"You ready?" Roberto asked over the phone.
"...just about," Danny replied, shoving the last remaining pieces of clothing from his closet into a duffle bag.
Around him, open cardboard boxes and a suitcase all stuffed with his belongings stood in a bare bedroom. His former bedroom.
"All right! You can come over now if you like," the copywriter announced, zipping up the bag.
"Okay baby, I'm heading out then." They hung up.
Sitting on the carpeted floor, looking at the empty four walls, it hit Danny again that he really was moving out of his parents'. This was going to be a big new chapter in his life.
He thought back to when he announced his decision earlier in the week.
Facing him, in the kitchen, there was his mother, whose eyes widened, like those of a deer staring at oncoming headlights.
Beside her, his dad Pierre raised his eyebrows.
Danny was ready for his mom to raise her voice and begin an endless tirade. But instead, she just got up, expressionless and silent, and headed for the staircase.
"Mom?" the copywriter asked as she walked by him. When she neither stopped nor responded, he turned to his dad, who responded with a silent half-hug and a pat on the shoulder.
"Have you thought about this seriously?" Pierre asked.
"Yes, dad," the brunet answered. "He's the one. We're serious about this."
A slight smile appeared on his father's face. "You're all grown up now." He held Danny in a long embrace.
"It will be hard at times. Call me if you need anything."
"Merci, papa."
Leaving his memories to focusing again on the present, Danny double-checked his closet. 'At least I have dad,' he thought.
Just then, Pierre knocked on the door.
"Alors..." Danny's father said as he came in, "When are you leaving?"
"Soon, maybe ten minutes"
His father teased, "Love moves quickly, doesn't it?"
"Dad..." Danny moaned, rolling his eyes, as Pierre laughed and patted the copywriter's shoulder.
"Thank you, for supporting me," Danny said.
"We love you so much, Danny. Both of us." Pierre paused. "Things have been a little bit difficult lately, but that's because you're our little boy. You'll always be our little boy."
"Papa..." The moment just wouldn't be complete without waterworks from Danny.
His father continued. "You're a man now. Take care of yourself. Take care of Roberto. Soon, you'll have to take care of us too!"
Danny chuckled, wiping his tears away.
"Are you done packing?" his father asked, his hands on the brunet's shoulders.
"Almost."
"All right, I'm going to see how your mother is doing."
His son frowned, guilty.
"Just give it time, Danny," Pierre assured, patting his shoulder. Danny took a breath and nodded some more. "All right, go finish packing then."
In his bedroom, the brunet tried his hardest to concentrate on checking everything in his bags and boxes again. 'I'm doing the right thing, he reminded himself. I'm doing the best thing.'
Several minutes later, Roberto texted him to say he'd arrived. Danny went downstairs to open the door for Roberto, hugging him tightly. Then they began moving the copywriter's belongings out of his parents' house.
It took several trips to get his computer, his books, all his clothes, and every other daily essential and knick-knack into the mechanic's red Lancer; the trunk and backseat were filled to the brim. When they were all done, Danny made one last trip up to the master bedroom door. He knocked.
Pierre opened up, and Danny's eyes immediately darted to his mom, sitting on the bed, blotting her eyes with a ball of tissue. The sight made her son choke up.
"You ready, son?" his father asked.
Danny nodded and squeezed his eyes shut tightly.
"Goodbye, dad. Goodbye, mom."
As his father embraced him one more time, Danny opened his eyes to steal a final look at his mother. She was looking right back at him, her eyes red, her expression stoic but flecked with fear and sadness.
That image haunted the brunet all the way back to Roberto's apartment. It would remain in the back of his mind for much longer.
His boyfriend knew very well what was going on inside his head, and quietly held Danny's hand on the drive back home.
When they arrived at the underground garage in Roberto's building, the last thing Danny wanted to do was to haul his belongings up to the apartment.
As they got out of the red Mitsubishi Lancer, the mechanic suggested that Danny leave the nonessential stuff down in his basement storage locker. After dropping that off, they then carried everything else up to the apartment in a few trips.
As they moved the final boxes in the suddenly cramped apartment, Roberto said, "You can start unpacking tomorrow. There's no hurry." The two of them pushed Danny's belongings first into the den strewn with exercise equipment, then finished off the last of the bags by throwing them into the closet.
"We gotta get some racks or shelves for all your fancy clothes," Roberto exclaimed, realizing how much space Danny's stuff took up.
Danny loved it every time Roberto said "we". "Don't worry; I inherited my mom's space-saving skills," he assured. "You'll barely notice my things are here after I'm done," he said with a smile.
Roberto tousled Danny's hair. " I'll notice the extra mouth eating all the food...and the extra pair of ass cheeks just waiting to be taken," he quipped, giving his boy's bum a loud smack.
The brunet jumped and squealed.
