasn’t sleazy or anything and some of the performers were couples. There was even a guy doing a pole dance which had the ladies drooling.”

“And the gay guys,” John injected.

“Probably, but I only had eyes for you.” As John didn’t refute this romantic statement Patrick knew it was true, even without the air of sincerity around Anthony.

He turned back to them and went on with the story. “There was dancing and drinking and at some point John went up to the bar and I discretely followed him. While he was waiting to be served I asked him for a dance. He stared at me in horror and said “Oh no, fucking Hell!”

They all looked at John who didn’t quite blush, but the cardmaker suspected this was from long practice with having the story repeated and the listeners’ incredulous reaction at that moment. He noticed the couple sitting behind John and Anthony had paused in their own conversation and seemed to be listening too.

“What I didn’t know was the beginning of the stag night had included a fortune teller, who predicted Matthew having a wonderful marriage, his best friend making a lasting impression on one of the bridesmaids, and that John would have a fateful encounter with a tall, dark, mysterious stranger. All accurate, since Adrian got roaring drunk at the wedding and managed to puke all over the leg of Melissa’s best friend.”

There was a moment of silence and then Peter and Patrick began laughing, with the unknown couple joining in, but quietly and surreptitiously.

“Yeah, yeah, very funny. I had hardly even noticed the guy, and suddenly this stranger is standing next to me, all tall, dark and handsome, and asking me for a dance. I honestly thought Matt had put him up to it, as a joke on me. It would be just the sort of drunken prank he would love, especially since he probably knew from Melissa that Anthony is exactly my type of man. But you should have seen the poor guy’s face when he thought I was turning him down instead of expressing disbelief.” The love John felt for his husband shone through the mixture of exasperation and laughter in his voice.

“Then what happened?” Peter leaned back in his seat, holding his wine glass and clearly eager for the rest of this amusing story.

“Well, I was crushed at John’s response, as you can imagine, but I wasn’t going to give up so easily. I asked him why not, and he said ‘Did Matt ask you to do this?’ I was confused, but said ‘No, he doesn’t even know I’m gay.’ John pulled me away from the bar into a corner and said—”

His husband fell in with, “Are you serious? You’re not out and you’re asking me to dance? In front of everyone?”

“I said, ‘Yes please, and I hope you’ll go on a date with me, too.’ He stood there staring at me and I thought I had messed up. Then he said, ‘Are you going to the wedding?’ I shook my head and said I wasn’t a close friend of Matthew, and he muttered ‘That explains it,’ meaning this was why he’d never met me before.”

“I didn’t hang out much with my sister and Matt, but I thought I’d met all of his friends. I knew I had never seen Anthony or I would have been all over him once I realised he was interested in me.”

“Very true, it didn’t take long before our dancing was up close and personal. Not that I minded – and the kiss was wonderful too.” The twinkle in Anthony’s eyes matched the smirk on his husband’s face.

“Yep, he outed himself to the whole group, with no hesitation at all, and it was hilarious to witness their surprise. The serious, masculine law student was a raging homo who tongue-kissed Matt’s future brother-in-law in the middle of the dance floor. We went home together, and the rest of the weekend was one long date and the best time of my life up till then.”

“Mine too, babe. As for outing myself, it was a lot easier than saying anything and totally worth it. Anyway, after that first weekend it was pretty clear where we were headed, and luckily we had lots in common apart from the mutual attraction. We even agreed about food and politics, mostly.” Anthony’s last statement earned him more chuckles.

“Guess we’re not the only couple to take the fast track,” Peter joked and even John laughed, while his husband went on.

“By Sunday night John had invited me to be his date at Melissa’s wedding and I accepted provided I could meet his sister and parents first, and they were OK with the sudden addition.”

“How did that go?” Peter’s question seemed casual, but Patrick caught a hint of tenseness. John picked up the story again.

“My parents took it nicely considering Melissa’s wedding was stressing them out. My mum was mostly concerned about adjusting the table settings. Her exact words were ‘For Heaven’s sake, boy, why didn’t you tell me before now?’ When I explained I’d only just met Tony, she naturally questioned the wisdom of including him. But all I had to say was ‘Mum, he’s the one; I know it,’ and her romantic heart melted. Of course, when Tony turned up the next day with a huge bouquet of flowers for her and some Irish whiskey for my dad, he was immediately accepted as their future son-in-law.”

“My parents liked John from the first time they met, which wasn’t really surprising. He has that effect on almost everyone. I swear it’s almost magical, but very useful in his line of work.”

Patrick knew Anthony was joking about the magic, but to his special sense John did indeed have this friendly vibe of acceptance and trust which might make everyone comfortable in his presence. He wanted hear more about John’s job, but Peter popped a question in first.

“Did either of you bring any boyfriends home before then, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Anthony shook his head, and John elaborated. “We both did some dating, and I had a boyfriend as a teen, but nothing serious. We were both in our mid-twenties when we met, and started living together after six months. By then everyone pretty much considered us a ‘married’ couple, even if we never entered a registered partnership. Last year, without having discussed it, we both decided to propose to each other with Valentine’s cards. That’s how we met Patrick, as you know.”

“And then you got married.” Patrick concluded happily. “Would you mind letting me have a picture from your wedding?”

There was a short silence before Anthony cleared his throat. “Uhm, Patrick, we can’t get married yet. We have to wait for the law to take effect next month.”[1]

The cardmaker was too stunned to reply, but Peter came to his rescue. “But you’re wearing wedding rings,” he said as he pointed to their left hands. “Unless you also got engaged the Danish way.”

The four men grinned at each other, and John was the first to speak.

“We hadn’t actually decided how to get married, but both sets of parents wanted us to have a ‘proper wedding.’ It was easier to agree than argue. We knew the same-sex legislation was on its way, so we decided to have a private commitment ceremony and exchange rings. As far as I’m concerned, Tony and I are husbands, but if he wants the public statement and a huge party, I’m game.”

“As if you’re not involved in planning the whole thing,” Anthony teased. The two men exchanged looks and some sort of unspoken agreement was reached.

“So mark your calendars for Saturday the 12^th of April, because that’s the day we’re getting married, and we’d like you to be there. Tony will get his mum to send you one of the official invitations when we visit tomorrow. They are hosting the reception, so I guess that makes him the bride,” John teased back.

“Wow, I don’t know what to say. Thank you, guys, we would love to attend your wedding, won’t we, Peter?”

“Of course we would, provided Michael is OK. I hope you’ll be present at our wedding too. The only problem will be for Patrick to choose between you two for his best man. I expect my cousin Kim to stand up for me.”

“Oh, Tony’s the man for that. I prefer to enjoy the show from the side-lines and make witty comments.”

“Maybe we should let Patrick decide who he wants,” Anthony chided them both.

“All I want is to be surrounded by people who accept me and love me.”

After Patrick’s intense, but low-spoken reply there was nothing more to be said.