The Man He Chose

Chapter 14

A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

Santa's POV

My older brother Mile was so kind to agree to put me up at his house until I was able to find a place of my own. He had an extra room with its own bathroom at the back of his detached garage which came really handy for me.

Thankfully P'Mile did not ask me any questions. He was aware that I was living with my boyfriend Cooheart. P'Mile just assumed that Cooheart and I were having a temporary lovers' tiff and that I would eventually go back to Coo.

P'Mile knew that I couldn't go to my parents' house because my mom loves Cooheart to pieces and she would scold me to death for leaving him. She would never let me hear the end of it.

P'Mile's boyfriend Apo tried to make me eat the delicious  dinner of green curry chicken soup that he cooked but I could only manage a few spoonfuls then I asked to be excused.

I stayed awake the whole night. I did not just stay awake. I cried and I cried and I cried until my eyes and eyelids were red and puffy.

When morning came I knew that I had to go back to Cooheart. I just could not stay away from him for another day.

I called myself all kinds of despicable names for not being able to stay away from Cooheart. Where was my pride? He loves another man but here I am insisting on being with him and taking care of him even if the man he loves was probably more capable of taking care of him than I am.

After a hurried shower and a quick breakfast of milk and cereals I announced to P'Mile and Apo that I had decided to go back to Cooheart.

"That's a good boy," P'Mile had said and Apo had smiled approvingly.

Halfway through my trip to Cooheart's condo unit, I chickened out.

I stopped by a mall that was along the way and decided to browse through whatever shops were in there.

I went into a t-shirt store and went through a rack that had t-shirts with funny sayings printed on them.

I was torn between buying the one that said "I'm not always right, but I'm never wrong"  and the one that read "I got a dig bick" and below it in smaller print "You that read wrong" and in even smaller print below it  "You read that wrong too."

After two more hours of browsing, because I had only cereals and milk for breakfast, my stomach started to grumble. I wondered what Cooheart was going to have for lunch today. I hoped that he was eating right. I worried that he would go back to buying food from fast food restaurants and not have a proper nutritious meal. Cooheart was such a big baby. He needed someone to take care of him. What was I waiting for. I decided to surprise him and cook a big nutritious lunch for him.

When I got to his unit it was empty. I wondered where he had gone off to.

I glanced at the digital clock on the kitchen counter. It was a half hour before noon.

I dragged my suitcase into our bedroom but didn't waste time unpacking.

I went straight to the kitchen and took out all the ingredients for a Pad Krapow Gai which was his second favorite dish to teriyaki salmon.

I had just dropped the chopped up onions into the pan sizzling with heated coconut oil when I heard the front door open.

I turned around just in time to see Cooheart peeking through the front door.

I dropped the spatula and rushed over to give him a big hug.

When he backed away I asked in confusion, "What's the matter?"

Then I saw 'the matter' standing right behind him. 

Kao looked wide eyed at me before quickly turning around and walking away.

Cooheart chased after him.

I stood where I was, undecided on what to do next.