"Um." Lacey rocks back and forth on her feet in front of the concession stand, staring up at the menu for what felt like forever at this point. If Trevor had hair, it'd have gone gray by now. "Do you guys have those big pickles?"
"We sold the last one before the show ended," the merchant tells her.
"Damn." Lacey turns around, looking at Trevor and Mia who wait impatiently behind her. "What do y'all think I should get?"
"A sense of time," Trevor offers, earning an elbow in the side from Mia. He turns to her, pouting. "What? The show's over and we're still here trying to get food. I'd rather eat before my flight, Mia."
The road to Lancaster, PA begins tonight with Trevor and Adam taking a flight to Pittsburgh. Then they'll drive to a hotel closer to Lancaster so that they can set out on a two-hour drive to Melissa's in the morning. Adam wasn't booked for the show tonight, but he'd be here any minute. A lot of good it'll do, considering Trevor may never leave the concession line due to his friend's indecisiveness.
"I'm sure those little peanuts will satisfy you and Adam just fine," Mia teases, knocking her shoulder against his. She turns back to the menu, asking, "Where is he, anyway?"
Trevor looks around to spot Adam coming their way, and Trevor nods at him, smiling. "Speak of the devil and he shall appear," he jokes loud enough for Adam to hear.
Adam grins, inserting himself in the middle of Trevor and Mia, draping an arm over Trevor's shoulders as he does so. "Babe, you know I'm never too far out of reach." He smirks at Mia. "And Mia here knows that I'm only a call away when she misses me."
"Boy, don't make me smack you in front of your boyfriend," she threatens good-naturedly.
"Trevor wouldn't let you smack me," Adam says way too confidently.
"Trevor has no say in who Mia chooses to smack," Trevor tells him, easing from underneath Adam's arm and gesturing to him. "Smack away."
Mia raises her hand and moves as if she's going in for the slap, causing a chuckling Adam to raise his own hands in defense. "Okay, okay. Don't slap me, please." When Mia drops her hand, she moves up to the counter with Lacey, trying to urge her along as Adam returns his attention to Trevor. "Ready to go? Flight leaves in thirty."
"I know, but I'm still waiting to get something to eat," he replies, pointedly raising his voice.
"Hey," Lacey calls out, looking over her shoulder to glare at him. "You know very well how indecisive I can be."
"I do, and frankly it's a problem." She rolls her eyes and goes back to talking to the concession merchant even slower this time to Mia's amusement at least.
Adam gives a dismissive wave of his hand. "Don't worry about that. I picked you up something from JoJo's Wings on the way here." He holds up a finger, looking proud of himself. "And I didn't forget the fried okra this time."
Trevor can't help the way he involuntarily breaks out into a smile as he gives Adam an impressed nod. "I gotta hand it to you. You're really stepping up your boyfriend game."
"Only the best for you, Trev."
"Ugh," Mia groans, turning around with the makings of a smile on her face. "How about y'all go get on your flight before you make me lose my appetite with all that lovey-dovey mess?"
"We're nothing compared to you and Keith, but okay." Trevor closes the distance between them to give her a hug. "You two stay out of trouble while I'm gone."
"Should be easy to do without you around," Lacey responds when he bends down to hug her. "Be safe."
And with that, they're off to Baggett Airfield to catch their flight to Pittsburgh.
When the flight lands they hop in a rental car, with Trevor taking the first shift. He immediately regrets not getting any sleep on the plane. Of course, he had planned to originally, but once Adam pointed out that they had an extensive catalog of rom-coms for viewing, Trevor would've been remiss not to check it out.
At a quarter past midnight, they stop at a desolate 24/7 gas station around an hour before they're scheduled to arrive at the hotel. Adam is a brave man and runs in to use the bathroom while Trevor watches the tank fill up, eyes heavy with fatigue. It hasn't been a long drive but Trevor's tired regardless, and he just wants to go waddle in the hotel sheets and sleep until someone's banging on his door. Even then, he's sure he wouldn't answer.
"Yeah, thanks. Have a good one, man." Trevor glances over his shoulder as he's pumping the last few dollars into the tank to see Adam exiting the building, a plastic bag in hand. He looks up and meets Trevor's stare with a smile. Trevor gives his best sleepy half-grin in return. He doesn't know how Adam does it, but his bright eyes are filled with energy despite the late hour. "Hey, sleepyhead. I got you a sandwich."
He means to thank him, but the words don't come, and he nods instead, letting his head fall against the hood with a sigh. He's so grateful Adam's got the rest of the drive because he doesn't know if he could make it another minute.
Adam comes around to drop the things in the back seat, then finds his way in front of Trevor. He brings a hand to his shoulder, the other dropping to cover Trevor's hand that holds the pump. "I'll finish up. You can go ahead and get started on your beauty sleep. I can't have you sleepy and drooling over me when you meet the rest of my family."
A chuckle comes out but is immediately glossed over by a yawn as Trevor concedes, shuffling away. "A modern gentleman."
Adam shrugs. "I try."
When Trevor slides into the passenger side, his first thought instead of closing his eyes is to pick up Adam's phone and open his music library. He presses shuffle and "Can I Have This Dance" starts playing, because of course it does. Adam said he would add it to his favorites after hearing it, but only if Trevor agreed to dance to it with him one day.
The volume isn't even that high, but Adam must have some bat-like hearing. "Yes, turn that up." He finishes pumping the gas, then he's squatted in front of Trevor, staring up at him expectantly. "I believe you promised me a dance."
"I don't dance," Trevor quotes, head dropping onto the seat rest as Vanessa's voice fills his ears.
"Doesn't matter, a promise is a promise." Adam stands, holding out his hand to Trevor, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet eagerly. "Come on, just for a minute?"
And yes, Trevor is tired, but he looks at Adam's face and can't find it in himself to say no. So, with a small smile and a playful roll of his eyes, Trevor places his hand into Adam's and lets him pull him out of the car.
Despite his mom being a Zumba instructor, Trevor knows Adam has like zero dance training, but he does have some rhythm. He's surprised to find that out as Adam drops his other hand to Trevor's waist and, after slipping his hand around the back of Adam's neck, the two begin swaying around the parking lot to the beat.
There's a flickering streetlight above them, with all kinds of night insects buzzing around. Trevor's sure that if he looked at the gas station the cashier would probably be taking a photo of them right now if not staring quizzically. He finds that he doesn't care as he and Adam stay focused on each other.
"You ready for this," Adam asks suddenly.
Trevor's eyebrows furrow in confusion that's cleared up when Adam spins him without warning. Trevor can't help the laugh that bubbles up out of his throat as he's spun back to him, giddy and weightless. He doesn't even notice that Adam's pulled him closer than he was before. "Damn, if I knew you had moves like this, I would've been your fake boyfriend ages ago."
"I know, but I like a challenge." Adam sighs happily as he takes in Trevor's face for what feels like ages until he finally says, "God, you're beautiful."
Trevor almost trips over his own feet, but because Adam is leading the dance, he stays upright. Instead, he swallows down his nerves and chooses to reply as he does best. With humor. "Took you this long to figure that out, Cole?"
"And modest," Adam exclaims, chuckling. "Truly the whole package."
There's not much to say in this moment. Trevor's scared that if he spoke, he would shatter it. What it is, he has no idea. He just knows that it's something small and fragile and it must not be broken.
His hope to keep things exactly like they are is squashed the moment he and Adam make eye contact once more. Adam's eyes unsubtly drop to his lips, but he picks them up just as quick. Trevor would be lying if he said a part of him didn't want to lean in and capture Adam's lips with his own. But there are lines that have to be drawn, especially in the situation they're in.
Therefore, when Adam moves forward the smallest of inches, Trevor is the one to back away. He slides his hands in his pockets and doesn't even have to fake a yawn as he gestures to the rental car with his head. "As fun as this was, I think we should get to the hotel before I pass out from sleep deprivation."
Adam opens his mouth to say something but holds it in as he nods in agreement. "Yeah, of course." He laughs, but it comes out as forced almost as he rubs a hand over the back of his neck. "Wouldn't want to have to carry you back to the room."
"Big macho man like yourself wouldn't have trouble with that," Trevor jokes, turning to slide into the passenger side as Adam jogs around the front.
"Nope." He falls into the driver's seat and closes the door, noticeably avoiding Trevor's eyes as he starts the car. "No trouble at all."
+
Whatever awkwardness from the night before has faded away in the light of the day, as Trevor and Adam embark on a trip to Melissa's that's filled with smiles and laughs that make the trip feel shorter than it is. There are also stories. Some stories are of Adam's siblings, Teddy and Alec, which Trevor listens to intently because before he came to NXT and gained a whole lot of them, he had always wanted siblings of his own.
The stories include one of him and Alec finding a stray dog and naming it Rocket, who lived in the closet of the brothers' shared room before being discovered by his mom. A story of how Teddy tried to teach him to fishtail braid his hair and then it turned into a tangled mess, so Adam decided to say, "screw it" and go bald like Stone Cold. And one of all three of them making a mudslide out in the front yard that screwed up the grass, but their dad didn't yell. Only helped them clean it up as their mom sat outside in a lawn chair with a glass of lemonade to supervise.
Adam allows himself a moment of emotion at the mention of his father, and Trevor says nothing because Adam's shared heartwarming memories of the man before. He died when Adam was ten, yet Adam remembers him as clear as possible. His dad had a demanding job that caused him to travel a lot, but some days when he was home, he'd make his children hot chocolate and they'd spend a night in a tent under the stars. Trevor smiles at the memory of Adam confessing that those nights under the stars used to make him want to be an astronomer, but then he fell in love with wrestling.
"What about you?" Adam spares a glance at Trevor in the passenger seat. "How was your childhood?"
Trevor thinks about how his dad is littered over it in the early stages and wants to say misleading. He decided long ago that a person so prominent in some of one's happiest moments shouldn't be allowed to walk away. Then Trevor realized that he had become a better man without him, even if he did haunt his memories. "I used to think it was lonely," Trevor admits instead. "But with my mom everything was okay."
"You want to tell me more about your mom?"
And that's a question that Trevor doesn't have to be asked twice, because he knows he could talk about his mom and sing her praises forever. So, he tells Adam pretty much everything in the forefront of his mind about her. Like the fact that she's really into black and white movies. She has glasses but rarely wears them because she insists that she doesn't need them. And she was born with a cat allergy, though she adores them, so when passing by a shelter she'll sometimes deliver treats off at the door.
As Trevor recounts all this to Adam, he has a fond smile on his face. Adam takes it in and starts sporting a grin to match. "The more I hear about your mom, the more amazing I think she is." He turns on his signal as he switches lanes, casually remarking, "I can't wait to meet her."
Trevor doesn't mean to, but he chuckles. If only because Adam seems so sure of himself with that statement. "How do you know you'll get to do that?"
"I don't know." Adam glimpses at Trevor, and it'd probably be a longer look if he weren't driving. Then he refocuses on the road with a shrug and Trevor sees the right corner of Adam's mouth lift a bit higher. "I just have a feeling."