Free New York Christmas by New York Christmas

him. Or he could see it for what it was—a shameless ploy on his part to spend time with Chris. Thankfully Chris chose the second option.
    “Idiot,” he said with affection in the words. He squeezed Daniel’s hand tightly and then stretched his stride so that they were moving faster. With a whoop of encouragement, Daniel stepped up his skating and soon the two of them joined the faster loopers and were able to talk about what they could see: the city lit up in the night sky, the lights, the people and most of all where they were going next.
    When they left the rink they were breathless with laughter and Chris was demanding they do it again. Daniel cupped Chris’s face and pressed a kiss to his laugh.
    “I’ve fallen in love with you all over again,” Daniel said softly. Chris blinked at him in surprise for a moment. Then he smiled softly and placed his hands flat on Daniel’s chest. Daniel could feel the press of them even through his bulky coat.
    “Thank you for finding me again,” Chris said. To Daniel that sounded like a declaration as close to an ‘I love you’ as Chris could get this quickly after meeting again.
    He would take the win there.
    They followed the path out of Central Park and back into the City proper. The snow was falling again and the lights of the buildings were blurred behind the white curtain.
    Daniel didn’t think he’d ever felt happier.
    Perfect.
     
     

Chapter 10
    Saturday, December 15th
     
    Chris couldn’t believe he and Ame had made it through the whole of the rest of the week without too much of ‘the talk’ about spending the night at Daniel’s house more than once in the past week or the fact that he could not stop grinning at random moments when he thought about Daniel. It was ten on Saturday morning that he finally relaxed and felt there wasn’t going to be a Spanish Inquisition-type barrage of questions from his friend. He had just received a text from Daniel and everything was right with the world. It had just been a simple offer to meet up again that evening with an “ x ” at the end of the message, but it was enough.
    It didn’t have to be more. Just to know Daniel wanted to see him again meant that clearly Chris hadn’t blown it with the ‘thank you for finding me’ routine. He just wasn’t ready to say ‘I love you’ when his head was so full of the what ifs in his own life. Daniel hadn’t pushed though, and for that, Chris was thankful. He wanted to spend every waking minute with Daniel, wanted to call him and hear his voice all the time. He was in love and he knew it; only he wasn’t ready for anyone else to know it.
    The text had been followed up by a call, no more than twenty seconds of ‘hi’s’ and ‘how are yous?’ but it was a connection that Chris realized he had been waiting for as relief flooded through him. They’d seen each other only once or twice briefly over the last few days, but Daniel had pulled late shifts that lasted way past normal, which meant he spent most days sleeping.
    “You seeing Daniel tonight?” Amelia caught him staring at his cell phone and her voice held laughter, controlled maybe, but definite glee nonetheless.
    “Uh huh, late though, told me he has… work stuff.” Chris gestured with the cell to cover up the lack of knowledge he had on any details. Daniel hadn’t actually explained in detail what was going on at work that caused this shift to be a long one. He just sounded a little harried on the phone, snapped out something about the Christmas season and situations and double shifts, and then hung up.
    “‘Stuff’ sounds kinda important.”
    “Said he could make it for a coffee in a bit.” He knew he sounded relieved, but he shrugged the emotion away. Ame knew what he was like and she didn’t answer, just nodded in agreement and filled an order. Chris resigned himself to much more teasing.
    It was the kind of morning in Amelia’s when there was no time to take a breath or a break. Time just flew