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It was nearing the end of the shift when Buck approached Eddie. Ever since Buck had started dating Tommy, things were going well, but he worried that he was capitalizing too much of Tommy’s time and he didn’t want Tommy and Eddie’s friendship to deteriorate because of him. He also hadn’t had a chance to hang out with just Christopher lately, but he had an idea.
“Hey Eddie, you got a minute?” Buck asked as he went to help Eddie set the bar back on the bench press.
“Yeah, of course. What’s up?” Eddie glistened a bit with sweat, though he hadn’t gotten too far into the workout. He sat up and faced Buck, focusing all his attention on his best friend. Eddie was worried there was something wrong.
“If you need to do some more lifting, I can spot you while we talk.” Buck started, trying to make this as casual a conversation as possible. It really wasn’t a big deal, he knew that. Buck just always tended to overthink things like this. Eddie took the cue from Buck and returned to position and continued where he left off on his exercise.
“Look, I feel like I need to apologize. Stop. Let me finish.” Buck continued, despite Eddie obviously wanting to interject. “I’ve been having a good time with Tommy and I like the way things are going for us. I just feel I’ve been doing to you the same thing you unintentionally did, taking up all of Tommy’s time. I don’t want that for you or us. I don’t want to be the reason you can’t spend as much time with a friend of yours.”
“Buck. You don’t need to apologize for having fun with your new relationship. Are you officially boyfriends yet? Because you absolutely should be. Anyways, Tommy and I are both adults who are completely capable of arranging time to hang out.” Eddie huffed as he finished his set. After replacing the bar, he got up and walked over to the pile of weights to add an extra 10 pounds to the bench bar. “Don’t worry about us, Buck. Nothing has changed, we’re good. All three of us.”
Buck kept an eye on Eddie as he started his new set. He didn’t think Eddie would need any help, but you keep a spotter for a reason. “Well, I was actually thinking about the four of us. I also haven’t had too much time with just me and Christopher lately. So I was thinking; you, Tommy, and I are all off tomorrow. Why don’t you and Tommy hang out and I can watch Christopher? Unless you’ve got plans with Marisol already.”
“Yeah, about that. We kinda broke up. So I don’t have any plans. Not sure about Christopher though. I can check when he gets home from school later today.” Eddie was trying to brush past the whole Marisol thing, hoping Buck would let it pass. He really didn’t want to talk much about her right now.
“Ah, sorry about that. If you need to talk about it we-” Buck was trying to comfort his friend, because of course he was.
Eddie had to interject, “No. I don’t want to talk about it now. Maybe later.”
Buck looked at Eddie with a little bit of worry. He knew Eddie always tried to keep a mask on, pretending things were good even when they weren’t. Buck wanted to push, but he knew it was better to let Eddie bring it up in his own time. “Alright, we can talk later, when you want. But we will need to talk about it. Back to tomorrow’s plans. Let me know what Christopher says and I’ll talk with Tommy. He won’t say it, but I know he’s been wanting to hang out with you as well. I suck at Muay Thai and Basketball.”
Eddie had to put the bar up early because he couldn’t stop laughing at Buck.
*****
“Alright, Christopher, I’ve got a plan in mind for tonight.” Buck grinned at Christopher.
“Did you get a new video game?” Chris was excited for a night with Buck. It had been a while and he missed his Buck.
“I did not. We’re going to start by going back to my place and making some measurements. I need a new couch and I want you to help me pick it out.” Buck placed a hand on Christopher’s knee, shaking it just slightly.
“Okay. But Buck, didn’t you just get a new couch a couple of months ago?” Chris was a bit perplexed by this request. “And why me? Wouldn’t it be better if Tommy helped you. He is your boyfriend.”
Buck could only chuckle at Christopher’s reaction. “It is a bit strange, yes, but we’ll start at the end there. Do you remember last year when I was sad Captain Nash wouldn’t consider me for interim Captain? You said, ‘Buck, you don’t even have a couch.’”
At the mention of that memory, Chris busted up into a full body laugh.
“Exactly! It is funny, but you were right. It’s strange not to have a couch. I’d also rather pick it with someone I know will never leave me.” Buck mussed up Chris’s hair as a sign of affection. He completely failed to realize his choice of words were bound to worry his best friend’s son.
“Tommy’s going to leave you?” The look on Chris’s face was heartbreaking as was the sadness in his voice.
Buck could never not break when it came to Christopher. He fought back the tears and gave the kid a hug. “I don’t know, Chris. And I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. I know we’ve talked about this before, but sometimes people leave. Things are pretty early in the relationship for me and Tommy. I want it to work out, but I don’t know the future. Neither does Tommy. And it’s okay that we don’t. He and I are taking things slow for now, making sure that we give what we have the time and effort it deserves.”
Chris pulled away after Buck stopped talking. “Okay, I understand. So why do you need a new couch?”
Buck started to laugh at the memory of wrestling with Tommy while they were playing some Street Fighter. Tommy wasn’t much of a gamer and decided that he needed to make things harder on Buck. It got out of hand real quick. “Tommy was at my place the other night and we got rough-housing. The couch kinda broke when we took it a little too far.”
“Buck. I know what sex is. You can just say that, it won’t gross me out. Much.” Chris couldn’t help but be exasperated with Buck. Buck was as bad as his dad when it came to treating him like a little kid still.
Buck, on the other hand, was blushing so intensely his cheeks burned from the heat. It took a moment for him to stop sputtering and compose himself before correcting the assumption. “We weren’t having sex Christopher. Not that I’d tell you if we were because that’s private information that adults don’t always share. We were just playing games, I was winning, and Tommy tried to tickle me to make it easier for him to win. Like you try to do.”
Chris giggled at that. “He did that because I told him that’s what I do!”
“Oh, you’re the one corrupting my boyfriend, huh?” Buck’s voice took on a fake accusatory tone as he reached out and started to tickle Chris.
Chris was full belly laughing now. “Stop, Buck! Stop! I’m sorry! Stah-ha-hap”
“Okay, I’ll stop. Grab your stuff, we have a couch to buy.” Buck stopped tickling Chris and started to fix his hair. The pair stood up and headed towards Buck’s apartment.
*****
They two were looking around in the furniture store, Buck pointing out different couches and Christopher saying what he liked and didn’t like about each. While they were looking at a black leather couch, a voice came from behind them. “Father and son picking out a couch together? That’s adorable. Is there anything I can help you with?”
“Buck’s not my dad,” Chris spoke up as he and Buck turned around. It was an older woman, maybe mid forties, with a blonde pixie cut.
“Ah-ha, yeah. I-I’m not his dad. I’m his dad’s best friend. I’m watching him this evening while his dad is out. Thank you. Um.” Buck leaned in a bit closer to the woman to inspect her nametag. “LeAnn.”
“Oh, that’s a little unorthodox, but sweet of you nonetheless.” She put on her best smile. “I’d be happy to show you around, if you’d like.”
“We’ve been looking for a minute, but I think we could use a little bit of help.” Buck didn’t like getting a salesperson involved in any shopping events, but he had to admit he was out of his depth here.
“Okay, let’s start with size. How big are you looking at?” LeAnn was certainly prepared to help, at least as far as Buck could tell.
“Are you talking about dimensions or capacity? I’ve got measurements if you need them.” Buck reached for his phone to pull up his notes.
“Let’s go for capacity.” LeAnn smiled, staying focused on Buck.
“I’d prefer something that seats three, but a loveseat would be fine, too. Nothing huge, like a sectional couch.” Buck started listing the things he and Chris had talked about.
“It needs to be sturdy, too. Buck broke his last one rough-housing with his boyfriend.” Chris decided this was the moment to add some input. Buck shook his head just a bit, fighting the intense embarrassment of Chris’s outburst. He’d have noticed LeAnn barely keeping a laugh in if his eyes weren’t shut, as well. Buck’s embarrassment wasn’t at an end yet, because Chris decided to continue. “That’s what he told me. He says it wasn’t sex.”
“Christopher! Remember what we said earlier about keeping some things private.” Buck had turned to look at Chris, trying to fix his best disciplinary glare on the boy.
Chris was smiling a bit, but he did look away sheepishly before he finally said. “I’m sorry.”
Buck turned back to LeAnn. He was trying to keep the embarrassment from showing on his face, and he was failing miserably. “Sorry ‘bout that interruption.”
LeAnn was lucky enough that she’d had time to get her laugh suppressed. “Please don’t worry about it. My next question is about material. Any thoughts?”
“You see, that’s one of the hang ups we’re having. I don’t know the pros and cons of different materials. I personally like the idea of leather, but I know upkeep can be rough.” Buck was looking around at a couple of different things close by as he spoke.
Chris decided this was time for him to interject again. “It needs to be made of something easy to clean. Someone gave birth on his couch once. He had people try to clean it but it didn’t work.”
Buck caught it this time as LeAnn pursed her lips, rolled the inwards, and bit down using a combination of pain and pressure to keep from laughing at the cute kid’s additions to the conversation. He couldn’t blame her though; Chris always had the best comedic timing and he was using it to devastating effect. Buck was just on the receiving end today.
The silence remained there for a few seconds, the atmosphere a blend of awkwardness and levity. LeAnn finally broke the silence. “I’ll take that into consideration. Fabric based upholstery is probably going to be harder to clean, though it usually is less expensive than leather. Both have ways to protect the material from staining. Neither is fool-proof. Leather usually holds up better over time. I’m not sure if that helps much in determining material. If you still aren’t sure, keep that information in mind as we look around. Color?”
“Yeah, I don’t know if I’m sure on the material choice. And when it comes to the color, I’m even more out of my league. I never got better than a C in art.” Buck was worried Christopher had another embarrassing addition, so he pulled his phone out and showed the salesperson some photos of the living space. “Here’s where the couch will be going. In this picture is the recliner that I have. I don’t need to color match the chair, I just want to make sure I don’t have a couch that feels out of place.”
LeAnn looked at the photos and whistled quietly. “That feels like a nice place you have there. Based on current furnishings, I’d recommend something that’s either a darker shade of yellow, orange, or red. Or you could go with something in the medium to dark brown range. Black could work, but it doesn’t really fit as well. Definitely avoid any of the cool colors and lighter hues.”
“When you say darker shade, what are you thinking?” Evan was intrigued by this woman’s expertise. How does somebody learn all of this? It seems so alien.
“Well, for example, if you went for a darker yellow, I’d say mustard yellow is the brightest you might want and even that is pretty bold.” LeAnn noted the way Chris stuck his tongue out at the mention of ‘mustard yellow.’
“Yeah, I don’t know if that would work. I think that might be too intense. Right Christopher?” Buck turned to see what Chris thought of that, having missed him sticking out his tongue.
“I don’t think you would like that for very long, Buck. Besides, mustard is gross.” Chris responded.
“I swear, I’ll get you to like mustard one day. But I agree, I think that color wouldn’t be for me. I’m thinking in the orange range, but what kind of dark red would you suggest?” Buck agreed with Chris. He couldn’t see something like that in his living room.
“You could go for something like a wine color. Or you could split the difference between dark red and orange and go for a burnt orange or rust color. I think that’s a good place to start. I’ve got a few options in mind, but let’s look at a couple to start with and go from there. Why don’t you two follow me?” LeAnn turned around and started down one of the paths into the store.
It took longer than Buck would have liked there were two solid options. “Okay Chris, this is where I need your help most. Which one is going to be my new couch?”
Buck was pretty sure he knew Chris’s answer, but he let Chris make a display of thinking about it. “I think this should be your new couch.”
“Should be? Only should be?” Buck teased.
“Just buy it, Buck. The other one was too small.” Chris sighed in exasperation.
LeAnn smiled at the interaction. “I can see why you needed his assistance. He’s got a good eye and a strong opinion. So, I take it we’re going with this one?”
“Yes, I believe we are.” Buck smiled.
*****
They were back at Eddie and Chris’s house. Dinner was take-out Chinese, picked up on the way back from the furniture store.
“So, what did you two troublemakers get up to tonight?” Eddie asked.
“Well, I needed to get a new couch. I figured I needed Chris’s help getting the right one.” Buck shrugged. He followed that with a mouthful of lo mein.
“A new couch? Already?” Eddie looked incredulously at Buck, speaking around a half-chewed bite of sweet-and-sour chicken. He swallowed it and looked at Tommy with some concern and then back to Buck. “Who or what exactly happened this time?”
Tommy could tell he was missing something and was about to ask. Unfortunately for all of the adults, Chris spoke up. “Buck and Tommy broke it. Buck says it was horsing around, not sex.”
Chris looked back down at his plate to select his next bite like nothing had happened. The three adults’ cheeks blushed so intensely they probably could have cooked a second meal from the heat it generated.