Connected To Him (ManxMan)

Part 1: Chapter 25

Chapter 25: I win!

Chris was reluctant to let Ethan go that night. They'd had such a good date and he didn't want the day to end. Trying to prolong their date for as long as possible, Chris walked Ethan to his door. With only the porch light to help them see, Ethan and Chris lingered in front of Ethan's house. The interlocking of their fingers as they held hands was the only point of contact between the two of them, and it was nowhere near enough for Ethan. As they vaguely discussed their plans for the week, Ethan imagined closing the distance and holding Chris there until he couldn't breathe. The only thing holding him back was the knowledge that his parents could pop in at any second.

As if summoned by Ethan's inner thoughts, Barnett Sterling pushed open the front door. Ethan and Chris hadn't been standing that closely but still put even more distance between them when Ethan's father came bustling out.

"Oh! It's you two!" Mr. Sterling exclaimed, the wide grin on his face making his crows' feet more prominent. "I saw a strange car outside and thought I would just check it out but it's just you and your friend."

Mr. Sterling had to tilt his head up to look at Chris since he was the same height as his son. The bright older man gave many of his physical features to Ethan, like his thin lips, nose, and blond hair, which Mr. Sterling let fall to his shoulders.

Ethan looked happy, smiling and chuckling along with his father's story, but he a bit miffed. If it wasn't for his father's curious tendencies, he would already have his tongue shoved down Chris's throat.

Ethan's dad then went up to Chris, shaking his hand energetically.

"It's good to see you again, Chris." He told the younger man warmly. "I hope you and Ethan had a good time today. You went to dinner right?"

"We did, sir. The food was excellent." Chris replied politely. Ethan was discreetly rolling his eyes at how formal Chris sounded. Excellent huh? Ethan mentally repeated with a chuckle. "Even Ethan wouldn't stop raving about it."

"Hm, yes, my son can be a bit picky." Mr. Sterling added, quickly shooting a teasing smirk. Now Ethan made his eye roll obvious.

"Dad, just because I don't want to eat every single one of your food experiments doesn't mean I'm picky."

Chris laughed audibly hearing Ethan's defence. The image of Mr. Sterling bringing in dish after dish to Ethan only for Ethan to spit it all out was really funny. Barnett considered fighting back, but he feared he would just seem silly if he didn't say the right thing.

Instead, he focused back on Ethan's kind friend. Mr. Sterling had been trying to spend some more time with his son, but the kid wasn't always eager to hang out with his parents. But, maybe if one of Ethan's friends was attending, all parties would be happy.

"Hey, Chris, why don't you come over this weekend?" Mr. Sterling asked suddenly, surprising both Ethan and Chris. "We could play some board games. I haven't done that with Ethan in forever."

Ethan's cheeks tinged pink from embarrassment. His mind reeled with assumptions about how Chris wanted to run far away from him and his family because of his dad. He'd always known that his father was embarrassing, but this was taking things to a whole new level.

"Dad, I don't think Chris wants to spend his weekend on Scrabble and Monopoly." Ethan said darkly, glaring at his father. Chris frowned slightly, seeing the tension in Ethan's shoulders. He wanted to get his hands on Ethan, working out the stress personally. But, he couldn't do that in front of an unknowing parent. Therefore, the next best thing was to let Ethan know he could relax.