"Oh my god...run—run," Adam whispered to himself with anticipation as his eyes darted across the television screen in front of him.
It was almost midnight, and Adam, Lawrence, and Alison were sat on the couch watching a football game Alison had recorded on the dvr. She didn't want to miss it, but she had just been so busy recently.
"Go go go," Alison spoke to the television on the edge of her seat as their quarterback neared closer to the end of the field. He'd finally made it, throwing the ball down and putting his hands in the air.
"Touchdown!" Adam and Alison both screamed in victory, high-fiving on opposite sides of Lawrence as their team scored a point.
Lawrence sat between the two of them and sipped his beer, unamused. Shaking his head at the them, he pointed at the TV, "I don't get what it is about this that gets you two so riled up."
"You think this is riled up?" Adam scoffed. "You should see me on Super Bowl Sunday."
"And since when do you like football, Ali?" Lawrence looked over at her in question.
"Since always," she retorted after taking a gulp of her beer. "I just stopped watching it after we got married because you would always complain about it."
"I don't remember this," Lawrence looked up at the ceiling and rolled his eyes.
"Hey!" Alison leaned over Lawrence and tapped Adam. "We should go to the Super Bowl someday—together!"
"Really?" Adam raised his eyebrow then took a swig from his drink. He knew she was a little tipsy—they all were—but she wasn't drunk enough to not mean what she was saying.
Woah. Alison was being nice to him.
"Yeah, why not?" Alison smiled. "It would be fun. And this big loser would stay home," she pointed to Larry. "He'd be a buzz kill."
"I can come!" Lawrence fought back like a child.
"Why? You hate football."
Lawrence went for a comeback but Alison pointed at him and shut him up, "It's not my fault that you like to watch golf. That's the alcoholic sport you know?"
Lawrence crossed his arms and everyone went back to watching the game and drinking. After everyone had thought the argument was over, Lawrence splayed his hands, "Okay but why could I not come?"
"What do you even care," Alison laughed, almost doubling over. "What?" she poked him. "You think I'm gonna steal your man or something?" she wiggled her eyebrows jokingly.
Lawrence just looked down at his lap and blushed.
Alison dropped her jaw and let out a half scoff, half laugh. "I was kidding."
After a few beats of silence she continued. "Besides," she shrugged, "it's not like I could be attracted to him anyway."
Lawrence gave Alison a look that said what the hell and she realized how bad that sounded. "I—I didn't mean it like that," she stuttered, putting her hands up.
"Adam is—very attractive," Alison paused red-faced, as her trying to fix the situation just made it worse. "Okay," she sucked in a deep breath. "Adam is good looking—but," she held her hand up, "I'm not attracted to him because," she paused, unable to finish.
"Because what, Ali?" Lawrence probed impatiently.
"Because I'm a lesbian!" she shouted, throwing her hands up and then covering her mouth after realizing she couldn't take the words back.
"What?" Adam and Lawrence both spoke at the same time and peered at her in disbelief.
Lawrence began to howl with laughter but then stopped when Adam punched him in the arm. "Dude, she's not kidding," Adam whispered.
Lawrence looked her in the eyes. "Wait? Ali are you serious?"
Alison's shoulders rose up a little as if she could hide her slightly timid face between them. "Yeah," she spoke sheepishly—something she didn't do often.
"You didn't think to tell me when I asked you out ten years ago?" Lawrence sneered sarcastically. Adam squeezed his hand, silently telling him to calm down.
Alison closed her eyes, putting her hand on her forehead and sighing. "I didn't know then—genius," she shot at Larry. Calming down, she let out a breath, "This divorce has sent me into some sort of sexual awakening or something."
Lawrence calmed down as well from the initial shock and then bursted out laughing.
"What?" Alison giggled at him.
Lawrence slapped his leg and tried to breathe as he wiped tears of laughter from his eyes. "Look at us," he pointed between the two of them. "We're both gay. I guess it just took us marrying each other and divorcing to find it out."
Alison laughed along with him as did Adam. Alison looked at the clock and sat up a little. Nudging Lawrence, she looked at the clock and back at him.
Lawrence saw that it was finally twelve. "Oh!" he mouthed silently at her and stood up without warning.
Adam was surprised by the sudden movement. "Where are you going?"
"Where are we going." Lawrence corrected him then left the room. Adam sat perplexed on the couch and gave Alison a look as if to ask what was happening. She shrugged at him, playing dumb.
Lawrence was soon back in the room with two pairs of ice skates in hand. He looked to Adam from across the room. "Do you know how to ice skate, baby?"
"No?" Adam scoffed loudly.
"Welp, you're gonna learn tonight."
"It's midnight, Lawrence. Every rink is closed," Adam laughed.
"Not every," Lawrence winked at Alison.
"You sly dog," Adam shook his head getting up from the couch. Just inches away from Larry's face, Adam whispered, "I don't trust you one bit—but I'm still going." He pecked Larry's lips quickly.
Lawrence patted his back hard, "Alright, get your jacket."
"You're good to drive?" Alison called across the room at Lawrence.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he waved as he put on his shoes.
Adam and Lawrence were both on their way out the door but stopped and turned to look at Alison still sitting on the couch when she spoke. "Have fun boys," she waved goodbye at them jokingly.
"See you later," Lawrence shut the door behind him.
***
"I still don't understand why you're having me close my eyes if I already know we're going ice skating," Adam complained for about the hundredth time.
"Just shut up and go along with it," Lawrence joked. "You don't know where we're going."
"You're right. I don't know, because I don't know of any rink open at this time."
"Just trust me."
"Mkay. Whatever you say babe," Adam gave up.
Lawrence put his car into gear and walked around, opening the door for Adam.
"Oh, so chivalry's not dead," Adam teased with one hand still covering his eyes.
"Come here, you." Lawrence grabbed Adam's free hand and led him gently out of the car and down the street.
"Be careful," Lawrence warned, squeezing Adam's hand tighter as they made their way down towards the rink. Once they were both standing by the wall around the ice, Larry turned Adam to face the direction he wanted him, then yelled excitedly. "Okay, open your eyes!"
Adam removed his hand a blinked at the bright lights in front of him. Once his vision cleared, his jaw dropped at the beautiful Christmas tree the size of a house in front of him. The lights lit up the entire street and reflected off of the empty ice rink in the night.
"Rockefeller," Adam whispered to himself in disbelief. Turning around, he jumped on Lawrence into a hug and spoke louder. "You brought me to Rockefeller?"
Adam backed up and blinked a few times as if to test whether he was dreaming. "Okay, wait" Adam put his hands up. "The place is closed. Isn't this illegal or something?"
"I may have paid a little someone off," Lawrence spoke slyly while snaking his arms around Adam's waist.
Adam had never been to Rockefeller, as he was always too poor and his parents didn't care enough anyway.
He'd never even been skating.
The famous rink, shown in television and film as constantly full, was now completely vacant. In a way it was kind of eerie.
Surreal but romantic.
Adam pushed Lawrence's chest playfully. "Lawrence Gordon, you fucking hopeless romantic." Adam stood on his tip-toes and grabbed the collar of Lawrence's coat, pulling him down for a deep kiss.
"Here," Lawrence spoke after they broke apart. "Put these on," he shoved a pair of skates against Adam's chest and moved away to put on his own.
By the time Adam was done lacing his ice skates, Lawrence was already on the rink. Adam watched as he glided with ease from one end to the other. He went back and forth so smoothly. Adam found it to be cute—sexy even.
"Hey! You coming or what?" Lawrence shouted as he zoomed past Adam for the tenth time.
Adam shook his head, just realizing that he had been staring for so long. "Yeah! Hold on!" Adam yelled back. He looked down at his feet and he stepped onto the ice. His legs felt flimsy as he gripped at the wall and struggled to make the first push.
"This can't be too hard," Adam spoke to himself, looking down at his feet then back up at the rink. Taking a deep breath first, Adam bent his knees and pushed one foot behind him. He sent himself flying forward faster than he wanted to and he slid full speed towards the center of the rink.
Adam had stopped trying to control himself, and just let his skates take him where they wanted to go. He continued to barrel straight ahead, and the wall on the other side grew closer.
Adam didn't even know how to brake. He thought about falling over, but decided a plastic fence would do less bruising than ice. Closing his eyes, he braced himself.
Seconds later, he was met with a soft, fleshy barricade instead of the hard thud he was expecting. Adam opened his eyes to see Lawrence standing in front of him and holding onto his arms.
"Someone was a little too eager for their first time skating?" Lawrence raised his eyebrows and tried not to laugh.
Adam looked down, embarrassed. His face reddened. "You make it look so easy," he grumbled.
"Come on," Lawrence encouraged Adam. "Give it another go. I'll help you this time."
Larry began to skate backwards slowly, holding onto Adam's hands to string him along for the ride. As they picked up a little speed, Lawrence let go one of his hands and moved to the side so that they were both skating forward, hand in hand.
They gently made their way to the end of the rink and Adam gripped at the wall for support of his balance.
"See," Lawrence punched Adam's shoulder lightly. "You did it."
Adam looked down, embarrassed that he was this happy over stupid ice skating. Lawrence thought the sudden onset of shyness was adorable. Out of instinct, he put his hand on the side of Adam's head, running his hand through his hair and admiring him.
Suddenly, the moment they were sharing under the glow of the Rockefeller tree was interrupted by a strong gust of wind blowing trough the night air. The gale was followed by a thick rain of snowfall.
"Ah shit." Adam sighed.
"What's a little snow?" Larry laughed. "You're not gonna melt are you?"
"A little snow? Larry the rink is going to be covered in minutes."
Lawrence looked up to the sky to get his face soaked by thick snowflakes melting once they hit his skin. He looked back down to Adam and squinted with beads of water on his cheeks. "Yeah, I guess you're right," Lawrence nodded jokingly.
Adam laughed as he ran his hand down Lawrence's face, drying his skin off. This was merely a romantic gesture, as he knew they would both be almost soaking in a few more seconds.
Lawrence swallowed hard as he looked down at Adam and all traces of a smile disappeared.
"Lawrence? Are you oka— "
"Shh." Lawrence walked into Adam, fitting their bodies together.
Adam felt warmer than he ever thought he could in a snowstorm.
Lawrence took a deep breath and then spoke, his breath sending fog into the air. "You know how much I love you. Right Adam?"
"Of course I do, Lawrence." Adam scrunched his brows, "You know how much I love you? Don't you?"
"Yes." Lawrence closed his eyes. "As much as I don't understand it, you've made it clear." Lawrence laughed sadly.
"Lawrence—" Adam cupped his face and shook his head. He wished Larry could see what he saw in him.
His wit. His bravery. His loyalty.
He was everything.
Lawrence let out a long sigh through his nose before whispering just inches from Adam's lips. "Do you remember when we first touched."
Adam closed his eyes as well, shuddering at the memory. "Of course I do," his voice came out dry.
"Our foreheads connected," Lawrence leaned his forehead into Adam's as he spoke, imitating what they'd done when they first broke free. "We grabbed each other's arms." Lawrence placed his hand on Adam's side. "And I felt this—energy."
Silence.
"You felt it too?" Lawrence asked.
Lawrence felt Adam's head nod against his skin.
Backing up, Lawrence let go of Adam and took a good look at the kid. They stood in perfect silence as Adam waited for Lawrence to speak. He could tell by the way he was looking at him that Lawrence had a lot to say.
Lawrence breathed in deep then let out a small chuckle. "I remember when I first fell in love with you."
Adam continued to stare at Lawrence in silence, a small smile crossed his lips.
"It was the night I moved in," Lawrence continued. "You were in the kitchen."
He kept taking long pauses as he recalled the story in his head. His memory was vivid as he relived the moment.
"You were trying to cook me a nice dinner. You were panicking just to feed me," he laughed. "I watched you the whole time," he admitted, smiling warmly at the kid.
Adam closed his eyes and put a hand on his forehead, embarrassed at the cringe worthy moment he'd created of himself, trying too hard to impress.
"I remember thinking as I watched you that night: man," Lawrence closed his eyes and shook his head lightly, trying to contain himself, "I'm gonna marry this kid someday."
As the words came out of his mouth, Lawrence felt like throwing up. His body was shaking but he pushed through his nerves and kept going. "I've kept all of my promises so far. I'm not going to stop now."
Adam pursed his lips, trying not to cry.
"Adam, you mean so much to me. There aren't enough words to explain how much I love you."
Lawrence got down on one knee.
Adam put a hand over his mouth in disbelief and let out a choked sob of happiness and shock.
Pulling out a box, Lawrence opened it to reveal a gold ring inside. "Adam Faulkner-Stanheight, will you marry me?" he choked out.
"Yes," Adam could barely get the word out through his closing throat. "Yes, yes yes," he repeated louder, getting down on Larry's level and pulling him into a hug.
Cries of joy rocked through both of their backs and Adam pressed his lips into Lawrence's harder than ever. They tasted salt along with fresh water from the snowflakes melting between their lips that were still falling hard from the sky around them.
Adam smiled, still crying hard, "You know this means my last name's gonna be even longer."
"Or you could make it shorter," Larry retorted jokingly.
"Mmm, don't push it. That's a dealbreaker," Adam shook his head at Lawrence.
Larry smiled lovingly, "Okay, okay. Adam Faulkner-Stanheight Gordon it is then."
"Adam Faulkner-Stanheight Gordon." Adam repeated it back to himself, tasting how it worked in his mouth.
"You like it?" Lawrence raised his brows.
"I love it." Adam smiled.