Mark woke up to an uncomfortably warm bed. He could feel the sweat that had gathered at his back and shifted to let it soak into the back of his shirt and the sheets. He took a quick glance at the clock — it was already past noon. No wonder it was so damn hot under the covers. It also didn’t help that Cesar was all over him, his arms and legs wrapped around Mark like he was a body pillow.
He could tolerate the heat for a few more minutes. Cesar looked comfortable. Mark didn’t want to disturb him.
Then he did the same thing that he’d been doing every morning for the past few weeks: he raised his hand to his face to see if that gold band was still on his ring finger, just to make sure he didn’t dream that.
Yup, still there. The wedding that happened several weeks ago was real. It actually happened, and not a day went by where he could believe he was finally married to the man he was sharing his bed with. Living with Cesar wasn’t anything new, they’d been together for many years and lived with each other for most of that time. Long before they ever considered the possibility that they could be joined in marriage. But now that they were here, it felt different. Living together felt sacred and special, and Mark realized that all this time it was something he took for granted.
Mark refused to take the ring off. He needed to be reminded every morning that it was real. Cesar felt the same, never taking off his matching gold wedding band even while he slept. It filled Mark with pride that he was the one who got to put a ring on Cesar’s finger.
With all that happened in Mandela County, neither of them thought they’d make it past age thirty, let alone get married in the process, but life was turning out to be full of surprises.
“Something wrong, Mark?”
Cesar was awake now, cheek squished against Mark’s shoulder, looking up at him with tired eyes.
“Just making sure the last few weeks were real. That’s all.”
Cesar grabbed Mark’s hand into his own and brought the both down to settle on Mark’s chest. That same hand bore Cesar’s matching ring. “I’ll be here every morning to remind you if you forget.”
Mark settled back into his pillow, with Cesar’s hand against his chest. He could feel himself starting to doze off again despite the heat and sweat making his shirt stick to his back. All he wanted was to drift off again with his caring husband at his side.
“Are you still tired? We slept in so late.”
“Yeah. They’re working me to the bone at the yard. I think bossman is trying to make up for the time I took off for the wedding and honeymoon.”
Cesar pouted. “Asshole. Is it because of, well, you know…”
“No, no, I don’t think it’s that,” Mark interrupted. “He’s done this to others before whenever they need to take off from work. If that’s even a factor, I have no way of knowing. That douchebag Lennie’s had a lot to say about it, but I can’t take him seriously when he’s getting yelled at every day for not doing shit right. Shuts up real quick once he’s gotten his ass reamed out.”
“Good. Fuck him,” he said, rubbing Mark’s arm. “But it’s still not right that he’s working you so hard.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s not like we have anywhere to be today. We can spend our whole Saturday sleeping if we wanted to.”
“It’s too hot,” said Cesar, sliding off of Mark’s shoulder and letting his head flop back down against his own pillow. “If I stay in bed any longer, I might just melt.”
“Drama queen.”
“Whatever,” he laughed, playfully shoving Mark. “You hungry? I know you’re tired, so if you want, you can stay in bed and I’ll make breakfast this time.”
“You? Cook? ” Mark was smug, rolling onto his side to grin at Cesar. “Since when did you know how?”
“Ma taught me, I just never really put it to use.”
“So all this time you’ve had me doing all the cooking when you knew how?”
“I mean, I never said I couldn’t. Do you want me to or not?”
Mark leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “I’d love it if you did.”
With a lazy chuckle, Cesar sat up, staying there for a little while to shake off the grogginess, never letting go of Mark’s hand. He was just as tired as Mark was and needed a few minutes to get himself going, but based on his tone Mark knew that he was insistent on doing something to make his day a little easier.
And if Cesar really learned everything he knew about cooking from his mother, then it had to be good. Mrs. Torres knew her way around the kitchen better than anyone, so much so that any time she invited him over to have dinner with her and Cesar, it took everything he had to not bounce in his seat like a giddy child. If he brought Cesar flowers, he made sure to bring her some as well as thanks for the food.
“I can’t believe your mom came to our wedding.”
“Yeah. She was so surprised about the whole thing. Not about it being us getting married, but the fact that I was getting married at all.”
“She made the same face at your graduation. But that was because she thought you’d get held back again. Dumbass.”
“Know what?” With a smug grin, Cesar laid back in his spot on the bed. “Maybe I don’t feel like making breakfast.”
“Oh come on! I’m just messing with you.”
“I know,” he giggled, kissing the top of Mark’s head. “I’m just kidding. I want you to be able to rest a little longer. I’ll come and get you when it’s ready.”
“You probably won’t have to do that. The sound of the smoke alarm will tell me when the food’s ready.”
“You’re really pushing your luck, buddy. Really making me reconsider being nice.”
“If I work the tension out of your shoulders, will you forgive me?” Mark laughed, he knew it was all a joke, but he still wanted to do something nice for Cesar if he was going to offer to cook for once.
Cesar rolled onto his stomach. “I could never say no to those strong hands working magic on my back.”
With some effort, Mark sat himself up and kicked a leg over Cesar’s body until he was straddling his lower back. Starting at his shoulders, he found and worked out every knot and tense muscle. Cesar didn’t do heavy manual labor like Mark did, but his job involved repetitive tasks that sometimes left him with irritated muscles.
Cesar folded his arms under his head while he let Mark do his thing. “It sucks that your mom wouldn’t come to the wedding.”
The thought of that still left Mark feeling hurt, but he tried to push the pain away. What was important was that he and Cesar were together and that there were people who supported them. “Yeah. Still stings. But Sarah came, that’s all I care about.”
“She’d run to the ends of the earth for you,” Cesar commented, making a face as Mark worked on a particularly tough knot in his back. “Fuck, that’s the big one. Feels like a goddamned rock in my back.”
Mark worked his hands in harder in a spot just below and off to the side from the nape of Cesar’s neck. “Lots of phone calls? This one has to be from holding the phone between your ear and shoulder.”
“That’s probably it.”
After a few minutes of soothing the aches and pains in the older male’s back, Mark kicked himself back over to his side of the bed and laid back flat so Cesar could climb over him. Instead of doing that, he rolled across Mark, crushing his full weight down on his belly on his way to the other side of the bed.
Mark lurched forward from the force on his stomach. “Mother fucker! ”
“That word’s definitely not in the Bible.”
Mark laid back down once more as Cesar shot him a victorious grin before heading downstairs to the kitchen. He decided that was payback for teasing him all morning. He let himself relax again, drifting off into a light sleep, undisturbed by the distant sounds of dishes and pans being moved around downstairs.
When he opened his eyes again, he looked at the clock to see that he’d only dozed off for about ten minutes.
Tired as he was, Mark decided it wasn’t right to leave Cesar in the kitchen all by himself. He pulled himself out of bed and moved toward the door, stopping to take a glance at the pair of silver rings left among their belongings on the dresser.
Mark got those rings for him and Cesar so many years ago, when they held an unofficial “wedding” in secret. He promised that if there was ever a day they could get married “for real”, he would replace those silver bands with gold ones. He didn’t think that day would come, but here they were now, living their lives together in the same house. They survived some serious bullshit together, Cesar was his husband now, and they had the rest of their lives laid out before them to share.
That husband was still downstairs, either burning breakfast or doing his mother proud. Either way, Mark would eat anything he made, he’d never complain about having a loving husband who was willing to switch up the responsibilities from time to time. If he was going to take over cooking today, he decided he should take up cleaning the dishes as Cesar was finished with them. He just hoped that whatever Cesar was about to feed him this morning, it wouldn’t be hard to at least pretend to like it.