Chapter 34

Hal has been tense.

It's been a day and he's still tense and all I want to do is make him feel better. He still hasn't opened some of the presents that had been brought over.

"He's going to come around. She touched you and he blames himself for letting that happen." Jesper said. We were having lunch at one of the restaurants close to the convenience store and Hal's building.

Hal was running a little late due to an impromptu meeting and he has sent almost thirty texts telling me he'll soon be here. He's adorable.

"We've talked about it and he said he was alright."

Jesper took a sip of his lemonade, giving me a small smile. "It's Hal. He's going to think about it for a day or two and then he'll realize he had been dwelling on something that should be forgotten and pushed back. Her arrival was impromptu. Normally she shows up at his building and he's warned. This time wasn't the same. He's just disappointed and full of worry right now. Trust me on this, I know my son."

I've heard a lot of parents say this and a good number of the time they don't know poo. Take my mother for instance. I was happy that I hadn't seen her or heard from her, that she hadn't come to look for me. I have forgiven her but I just didn't want anything to do with her.

A lot of parents say this but they don't know poo. But Jesper knows a lot. Jesper seemed to know everything with Hal. From him being a daddy dom with me being his son's little o how he likes his soup when Hal has a cold.

"I do." I told him. "He's..."

My words were caught off when I saw Hal walk up the stairs leading to our table. Our table was set up on the rooftop of Mynt, a restaurant with limited seating where you have to book or reserve a seat.

"He's here..."

I raised my hand and waved at Hal. Once he sees me he smiles so wide and quickly made his way over to me. He nods at his dad before closing the distance between us, pressing a kiss to my forehead and one to my lips.

"Hi love."

"Hi, babe." I smiled up at him.

Hal takes his seat beside me and I slid my hand into his, quickly leaning over to press a kiss to his cheek. Jesper was watching us with an amused smile on his face.

Hal gives me a bright smile, all white teeth and gorgeous face.

"You two do know I'm here."

Hal seemed better than he did when he left home this morning. His shoulders wasn't as tightly drawn as it was and I instantly feel relieved. Jesper had been right.

"I haven't seen my love for hours, dad." Hal said and I preened at his words. Hal. The love of my life. It's been days and each time he says the words I love you, each time he calls me love, it makes me feel giddy. My heart beating twice it's size.

"If you two weren't cute, I'd have poured my lemonade all over you." Jesper said before taking a sip of that same lemonade. Hal chuckled, shaking his head at his dad. I loved watching the two of them relate. They were close and I loved it. It felt good to know Hal had someone by his side before I came along. Someone besides Jeff. A parental figure.

"I'll be mad." I said to Jesper.

"Hal told me you look even more adorable when you're mad." Jesper chuckled. I gasped, looking over at Hal who had a smug look on his face. I wanted to smack his arm but I didn't want to let go of his hand. Our fingers were locked.

"Dad, I won't be scared to pour my own lemonade black at you."

"Ha! Big words from a man who doesn't even have a glass of water." Jesper retorted and I laughed out loud. I wasn't expecting that and Jesper had a proud look on his face.

There was a small button beneath the table and Hal pressed it. . 

"I don't think I like you today."

"You're going to have to suck it." Jesper shrugged. The laughter flowed out of me before I could stop it. I just kept laughing, shoulders shaking with it.

The waitress comes up and we placed our orders. Jesper orders a Patatas Bravas which is spicy baked potatoes, Hal orders a fried buttermilk-chicken and I ordered a smoked brisket.

I felt like I could smell the brisket already. It was making my tummy rumble. Jesper asked for another lemonade while I asked for another chilled ice tea and Hal gets chilled water.

Jesper whips out his phone and taps away at the screen and I looked over at Hal.

"How was work?"

"Do you think Stanley would hire me?" Hal asked and I giggled. I could image Hal in a black apron with a name tag, stunning people into forgetting what they came to get at the store.

"You would leave your company? To work in a store?"

"It's better than working with some people would make you want to pull your hair." Hal said with a groan and I squeezed his hand in reply. I don't like when Hal was stressed.

We would have a movie night today? Maybe a couple sci-fi movies and that one rom com that he liked watching and maybe a couple episodes of The Simpsons.

"Is everything alright?" Jesper asked, looking between the two of us.

"H is just a bit stressed." I told Jesper.

"I'm sure the lovely Jesse would take care of you. Maybe some ice cream?" Jesper said and I literally bounced on my seat. Yeah. I could get him really good ice cream and not the abomination that is the black cherry gelato that Hal likes.

I stuck my tongue out in disgust and Jesper watched me with an amused expression on his face.

"Black Cherry?" Hal asked with amusement.

"Black cherry." I said in response.

"Do I want to know?" Jesper asked with a chuckle, looking between his son and I.

"Get this. Your son's favorite gelato is black cherry and he takes it like it's the best taste in the world when I know for a fact it taste like dirty socks." I said, sticking out my tongue again in disgust.

"I still don't know why you like to compare it to socks." Hal said with a shake of his head.

"Yes, Jesse, have you ever tasted a sock? Or a dirty socks perhaps?"

I scrunched up my nose in disgust at Jesper's question. Of course I haven't tasted a sic. Be it dirty or clean.

"You do ask some poo questions."

Jesper and Hal laughed loudly, the elderly man had his hand pressed to his tummy as he laughed. Was it something I said?

Thankfully the food comes and the plates were set in front of us, another waiteress appearing with our drinks. Like always Hal takes my plate and cut my food into pieces, not too small and not too big. I love when he does that. When he doesn't touch his food until he was satisfied with what I had to eat.

Jesper was watching us curiously. He did say he had never met any of Hal's littles. So maybe this was the first time he was seeing Hal act this way with some one in real life and not in pictures or videos. He was accepting and curious too, not judgey and mean.

"Thank you, H." I said to Hal once my plate was in front of me again.

"Anything for you, love."

We talked as we ate, Jesper telling us all about the bar tour he took in Italy and if we've ever tried butter beer. To be honest, I have never been a big fan of beer and some red wines. I like my drinks sweet. Not bitter. Blergh.

Hal tells us about the hotel he plans to build and I had been so excited I almost choked on the water I had been drinking when he said that.

"Be careful, darling." Hal said, wiping my mouth with one of his napkins.

"Thank you."

"So what kind of hotel?" I asked him and he shrugged.

"I don't know if I actually want to build a hotel or a shelter." Hal said and my heart slammed against my chest. What?

"What?"

"I have been thinking about starting something like this for a while now." Hal said, placing his cutlery on his plate. "You've told me how hard it was for you when your mother sent you away from home and how you kept going from one shelter to the other and how you actually didn't feel safe in some of them. So I want to do something different."

"H..."

"So I wanted a six storey building, rooms with an en-suite but once you're eighteen, you can leave or something like that. I'm still shifty on the details." Hal said and I just couldn't stop staring at him.

"What?"

I didn't know what to say. Actually, scratch that, I had a million things I wanted to ask but nothing was coming forth.

"And what are you going to name this place and the project?"

"I was thinking Jesse could pick a name for it." Hal said with another big smile.

"What?"

"Son, I think you've broken your boyfriend." Jeseper said and Hal just kept staring at me with that smile and I just couldn't even. What? What even?

"Dad, stop playing." Hal said, reaching for my hand and just holding it. Hal was doing something like this for me and we've been dating for six months, seven in a few weeks.

"Hal, are you sure?"

"Yes I am. Yes. Definitely the shelter, not the hotel. The hotel can be done another time and you could help plan out a lot of things since you've actually lived in one of them." Hal said and I just nodded. Of course. Of course I would.

"I would love to."

Helping people. Helping. I've seen and read stories about people who are thrown out of home for one reason or the other and not just LGBTQ+ related people and helping out would be a dream. And knowing Hal, it wasn't going to stay as one building. He liked helping others too.

"Lets have a toast in celebration of this totally new news to me." Jesper said, raising his glass of lemonade up.

"You totally knew about this, didn't you?" I asked as I raised my cup of ice tea up.

"Nothing at all." Jesper teased, trying to look all innocent but I knew better.

Hal just chuckled, shaking his head at the two of us. We all clinked our glasses together with a loud cheer. We talked a bit more as we ate, once our food was done, we waited for a while before finally we decided to go. Jesper had some friends to meet while Hal wanted to drop me off at the store.

"Has Prez been waiting for you in the car all this while?" I asked Hal as we walked down the stairs, my hand wrapped around his arm as we walked down the stairs, Jesper in front of us with his phone pressed to his ear.

"Of course not. Prez has the hour off and I'm pretty sure he's with Simon." Hal said and I smiled softly at that. Prez and Simon had been cute. The soon to be married men were all smiley around each other.

Hal opened the door to his white Audi Spyder and I got into the car. On the drive back to the store, Hal kept a hand on my thigh as he drove.

He looked better. He was no longer tense and he was all smiley and happy and oh, how much I loved this man.

"I love you, H."

"Love you too, darling."