Gift.
It was an apology gift, one meant to mend harsh and angry words when all Eric really wanted to hear was sorry. It was easy for Eric to find the words. He'd always been able to open up his mouth and explain exactly how he felt within the matter of a few sentences. Vince had always been more of an action guy, preferring to show someone how he felt by how he treated them. However, when they had that fight – the worst one of their lives – he hadn't even been doing a good job of showing Eric how he felt. He'd just been good at keeping up the walls.
Eric reasoned that Vince knew what kind of guy he was when he got into a relationship with him. He had known Eric his whole life, had watched him chase girls in search of "the one." He knew that Eric fell in love with every girl he slept with and wasn't sure why he thought it'd be different with a guy. Eric had been in love with Vince their entire lives without even knowing it. So when that summer (the one after the life-altering fight in Queens where Eric went back to LA without Vince) changed everything, Eric was down for giving Vince everything he had like he always had. Only this time, Vince also got his heart.
They were both reluctant to let anyone know about it in the beginning. Eric wasn't sure if this was just a phase for Vince, and Vince knew that he had an image to protect. The career was important to both of them, and until they really got it figured out, that was going to be the deal. But when months turned into a year, E started to have a change of heart. The first time he broached Vince about at least telling their families, Vince had clammed up and been quiet for days. "Why ruin a good thing?" was his motto, and what Eric had to say on the subject. It was then that E realized that things had to be on Vince's terms, but for now, he was willing to play the game.
Looking back, he realized that he had been foolish to be so naïve. If he let Vince have his way, it was possible that things would never change. He could have his proverbial cake and eat it too. Eric was in love with him and willing to do anything. E tried to make their love be enough for him, but he knew that it wasn't going to be. He wanted more than that; he wanted a life with Vince. So after a few weeks, he broached the subject again. Vince was more accepting this time but couldn't nail down a concrete date. Vince believed in their relationship, had faith that it was going to work out. Eric agreed and thought that if things were so amazing, why wouldn't you want that life to start now? But Vince was all about the timing, and there were just a few things that had to happen before he felt he could take it to the next level.
Eric tried to be patient for his part. It was possible to imagine going back to being friends or ever finding someone he loved this much. It wasn't easy to deal with it, and some days were better than others. There were times when he would have to head back to Queens to do some family thing and he couldn't help but feel like part of him was missing. These were the kinds of things Vince should be with him at but he wasn't there. He wanted Vince to feel the same, but when he tried to talk to him about it, he was met with walls. E felt punished for days afterward, knowing that there was a distance between them even if Vince didn't want to admit it.
Finally, one day, Eric had enough. It was the week before the Oscars, and Vince was finally nominated for Gatsby. It should have been the best time of their lives, but Vince and Eric had been at each other's throats for weeks. Eric wanted to walk the red carpet with Vince, on his arm as his partner. Vince insisted that it just couldn't happen like that. He wanted the Oscar first. It was like a golden ticket in Hollywood, something he felt like would be a safety net if everything went south. When Eric dared to say that he couldn't imagine doing this for another year, Vince went silent and wouldn't talk to him for two days. By the time he realized what was happening, Eric was already gone.
It took two hours of sobbing before Turtle and Drama could calm Vince down. They had no idea where Eric was, and he had seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth. They had even tried calling his mother back in New York in hopes of tracking him down, but Mrs. Murphy hadn't spoken to her old child all week. It was finally after Vince thought of calling E's assistant that they found him asleep in his office. After stopping at Cartier for a small peace offering, Turtle left Vince alone in front of the office building.
"What are you doing here?"
Eric looked up from the old issue of Sports Illustrated in his lap and shrugged. "I didn't have anywhere else to go. My house is your house, and I didn't want to be with you."
"E, I'm sorry."
"That's the thing, Vin, you're not. Yeah, maybe you're sorry that I left you, but you're not sorry enough to make this right," Eric said coldly. Vince wasn't the only one who could put up walls. "I have tried so hard to make this work, but sometimes I feel like I'm the only one trying. You're perfectly content with the way things are, but I want more. I deserve more. I've been patient, I've been true. You're not here for me like I need you to be and I convinced myself that it'd be okay because you'd eventually see. When you are still refusing to put a time line on things more than a year later, I'm starting to realize that things might never change if I left it up to you."
Vince was quiet. Usually when he was angry with Eric, E would bend over backwards to make things okay. He would apologize when he didn't feel like it was his fault. He would try to make Vince laugh or tell him how much he loved him. Vince never really did those things. "I know it's not fair, E," Vince reasoned. "I just feel like..."
"I know what you feel like, Vince, fuck," Eric cursed. He was angry. This was the end of the road for him. "Either we do this for real or it's over. I won't give you another year of my life without knowing what the outcome is going to be. I deserve, we deserve, better than that. I'm no going to give you time to think about it. Tell me know what it's going to be."
His voice was serious and Vince knew that this was it. More than any movie, more than any deal, this was the moment that would define his life. He could be a coward like he had been this past year and live in the shadow of his fame, or he could be the man that Eric loved and stand beside him for the rest of their lives. Eric wasn't asking for a lot. "I brought you something," Vince retorted. He handed the box over to Eric with a small smile. "I think it'll look good with your tux on Sunday night. That is, if you'll still come with me."
Eric opened the box and revealed the platinum watch. He removed it carefully and slipped it around his wrist. It made Vince almost hard just seeing Eric twist the band of the ridiculously expensive watch he got him and would make him even harder hours later when Eric's beneath him wearing only that. Eric lifted his wrist for Vince to inspect. "Well, what do you think?"
Vince reached for Eric's hand and slid it into his before lifting his fingers up to his lips to kiss. "I think it's perfect," he complimented genuinely. This was perfect. He had wasted so much time taking Eric for granted. Ultimatums had never been his thing, but this had been exactly what he needed. Only Er could have known that about him. "So you'll come?"
"I'll be there," Eric promised. "You better thank me first when you win."
Vince smiled and and squeezed Eric's hand promisingly. "Really think I'll win?"
"With me by your side?" Eric grinned. "You got it in the bag."
