Zac
It ought to be illegal to have to work on your birthday. We’ve often had to play concerts on my birthday, and that’s fine. I get to make a big deal out of it, smashing a cake onstage and generally being silly. This year, though, I end up staying late in the studio to help out a local band who wanted to use our equipment. We did that from time to time, but it was supposed to be Isaac’s duty this time. For some reason, he was nowhere to be found and I got stuck there. I couldn’t explain why I felt that way, but somehow it seemed like a huge conspiracy to keep me from getting home for dinner, and I really, really did not like that possibility.
Knowing I would be late for one of Taylor’s delicious home cooked meals was almost more than I could deal with. He nearly always cooked for me, since my cooking skills had barely progressed past grilled cheese and strangely shape pancakes, but I knew for my birthday Taylor would be pulling out all the stops. He couldn’t help himself; he should have been a chef and he just had this need to do everything for everyone.
By the time I finally walked into the door, my mouth was watering just at the thought of what Taylor might be preparing for my special day. The scent of steak wafted through the house, leading me straight to the kitchen… where I saw not one, but two, tall thin figures standing by the stove.
Carrick was here. On my birthday.
“Hey, Zac!” He said, smiling.
“Carrick!” I yelled, smiling back. I practically ran across the room and tackled him, wrapping my arms completely around his body and lifting him off the floor. I held him tightly, inhaling his familiar scent – weed, salt air and the coconut shampoo he used. “What the fuck are you doing here?!”
He laughed and hugged me back, not answering. There was something in his expression that said I should have already known why he was there, yet they had obviously conspired to keep his arrival a secret from me. I could think of only one reason for that… but no. We had only joked about that. Hadn’t we? Maybe it wasn’t really a joke.
“Happy birthday, Zac,” Taylor said.
I turned Carrick loose, letting him fall back to the floor with a soft thump, and stared at Taylor, who I had nearly forgotten was in the room. “You got me a Carrick for my birthday?!”
“Umm… yeah.” Taylor laughed nervously.
“You’re the best!” I replied, pouncing on him and kissing his face. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Carrick smirking and raising an eyebrow.
“Anything for you,” Taylor said softly. That seemed like an odd statement, but it just might have supported my idea about why Carrick was there… While I was lost in those thoughts, Taylor cleared his throat and added, “Well, let’s eat while the food’s hot. We’ve got steak, cheesy mashed potatoes and corn on the cob.”
I watched him uncover the various plates and pans as he spoke, and with each dish he revealed, my smile grew wider. “Oh, Tay… you spoil me.”
“Don’t forget the drinks,” Carrick added, pulling two beers and a hard cider from the fridge. He gave one beer to Taylor and the cider to me. “Here ya go, dude.”
I grinned and wiggled my eyebrows. “Are you trying to get me drunk so you can take advantage of me?”
Carrick laughed loudly, and in the background, I heard what sounded like a very nervous cough from Taylor’s general direction.
“You know it,” Carrick replied, smirking. My stomach turned a somersault that reminded me just how much I had missed that smirk.
I had missed everything about Carrick. Of course I was happy with Taylor, happier than I had words to describe, but there was just something about Carrick… something Taylor must have been aware of when he invited Carrick out here. Did Taylor know how much I missed Carrick? I wasn’t even sure I had realized it until that conversation with Kate. But Taylor knew me. He knew me better than I knew myself.
I glanced back at Taylor and found him smiling even though his cheeks were tinted pink. Seeing that made me blush, and our staredown was only broken when Taylor finally handed me a plate piled high with food. I accepted the plate gratefully.
“So… this is my birthday surprise, huh?” I asked, hoping to prod one of them into explaining what this was all about.
Carrick snorted, and Taylor replied, “Umm… sort of…”
“Better than a cake in the face.” I smirked at him.
“Yeah…” he replied, laughing and no doubt remembering that one time I’d begged and whined until he let me smash my birthday cake in his face for a change. I actually enjoyed the cake smash, but I knew that Taylor didn’t. Still, because he was Taylor, he had done it… for me.
“And slightly less messy…” Carrick added, giving Taylor a glance that I didn’t quite understand, but that I really, really wanted to understand.
Taylor caught Carrick’s eye for a moment, then turned back to me and smiled. That uneasy, curious feeling remained and I felt like I was closer and closer to understanding what was happening here… yet somehow farther away at the same time.
“Wait,” I said, staring back and forth between the two of them. “Tay… exactly what kind of surprise is this?”
“Just eat,” Taylor replied as he and Carrick began to fill their own plates. The two followed me to the dining room, just a few feet away from the kitchen. Taylor took his usual seat at the head of the table, the seat that used to be occupied by my ex-wife but which I now couldn’t imagine belonging to anyone but him.
“Oh, I will,” I replied, feeling a smirk spreading across my face as I sat down to his right. I could tell Taylor was trying to deflect and keep me from asking too many questions, and for the moment, I was willing to let him. He knew I was stubborn, though; I wasn’t letting go of my curiosity forever.
“So how ya been?” Carrick asked, sitting down across from me. “Keeping busy?”
“Something like that.” I laughed, the innuendo in Carrick’s words not passing me by. They didn’t seem to pass Taylor by either, judging by how much he blushed as he stuffed his mouth with food. Still laughing, I turned back to Carrick and asked, “What about you?”
He gave a noncommittal shrug. “I’ve been around. Jammed with a few friends, just for fun.”
“Sounds like fun,” I replied, nodding. It didn’t really sound like he had done much at all since going back to California, and I felt a little guilty for that. Still, it had been his choice to leave. I wondered if it had possibly hurt him as much as it hurt me…
He interrupted my thoughts to ask, “How’s the wicked bitch of the south?”
Taylor snorted, and I laughed loudly at Carrick’s turn of phrase. “She’s… not so bad. The divorce was finalized a while back.”
Carrick nodded, and Taylor gave me a little smile. Both of our divorces had taken time to be finalized, thanks to the slow process Oklahoma had for divorce, but both had been relatively painless. Even mine, which had been poised to be a total nightmare, hadn’t be bad and Kate had only mellowed even more since then, judging by our last encounter.
“And I get to see the kids pretty often, so… that’s nice,” I added.
“That’s good to hear, man,” Carrick replied, his voice softer and more sincere than usual. It was a strange tone for him, but I liked it.
I nodded. “Yeah… she’s calmed down a lot since… that day.”
He snorted, all the sincerity replaced with his usual sense of humor. “Since you told her what a cunt she was?”
“Yeah, that,” I replied, giggling.
Taylor chuckled. “Still wish I could’ve seen her face…”
“Yeah…” I laughed, then gave Taylor a weak smile. “Still sorry she ran to your house, though.”
“You knew she was going to,” he replied, shrugging.
“I had a feeling…” I replied.
Taylor reached over and touched my hand. I could feel Carrick’s eyes on us, and if it had been anyone other than Carrick, I would have braced myself for some comment about how adorable we were. Even though I didn’t expect that sort of comment from Carrick at all, I still felt that familiar urge to say something silly to ruin the moment before things got too serious and emotional.
“One of us had to leave,” I continued, shrugging. “And she damn sure wasn’t kicking me out.”
Taylor laughed lightly, and Carrick snorted. Even though I had told Taylor all about what happened, and he had years of experience dealing with Kate, Carrick was the one who had actually been present and eavesdropping during our worst fight ever. It felt like only Carrick could really understand what had happened, although Taylor was always overly concerned about, well, everything.
“Not that she didn’t try…” I shrugged again, then gave Taylor a smile to reassure him that I was okay. “But whatever. That’s over now.”
Taylor smiled and squeezed my hand, bringing the moment dangerously close to that cheesy, emotional place that made me so uncomfortable again. Carrick just sat back and sipped his beer, and I decided it was time to drop this subject and get on with dinner. I squeezed Taylor’s hand back, then dug into my dinner enthusiastically.
“How is it?” Taylor asked a minute or two later, a hopeful smile on his face as though he didn’t already know the answer.
“It’s great, of course,” I replied.
“Yeah, Tay sure makes a tasty meal…” Carrick smirked, causing Taylor to shoot him a rather bitchy look.
“Umm…” I coughed, my lips twitching as they decided on their own to turn up into a smirk. “That he does.”
Taylor blushed, and Carrick smirked. “I’ll bet…”
“I’m not the only one…” Taylor replied softly, biting his lip.
I felt myself blushing, especially as Carrick chuckled and said, “Can’t argue with that…”
“Okay, easy guys…” I laughed nervously. “I’m not even done eating yet.”
Taylor and Carrick both laughed, and I began to wonder yet again just what their plan for this evening was.
“Jeez, didn’t realize I was on the menu for tonight too…” I remarked. I couldn’t resist the urge to continue joking about it. That was just my way of dealing with things, especially when I was uncomfortable… although the idea of a threesome with Taylor and Carrick didn’t necessarily make me uncomfortable.
Carrick laughed, and although Taylor did too I still couldn’t help feeling like something was off about the entire dinner. Still, it was food, and good food at that. Never let it be said that anything could come between me and a good meal. I decided to drop all attempts at conversation for the time being; Taylor and Carrick seemed to take my lead, and so we all three focused on eating the delicious birthday dinner Taylor had prepared for me.
After we finished eating, Taylor immediately jumped up and began clearing the plates away. Even Carrick joined in, pulling some sort of pan out of the oven that I hadn’t realized was even in there. Rather than a cake, it was full of what I was sure were his famous brownies, with “HAPPY BDAY ZAC” written across them in big, loopy letters that I recognized as Taylor’s writing.
With a smirk on his face, Carrick asked, “Dessert, anyone?”
“Brownies?! For me?” I grinned. “Are they… special?”
“Do I make any other kind?” Carrick replied.
“Not that I’m aware of…” I mumbled.
While I was pretending to ponder the possibility of Carrick cooking anything without pot, Taylor stuck a large candle in the center of the cake and pulled out his lighter. Giving me a somewhat wary smile as he lit the candle, he asked, “You’re… not gonna make me sing, are you?”
“Yes. I am,” I said forcefully, giving him a huge grin so that I didn’t seem too bossy; even though I was learning to be more dominant, it felt weird to do so with Taylor. When he rolled his eyes, I added, a little more sweetly, “You know I love your voice…”
“Hey, what about me?” Carrick asked teasingly.
“Yeah, you’re not bad,” I replied, giving him a smirk that I was confident rivaled some of his best.
He rolled his eyes and reached across the table to nudge my shoulder. “So I’ve heard…” He said, winking.
“Alright, alright,” I said, trying to stifle my giggles. “Let’s get some pretty harmonies up in here.”
Taylor cleared his throat and began to sing Happy Birthday. A second later, Carrick joined in, deliberately singing as off-key as he possibly could. For someone with as wonderful a voice as he had, it was pretty impressive how bad he could sound if he tried. Although Taylor was obviously trying not to laugh, he failed, and I was soon cackling loudly too. Somehow, through it all, they both kept singing, Taylor still giving it his all and Carrick still sounding like a dying cat.
As the song ended, I pretended to wipe away a tear and said, “That was just so beautiful…”
Ignoring my sarcasm, Taylor gave me a wide-eyed smile and said, “Make a wish.”
“God, he really is the chick,” Carrick remarked, rolling his eyes.
“Oh, yeah, totally,” I replied, trying not to giggle at the way Taylor managed to blush and glare at Carrick at the same time. It was the sort of expression only Taylor could manage without looking ridiculous–or at least, without looking too ridiculous. At my words of agreement, he gasped and looked at me with mock-offense. I grinned and cheerfully ignored him, turning my attention to the pan of brownies. “Okay… what to wish for…”
“I could think of a few things…” Carrick muttered.
“Oh! I’ve got it,” I cried out. With a smirk on my face, I stared right at Taylor as I blew out the candle. I hoped he knew what I was thinking, but the loving smile on his face made me wonder. But why else would he have brought Carrick if not to satisfy the fantasy we couldn’t stop talking about?
Carrick took it upon himself to slice up the brownies, giving me a huge piece. “Here ya go, birthday boy.”
“Mmm, just how I like it,” I replied, eying Carrick as I bit into the massive brownie. Maybe it was bad to blatantly flirt with him in front of Taylor, but I didn’t really care. If he was here for the reason I was increasingly becoming convinced he was here for, then flirting wasn’t the worst thing Taylor would soon see me to do him.
“You know it.” Carrick smirked.
Taylor cleared his throat to get Carrick’s attention or perhaps to lodge his complaint about my blatant flirtation. Either way, the result was that Carrick mumbled an acknowledgement and cut Taylor off a slice of the brownie as well. While he did so, I shoved the rest of mine in my mouth. If Taylor was the best chef I knew, then Carrick was without a doubt the best baker.
“Not bad,” Taylor remarked after taking a dainty bite of the brownie Carrick had offered him. Carrick just smirked at Tay as he finally finished cutting and picked up a slice for himself.
As I chewed my rather large mouthful of brownie, I contemplated whether or not it was finally time to address the elephant in the room. If I was wrong about their intentions for the night, then I might look like a jackass. But that was nothing new and nothing I couldn’t handle. I couldn’t help thinking I was correct, though. It seemed logical; it was my birthday and Taylor had known for several months that I wanted to have a threesome. What better opportunity to make that fantasy come true?
With that thought in mind, I swallowed the rest of my pot-filled brownie and asked, “So… anyone curious what I wished for?”
Taylor just stared at me, his anticipation obvious, while Carrick leaned across the table and said, “I think I can guess…”
“Well…” I began, looking at Taylor. I faltered for a second when I saw how hard he was biting his lip, but I forged on. Waving my hand in Carrick’s direction, I said, “He’s my present, right? So… can I unwrap him?”
Carrick laughed loudly, but it wasn’t a mocking laughter. Taylor’s nervous expression turned first to a smile, then to something closer to a smirk as Carrick continued to laugh. When Carrick finally paused to catch his breath, Taylor said, “Why don’t we go into the living room…”
“Okay!” I replied, even more enthusiastically than I intended, my smile so wide that my face actually hurt.
Rather than replying, Carrick grabbed another brownie and scarfed it down. Laughing, I stood up and grabbed both Carrick and Taylor by the hand. The living room was a weird place for this to happen, but I wasn’t going to complain. Out of everything weird about what the three of us were about to do, the location was pretty low on the list.
As I dragged the two of them toward the living room, I wished I had another hand so that I could pinch myself and be certain this wasn’t a dream. It was really happening. Taylor, Carrick and I were going to have a threesome.