Page 99 of Ring Rust

After putting the car in park, Ryan looked over, questioning Jasper’s silence. “You coming?”

“Yeah, of course. I’m starving.”

“Me too. I got mushrooms.”

“Can’t wait.”

The past year had been both the best they’d had in recent memory, and a lot of work. Jasper had spent the first few months bracing against the sound of a ringing phone or a bag of clothes by the door before Ryan finally brought up counseling again. He’d reassured Jasper it wasn’t because things were bad, butbecause they’d spent years learning how to push through hard times instead of learning how to just be together. Jasper had agreed before the words were fully out of Ryan’s mouth.

And thank God for that, because now Ryan had stopped throwing gifts and money at Jasper in lieu of hard conversations, and Jasper had stopped imagining their happiness was something delicate that had to be supervised.

It turned out their happiness wasn't delicate at all. It survived arguments, grief, counseling appointments—where both of them occasionally looked like the bad guy—bad days, and all the ordinary messes of a shared life.

Ryan had put in work, too. Even now, as he reached for the grocery bag balanced between their seats, his phone buzzed somewhere inside the center console, muffled beneath a receipt and sunglasses and whatever snack wrapper he’d shoved in there. Neither of them moved to check it.

“Probably just Micah,” Ryan said, rubbing his eyes. “He’s so whiny now. He asked me to go down to Florida with him to track down an ex.”

“When?”

“Early February.”

Jasper nodded. Two years ago, it would have ruined his day to hear that. Jasper and Ryan had a trip planned for February—Mexico City, to revisit the museums and markets they’d seen before—and years ago, he would have been living on pins and needles with anxiety that Ryan would cancel. Now, all he felt was the absence of a tightened stomach and racing heart.

“I told him we’ve got plans, so he’ll have to figure it out on his own.” Ryan climbed out of the vehicle and stretched, smiling at Calliope in the window, who was meowing silently behind the glass.

“Oh, look, her preferred parent is home,” Jasper grumbled. He shouted towards the house. “Traitor!”

Ryan laughed as Calliope stretched impatiently against the glass. He waited at the door for Jasper, then nudged it open with his shoulder. Warmth spilled out into the cool evening air, followed by the cat twisting figure eights around their legs. Jasper guided her gently with his foot and followed Ryan inside, the door closing itself behind them and settling easily in its frame.