Fixing Noah / Finding Noah - #ForNoah | +18 | BWWM

22 | Part 1 - Welcome to the Crocker Art Museum

"No, running Ade," I warned. He slows down and slides on the ground, directly into Noah's side. No screaming too, but sometimes take the small wins when you can get it.

I feel the grasp of a hand on mine. My daughters holds Bonabell and my hand in each of her own. I caught Bonabell's eye and told her without words we will talk about this later. Either come to me or I'm coming for you. It had more, I'm a mom, then I'm a friend. But I was in mom mode and some things can't be helped.

Sim waves at Noah from her spot between us. She doesn't appear anymore pleased with her dress, it's pink instead of purple. Not a single star or a NASA pin on the dress. Her Father follows after the kids' suitcases. He sits down the suitcases and spots Ade telling Noah all about his time with his dad loudly. Space Girl looks up at her dad and I see the teenage girl she will become for a tiny second. She really is big mad about that pink dress. Sim pulls Bonabell's hand toward Noah, and the older girl follows to join Ade with Noah. I flag down one of the Crocker workers. I had already arranged to put Ade and Sim's stuff with Noah's gear that was coming back with us. I slap the RFID tag on the suitcases. He takes the suitcase to the back rooms with Noah's stuff. When I turn around, I bump into the chest of Theo.

"So, that's him," Theo muses over my head. A careful step back from Theo's chest and I look past him. Noah is talking to both kids, regaling him with their adventures. "The snowflake artist," he follows it up with joking derision. He doesn't say it is cruel, but there's not many nice ways to call someone a snowflake. His eyebrow comes up as if he expects me to smile back at his joke. With my gaze on him, Noah comes over with the kids and Bonabell in tow.

"Ice cream, ice cream," both of my kids sing together as they come closer to us.

"Yes," Bonabell agrees. "We need to go before the hyper wears off and the grumpy shows up." I thank her for taking care of the kids while I'm at work.

"Tell me about the soon to be had Bonabell adventure when I get off work." A kiss to Bonabell's cheek followed by two more for each of the babies they went heading home. No, Noah and Zoey's house, I correct myself. It's funny when Noah and Zoey's house became home.

Theo's all too familiar hand on my back. It was so habitual. Years of stress, touches, and introductions. The habit of what would have been a lifetime. I simply ignored the hand on my lower back because making a scene would draw more attention to it. Added to the fact that it might have been one of those habits we both forgot for a second.

"Noah this is Theo, Theo this is Noah." The two men next to each other looked nothing alike. Theo in a three-piece suit plus long dress jacket next to Noah's henley, flannel, and Jeans. Noah's Sandy blonde locks to Theo's Cuban dark hair. They size each other up. Theo's 5'11 to Noah's 6'7, Theo quirks a smile and his eyebrow comes up. He holds out his hand for the handshake. Noah, who is usually wary of unwanted touch, shakes his hand. Surprise, surprise.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Noah."

"Thank you, nice to meet you, Theo."

It was like a cat meeting a dog. Not an all-out war, but just two different human beings. I stood like a fly on the wall as the two made an effort to meet some kind of guy on common ground. The secret formula of non-guy drama. It was easy to see Theo, saw Noah as not my lover. No, we haven't talked about love stuff so the guy I'm fucking... is not a threat to him. If he saw him as that, it wouldn't be a completely unique reaction.

I had a bodybuilder client. I admin his page, and he's one of my best clients. He's not openly Bi, but he's not in the closet either. It's simply he's about the bodybuilding lifestyle. You wouldn't know one way or another with him. He's currently in a long-term healthy, happy relationship with a man. I expect to be getting a wedding invitation within the next year. That didn't stop Theo from getting wildly jealous. I was spending time in the initial setup with a half-naked man on a video conference for large amounts of time. But he's a bodybuilder. At some point in winter or summer, he's always half-naked. The arms on clothing don't always fit correctly, depending on if he's cutting or not. It's almost like the reality of large breasts on women. The more you try to hide them, the more it looks like you're smuggling two small children out under your shirt. Best to show them off nicely, then try to smuggle curves.