Page 123 of Escape Velocity
“April was a true fall lover, wasn’t she?”
“That… sounds like some kind of seasonal pun.”
Mason chuckles as Callum finally sits down across the small mahogany table with his own food.
Callum made a pumpkin soup with some garlic bread and apparently baked an apple crisp while Mason sat at the dining room and studied Modern Physics for the past couple of hours.
Mason grins at Callum.
Callum lifts an eyebrow. “What?”
“Nothing. I’m just… feeling very grateful.”
Callum smiles. “Just try the soup and see if you’ll still be thankful… I haven’t made it before and maybe only my mom had that special touch that made it good…”
Mason snorts and has a spoonful.
It’s amazing.
Warmth floods through him as he stares at Callum slurping his own bowl.
“I guess this is the Thanksgiving we really wanted,” Mason says.
Callum nods. “And I even got to celebrate it with my mom.”
Mason’s chin trembles as he nods. She’s in the room, her soup warming him up and her touch covering every woven blanket, wallpaper, and furniture placement.
The place is surely hers, and now it’s up to them to make it their own.
Callum holds up a glass of sparkling apple juice that he found in one of the cupboards. “To April.”
Mason smiles and raises his own glass. “To April.”
They clink glasses and take a sip.
It’s bitter, and definitely not what Mason likes, but he does it for Callum.
They keep eating their dinner, with Mason going on long tangents on his teachers and the amount of work he has to do for his journalism class.
Callum goes on about which teammates he loves and despises. He talks about what his ideal career looks like if he gets drafted.
It’s the first time they can sit down and have a normal conversation, much like they used to when they were younger.
Back when they were just Mason and Callum.
Once a thing of the past and now, something of the present and future.
Callum lights a candle and places it on the coffee table in front of the now roaring fireplace.
He jumps onto the couch and swaddles himself in the wool blanket right next to Mason and puts his arm around him.
“All cozied up?” Callum asks Mason.
Mason flushes. “Yes.”
Callum grins. “Good.”
Mason rests his head on Callum’s shoulder as they sit in silence, watching the flames lick around the kindling and firewood.
