Blair and Charlie Attend a Neighbourhood Backyard Party: a Game Changer bonus scene

A year after the end of Game Changer, Blair and Charlie attend a block party with Melnik and Maya.

SPOILERS ABOUND!

If you haven’t read Game Changer yet, turn away! This bonus scene occurs 13 months after the end of the novel. You will be spoiling yourself if you haven’t read the book. You’ve been warned.

This bonus short story is about 2,200 words, so it’s short and sweet. Grab a snack, sit back, and enjoy!

Blair and Charlie Attend a Neighbourhood Backyard Party

13 MONTHS LATER — JUNE

Blair didn’t know how it had happened, but in the year he’d been playing for the NHL, he’d somehow become close with Jesse Melnik.

Blair hadn’t been sure about him at first. This guy who’d bullied Charlie, both in high school and at their place of employment, but who’d eventually apologized and kept buying Charlie little presents. Then Melnik had offered up his comp seats for the final game of the conference finals to Charlie—Blair’s very first NHL game ever, where he’d scored the winning goal—and Blair had warmed up to him, although he’d remained leery until he’d begun rooming with the guy during away games after making the NHL roster.

Yeah. That was right. He’d played this last season as an NHL player after kicking ass and taking names at training camp last summer.

Part of him still couldn’t believe it. Even after months of the hardest training of his life, playing in most of the regular season’s games plus another twenty in the playoffs, and sharing a locker room with guys he’d admired for years, the last few months still felt like a dream.

A dream where he’d worked his ass off. And he’d thought his schedule was gruelling in the AHL. It was a good thing his parents didn’t need him as much at the shop anymore. He never would’ve been able to keep up otherwise.

As it was, it had sometimes been a struggle to carve out time to spend with Charlie, who now attended local markets as a vendor quarterly and whose custom cake jar orders had been steadily increasing. He tended to pick and choose which custom orders he accepted, though, because he loved his job as Vancouver NHL’s baker and he didn’t intend to quit to focus solely on Charlie’s Sin Bin of Baked Goods.

“Can you imagine if I was only doing cake jars?” Charlie had said as they’d been getting into bed a few weeks ago. “Boring. I like variety. It’s the spice of life, you know.”

“Speaking of spice…” Blair had said, rolling on top of him with a grin.

That had been the last thing either of them had said for a while, except for “harder” and “fuck yes” and “oh, god.”

Blair was smiling to himself when Melnik came in the back door. “What can I take out?”

Blair nodded at one of the veggie platters. “Can you take the tray? Not the other one. I still need to finish the guacamole.”

Melnik grunted, took the tray, and headed back out. That was the thing about Melnik—he was pretty quiet. He sort of reminded Blair of Coach Shore, but whereas Coach Shore was quiet in a put-together, confident sort of way, Melnik was quiet in a way that spoke of taking in his surroundings and thinking before he spoke. Blair had a feeling there was a lot going on in Melnik’s head that no one other than his therapist was privy to.

And Blair only knew about the therapist because he’d accidentally walked in on Melnik’s virtual meeting with her one day when they’d been rooming together in…whatever city they’d been playing in that day.

“Therapy and grief counselling,” Melnik had said later when he’d joined Blair in the hotel restaurant, where Blair had disappeared to, to give Melnik privacy. “My brother died. Years ago now, but…grief is never ending, as I’ve been learning.”

Blair had never been sadder for anyone in his life than he’d been in that moment.

Charlie burst through the front door of the townhouse, back from a last-minute grocery run, jogging Blair from his thoughts. Maya was a step behind him.

“They didn’t have the exact brand of bananas Melnik wanted,” Charlie said, dropping Blair’s car keys onto the table by the stairs, “so I got a different kind.”

Blair shrugged and spooned the homemade guac into the ramekin on the second veggie tray. “It’ll have to do.”

“How come Melnik’s making the deep-fried bananas and not you?” Maya asked, her curls bouncing as she followed Charlie into the kitchen. “You’re the baker.”

Charlie made a face. “I don’t make deep-fried bananas.”

“Why not?”

“Bananas are gross.”

“You’re gross.”

Charlie smiled weakly at Maya as he unpacked the grocery bag, colour high in his cheeks and his movements sloppy. Blair narrowed his gaze on him, then turned to smile at Maya. “Melnik’s out back helping set up. Want to give him a hand?”

She snagged a slice of red pepper from the veggie tray and headed for the back door. “Sure.”

“Take the veggie tray with you,” Charlie called after her.

Rolling her eyes, she grabbed the tray and disappeared into the backyard, where the annual summer kick-off potluck put on by the residents who lived in Blair’s row of townhouses and the one behind it was about to start.

Once the door had closed behind her, Blair pulled Charlie closer by the wrist, concerned by his unsmiling lips and his downturned eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing,” Charlie said breezily, lips tilting upward in a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Just an event organizer who wants five hundred cake jars for some kind of author conference next month.”

“Holy— Five hundred! Wow, that’s… Wait. Next month?”

“Uh-huh.” Charlie grabbed a slice of cucumber that hadn’t made it onto the veggie tray and angrily bit into it. “My form clearly says that I need eight weeks’ notice for orders with a quantity of more than three hundred, and it says that I won’t be fulfilling any orders in July. But when I pointed that out, she offered to double my fee.”

Blair blinked and leaned back against the counter, whistling low under his breath.

“July is our month. You and me.” Another angry bite of cucumber. “First, we’re moving my stuff here and then we’re taking the rest of the month off to travel. When I told her I wouldn’t even be in town, she offered to triple my fee.” He huffed. “I thought that by hiking up my prices for orders over two-fifty, I wouldn’t get large orders ever again, but they keep on coming.”

After he’d done three hundred and fifty cake jars for the wedding last September, he’d sworn never to do that again. But the truth was, large orders brought in a lot of money. And the word of mouth alone…

“Do we need to postpone move-in day so you can fulfill this order?”

“Hell no. I’m just…” Letting out a long breath, Charlie rolled his shoulders back. “Annoyed that she kept pushing. Like, no means no. Anyway.” His smile was much more genuine this time, as though he’d needed to get that off his chest to rid himself of the stress. “In other news, Matt says one of his players wants to rent my apartment.”

“Which one?”

“Dunno. Didn’t ask.” Charlie leaned forward and kissed him.

Blair hummed under his breath. Two weeks to go, and Charlie would be living with him full time. Not that it had been bad, splitting their time between his townhouse and Charlie’s apartment. But they’d gotten their wires crossed more than once in the past year, with Blair ending up at Charlie’s after a game while Charlie was asleep in Blair’s bed.

And with Charlie subletting his apartment, it meant he still got to hang on to a piece of his past without letting it go entirely.

The oven dinged—the mozzarella sticks were ready—but still, Blair kept on kissing Charlie, enjoying the wet slide of their lips and Charlie’s tongue dipping into his mouth for a taste. Charlie rose onto his toes and held him tighter, making every thought in Blair’s head disintegrate until they were nothing but air.

“Seriously?”

They broke apart at Maya’s voice.

“You sent me away so you could make out with my brother? Dude. Also, your neighbours are wondering where the mozzarella sticks you promised are.”

“Coming right up,” Blair said, and with another kiss for Charlie, he got back to work.

* * *

Charlie ate hot dogs and pasta salad and veggie skewers with Blair’s neighbours under a summer sky that was blue and bright. The alley separating Blair’s row of townhouses with the one behind it was about twenty feet wide, and it was filled with locals. Music played from speakers that had been set up a few houses down, and kids ran after dogs, toting popsicles or Timbits in little fists.

Everyone had gone bananas over Melnik’s deep-fried bananas—Charlie chuckled to himself at the thought—and they’d gone equally bananas over the mini gooseberry crumbles Charlie had baked this morning, using seasonal gooseberries from a nearby farmers market.

Everyone in Blair’s neighbourhood was so nice, and the party was so lively and full of laughter. Nothing this interesting had ever happened at his apartment building. This was so much more interesting than the Robbin kid’s pet lizard going missing.

Maya had left his side to make friends with some other kids her age. She was here visiting for the week before she went back to Calgary, but she’d be back in August for the start of her first semester at Simon Fraser.

Charlie still thought it was pretentious AF, but it got his sister closer to him, so there was that. She’d considered moving into Charlie’s apartment instead of living in student housing on campus, but South Cambie was a good forty minutes from SFU by car—which neither she nor Charlie had. He could afford one now, though, so that was exciting. In fact, he and Blair were going car shopping when they returned from vacation. He didn’t know what he wanted, but it had to be something with a large enough trunk to carry his cake jars and equipment to and from markets. He couldn’t keep relying on Dorian and Blair for that.

Actually…now that he had Dorian on the mind…where was he? He was supposed to be here with his new man.

Late, as usual. Not even Dorian’s partner could get him to where he was supposed to be on time, no matter how hard the poor guy tried.

Shaking his head, Charlie headed for the food table, grimacing at the deep-fried bananas and going for the two-bite brownies instead. Store bought, but he was in the mood for chocolate, so it would do in a pinch.

“Don’t make a face at my contribution.”

Charlie raised an eyebrow at Melnik. “Why bananas? Couldn’t you have deep fried…um…” He racked his brain, trying to think of something that would be delicious wrapped in fried dough. He might be a baker, but deep-fried foods weren’t exactly in his wheelhouse.

Melnik waited patiently, gaze steady.

“A Mars bar!”

A twitch of Melnik’s lips. “You’re the one who so accurately pointed out that I don’t like sweets. Why would I deep fry a Mars bar? Besides, I make a mean deep-fried banana. You’d know that if you tried it instead of making faces at it.”

“I didn’t make a face.”

Melnik stared at him.

“Okay, maybe I did,” Charlie grumbled, shifting uncomfortably from one foot to the other. “But I didn’t know you were watching.”

That made Melnik bark a short laugh.

Charlie and Blair might’ve now been working out of the same arena, but Charlie wasn’t privy to locker room shenanigans. The locker room was practically sacred to his NHL players. So how Blair and Melnik had become friends was a mystery. Just that, one day last November, Blair had announced that he’d invited Melnik over to watch the Orcas game on TV and eat the homemade kourabiethes—basically, an almond shortbread cookie smothered in icing sugar—that his mom had dropped off earlier that week.

“Why?” Charlie had asked.

Blair had shrugged. “I don’t know. He just seems so…alone. Keeps to himself a lot. Maybe on purpose, maybe not. I haven’t figured that out yet. Seemed like he could use a friend.”

Melnik had shown up with two lactose-free cheese-and-pepperoni pizzas, spicy chicken wings, a case of craft beer from a local brewery, and a butter tart for Charlie from a nearby bakery.

Because Melnik still bought him treats now and then, despite Charlie’s protests and despite their agreement that Melnik would no longer do so after he’d gifted Charlie his playoff comp seats for Blair’s first NHL game.

Fine. Whatever. Charlie was done making a fuss about it. If Melnik was going to run to the beat of his own drum, Charlie might as well save himself the breath it took to argue about it.

Melnik piled his plate high with potato salad and a few chicken skewers, then moved to the drinks table. Charlie looked down at his own plate and found a popcorn-sized deep-fried banana on it.

Melnik. Sneaky bugger.

Charlie eyed it. Poked it. Jerked when it was snatched off his plate.

Laughter in his eyes, Blair bopped it into his mouth. “Now you don’t even have to look at it.” He leaned in for a kiss.

“Gah!” Charlie shoved him away. “Don’t come near me with your banana breath.”

“Aw, but I just did you a favour.” Blair buried his head in Charlie’s neck instead, making growly sounds as he pretended to chomp on his neck.

Laughing, feeling light as air and as happy as he could ever remember being, he hugged Blair close with one arm, the plate in his other hand, and shivered when Blair’s scruffy jaw tickled his skin. Blair tugged him closer, pressing a quick kiss to the juncture between Charlie’s neck and shoulder.

“I’m happy you’re here,” Blair murmured.

“I’m happy I’m here too.”

“This probably isn’t the place to bring it up.” Blair straightened but kept Charlie in the circle of his arms. “And I know I’ve asked already but…are you sure about moving in? I know I asked you to, and I know you said yes, but you have strong ties to your apartment. It’s okay if you’re not ready.”

“I’m ready,” Charlie assured, certainty and the rightness of it settling in his bones. “I do have strong ties to it, but it hasn’t been the same since Dad moved out. Yeah, I have a lot of memories there, of me and Dad, of me and you. But those memories won’t disappear just because I don’t have a physical reminder of them. They’re all in here.” He tapped his chest. “I know you’re worried about me, but you don’t need to be. I know what I’m doing. And honestly, I’m really damn tired of living out of two places.”

“Okay. I’ll stop asking.” Blair squeezed his hips, the summer sun making his eyes bright. “I can’t wait to have you here all the time. I never really realized until you started coming around, but it didn’t feel like a home until you showed up.”

Heart singing with joy, Charlie had to kiss him for that, banana breath and all.

* * *

THE END

Copyright 2023 Amy Aislin. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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