Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 8

smiled, and only the one businessman in a tailored suit sniffed and moved away pointedly. Trey hugged Josh again and stepped over to the carousel. "So I'll recognize this bag how? Soft-side vintage nineteen-eighty-three? Held together with duct tape?"
    "Um, that one." Josh pointed at a battered bag that was held together by a rainbow luggage strap.
    "Embracing the stereotypes?"
    "Screw you. The zipper broke in the airport and it was the only strap I could find."
    Trey bumped Josh away with his shoulder and reached for the bag. It jolted his arm as he yanked it off the belt. "Holy hell, what's in here?"
    "Books, DVDs. I should have warned you."
    "You think?" Trey set it down and pretended to rub his shoulder.
    "I would have got it." Josh reached to pick it up.
    "Let me. You've got the carry-on."
    "I can carry both my own damned bags. It doesn't have good wheels."
    "I think I can manage." Trey hefted it. "Anyway, you really want to walk through an airport with a rainbow-striped bag?"
    "I chose it," Josh said tartly. "And if I can come out to my folks, I figure I can be out to the rest of the world."
    Trey sighed at that bit of truth. "The car is this way. Anything new from your parents?"
    "Nope."
    Trey knew Josh's parents had been shunning him. His phone calls went to voicemail, his weekly emails were unanswered. They hadn't changed their own email or number, which was perhaps hopeful, but Felix said when he called home any mention of Josh got shut down immediately. Trey shifted the bag to his other hand and gave Josh's arm a comforting rub. It was clearly going to be a long road at best.
    Josh glanced at him. "Aunt Julie and Uncle Ted have already invited us out for Thanksgiving though."
    "Maybe we'll visit them, but we have to have the meal with my parents. My mother would kill me if we missed it."
    "They're really okay with us?" Josh asked, for about the thirteenth time.
    Trey gave the same answer he'd given the last dozen times. "They're fine." It had been a little rocky at first, coming out to them, but that hadn't lasted long.
    "I wish I could have gone with you when you told them. We could have taken the time that last morning."
    Trey dropped his voice. "Are you kidding? The choice of your company for coming out to my liberal, greener parents or having two more hours to suck you into a coma? It was no contest." He smiled at Josh's blush.
    It hadn't been quite that easy at home. Under other circumstances it might have been amusing to watch his parents fighting the twin impulses to say being gay was fine and to protest that they didn't want their son to be gay. His mom had shed a couple of tears over the grandkids issue. But once they knew it was Josh he was seeing, they'd both realized where the real angst should be. His mom's reaction of, "Oh, the poor boy," was happily aimed at the issue of Josh's parents and not his misfortune at hooking up with Trey. Trey's parents knew the other couple well enough to know Josh being gay would not go over well. They'd tried to talk to Nan and Gerry more than once since then, and were now receiving the same silent treatment.
    Trey said, "Mom can't wait to mother you. Although she's not picking out china patterns and if you french me in front of her she might faint. She likes us better in the abstract than in the concrete."
    "No frenching at Thanksgiving, check."
    "Well, maybe she'll be more used to us by then."
    Trey led them to the car and heaved the suitcase into the trunk. Judging by that weight, Josh had brought even more books and fewer clothes than Trey'd thought at first. He was definitely going to take the man shopping. His eyes crossed at the thought of watching Josh buying some really nice clothes, marching the man in and out of the changing room to show them off. He would look amazing. On second thought, maybe he'd let the man stick to baggy and only reveal the smoking hot that was the hidden Josh in the privacy of their bedroom.
    Josh reached out and touched his hand as he was about to turn the key. "Wait. Don't start the car."
    "Huh?"
    "It's my turn for a question of the day. I told you I'd wait until we were together."
    "Don't you want to hold that thought until we're naked?"
    Josh shook his head with a faint smile.
    Trey felt humor and anticipation battle for ascendancy. Ever since the first time, they'd made a game out of rate-the-sexual-kink. They'd sent emails back and forth, some serious, some very much not, asking "Me naked in fuzzy bunny ears– one or