It was middle of October and I was finished with my new collection entitled Landscapes. I had painted all the breathtaking landscapes I had seen during our trip to Europe.

I was busy with thinking about the best spot to display each painting, as Mr. Walsh had promised I had veto over everything.

There was loud knocking on the front door. I abandoned my notepad on the kitchen table, going to see who was there so early. It was barely eleven on a rainy Thursday.

Drew stood on the porch, eyeing me warily. I could see Matt sprinting through the rain toward us from the house across the street.

“Hey! What’s up?” I stepped aside so they could come in.

“Get dressed,” Drew demanded.

“I am.” I looked down at my t-shirt and khakis.

“A suit would do.” He spun to Matt. “Get the others. Meet us at the White House.” Drew then turned back to me. “Today, Justin.”

Curious about why I had to wear a suit, I went upstairs to put on my best suit after freshening up a little. When I returned, Drew was pacing in the living room on his phone.

“Yes, I have him. . . I think it’s best if Brian tells him in person. . . Good. See you there.” Drew spotted me in the doorway and scrubbed a hand through his short hair. “Come on.”

“What’s going on?” I insisted.

“Brian will explain soon.” He opened the umbrella as I locked up.

Inside the car, I tried to coax him into hinting at what the fuck was going on, but he was tight-lipped.

When we arrived at the White House, Matt was there to escort me to Brian. He was in the Yellow Room, where we had first met. Matt waved me to go inside, taking his spot standing by the door.

I took a deep breath and went inside, not knowing what to expect.

Were we breaking up?

Was it too much for him?

Did he change his mind about being President and was dropping out two weeks before the election?

Brian was at the window, his hands linked behind his back. I could see how he tensed up when he heard me.

“Hey…” I stopped in the middle of the room.

Brian turned to face me, looking tired. I hadn’t seen him much in the past week. He had attended more presidential debates than I thought was possible.

“Justin.” He strode to me, taking my hand. He rubbed his thumb over my palm.

“Are you going to explain what’s going on?”

“You look beautiful,” he said, eyeing me up and down.

“Brian,” I hissed.

He suck at his lips, before meeting my eyes. “Blake got a fabulous idea. My scores will get higher and our relationship will be more credible if we…” He scowled, looking away.

“If we, what?” I frowned.

“If we made it official,” he said.

“Didn’t we?”

Brian groaned. “Marriage, Justin. Blake thinks we shout get married,” he spat.

I dropped his hand, gasping. “What?” When hurt flashed on his face, I tried to explain that I was too shocked to act naturally. “It’s not that I don’t want it, Brian. I never thought it was an option for me as I grew up…then I knew it wasn’t an option for us because…well…”

“Well, it is an option now.”

“I see you don’t want it.” I kept my eyes on his tie so he wouldn’t see I was close to tears.

“It’s not that I don’t want it, Justin. True, I never wanted anything like this, but with you…I want it all,” he whispered, stepping closer and embracing me.

“Then?” I asked into his shoulder. His familiar smell comforted me.

“I don’t want to coerce you into this just because I might get golden points with people who don’t even know me.”

“It’s a tie now, right?”

“I’m above Jeremy with five percent.”

“Let’s do it. For us,” I added when his face hardened.

“There won’t be a honeymoon.”

“I don’t need it.”

“You might have to move in here with me.”

“Are you finding excuses to escape it, Mr. Kinney?”

“We’re crazy, you know that?”

I beamed, kissing him with hunger.

A knock on the door separated us. Ben poked his head inside, nodding to me, then focusing on Brian.

“Are we ready?”

“Yes.” Brian took my hand.

“Where are we going?” I asked, confused.

“To get married, dear,” Brian sneered.

“What? You mean now?”

“No, I was thinking next year.”

“But what about our friends?” I could feel fear gripping at my insides.

“We can renew the vows in the future and invite anyone you want. Now we’re doing all I hate: a political move.”

I walked beside him, trying not to freak out. I was getting married. To the President of USA. In a few minutes I would be Mr. Brian Kinney…or whatever it was called when two men got married.

“Can I keep my name?” I asked.

Brian laughed loudly, relaxing a little. Even Ben chuckled. “You can do whatever you want,” he said quietly.

When we got in the car, I became confused again. Weren’t we getting married?

“We’re headed to the City Hall,” Brian explained. “Relax. No one expects us so when we arrive it will be fine. I can’t say the same about when we leave.”

When we arrived, everyone was taken by surprise to see the President strolling through the city hall’s corridors. We were surrounded by agents, so I didn’t exactly see where we were going. We stopped inside a room.

The lady in front of us seemed to be the only person so far not taken by surprise.

“Hello Susie,” Brian greeted her, taking her hand. “Thank you for squeezing this impromptu visit in your busy schedule.”

She waved him off, smiling. “Hello, Brian. Glad I can help.”

Brian returned to my side, placing a hand around my waist. “Susan and I met in college. She was one of my few friends.”

I nodded. “Hello,” I told her.

Her smile brightened. “My! It’s an honor to meet the man who tamed the beast.”

I blushed, while Brian snapped at her to shut up and start the charade.

It wasn’t as painful as I thought. We had to repeat after her and sign on the dotted line. Everything else would be taken care of after our departure.

Judging by the agitated agents by the door, we had been discovered. Brian held my hand in his left hand and the marriage certificate in the right hand.

Ben whispered something to Brian, but I didn’t catch the words. Brian brushed him off, leading the way outside. He stopped before anyone could open the door.

“Shit.” He turned to Drew. “Do you have them?”

Drew placed a small velvet satchel in my palm.

“Open it,” Brian urged me.

I did so with shaky fingers, having a feeling I knew what was inside. Two white gold wedding bands. Brian held out his left hand. I put one of the rings on his finger, then he did the same for me. I didn’t want that moment to get away like it didn’t matter, so I wrapped my arms around his neck, kissing him slowly.

“I love you,” I whispered against his mouth.

“Love you too,” he whispered back, resuming our position from earlier.

When the room’s door opened, we were assaulted by reporters. Our security pushed them away so we could walk toward the exit safely.

“No interviews?” I asked Brian.

“Maybe outside if they’re nice.”

Outside we couldn’t escape. The stairs were blocked by reporters and people gathered to see what was happening. I did my best not to cower behind Brian.

There were a billion questions shouting at us, most of them curious of what were we doing there in the middle of the day.

Brian held a hand up, surprisingly silencing everyone. The ones holding microphones edged closer.

“Good afternoon,” Brian started jovially. “I see we can’t do anything without you knowing, huh?”

I kept my eyes on Ben’s shoelaces which were untied.

“This was supposed to be a private moment, but I guess I lost the privilege of privacy when I became the President.” Brian brought me closer, keeping an arm around my shoulders. “So you better hear it from us. Today, Justin and I decided to tie the knot.”

More questions exploded around us, and I braved a look up only to find everyone watching me. I returned to staring at Ben’s untied shoelaces.

I could hear Brian explaining that it was an important date for us and we wanted to remember it, and that further living arrangements would be discussed. This didn’t affect his candidature. He couldn’t wait to explore marriage with the man he loved by his side. He fed them all sort of bullshit and they ate it up.

When we finally made it to the car, I sighed in relief.

“You know, you’ll have to stop acting like a scared ostrich,” Brian muttered.

I glared at Ben and Drew for laughing at Brian’s stupid joke. “I have no idea how to act around them.”

“You learn. I hated the spotlight, but it came in conflict with my job…so I learned how to compartmentalize. You won’t get used to it, because every time they take you by surprise…even when you expect it, it’s just as terrifying as the first time it happened. But you’ll learn to live with it.”  

“I guess you’re right.” I nodded. “So you said something about this date being important to us. What was that?”

“I’m surprised you haven’t figured it out by yourself.” He smirked. “Last year…on this very day…you visited me for the first time.”

“Holy shit,” I gasped. “It’s true.”

Brian grinned. “So I’m off for the day. We can have a very short honeymoon. I have to be in New York at seven tomorrow morning.”

I laughed because what the hell could I do after that statement.

“We should switch our phones off, first. I bet our friends will set them on fire with calls,” I declared. “I mean, can you imagine Debbie’s reaction?”

“I don’t know about Debbie, but I bet Michael will faint,” Ben joked from up front.

“And Emmett will be inconsolable for not being able to throw you a party,” Drew added, laughing.

“Debbie might think I knocked you up.”

I gasped, choking on spit, because those were pretty accurate descriptions of my friends. “What about the girls? Gus?”

“Gus might be bummed he wasn’t there. But Lindsay and Melanie…they’d be happy to not be involved in the fuckery.”

“So we’re still on for renewing the vows in five years time?”

“Better let Emmett know that so he starts planning,” Drew offered.

Brian took my hand, kissing my fingers. “Anything you want.”