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Ray looked at himself in the full-length mirror. The black pants and grey sweater didn't feel quite right. He sighed and rummaged through the wardrobe for a little while. He picked up a light brown shirt he had thrifted a few weeks back with Sand, this could work.
The shirt was formal enough, it was nicely ironed and the color didn't clash with the pants. He straightened it a bit before grabbing his accessories. Focused on picking a watch, he missed Sand walking up to him from behind.
He put his hands on Ray's waist and his chin on his shoulder “I told you, you don't need to dress up”
Ray ignored him and held up two watches “gold or silver?”
Sand wasn't an expert, both of them looked nice and it's not like his mom was going to judge him based on the colour of his accessories.
“Mmh” he pretended to think “Silver”
Ray put on the chosen one and gave Sand a necklace of the same material “Put it on me”
Sand hooked the chain around his neck and closed the clasp behind him. He looked at Ray through the mirror, he was combing through his hair with his bare hands and looking at himself up and down.
“You always get nervous when we go see her. I've told you before, my mom loves you Ray” he hugged him from behind. Ray relaxed into the touch, letting his head fall on the side of Sand's neck.
When they started living together a year ago, Sand had promised to visit his mom every week.
At first they had done as promised but then their alcohol business had become more popular.
The law had changed in their favour, and after an insane amount of paperwork, they were able to sell it legally.
Ray had offered to pay someone to do all the paperwork for them but Sand insisted on doing it themselves, it felt like a big step towards their joint future and he wanted to do it together.
Getting the permit and setting up everything was the most headache-inducing part but not the busiest one. Now that the show was up and running, they had a ton of customers regularly ordering their plum wine. Turns out a properly made label and a website attracts a lot more people than passing bottles for cash in the university parking lot. Who would have thought.
Apart from using his economics degree to run the wine selling business, Sand still spent a lot of nights playing at yolo. His days were packed.
Their weekly visits to the gogo bar turned into monthly dinners at his mother's house.
Ray closed his eyes and sighed, he knew they were busier these days, half of his time was spent running the hostel and the other half managing his business with Sand. He felt a little guilty, Sand's mom was incredibly nice and treated him like a son, so now that they didn't see her as often, he wanted every visit to be perfect.
“You know, I could help you relax if you wanted” Sand's hands started to slowly make their way from Ray's stomach to his navel, threatening to go lower. Ray grabbed his wrist and freed himself from the hug, walking to the kitchen.
“We can do that when we get home, now let's go, we're gonna be late”
He grabbed the cardboard box he had left in the fridge, he always made sure to buy dessert when they visited Sand's mom.
He grabbed his keys and looked up at Sand, he was standing on the bedroom door frame, looking at his own watch
“If we leave now we'll be there 15 minutes early”
“Exactly, now let's go” he opened the front door and moved his hands, signaling for Sand to go on. Sand knew he was not winning this war, he grabbed his brown leather jacket and followed Ray outside.
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The drive there was nice, like it always is. The traffic lights seemed extra bright under a slowly darkening sky. Not a lot of people were out on the street since it was a Monday and the cold breeze seeped through the slightly opened windows of the car.
Ray held his hands on the steering wheel as Sand hummed to the micro song that came out of the speakers.
Ray loved the sound of his voice, especially like this. Hearing him sing with his guitar on stage was always great, but he couldn't help but like it better this way. Sand half whispered the lyrics, sometimes not knowing all of them while he sang the instrumental parts, imitating the sound of a guitar, he also gently drummed his fingers on the glove box and looked outside the window. It looked like he sang unintentionally, without even realizing he was doing it.
This is the best version of Sand's singing, in Ray's opinion, the quiet lyrics and whispered melodies. Sometimes he wished he could record it, make a full CD of his low hums and listen to them when he can't sleep.
They parked in front of the apartment building and rang the doorbell. She immediately knew who was at the door without asking and opened it.
Her apartment was on the fifth floor with no elevator. As Ray clutched the cardboard box, he thought about the conversation they had a year and a half prior.
Ray was sick of sweating every time he came to see Sand's mom and wanted to buy her a place with an elevator, or at least something on a lower floor. Sand said no, like he always did. He refused to let Ray spend his father's money on his family, he said it felt like charity.
Ray couldn't disagree more, he had money to spend and wanted to do it on his boyfriend and mother-in-law. After trying his best persuasion tactics he realized Sand was not going to budge.
Ray couldn't wait to save enough money from their business to finally move her out of here, surely nobody could enjoy going up and down 5 flights of steps every time they wanted to throw out the trash.
When they finally made it up, Sand's mom was already at the door, waving at them
“How are you Ray?”
He was still catching his breath, he smiled and held up the box instead of talking as he steadied out his breathing.
“Did you bring me something again? I tell you every time, I don't need anything”
She scolded as she pulled on the little red string of the box and took out a tray of various miniature fruits and vegetables. She held it with care while looking at it “I love Luk Chup. Thank you honey, we'll eat it together after dinner” she had a cheeky grin on her face.
She opened the door completely and let Ray in
“Sand, how are you baby?
“I'm good”
She closed the door behind him as they made their way to the already set table.
Three plates of Railway fried rice waited for them in the dining room. The familiar smell occupied the entire room
Sitting all together, Sand's mom reached over the table and grabbed Sand's cheek
“You look healthy” she was smiling ear to ear
“I've been going more the gym lately” he tried to push her hand away but she just pinched harder
She looked at Ray “You've been reminding him to eat right? I knew you'd take good care of him, he used to skip meals all the time”
“Mae!” Sand was finally able to wave her hand away.
Ray took a glance at Sand's face. It was true, he was a lot skinnier 2 years ago. Ray didn't verbally tell him to eat more, but everyday they ate meals together. Not the quick grab-anything-and-go that Sand was used to, actual meals while sitting down.
When they started living together, Sand had taken care of cooking for the both of them, feeding Ray forced him to feed himself too and Ray was glad to let him take the chore.
But watching him cook everyday had awakened some curiosity in him. After a few horrible attempts at mango sticky rice and many burnt fish cakes, he had gotten the hang of it. Now he made sure to prepare dinner while Sand was at Yolos a couple of times a week.
Sand felt his eyes on him and looked back at Ray, there was a huge grim scattered on his face. He turned to Sand's mom without missing a beat “Mae you should be proud of him, he's been eating a lot lately, truly a good balanced diet”
Sand slapped Ray's thighs under the table while his mom chuckled at the horribly obvious double meaning.
Sand changed the topic before they could continue joking “How about your health mae? Do you remember you have a doctor's appointment next week? I wrote it on the kitchen calendar last time I was here”
“Yes Sand I know” she waved him away “I remember” he looked at her with raised eyebrows “It’s next Tuesday at 1 o’clock, I know! Now start eating, the food is going to get cold”
Both of them complied and started eating the home cooked meal. Ray hummed in agreement as soon as he took the first bite “It's really good Mae, even better than Sand's”
She smiled and pointed at him with the fork “Who do you think he got his cooking skills from? It's all me” she raised her shoulders and closed her eyes in victory, high confidence also ran in their family.
Comfortable silence swallowed the living room as the initial rush of hunger had them putting spoonful after spoonful in their mouths. The three of them talked about work, about the weather and about the Sandray wine business. They even talked about Mae's new boyfriend and her newfound passion for painting. She developed it after they had gifted her a set of water colours and canvases for her birthday the year prior. They hoped she could find a hobby that she liked and occupied her time, now that they couldn't see each other quite as often.
They talked about anything and everything and joked around throughout the whole meal and dessert.
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“What are you smiling about?”
Sand was lying on the bed looking up at Ray while he changed his shirt into his sleepwear.
He didn't let go of his satisfied expression as he got in bed next to his boyfriend.
He brought the blanket up to his chest “I just like visiting your mom”
“Yeah? Don't you always say you hate the stairs?” Sand had an incredulous look on his face.
“Well yeah, but I love it when we all have dinner together. We never did family meals growing up so it's nice to participate”
Sand started running his fingers through Ray's hair and looking at him with big eyes.
“I'm glad you like them. She loves having us over” Ray scooted closer, leaning in to whisper his next words
“Do you think one day we'll ask our kids to come visit us for dinner?”
Sand raised his eyebrows in feigned surprise, he couldn't control the dumb smile that appeared in his face
“Oh so we're having kids?”
“Maybe, one day” Ray shrugged “Would you like to?”
Sand didn't need to think twice “Yeah I'd like that”
Ray rolled to his side, leaning on his elbow he started to pepper little kisses on Sand's face
“You can teach them how to play guitar” he said between pecks to his cheeks and mouth. His kisses started to travel down to his jaw.
“What will you teach them then?”
Ray stopped kissing for a second to look at him “Obviously I'll teach them how to dress fashionably” he grinned before resuming his task, now kissing Sand's neck and sneaking a hand down his matching pajama pants, the ones they bought together
on Christmas.
“I thought we were going to the gym tomorrow morning” Sand raised an eyebrow
“We can skip the gym if we're too sore”