The Rest of the Story

by Tal Bauer

We found each other’s gaps and broken spaces and filled them in, and we came together like a kaleidoscope forming shimmering fractals out of piles of nothing. Every time you looked at us, we were different.

He smiled, and it was like a million sparklers went off at once, a million little flashes of light in the depths of his eyes. The shine of him, the glow. He was incandescent. Wondrous. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. I was so, so fucked.

He was as close to perfect as I’d ever seen, so close that it burned to be around him. He was like staring at the sun.

“You mean everything to me.” My words hung between us. “You are everything to me. So let’s do this. Let’s really do this.”

I’m yours. I’m yours as long as you want me. You can smash me to pieces, shatter me into smithereens, and it will all be worth it, just for the chance to be part of your life.

surrounded by the team. Such a little family we were, always together, never a man left on his own.

“I don’t want the world.” Shea slipped his hand into mine, wove our fingers together. “I want you, Morgan. I just want you.”

Every time Shea and I kissed, it was like my heart found a new fold of hidden happiness, or I uncovered a new layer of bliss and ecstasy I never knew existed.

You showed up, Morgan, when you didn’t have to. That’s the finest thing a man can do in this life: be there for someone.