In Every Universe

Epilogue

ZACKY

“This is the one,” Zacky said as he walked the perimeter of the pool in the backyard of the house they were looking at. It was outside of Toronto because Toronto was so fucking expensive , and they were both on entry-level salaries.

“You think so?” Cameron asked, trailing after him. Zacky would never pick a house that he knew Cameron hated, but he also knew Cameron would probably say yes to whatever he wanted. It was important to Zacky to make sure it had the two-car garage and three bathrooms Cameron wanted.

And a room that would be perfect for a nursery one day.

“It’s perfect. It’s like the one in Dallas.” There weren’t many seventies contemporary houses on the market at any given time, and Cameron had emphasized to their realtor, Ben—who, with the amount of time they had been spending with him that summer, would probably be one of their best men at their wedding—that Zacky had fallen in love with a weird contemporary house with a pool and that was the Ultimate Goal, if they could find one in the Greater Toronto Area.

And if they couldn’t, Cameron’s brother was an architect. Not for residential homes, but how hard could it be?

They’d ended their season with a respectable second-round playoff exit. Zacky wasn’t taking the games where he was scratched to heart. Summer would be for training and conditioning with a group of guys from across the league who spent their summers in the GTA.

They had also slowly told the people close to them that they were together. Zacky’s parents were elated. Their friends weren’t surprised. Cameron told his parents at the end of a conversation they’d had about boundaries, and how he wouldn’t be accepting commentary on his hockey any longer, oh and, by the way, Zacky is my lover . It got buried in the general message, which would likely take a while to process.

They had agreed to wait a bit to get married, but that didn’t stop Cameron from talking about proposing. The house was like a promise ring in that way.

“You want me to go tell Ben to get the paperwork ready?” Cameron’s dimples were deep as his hands found Zacky’s hips to pull him closer. Zacky pressed their foreheads together.

“Yeah. Let’s fucking do this. CameronandZacky. Always.”

“In every universe.”

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