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It started out innocently enough. David had ended up falling asleep at Ray’s while they were watching a movie on Patrick’s laptop. It had been a long day at the store and it was Saturday night, so Patrick just snuggled in next to him and let David spend the night. The next morning it happened. Patrick offered David an extra toothbrush he had and suddenly there were two toothbrushes in Patrick’s bathroom at Ray’s. The red one was David’s. Every morning when Patrick brushed his teeth it was there and never failed to make him smile.
Once Patrick moved into his own apartment, he began to notice little things popping up. It was almost like a scavenger hunt - little clues that David had been there would be found all over the apartment. After the toothbrush came a bottle of contact lens solution and a contact lens case in the medicine cabinet in Patrick’s bathroom.
“I keep forgetting to throw them in my bag when I’m going to stay over so I figured I’d just leave some here. If I end up sleeping in my contacts one more time I’m afraid they’re going to permanently fuse with my eyeballs.”
One of David’s robes made an appearance on the back of Patrick’s bathroom door a few weeks later.
“David, did you forget something?”
“Ummm...no. I just thought I’d leave this one here, I mean, if that’s okay with you. There are two hooks in the bathroom.”
“It’s definitely okay with me.”
The next discovery was painful - literally. Patrick reached for his shampoo in the shower and knocked an unexpected bottle of shampoo down onto his foot. it was David’s. There had been a good-natured argument about Patrick’s choice of product (“I don’t know that 2-in-1 shampoo can legally be called product, Patrick.”) and as a result David left a bottle of his shampoo in the shower. Patrick would be embarrassed to admit it, but when he and David hadn’t been able to find “alone time” for each other he’d done some embarrassingly intimate things with that shampoo.
“David? Have you seen my tea bags?”
“Did you look in the cabinet behind the cocoa powder?”
“I have cocoa powder?”
“I brought some for my coffee. I’m pretty sure I saw your tea bags when I put it in the cabinet.”
“Also, did you move the mugs? They’re not where they usually are.”
“Ummm...I did. It didn’t make sense to have them over near the sink. I moved them closer to the coffee maker.”
“And by closer you mean two feet?”
“It’s the flow of the kitchen, Patrick. It just flows better.”
When David starts staying for weeks at a time, Patrick decides it’s silly for him to take a bag of dirty laundry back to the hotel with him.
“I’ll just throw your things in with my laundry.”
“Please do not throw my things anywhere. I guess I can sort out what can be machine washed.”
This new laundry arrangement results in David getting his own drawer in Patrick’s dresser. Patrick loves the domesticity of folding the clean clothes together (well, he folds while David sits next to him and comments on whoever’s Instagram he’s stalking that day) and making a pile for himself and a pile for David.
Three weeks later, Patrick had been at a business seminar in Elmdale and had just returned home. He found a very excited David waiting for him.
“I’m glad you’re home. I missed you. I have a surprise for you.”
“I hope it’s what I think it is.”
“Well, follow me,” David said, pulling Patrick toward the bedroom.
“Tah-dah!!” David opened the closet with a flourish. Patrick’s blue button downs were neatly arranged, light blue to dark blue, in one half of the closet, while it appeared that David had hung his sweaters in the other half of the closet.
“Do you like it?”
“I do...I just was hoping for a different surprise. A sexier surprise.”
“There is nothing sexier than a well organized closet, Patrick.”
“Really?” Patrick unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it aside. “Then this might drive you wild.” Patrick put his hands on David’s shoulders and whispered in his ear, “I think you’ve taken up more than half of the closet space. You should move your sweaters down about six inches.”
“You’re an asshole!” David pushed Patrick onto the bed and straddled him.
“But it worked! Apparently you’re finding it very sexy right now.”
After a month where David only spends one night at the motel, Patrick decides to ask him to officially move in. The trouble is he can’t figure out how. He wants to make it a memory for the two of them. Something special. David already has a key to the apartment, so just giving him a key is out. He also doesn’t want David to get too excited and think he’s proposing (he’s already got a plan for that). Google was absolutely no help.
“I’d like to thank everyone for coming out to Open Mic Night tonight. A special thanks to Bob for his dramatic reading of Anaconda.”
Once the last customers had left, David locked the door and turned the sign to ‘closed’.
“I think that went well,” he said as he turned around. “What are you doing?”
Patrick just smiled and pointed at the chair he had placed in front of the stage.
“Sit. So, I’ve been thinking about this for awhile. There’s something that I want to ask you, but I wasn’t sure how to make it special for you. I hope you’ll figure out what I’m trying to ask.”
You came out of nowhere
And knocked me down
With a love so big
It built a town
All around me
And it keeps me safe
With you I've found my place
Because home is wherever, I'm with you.
And I'll stay there forever, as long as you stay too
I'm never gonna leave, it's what I am, it's where I'm from
I found home, it's you and it's all, it's all that I want
David’s eyes welled up with tears as he listened to Patrick sing. He never thought he would have someone who truly wanted him and wanted him all the time, not just when he was buying. It was something he never even let himself hope for before and now there was this beautiful man standing in front of him telling him (singing!) that he wanted to be with him forever.
And every now and then I get lost on the way
Trying to find myself a new place to stay
No matter where I go I end up at the start
‘Cause home is where the heart is, and you've always had my heart
Because home is wherever, I'm with you
And I'll stay there forever, as long as you stay too
I'm never gonna leave, it's what I am, it's where I'm from
I found home, it's you and it's all, it's all that I want
Patrick finished the song and looked into David’s eyes.
“Do you know what I’m asking you?”
“To permanently move my sweaters over six inches?”
“Will you?”
“Well, I’ll move in with you, but you know I probably won’t move my sweaters over. Are you sure you still want me?”
The fact that David felt the need to give him an out broke Patrick’s heart.
“I’ll always want you, David. You’re my home.”
A year later, Patrick and David were doing their weekly grocery shopping. When David moved in they had fallen into a routine of treating themselves to brunch and then doing the shopping together. At first it was because they couldn’t imagine spending any time apart from each other, but now it was because sometimes it was the only guaranteed ‘alone time’ they could have during the week.
“Can you grab me a toothbrush? Mine is getting pretty old. I’m going to go back and grab the yogurt. I’ll meet you at the checkout.” David turned and walked to the opposite side of the store, leaving Patrick with the cart.
“They didn’t have peach, I hope strawberry will be okay. Did you grab me a toothbrush?”
“No.”
“Ummmm. No? Why not?”
“They didn’t have any red ones.”
“Aaaaand you couldn’t have grabbed one that was a different color because…”
“Your toothbrush is red, David.”
“Well, I know it usually is, but I think we could switch it up a bit. Just let me go grab one.”
“No.” Patrick grabbed David’s wrist. “We’ll stop on the way home and get a red one.”
“Okay.” David really didn’t feel like making a scene inside the store so he let the subject drop until they had gotten back into the car.
“So what’s the deal with you insisting that I have a red toothbrush. I think I’m missing something.”
Patrick took a deep breath and put his hands on the steering wheel. He tipped his head up and stared at the ceiling of the car to avoid looking at David.
“It’s silly, really, but the first thing you ever left at my place was the red toothbrush I gave you when you stayed over when I still lived at Ray’s. Every morning I look at your red toothbrush next to mine and it reminds me how lucky I am to be sharing my home with you.” Patrick lowered his head and exhaled, as if he had just said that all in one breath. He kept his gaze straight ahead, not daring to look at David.
David placed two fingers under Patrick’s chin and turned his face to him, giving him a long kiss.
“Start the car, Patrick. We need to hurry.”
“Why? We’re just heading home.”
“We need to stop for a red toothbrush and I don’t want the ice cream to melt.”
“Thank you, David.”