Page 41 of Fibre and Ink

“I’d love that. And the demisexual thing is great with me. I don’t need sex all the time, and actually...” I took a deep breath, trying to steady myself. “I’m really glad that you don’t just see me as a fetish object. Or just a friend.”

Mickey’s eyes crinkled as he smiled. “Of course, we've been friends for a long time, but you were a teenager so I never thought of you like that. But Aster, when you came back to Foggy, as a man...That's when it all clicked into place for me.”

I whimpered softly. “This feels unreal.”

He squeezed me to him and kissed my cheek. “It’s real, Aster. I love you, and I’m sorry people have treated you like an object. I see you as a person, a man, and I’ll do everything in my power to cherish you, if you’ll let me.”

I was going to cry.

I buried my face in his chest and tried to get myself together.

Mickey held me close and just...waited. He gave me my space (emotionally) to pull myself together, while reassuring me in physical space.

I loved him so much.

After a while, I nodded. “I’d really like that, Mickey. I’ll move in. I want to be with you more than anything in the world.”

Mickey beamed and kissed me again.

“Come on, let’s get some food before Harlow gives up on us.”

Chapter Eleven

Mickey

Over lunch Harlow admitted that she’d noticed us flirting and had engineered Aster moving in with me.

“I wanted to speed things along.” She sipped her strawberry milkshake. “Othwise you two were never going to get there.”

“We might have got there, eventually!” Aster protested. He was in the booth beside me, his thigh pressed against mine.

“Sure, when we’re all old and grey and have bad backs,” Harlow scoffed.

“Maybe...I mean, we did have a moment, or two, already.”

Aster blushed and Harlow picked up her burger. “I love you both, I’m happy for you, but I do not want details, thank you very much.”

“Fair enough,” Aster nodded. “No details.”

On the drive back to the farm, Aster plugged his phone into my truck’s stereo and put on a playlist. A lot of it was new stuff I wasn’t familiar with, but I enjoyed it. What I enjoyed even more? Aster singing along. He looked so happy, so content... any nervousness or misgivings I had about being in a relationship with him were gone. Peace settled over me, the knowledge that I’d done the right thing, and now the world was as it should be.

I did the afternoon chores and checked on the herd. As I walked among them I told them how the day had gone.

“We’re safe. They’re not going to build anything beside us. No noise at night, no scary construction, nothing. In fact, once they’ve come and taken away the little marker posts, you should never see them again. That’s good, isn’t it?” Gus Gus gently nudged my hip and I handed over a carrot stick. “Yeah, really good, isn’t it, Gus? You get it.”

He munched the carrot stick. I assume that meant he agreed.

His soft fleece was coming back in. I stroked my fingers through it, soothing myself.

As the day stretched on, most of the herd settled in the shade of the trees on the south side of their field, loafing on the ground like oversized cats.

I wandered the perimeter, checking the fence for weaknesses, until I got to the barn. A tug at my memory. There was something I could do...

Looking at the barn door, I remembered something my dad had done for us when we were kids. I knew Aster would love it. I just had to check the attic and see if the equipment was still there.

Inside the house, Aster was starting to prep dinner. “I found steaks in the fridge, they okay to cook for dinner? I can do steamed veges and fries on the side?”

“Perfect, thanks!” I hurried past him and up to the attic, taking the stairs two at a time.