Sweetie
paused in the doorway for a while, the ice cubes melting in the two glasses of
iced tea he held. He paused there for the sole purpose of watching Jamie. So
rarely did he every get the chance to just stand and watch his boyfriend. There
was always something going on to make life hectic, from Jamie’s busy game
schedule to the club. But Jamie’s cold, which had been picked up by Sweetie as
well, gave them an opportunity to put everything on hold for a few days. And
gave Sweetie a chance to just stand there in the doorway, watching.
Jamie
lounged on the couch with a blanket draped over his legs and waist even though
he wore his fuzzy blue bathrobe. His reading material of choice was a recent
copy of Sports Illustrated. He licked his finger when he turned the pages and
held it so it was folded back at the spine, seeing only one page at a time. His
short red hair was unbrushed and stuck up strangely. He looked a little pale,
which made his green eyes and his freckles stand out all the more. But he also
looked relaxed and thoughtful. A whole range of facial expressions were shown
to the magazine, as if reacting to each and every sentence. Sweetie was pretty
sure he could stand there and watch all day and not get bored.
But then
Jamie sneezed and, when reaching for a tissue, he looked towards the doorway. “Fabulous.
Iced tea,” he said, a smile breaking out on his face as he dabbed a tissue at
his nose. He patted a spot on the couch beside him, and Sweetie quickly took
his place there and handed over a drink.
“Whatcha
reading? You looked pretty into it.”
Jamie
nodded and took a few sips of his drink. “It’s a survey about Hobosexuality and
Sborts,” he explained, his nose stuffy from his cold and his voice deeper than
usual. “Interviewed dearly a thousad beoble add fifty-two bercedt say they
dod’t adbire ad athlete who is obedly gay. Add sixty-eight bercedt say it would
hurt ad athlete’s career to be obedly gay.”
Sweetie
sighed. “Love, you shouldn’t read stuff like this. It makes you all agitated.
You’re supposed to be relaxing today, remember?”
Quickly
dismissing the suggestion, he read on. “Sixty-four bercedt say cobadies ared’t
goig to select athletes as edorsers if the athletes are gay or eved have beed
accused of beig gay.”
Resigning
himself to discussing this, he tried to put a better spin on it. “Yeah, but
that’s just what the sixty-four percent think. That’s not necessarily the truth
or how the companies with the products and brands feel, right? They’re going to
go after good players they think they can use—”
Jamie
groaned, which turned into coughing, which turned into him blowing his nose
one-handed. Before Sweetie could say anything, he pointed to the page in the
magazine again. “Get this ode. Odly thirty-three bercent thidk it’s abbrobriate
for gays to be little league coaches.”
“You run a
gay youth league, Jamie. I don’t think you have to worry about irate parents
shutting down your league because some of the coaches are gay,” Sweetie said.
“Dot the
boidt!” He said, sounding irate himself. Irate and terribly stuffy. He grabbed
for more tissues and buried his nose in them. “ihhh-IHHHSchhhh! IhhhChuhhh!” Angrily, he blew his nose.
“I know that’s
not the point. The point is you’re sick and need to be relaxing…” Sweetie reached
for the tissues box himself. “ehhhshuhh!
eppShhhh! Sniff! Or taking care
of me. Or both. Instead you’re getting all worked up over this.”
Jamie sighed
exasperatedly. “I’m not that worked ub. I just—”
Sweetie got
up before Jamie tried to explain he wasn’t agitated when, clearly, he was. “Fine,”
he said, putting his hands on his hips for the dramatic effect and hoping that
didn’t make him look like he was overdoing it. “I’ll just go be sick alone in
my room and leave you here to read your magazine in peace.” He turned and had
taken one step towards the door when Jamie called him back.
“Sorry,” he
said softly. “Dod’t go, Dob. Blease? I really wadt you to stay with be.”
His back to
Jamie, Sweetie had to smirk at how pathetic Jamie sounded in his plea. He
wasn’t the only one being a bit of a drama queen. Completely smirk-less, he
returned to the couch and sat back down beside the man. Then Sweetie wrapped an
arm around his shoulders and pulled Jamie against his side in a hug. “I’ll stay,”
he promised. He turned his head to the side when he felt another sneeze coming
on. “ehhPShhhh!” Then rubbed roughly
at his nose afterwards, wanting to continue speaking rather than stop to blow
his nose. “So long as you promise to relax. Otherwise you’ll go into conniptions
and have a heart attack and I’ll feel horribly guilty and never be able to fall
in love again.”
He
chuckled. “I forgot how good you are at guilt tribs.” Jamie let the magazine
rest in his lap, though he did look down at it there.
“That’s me.
King of the guilt trips.” Sweetie knew he wasn’t going to let this survey
matter go completely, though. “And I know… the point is there’s still a long
way left to go and people out there are still insane.”
Sniffling,
Jamie nodded in agreement. He closed his eyes and rested his head on his
boyfriend’s shoulder. “God, I hobe the kids dod’t see this issue.” He coughed a
little more and drank to calm the spasms and soothe his burning throat.
Sweetie took
the magazine from him and then moved his hand from shoulder to face, stroking
Jamie’s cheek softly. “Might not be so bad if they do,” Sweetie said. He was
certain at least half the guys must have a subscription to Sports Illustrated,
though not because of the annual swimsuit issue. “Might do them good to know
what they’re getting into. I mean, you’re a great role model, but you’ve had to
work hard to get where you are and you faced a hell of a lot of people who
didn’t want you there.”
Knowing
Sweetie was right, Jamie nodded reluctantly. Then he moved around, curling up
on the couch beneath the blanket with his head on Sweetie’s lap. Sweetie petted
it softly as he read through the survey for himself.
It wasn’t
really as bad as Jamie had made it out to be. There were the typical things of
course, with people favoring gay athletes in sports where there was less
physical contact, and with people thinking America
isn’t ready to accept gay athletes. But there were much more positive
statistics as well. Only twenty-one percent claimed they would enjoy the sport
less if they knew a player was gay and twenty-four percent said they would be
less of a fan of a particular athlete if they knew he or she was openly gay. “Hey,
seventy-eight percent say it’s okay for gay athletes to participate in sports
even if they are open about their sexuality. And only fourteen percent say they
should be excluded completely from playing team sports. That’s incredibly
encouraging, don’t you think?”
“ihhhh-Chuhhh! K’Schhh!” Jamie shook from
the force of the fierce sneezes. “ihhhCheshhh!”
He sniffed hard, his hand pressed to his nose to hold off any more tickles.
“Dobidik, get rid of the bagazide add just cuddle with be already,” he said
with a sigh.
It was
Sweetie’s turn to chuckle. He leaned forward and set the magazine down on the
coffee table beside his iced tea. Taking a handful of tissues from the box on
the table before sitting back, he gave most of them to Jamie but kept a few for
himself. He stretched out on the couch in the space between Jamie and the back
cushions. Then he did as asked and cuddled Jamie, wrapping his arms and one leg
around the man and hugging him close. “Mmmm… now this I am sure I could do all
day and not get bored.”
“What?”
Jamie asked, pulling the blanket up over them both.
“Nothing,” Sweetie
replied. He closed his eyes with a happy sigh as he felt Jamie melt into him.
Endnote: Thank
you to Sports Illustrated and the NBC/USA Network for inspiring this and
providing interesting data :-)
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/magazine/04/12/survey.expanded/index.html