Chapter Text
“I know I’m the last person you want to see, but I need you to hear me out.”
Henry couldn’t quite believe his eyes or ears as those words came from the man standing on his doorstep. He fought the urge to rub at his eyes like he was in some kind of cartoon, trying to figure out which was going to win out between the impulse to slam the door or the need to find out what was actually happening.
His expression obviously gave away his internal conflict, because Alex held up his hands as if he was approaching an easily spooked horse.
“Please,” he begged, catching Henry even more off guard than the mere presence of Alex at his front door.
Considering the way they’d left things, no less than six months ago, Henry figured there must be something big going on for Alex to be so polite.
Henry sighed, stepping aside and letting him in, noticing Amy parked up outside and watching them both enter the building.
He walked through the hallway and into the front room, picking up the glass of wine he’d placed on the coffee table. Alex followed, not subtle with how he eyed the wine and checked his watch.
Maybe it was 2pm on a Tuesday, but Henry didn’t have any responsibilities at the shelter and he had writer's block so thought a glass of Burgundy might help him through. He didn’t have to explain himself to Alex, and now he was glad he’d poured the glass. He was sure he’d need it to get through this conversation.
Henry sat down in his favourite armchair, watching as Alex hovered in the doorway.
David stretched as he woke up fro his nap, the beagle sniffing the air before making a beeline straight for Alex, his tail wagging enthusiastically.
Alex’s face lit up as he crouched to greet the dog.
“Hello, boy,” he grinned. “I’ve missed you.”
“Alex,” Henry chastised, rubbing at his temples with the hand not holding his wine.
“Sorry,” Alex apologised, standing up and motioning to the couch. “May I?”
“Please,” Henry allowed, taking a long drink as Alex sat down.
Henry watched in absolute betrayal as David hopped up next to him, resting his chin on Alex’s lap as his tail thumped happily against the couch cushion.
“Why are you here?” Henry asked, trying not to be annoyed with his dog.
David didn’t know what Alex had done, he was just happy to see him again.
“Thanksgiving is coming up,” Alex mentioned, as if Henry hadn’t been living in New York for the last four years and wasn’t familiar with American holidays.
“I’m aware,” he said, unsure why this was relevant to Alex appearing at his door after six months of no-contact. “Please just say what you came here to say.”
“Right, sure,” Alex nodded, and Henry watched as he clearly tried to work himself up to saying something. “Dad invited you for Thanksgiving.”
Now Henry was an intelligent man, but even he couldn’t figure out why someone would invite their son’s ex to their family Thanksgiving celebrations.
“Your dad,” Henry began, slowly annunciating each word, “invited your ex-boyfriend to Thanksgiving dinner?”
“My dad invited my boyfriend for Thanksgiving week at the lake house,” Alex clarified, and Henry could feel his eyes widen comically.
“Your boyf-” he cut himself off, trying to regain composure. “You don’t have a boyfriend, and if you do, it’s certainly not me.”
“Dad thinks you are,” Alex tried to reason. “I, uh. I never got around to telling him that we didn’t work out.”
Henry rolled his eyes, draining the last of his glass before putting it back on the table, resting his forearms on his thighs.
“You mean you didn’t want to tell him that you’re incapable of keeping it in your trousers,” he countered.
Alex sighed.
“Hen, I never-”
“Please, save it,” Henry interrupted, rolling his lips together and seriously considering another glass of wine. “It’s been six months. You’re telling me that in the last six months you haven’t spoken to your father about any of it? That’s as long as we were together in the first place.”
“He loved you when you came for New Year, they all did,” Alex explained, as if that was any kind of excuse. “Look, I know I should’ve told him, I know I’m an idiot, but he’s planned the holiday around us coming so…”
Alex trailed off, looking across at Henry hopefully.
“Can you tell me exactly what you’re asking me?” Henry questioned, needing to hear it explicitly to believe that the surreal exchange was really happening.
“Will you please come to Texas with me and pretend to be my boyfriend around my family? And Nora,” he added, hastily.
“You haven’t even told Nora?” Henry asked, dumbfounded as Alex shook his head. “Are you kidding me? Christ. They all think… They’ll all think we’re coming up to our anniversary.”
Alex cleared his throat awkwardly.
“It would be the Wednesday of that week,” Alex announces. “Bug might have already made us a dinner reservation. Dad has agreed to look after David.”
Henry, for his efforts, couldn’t hide the shock on his face. It was just all so surreal.
With a little bit of introspection, he could almost understand that Alex wouldn’t want to tell his family that he stepped out on his boyfriend. Especially not in the week that Henry had gone back to London to visit his own family for the first time since the pandemic.
What he couldn’t understand was why Alex would remember the anniversary of when they made their short lived relationship official.
“What’s in it for me?” Henry asked, too curious about what was happening to flat out refuse. “If I come with you, and I play your little game, what do I get out of it?”
“Flights to Texas, a fancy fake anniversary dinner, and my family’s cooking for a week,” Alex answered instantly, as if he had prepared for that question. “Dad’s even offered to tone down the spice for your güero sensibilities.”
“Not good enough,” Henry told him, simply. “I have to put up with you for a week, after the last six months of wanting to slap you.”
“Kinky,” Alex teased, making Henry roll his eyes. “You also get to share a bed with me, a pleasure which many men and women would die for.”
If looks could kill, Alex would’ve perished on the spot.
“Alright, sorry, shouldn’t have said that,” he admitted. “Name your terms, and I’ll see what I can do.”
“Pez is coming,” Henry announced with no room for argument. “I’ve already arranged to see him, and I’m not giving that up to help you out.”
Alex nodded, biting at his lip.
“Are the two of you..?” he trailed off, but the implication was obvious from his expression.
“No, Alex, we’re not,” Henry informed him. “Unlike you, I’m able to hold friends that I don’t sleep with.”
“I don’t sleep with all my friends,” Alex argued.
“I wasn’t finished with my terms,” Henry interrupted, not wanting to hear it. “I want some arrangements that don’t involve being around your family all week.”
“I thought you loved my family,” Alex mentioned, and Henry sighed, leaning back in his chair.
“Your family isn’t the problem,” he explained. “I don’t like that we’ll be lying to them, and I think I’d like some respite from pretending to be in love with you.”
Alex’s expression faltered, and Henry had to remind himself that he didn’t need to comfort him. He was already in the process of negotiating a massive favour for the man that broke his heart, it wasn’t his responsibility to make Alex feel better when his expression seemed off.
“We can go into the city,” Alex offered. “We don’t have to spend the whole time at the lake house.”
Henry nodded slowly.
“Alright,” he allowed. “If June has already booked a dinner for us on the Wednesday, we should get a hotel or something.”
Alex’s frown was, admittedly, warranted.
“I just meant that would make it more believable,” Henry explained. “I wouldn’t want to spend the night of my anniversary sharing a house with my family.”
“Understood,” Alex confirmed. “We can do that.”
Henry worried his lower lip, looking across at Alex.
His brain was telling him that this was a terrible, horrible, very bad idea.
Another part of him, probably the stupid part with a distinct lack of self-preservation, was too curious to turn it down.
“Okay.”
Alex’s face lit up.
“Yeah?”
“Yes,” Henry agreed, getting to his feet. “But having to share a bed does not give you the right to touch me.”
“Understood,” Alex smiled, taking the hint and giving David one last pet before heading back towards the door. “I’ll arrange our flights and send you the details.”
“And Pez?” Henry asked, following him out.
“I’m sure June and Nora will be jazzed to see him,” Alex confirmed.
Henry nodded, opening the door and dodging Alex’s attempt at a hug, instead offering his hand.
Alex rolled his eyes as he accepted the shake.
“Pleasure doing business with you,” Henry told him with a sarcastic smile.
“Sweetheart, you better put on a more convincing show than that in front of my family,” Alex warned.
“Acting’s in my blood, we’ll be fine,” Henry assured him, waving to Amy as he began to close the door. “And I’m not your sweetheart.”
Arguably, Henry should have told Pez as soon as Alex had left his house.
What he’d actually done was wait until the last minute.
The initial plan was for Pez to fly out to see him from Wednesday to Friday, but now Henry was due to be at the lake house from Sunday.
It wasn’t until Saturday afternoon that he bit the bullet and messaged his best friend.
Henry considered turning off his phone, but when it rang for the third time in a row, he gave in and picked up. Better to face Pez than his sister, he supposed.
“To what do I owe the pleasure?” he said in place of greeting as Percy’s face filled the screen.
“Why didn’t you tell me that you’d gone crawling back to your ex?”
Henry frowned.
“What?”
“I wasn’t born yesterday,” Pez tells him. “I distinctly remember that he and his exquisite sister spend a lot of their holidays at a lake house outside of Austin, and suddenly I’m supposed to reroute my flight - which will add two whole hours to my journey, by the way - to that very city.”
“I haven’t gone crawling back to anyone,” Henry argued. “If anything, he came crawling back to me.”
Pez looked absolutely appalled.
“Do I need to remind you of the time I had to fly out there after your breakup?” he asked. “When you weren’t answering any calls or texts and nobody had heard from you at the shelter because you spent three straight days in your bed? You almost missed your promo appearance on The Tonight Show.”
“No, I remember,” Henry assured him. “I’ve not taken him back.”
“But we are going to the lake house?”
Henry nodded, petting David for comfort where he lay in his lap.
“He never told anyone we broke up and his dad invited me,” he explained, aware of how ridiculous it sounded.
The baffled expression on Pez’s face was honestly expected.
“Haz.”
“I know,” Henry groaned.
“You owe that man nothing,” Pez continued.
“I know that,” Henry assured him. “I just… I’ve agreed now. And he agreed that you can come, so.”
Pez rolled his eyes, not unkindly.
“I thought you’d be happy to see June and Nora again,” Henry offered, earning a short laugh.
“I am,” Pez assured him, “but I cut off contact after you told me what happened with Alexander. So if they don’t know the two of you broke up, they certainly think I’m the arsehole in this situation. That I had my fun and then ghosted them for six months.”
Henry grimaced. He hadn’t thought about that, and Pez was right. Henry had wanted him there for his own comfort, not realising that Pez would potentially be in the firing line.
“You don’t have to come,” Henry told him. “I’m being selfish.”
“Of course I’m coming.” Pez waved his hand dismissively. “Someone needs to be there to ensure you don’t succumb to his charms without so much as an apology.”
“I’m offended by how little you think of me,” Henry said, David shifting in his lap. “Even if he apologised, I wouldn’t go back. I can’t.”
“The incredibly attractive FSOTUS has already talked you into spending Thanksgiving with him,” Pez reminded him. “I love you, but you’re weak for that head of curls and overconfident charm.”
“In my defence, it would be bad form to turn down the son of the president of the country I’m living in,” Henry tried to reason. “He could probably have me deported.”
“And all good relationships are based on a power imbalance,” Pez deadpanned, earning a surprised bark of laughter.
“Alright, fair point,” Henry allowed. “So you’re in? You’re coming to Texas?”
“I’m in,” Pez confirmed. “When are you guys getting in? I can try and time it so you’re not on your own for the drive up to the lake house.”
Henry cleared his throat, shifting so much that David got up in a huff.
“We’re actually leaving in the morning.”
Pez’s silence was deafening, and if it wasn’t for the fact that this was a FaceTime call and Henry could see him blinking, he would have thought they had been cut off.
“Henry Fox, what the fuck.”
It wasn’t a question.
“Stop calling me Henry,” he complained. “It’s Haz to you.”
“Haz isn’t a complete idiot,” Pez argued. “Hazza is my good friend of over a decade who wouldn’t keep things from me, or deliberately leave out integral pieces of information. Henry, on the other hand, is a real twat.”
“Hey, I’m not keeping things from you,” he retorted. “I’m not a twat.”
“I can’t be there tomorrow, I have to work,” Pez explained. “I literally only have the three days, but I can redeye both ways. How long are you actually there for?”
“Six nights,” Henry admitted. “It’s just Alex, Oscar, and I until Wednesday, then you all arrive.”
“What constitutes ‘you all?’” Pez questioned.
“Well, you, June, and Nora,” Henry clarified, “And I believe Ellen and Leo are joining us, on Thursday at least.”
“Ellen,” Pez repeated. “As in, Ellen Claremont, current president?”
“As in my ex-boyfriend’s mother who you have met before,” Henry confirmed. “Although I admit it was in a different setting.”
“I met her as the co-founder of the first United States branch of Okonjo-Fox LGBTQ+ Youth Shelters,” Pez reminded him. “As did you, for that matter. I’ve met her as Madam President. Not as ‘Ellen.’ Not as someone to spend the holidays with.”
“She was technically at the New Year’s thing,” Henry offered, but Pez just rolled his eyes.
“The party was at the White House, she wasn’t exactly there,” he commented. “Either way, I’m in now. I’ll be on my best behaviour for Senator Diaz and President Claremont.”
Henry laughed softly, aware of how absolutely bonkers the whole situation was.
It was hard enough to get his head around the first time. Sure, as a reluctant yet self-aware Bond nepo baby and, more recently, best-selling author and philanthropist, he’d met his fair share of famous faces and influential figures in his time. But the first time he’d sat down for a private meal with the first family of the United States had certainly been an interesting development. He could certainly understand where Pez was coming from.
“I really appreciate you doing this,” Henry tells him honestly. “And I’m sorry for not telling you sooner. I was putting off exactly how this conversation went.”
Pez laughed.
“I’ll see you on Wednesday, babes,” he smiled, blowing a kiss before ending the call.