Scene Change - 9. Chapter 9

OK - so this is it, for now at least.  I hope you’ve enjoyed the story, as brief as it is  

Saturday morning is usually a relatively relaxed experience, compared to the regular weekday morning routine. Leon and I sat at the table, patiently but no less loudly waiting for Joel to cook waffles.

“Is it ready yet Joel? Is it? What about now? Is it ready now?”

Joel turned around, smiling, looking adorable of course, looking past me to Leon.

“Leon, dude, can you PLEASE try and control your Dad?”

Leon thought this was hilarious and clearly enjoyed the role reversal.

“Yeah Dad, you always say I have to wait until they’re ready, and now you have to wait too!”

“But I’m hungry!”

Joel rolled his eyes and returned his attention to making breakfast. I’m usually happy to be the cook, but sometimes, there’s a price to pay for siding with Leon to deliberately make me lose when we’re playing games. Soon enough we were all eating, and I have to say, it’s pretty nice having someone make breakfast for you.

“So what’s the plan guys? Connor, you’re working today, right?”

“Yeah, but I’m just going over some ideas with Helen while the stage is clear, we’ll be done by this afternoon. What are you guys doing?”

Leon and Joel looked to each other, neither managing to be at all subtle.

“I, erm, oh, yeah, well I need to drop some things in at the estate agents, and then we have some shopping to do” Joel said, “right Leon?”

“Yeah Joel, and going to the library.”

“OK?” I was definitely missing something.

Leon was giggling, like any four year old, he’s terrible at keeping any kind of secret, but Joel cut in before I had time to ask anything else.

“So maybe you can come and meet us this afternoon when you’re done?”

“Yeah, sure, just let me know where.”

We finished breakfast without me being able to work out the big secret, but Joel and Leon seemed happy to sustain that situation. I grabbed my phone and iPad and headed out, returning almost immediately to pick up my sunshades. The summer is really starting to take shape now. The walk into town wasn’t far, and I enjoyed the few minutes of sunshine. It’s one of the downsides of working in the theatre, you can spend way too long without seeing the sun.

“Con, darling! You look wonderful.”

Helen breezed through the foyer as soon as I walked in.

“Thanks Helen, good to see you too!”

“It’s been too long, I never see you any more.”

“I know, sorry, I’m just busy.”

“To be expected I suppose, that’s family for you, but still, it’s good to see you.”

It had only actually been a few weeks since we last had lunch, but still, the sentiment was real enough. We headed through to the stage as Helen started to fill me in on the local gossip.

“So Con, are we waiting for anyone else? Your glamorous assistant maybe?”

“Ha ha. No, it’s ‘just’ me Helen, Kerry is working in London this weekend, and Adam is Manchester.”

“Who’s Adam?”

“Oh, he’s new, things are getting busy.”

“Wow, now I feel bad for taking you away from paying work. If it’s too much Con, you know you can always…”

“Don’t be ridiculous, I told you I’d be here, and you’re paying me the usual rate, so we’re all good. No need to worry.”

“I’m sure that you’re not employing two other people based on a few hundred pounds and several bottles of wine.”

“No, that’s true enough. But seriously, there’s no problem Helen, I’m all yours, for as long as it takes, just like we used to do.”

In truth, I’d have done the work for free, I owed Helen a lot, over the years. My ‘fee’ had become more of a gesture compared to what the company would usually charge for my time, but I’m the boss, so I can pretty much do whatever I like.

We spent several hours talking through her thoughts and ideas, blocking out some key scenes, and working towards an initial design ethos for the piece. Of course this was significantly slowed down by our frequent diversions to catchup about people we both knew, or knew of. I guess that’s one of the hazards of working with friends. By the middle of the afternoon we had definitely moved on to just hanging out, having agreed a way forward with the work. Which was just as well as we were very pleasantly interrupted by a video call from my two favourite boys, who were obviously having a great time together. When they ended the call, Helen and I also ended our work for the day. I was about to leave when I became aware of Helen watching me.

“What?” I asked as I looked up. She smiled.

“So? Is he the one Con?”

“Oh, you know, I’m just taking it as it comes…”

There was a brief pause whilst Helen assessed her response.

“Bollocks.” I laughed, realising how stupid my answer was.

“Yeah, well, probably. I hope so anyway. That’s all I can tell you.”

“You seem happy, it suits you.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty good.”

I was still smiling when I met Joel and Leon fifteen minutes later. The two of them seem to be getting on better and better, which is both helpful and enjoyable. We ended up spending a couple of hours just messing around and having a great time doing it, before heading home for dinner, where things seemed weird. The kitchen was both out of bounds for me, and suspiciously clean. After getting Leon to bed, Joel and I cuddled on the sofa and watched a film before making our own way to bed. I tried a couple of times to get Joel to tell me what was going on, but he was surprisingly steadfast in his commitment to secrecy. Even my usual option of last resort, tickling, didn’t get me anywhere, other than under Joel, so it wasn’t a total loss. It wasn’t until we were laying under the duvet, his arm wrapped around me, that he said anything about it.

“So do you really not know what tomorrow is?”

“Tomorrow? It’s Sunday, what am I missing?”

Joel kissed the back of my neck, sending shivers throughout my whole body in very pleasurable waves.

“Really? Wow, Leon is so excited.”

“Shit, have I forgotten something really important?”

“Well, yes, and no. It’s fine, trust me, you’re all good.”

I was going to ask more questions, but Joel distracted me by nibbling my earlobe whilst rubbing his hand down my chest and taking hold of my dick.

“Are you… huh… distracting me with sex?”

It was totally working, as I’m sure he knew.

“Absolutely.”

The gentle and sensual start later gave way to less refined techniques. But it worked, I was absolutely, totally, and thoroughly, distracted.

The morning was kicked in to action by Leon knocking on our bedroom door.

“Joel… Joel are you awake yet?”

He was whispering, but in that way that kids do, where you could probably hear him just was well as usual. Joel was already up and getting dressed as he answered.

“Sure buddy, give me a minute and I’ll be right there.”

He pulled on a t-shirt before saying anything to me.

“You - stay here, until we tell you to come out, OK?”

“OK?”

He was smiling, amused.

“You really don’t know, do you?”

“No!”

“Ha ha, this is so cute. OK, be good, we won’t be too long so get dressed while you wait.”

And with that, Joel left the bedroom, and I tried to make sense of what I could hear happening in the kitchen. Fifteen minutes later and Leon is back at the door.

“OK Dad, you can come out now!”

As soon as I opened the door he grabbed my hand and started pulling me along behind him. We entered the kitchen and I wasn’t too surprised to see that breakfast was all laid out ready for us. What else would they be doing in the kitchen first thing in the morning? Leon had decided where we should all sit, me at the end of the table, with Leon and Joel on either side of me. There was a big pile of pancakes just waiting to be eaten, but Leon told us that we had to wait as he had ducked under the table. He re-appeared a moment later, thrusting something towards me.

“Here Dad.”

I took the card, looking and feeling confused, I knew it wasn’t my birthday. As soon as I started to open the envelope I could see Leon’s impatience getting the better of him, but Joel made a face that somehow kept him quiet for a few more seconds. The card was obviously made by Leon, with a picture of what I can now easily recognise as the three of us on the front. And inside, in that adorably scribble handwriting, it said ‘To the BEST Dad, Happy Father's Day, love Leon xxxxx’.

I read it a couple of times whilst i tried my best not to cry, the emotional hit was overwhelming.

“Oh my god, is that…? Oh wow.”

I stood up to give him a big hug, picking him up and holding him tight.

“Thank you Leon, thank you so much!”

I know, it’s just a card from my kid, but it was my first ever Father’s Day card, and honestly, it was also so, so much more than that. I gave him several kisses before we sat back down to eat, but apparently we weren’t quite done.

“And…” said Leon, as he disappeared again under the table, leaving Joel and I just looking at each other. Clearly Joel didn’t know what this was going to be either. Leon re-appeared again, holding another envelope, which he gave to Joel.

“I didn't really know… and Miss Thomas said that I could, and I stayed in at playtime and I made another one.”

Leon took on a very serious, concentrating look, clearly still trying to work this out for himself. He was clearly talking to Joel now.

“Because… I know you're not my Dad like Dad is, but you should have a card as well.”

“Oh wow, thanks Leon, that’s really, really cool.”

Joel looked from Leon to me, clearly feeling just as emotional as I was. In just a couple of minutes, Leon seemed to have clarified everything that Joel and I had so far not managed to. There was every possibility that tears were imminent, but very happy ones. After a very intense group hug, or I guess family hug is a better description, we finally got to eat the breakfast. I was prepared for that to be the end of it, but no, of course it wasn’t.

“And there’s cake! It’s chocolate!”

Joel produced what was obvious a homemade cake from a box I didn’t recognise, maybe they bought that yesterday too.

“Oh wow guys, is this what you were doing yesterday? It looks amazing!”

It wasn’t even a lie, it did look pretty amazing, considering that as far as I know neither of them had made a cake before. Leon sometimes helps me in the kitchen, but that’s almost always savoury stuff. Cake for breakfast, it seemed like a good start to the day.

When we had done eating, I sent Leon to go and start choosing clothes. It’s a risky game, but I think he should be able to have a say in what he wears, at least some of the time.

“I really had no idea, how long have you two been planning this?” I asked Joel.

“Only a few days, he mentioned it on Monday after school.”

“Damn, I’m still in some kind of shock I think, it’s so… real, you know?”

“Yeah, I can see that. But it was cute watching your face.”

“And yours!”

“I know! He never even hinted about that…”

“He really likes you.”

“Good, because I really like you.”

Joel kissed me, which was very nice, until he pulled away.

“So we should talk about something…” he said.

“Oh? What?”

“Well, it’s Father’s Day. Are you going to speak with your Dad?”

“No!”

I sounded more annoyed than I meant, but I was very happy not thinking about my parents.

“It’s just, you haven’t spoken to them at all since…”

“I know, and I’m not going to. They made it perfectly clear what they thought, so it’s over.”

“OK, I just wondered. Whatever you choose Connor.”

“I’m better off without them, don’t you think? We’re better off?”

I was happy not to clarify precisely who was included in the ‘we’ statement. Yes, so maybe Joel was now totally living with us, and his flat was up for sale, but even then, we hadn’t exactly talked about it properly. Leon came in to check about his clothing choice, before being gently persuaded that it was going to be a nice warm day, and so maybe, just maybe, he won’t need a jumper, so he went back to choose again.

“So are there any other surprises I should know about?” I asked Joel.

“Erm.. well, no, not really, I though maybe we could just head over to Rachel’s. It’s usually just the two of us, well Andre now as well, obviously, so we mostly spend days like this together. But if you don’t want to…”

“No, that sounds good.”

Leon still wasn’t ready, so I resorted to familiar tactics.

“Leon, if you’re ready soon then we’re going over to Andre’s.”

Predictably, he was done in about a minute. We picked up some beers on the way over, and spent one of the nicest days of my life just chilling out in the garden whilst Leon and Andre played, seemingly inexhaustibly, and the grown-ups got every so slightly drunk. I reached over and grabbed Joel’s hand, squeezing it as I looked at him.

“What?” He asked.

“I love you.”

“Good. I love you too.”

We stayed far too late for a school night and I ended up carrying a very sleepy Leon back home. Not that Joel and I were very much later than him in going to bed. We lay facing each other, and whilst we were almost certainly going to have sex, I could see that something was on Joel’s mind.

“So? What is it?”

“OK. So there’s one more surprise. Although it’s not really a surprise, just, something that I know that you don’t. Yet.”

“OK?”

“It’s nothing bad, you don’t have to sound so worried.”

“So what is it?”

“I, erm… I’ve sold my flat. The estate agent confirmed it yesterday.”

“Oh my god, I didn’t even know you’d had an offer.”

“I didn’t want to get my hopes up I guess, but it’s all gone through.”

“Wow, congratulations. I guess you can buy that motorbike you keep looking at every time we pass the window.”

“Actually, I was thinking maybe a new car.”

“Oh, cool.”

“Maybe something a bit more… family friendly?”

“Oh! Joel, you don’t have to do that for…”

“Connor, I want to. Besides, I need to have something to put in the garage, right?”

“You don’t even have a garage.”

“No, but maybe we will have, you know, if we move somewhere else?”

“What?”

“If we buy somewhere, together, you and me, and Leon of course.”

“Joel I love the sound of that, but my savings are not going to stretch that far…”

“We’d do it together…”

“But still…”

“Weren’t you listening, I’ve sold the flat. We have the money. Connor I’m serious about this, it would be ournew home.”

I knew already that this was probably the best thing that has ever happened to me. Finally, a family that I felt part of, who loved me, who wanted to be with me, and that I wanted to be a part of.