Sweethearts

Finale

The day was coming to an end and Frank still hadn’t spoken to him.

Gerard sighed and leaned his chin in his hand, scrolling vacantly through the photos on his phone. They almost told a story – the first day the shop was opened, Frank and Gerard pressing cheeks together so they’d both fit in the shot they were taking in front of the ‘Sugar Rush’ sign; their first sale, Gerard holding up the receipt and grinning, not knowing part of Frank’s thumb was covering most of the receipt; the shop’s first hurricane, when the tree outside shattered the front window and Frank had taken pictures for the insurance company, Gerard visible in all of them with a tearful look on his face; the first “company vacation” where Frank had convinced Gerard to close the shop and spend the weekend at a cabin in Delaware, where they took pictures hiking, climbing the rocks behind the cabin, wading in the creek, playing board games in front of the stone fireplace with blankets wrapped around their shoulders.

The most recent batch of photos was from when the fair was in town and had taken over the boardwalk. Gerard had been dying to explore and, finally, Frank had called in Mikey, Gerard’s brother, to run the shop while Frank took Gerard too all of the attractions. He chuckled as he remembered the heated argument Frank had gotten into the owner of an obviously rigged game when he hit the target three times in a row and it still didn’t fall down. He’d even bought them each a cotton candy, despite the fact that they sold containers of it back at the shop, and they’d walked along the beach, hurrying to eat it before the July heat melted it.

Gerard hadn’t even known cotton candy could melt, and he and Frank had been covered in the sticky mess by the time they got back to the shop.

It struck Gerard just how much of a couple he and Frank did look like, smiling and leaning together for every photo, always doing things together when they were perfectly capable of doing them alone. Things were just better when they were done with Frank.

As though drawn by the intensity with which Gerard was thinking of him, Frank stepped out of the back room just then, pulling on his jacket.

“I’m heading out,” he said, not making eye contact. “I’ll come in early tomorrow. You can sleep in.”

“Frank—”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Gerard bit his lip as he watched Frank leave. He turned left, which struck Gerard as odd because his was in the opposite direction. Feeling as miserable as ever, Gerard got up and trudged through the motions of closing up the shop. He could barely stand the thought of locking himself up in his apartment again, so instead he headed outside.

As he walked slowly down the boardwalk, glancing mindlessly into the windows of the shops he was passing, his mind wandered back to the attempted kiss. For the few moments after, before Frank had realized the motives behind the kiss, it had been nice. Happy. Peaceful, even. He found himself wishing he hadn’t missed, so it could have lasted longer and he never would’ve opened his stupid mouth and gotten himself into this mess. It was obvious to him now that Frank had liked him for a long time now, so obvious that Gerard wanted to strangle himself for being so oblivious to it. How could he even begin to fix this enormous mess that he’d made?

How was he supposed to get Frank to forgive him?

Gerard paused, distracted by movement to his left, and turned to look in the window of Fur Friends. A new litter of puppies had arrived. He was particularly captivated by a small, yellow one. It had droopy ears that would probably stick up when it got older. Its paws were white and there was a cream-colored spot on its forehead that looked almost like a star. It had a long, curly tail with a white tip and it was wagging at about a hundred miles a minute.

“Hi, there,” Gerard cooed, leaning closer to the glass and smiling at the puppy. “Hello.”

The puppy looked curiously up at him until it was knocked over by one of its littermates and became involved in a group wrestling match. Gerard reached into his jacket, pulling out today’s earnings that he had absentmindedly pocketed earlier, and hesitantly fanned through the green sheets. Then, making up his mind, he put the money back in his pocket and walked into the store.

…………………………………….


Frank sat on the beach, his shoes in one hand and his chin in the other. His left leg was pulled up so he could prop his elbow on it and he watched the sunset with tired eyes. The last twenty-four hours had been hard, harder than he’d care to admit. He wasn’t proud of his behavior – in fact, he rather wished he could take back everything he’d said to Gerard. His outburst had been the result of petty jealousy and had probably been an overreaction on his part.

At the same time, he didn’t regret a thing. Gerard had been clueless for too long and Frank’s silence had done nothing but make things worse. Or, at least, that was his opinion. The kiss had made things worse – for just a moment, he’d thought that Gerard had finally opened his eyes and realized how good they’d be together.

“I guess I was wrong there, huh?” he asked himself, shaking his head. He let out a slow breath, tilting his head and letting his eyes drift closed. The sound of breaking waves was peaceful and loosened the knot that had been clenching his stomach for the past several hours.

He heard someone approaching, but didn’t look up. It was probably another group of tourists, although most of them were busy crowding the fair, which was on the other side of town this year. The newcomer paused just behind him and he heard someone whisper, “Go on.”

Frank opened his eyes as something put weight on his lap. A small, fluffy creature had appeared at his side and had its tiny paws in his lap. He smiled immediately – he loved dogs. This dog was probably only a few months old and had a light blue ribbon edged with white lace tied around its neck. There was also a string tied to it which, when he looked up, was attached to a balloon with the word Sorry printed on it.

He turned then, putting a hand in the sand to balance himself, and found himself looking up at Gerard’s ever-awkward face. He was standing several feet back, his hands stuffed in his pockets and his overlong hair blowing in his face.

“Hey,” he said quietly. His voice was almost lost on the wind.

“Hey,” Frank echoed. The puppy had seated itself in the sand next to him and was nuzzling his hand, but all of Frank’s attention was on Gerard as he crossed the space between them and sat down about a foot away.

“Her name’s Alice.”

“Oh.” Frank laughed softly, fingering the blue-and-white bow around the dog’s neck. “I get it. Alice in Wonderland.”

“Yup.”

The conversation lapsed and they both looked out at the setting sun. The yellow orb had just touched the horizon. The sky behind it was a conflagration of pinks and oranges.

“I understand now,” Gerard said after a time.

“Oh?” asked Frank, keeping his eyes on Alice instead of looking up.

“I was stupid. As always. It didn’t even…” He sighed and took a deep breath. “Well, you know. You pretty much said it exactly right. I was oblivious and now I understand. I don’t know why it took me so long, I mean, look at us.”

He pulled an envelope out of his pocket – Frank recognized the Seaside Printers logo on the front – and took a handful of photos out of it. They were the ones Frank had seen him looking at on his phone. He smiled and reached out to take the top one. He was holding the camera in front of them and had his arm around Gerard’s ribs, pulling him against his side so he could take a picture. Their faces and shirts were covered in pink and blue goo from the melted cotton candy and Gerard was attempting to smile with his lips pinched together so you couldn’t see how blue his teeth were.

“That was an awesome day,” Frank commented.

“It was. Listen, Frank,” said Gerard, taking a serious tone. “About me kissing you. I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have used that to figure out my feelings. I ruined it and, you know, I think our first kiss could have been really great.” His cheeks were red and he continued, now talking too fast, “Not that, you know, I assume you want to kiss me. I mean, it’s probably the last thing you want after everything and I’d understand. I’m really trying to be more aware of people’s feelings, especially yours. I mean, I want you to be happy and I already took so long to realize I love you and I really wanted—”

But Frank never found out what Gerard wanted because, unable to control himself any longer, he leaned in and pressed his lips to Gerard’s. And he didn’t miss.

Gerard hesitated at first, surprised at the sudden turn of events, then kissed him back. It was nothing like the first kiss – Frank’s hands were on either side of Gerard’s face, Gerard’s hand had landed on Frank’s knee, and the sun had almost completely set by the time they came up for air.

“What was that for?” Gerard asked breathlessly.

“To shut you up,” Frank said with a smile. He took Gerard’s hand and stood up, bending back down to scoop up Alice. “Come on. Let’s go home.”

“Okay.”

“Oh, wait.” Frank let go of Gerard’s hand and reached for the string tied to Alice’s collar. He worked the knot loose and then took Gerard’s hand again. They walked back to the shop together then, pausing on the doorstep to kiss again. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Bright and early. I love you, Frank.”

“And I love you,” Frank said back. Gerard gave him a shy smile, then went inside. Frank looked down at Alice then set off for his own house. He lingered in the doorway of his house on the edge of the boardwalk, looking back. He could still see the distant spot where they’d been sitting on the beach. Sugar Rush was visible just beyond.

As Frank looked up, he could just make out the tiny speck of the “Sorry” balloon as it floated up to the heavens.
♠ ♠ ♠
The End.

Hope you guys like this. It was a little fluffy, but who doesn't love some good fluff? Also, here's a picture of Alice:

Image

Thanks to everyone who read this and to future readers! Love you guys <3