Second Chance(70)

“So are you forty-six today, Nate?” Cathy asked. “The same age as Jack? I suppose you must be. Goodness, what’s your secret? You don’t look a day over thirty.”

Nate forced a smile. “Good genes maybe?” He glanced at his mum.

“I wish!” She laughed. “Nobody thinks I look sixteen years younger than I am.”

“Trans men usually look younger than they are,” Nate said lightly. “It’s one of our superpowers. Eternal youth.”

“Oh, I suppose so.” Cathy cleared her throat awkwardly. Nate had broken one of their unspoken rules by mentioning his transness. When Jack’s parents were around it was usually something they all avoided talking about. “Well, it’s all right for some. You look great, Nate. Such a handsome man. No wonder my son is smitten.”

“Thank you.” Nate’s smile was genuine this time.



The party went off without a hitch. They had quiches and various different types of salad, followed by the delicious pavlova. Nate’s mum and David switched to grape juice after the first drink because they were both driving later. Once they’d finished eating, Nate was full, sleepy, and feeling very relaxed.

Their guests insisted on tidying up and stacking the dishwasher, refusing to let Nate and Jack have any part in clearing away. So they sat in the sunshine, holding hands, and letting the noisy chatter and bustle from inside the kitchen wash over them.

Nate was almost on the point of dozing off, when he heard Cass start to sing, “Happy birthday to you.” Other voices joined her, some more in tune than others as they bellowed out the words, “Happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Naaaaate, Happy birthday to you.” Nate laughed, flushing with embarrassment as they paraded out towards him. Cass was in front bearing a cake smothered in icing with one candle in the top of it.

She put it down in front of Nate as they reached the end of the song, and he made a great show of taking a deep breath and blowing the single candle out. “I know I look young for my age, but I think one candle is pushing it a bit!”

Cass laughed. “Well if I put forty-six in there I think the cake would have fallen apart. It’s mostly held together by icing as it is.”

“Did you make it?” Nate asked, touched. Cass wasn’t normally into baking, so this was new.

“Yeah. You said you didn’t want me to buy you a present, so I thought I’d make you a cake instead. Well, Adam did most of the work actually. We made it at his house yesterday.”

Adam shrugged modestly. “You helped.”

“Who wants some cake?” Cass asked.

Everyone accepted, but only wanted small pieces because they were so full of lunch. Cass cut the cake and Adam handed it round. It was delicious—although a little heavy on the icing for Nate’s taste.

When they’d finished with the cake, David and Cathy made their excuses. “It’s been lovely, but I think I’m ready for a siesta now,” David said. “Thank you so much, and enjoy the rest of your birthday, Nate.”

“Thanks.” Nate stood to shake David’s hand and to give Cathy another awkward hug with the usual air kiss. Jack’s farewell to his parents was only slightly more demonstrative.

Once they’d gone, the atmosphere was noticeably more relaxed. Cass and Adam were more talkative, and Nate’s mum kicked off her shoes and undid the top button of her shorts. “Blimey, that’s better. I’ve eaten far too much!”

“Do you want your present from me now?” Jack asked Nate.

“Do you want to give it to me now?” Nate presumed it wasn’t a sex toy then. There had been some discussion about buying a new dick, but they hadn’t been able to decide if an upgrade was necessary because they were both pretty happy with Nate’s current one.

“Yeah.” Jack’s grin was full of excitement.

“Go on then.”

“Okay. I’ll get it.” Jack hurried inside and was gone for a few minutes. He finally emerged with three large flat packages in his arms. “Here you go.”

Everyone was watching Nate expectantly. “Do you know what’s in here?” he asked his mum and Cass. They both nodded.

“Hurry up, Dad!” Cass said impatiently.

“Open this first,” Jack handed him one, and Nate noticed the parcels were numbered.

Nate tore the paper off, and smiled as he revealed a photo collage with very familiar faces on it. “Oh wow, Jack. I’d forgotten just how bad your hair was back at school.”

“You know it was all the rage, and you loved it at the time.”

“Yeah, well I had no taste.” Nate pored over the other photos. There were ones of them at parties, in each other’s rooms, hanging out in the park, lounging in the summer sun, and even one of them wrapped up in coats and hats standing by a snowman on one of the rare occasions they’d had enough snow to make one. “These are brilliant. So many memories. Thank you.”

“If there are any you don’t like, we can swap them easily enough. So just say.”

“No, these are all good.” Nate didn’t look girly in any of them.

“Okay, now open this one.” Jack handed him the second package.

This was another collage, but this time the photos were of Nate’s family. His parents, him as a baby, then as a toddler, one of him as a child kicking a football around the garden. Then there were a few of him in his twenties, carefully selected again. Thankfully none of them showed him in one of his occasional femme phases, when he’d tried to get used to wearing dresses and make up and having longer hair. Cass featured on this board too in various stages of her life: a baby in Nate’s arms, a toddler sitting in the sunshine, a small child on a bicycle grinning at the camera.