New Year, New Love, New Challenge (2 page)

Andy snorted. “Don’t see why you don’t just get married, or at least move in together. You’re at his place most of the time anyway.”

She made a frustrated sound and rolled her eyes. “Don’t think I haven’t been dropping hints, believe me.” She moved closer, leaning over the couch and pinching his cheeks. “Besides, I couldn’t leave my poor, sweet wee brother Andy-Pandy all on his own!” she said in a high-pitched, syrupy sweet voice with a smile to match.

“Get off, hamster face!” He batted her hand away. “Save it for Stan. Stan’s her boyfriend,” he explained to Trent. “My man Stan. Stan, the man with the plan,” he added with a faint smile.

“Does Stan have a tan?” Trent asked, joining in.

“Since he came back from Japan,” Andy grinned.

“He should go to Milan, or maybe Iran.” The two of them were both snickering now.

“I don’t think that he can, unless he…”

“Took the Auto-ban?” Trent suggested. It rhymed, at least. It didn’t exactly make sense, but it
rhymed
, that was the main thing. Both of them were laughing outright.

Isla turned away with a frustrated huff. “You must really like this one Andy, he’s as bonkers as you are,” she said.

Trent looked at him with a smile. “Am I as bonkers as you are?”

“Hmmm, not quite, I’d say, but you’re getting there. Don’t worry. I’ll soon have you up to speed.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” Trent murmured in his ear.

With a final shake of her head, Isla put her coat on, happy to get away and leave the both of them.

Trent grinned, pulling Andy closer. They were alone in the apartment, he had the day off, and even the weather didn’t seem so bad now that he had somebody hot, in every sense of the word, to cuddle with. His new year was off to a pretty good start already.

*  *  *

Trent
laughed, enjoying himself as he played with some of Andy’s younger cousins. Eventually he dusted off his knees and went to get another vodka and Irn-Bru, the clear, bright orange soda being the (nonalcoholic) national drink of Scotland, its sweetness complementing the sharp vodka perfectly. He got hooked on the stuff when Andy introduced him to it on a night out in January. That was when he’d learned that yes, Edinburgh did have a gay scene and it was a fairly vibrant one at that. The Gay Pride parade in particular was a real eye opener.

He was at the house of one of Andy’s many aunts, he never could remember all their names, for New Year’s, or Hogmanay, as he’d become accustomed to calling it. There was plenty of food and drink as it apparently was necessary to have both as the bells rang at midnight and the Scots believed in starting early—especially when it came to the drinking part. He’d been told that the food to eat at midnight had to be a steak pie, though he wasn’t sure what the reasoning was behind it. There were some British customs he still didn’t understand.

Trent thoroughly confused his relatives earlier on the phone when he wished them “Happy Hogmanay” and was accused of going native, which made him laugh. The rest of Andy’s family seemed to be crammed inside the mid-sized residence as well. His mother, he knew, would like Andy’s relatives. She’d always believed that the bigger the family, the better, and Andy’s certainly fulfilled her exacting expectations. He really would have to get round to the whole telling-his-parents-he-was-gay thing pretty soon.

A hand clapped him on the shoulder. It was one of Andy’s cousins, Ronnie, with a grin on his reddened face and a can in his hand. “All right big man? You had a good Christmas?”

“Yeah, thanks. You?” It had been a quiet Christmas for him, though he and Andy went a little crazy and had a lot of fun with the mistletoe. There also was dinner at Isla’s and Stan’s for the four of them, along with Mr. and Mrs. Cameron and Stan’s parents. He remembered having to disguise a laugh as a cough into his napkin when Isla beamed at her mother’s compliments of the food, waving it off as though it had been no trouble at all and she hadn’t really only barely averted some sort of disaster.

“Not bad, not bad,” Ronnie replied. “Will you be coming to Burns’ Night again this year?” he asked with a grin.

Trent smiled. “I’ll have to check with Andrew, but probably.”

“Right, let us know, aye? I’ll see you later.”

Trent nodded as the other man ambled away. Although he’d travelled to various countries and loved it, he never felt as at home in any of them as he did in Scotland. That was due in large part to Andy’s family taking to him and making him feel like one of their own. Not everyone knew about his and Andy’s relationship, but most did and welcomed him as part of the family the longer they dated. Those that didn’t know weren’t worth bothering about, in his opinion.

If someone had told him this time last year that he’d be so happy about moving to and living in Scotland, he would have looked up the number of the men in white coats to take them away. But the past year had been one of the best in his memory, and all because of the man he’d shared it with. He still griped about the cold weather, but even that didn’t bother him so much. Especially since Andy usually found a way to warm him up. It was hard to believe, sometimes, that he’d met Andy this very night a year ago, and that they dated ever since. Sometimes he wondered if he should pinch himself, but if this really was a dream he didn’t want to take the risk of waking up. He saw Isla approaching, Stan visible behind her. She gave him a tight hug.

“The pair of you made it then?” she asked, her face beaming, the diamond on her finger sparkling like a star.

He returned her smile. “Yeah, Drew’s around here somewhere.” He was the only one who called Andy that.

Isla went off in search of her brother to pounce on him and tease him. It hadn’t taken long for them to be labelled “the pair of you” by Isla. “The pair of you coming to the party?” “The pair of you give me a hand with this,” or “bugger off, the pair of you. I’m busy tonight.” It made him smile, feeling that he’d been accepted by someone his lover was so close to, even though both siblings would probably rather eat live worms than say such a thing out loud. There was just one thing that was really worrying him now though, and it was Andy himself.

The other man seemed pensive and anxious over the past few days, not at all like his usual cheerful self. Trent asked if anything was bothering him and was told “I’m fine.” There were only so many times he could ask, he didn’t want to push the matter or seem like he was prying. If Andy wanted to tell him, he would when he was ready. But still, Trent couldn’t help but be concerned. He managed to spot Andy in the dining room and made his way over.

“Hey, you okay?”

“Fine,” he said, though his voice sounded a touch listless.

“Pretty busy, huh? I can’t believe they got so many people in here, I think the house might burst.”

“Mm,” was all Andy said to his weak attempt at humor. Trent frowned.

“Look, Drew, I can tell something’s bugging you, okay? Can you at least try to tell me what it is? Is there something I can do to help? Or is it something I’ve done, or haven’t done?”

“What? No!” Andy said, honestly surprised. “It’s not you, at least not really. I—oh fuck.” He broke off, scrubbing a hand over his face and taking another gulp of his drink. He pulled Trent into the hallway, stopping at a small nook that held boots and raincoats.

“There was this thing at work months ago. One employee would get to do a sort of work experience thing at a wildlife conservancy, in Kenya.” Trent nodded in understanding. Andy worked as a keeper at the Edinburgh Zoo and loved his job. This would have been an amazing opportunity.

“I signed up for the chance to go just because everybody else was and said I’d be crazy not to. We had to fill in a form, say why we thought we would be the best choice, that sort of thing. Anyway, I’d completely forgotten about it… until I got the letter the other day saying I’d been the one to be accepted. I mean, I still can’t believe it; it’s like a dream. A chance to go to Africa, to see so many different wild animals in their natural habitat, to study them, it would be incredible.”

His face lit up, his eyes sparkled, and then it fell once more. “But the placement’s for a year, and I know you can say ‘it’s only a year’, but that’s a long time, and I can’t ask you to wait that long for me and long-distance relationships suck. I really want to go, but then I—I love you, and being apart for that long, I just—I just can’t choose,” he finished, his expression tormented.

Trent was silent, processing all of this. All the years he’d been travelling, he’d always been uncertain about getting into a serious relationship when his job could send him to the other side of the world with little notice. When he was younger he’d been happy with quick flings and the chance to escape if things got bad, but then he started to want more than that. When he met Andy, it hadn’t really been a choice of whether to get serious, it just sort of happened without either of them actively causing it or even being aware of it.

He always assumed he would be the one having to make the choice of whether or not to leave Andy, whether or not to ask Andy to come with him, not the other way around. Andy loved him. He’d known it of course, but hearing it out loud was an entirely different matter. He knew there was no question of what he wanted.

“You don’t have to choose,” he said quietly.

“What?” Andy stared at him.

“I can’t promise anything, but the bank’s usually very understanding towards couples and families that want to stay together, doesn’t matter if they’re gay or straight. I can talk to my bosses, and I’m pretty sure they’ll be able to find a place for me at least close to where you’ll be working.” Andy’s stare was getting a little unnerving.

“But- but I can’t ask you to do that. Pick up and leave just to come with me.”

“Why not? My work sends me to different countries all the time, it’s not like I’m not used to it. And you’re not asking me.
I’m
asking
you
if I can come with you. Would you want that, me tagging along with you?” He staggered back as Andy all but flung himself against him, giving him in a heartfelt kiss, almost making both of them lose their drinks. Well, that answered that question.

“But are you sure?” Andy asked when they broke apart. “You’d really come to Kenya with me?”

Trent grinned. “You remember when we met last year, and you had to leave to go to the street party. You asked if I wanted to come with you?”

Andy’s lips turned up in a smile. “As if I’d forget. I was praying you’d say yes.”

“I’d figured I must be insane, leaving a nice warm building to go stand in the freezing cold for hours, listening to loud music, being jostled, dozens of people crowded in all around me. But you know what? I loved every minute of it, because I was with you. That was all that mattered to me. Wherever you are Drew, that’s where I want to be. I don’t care if it’s Edinburgh or Africa or anywhere else in the world. If you want to go there then I do too, for as long as you’ll have me. In case you can’t tell, I love you too, you dumbass.”

Andy laughed, despite looking slightly stunned with a hint of misty eyes at Trent’s words. “I want you. I want you with me wherever I am, too; don’t worry about that. I’d been excited but sort of terrified as well at the thought of having to travel to Africa by myself; leaving you, my family, not knowing anyone. I don’t know how you can do it for a living. But if you’re there too it won’t be so bad, will it?”

“It’ll be great,” Trent assured him. “You get to eat weird food, see new things, get away from this goddamned freezing weather… you’ll love it. And it is only for a year. You’ll be back here getting me drunk on whisky and eating sheep’s insides before you know it.”

Andy laughed again, sounding more cheerful this time. “It was only the once! And I told you not to drink so much; that was your own fault.”

“Hey, I needed some way to take my mind off what I was eating!” Trent protested. “Still, the night ended well, didn’t it?”

Andy returned his leering smile with a knowing smirk of his own. “Aye, it did. And I think tonight might end well too. We have a lot to celebrate now.”

“Can’t we, maybe, start celebrating early?” Trent asked, hope clear in his voice.

“No!” Andy told him sternly, though he looked for a moment as though he was considering it. “Come on, it’s nearly time for the bells. You can wait a wee bit longer.”

Trent let out a whimpering moan but followed him back into one of the stifling hot rooms to be sociable again until midnight struck. There were no huge crowds to contend with this year. No loud bands and, thankfully, no freezing cold either. Just family and close friends, people who welcomed him and who he’d come to care about. The music that was playing was turned down when the time came and voices young and old joined in for the countdown. Cheers rang out and party poppers exploded, sending streamers into the air as the hour struck, others went around hugging and kissing or shaking hands, saying “Happy New Year!” but for two men there was no one else there except for them.

Trent pulled Andy close, giving him a quick kiss. “Happy New Year.”

“Happy New Year.”

Trent’s grin widened. “Happy anniversary.”

“Happy anniversary,” Andy echoed, smiling as well, pulling him in for a longer, deeper kiss, taking the chance while no one was paying attention to them. “At least neither of us is likely to forget the date of it,” he laughed. Trent joined in.

“Yeah, maybe we should get married at New Year’s as well to make that easy to remember too.”

Andy’s eyes went wide, but before he could reply Isla pounced on them. “Oi! The pair of you, give me a kiss!” They obeyed, not that there was any choice, and shook Stan’s hand with “Happy New Year”s said all around.

Andy went back to staring at him as Isla wandered away. “Did you just propose to me?”

“Uh, I don’t know. If I said yes, would you accept?”

“I- I don’t know. I’m still trying to let the fact that I’ll be going to Africa sink in, to be honest.”

Trent could understand, and he wasn’t entirely sure why he’d said what he had himself. It just sort of came out, without his mind having any say in the matter. Not that he was completely averse to the idea, now that he was actually thinking about it. He couldn’t imagine Andy
not
being in his life. He had come from a family with traditional beliefs, brought up to respect marriage and all that it represented, even though he’d never had any desire to go through with such a thing himself—until now. And men in Britain
could
get married… Would he be allowed to marry Andy though, since he was American? And what if…? It was too much to think about, for the moment.