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We were having our first ever official family dinner. We’d invited the boys from Never Again, Nina, unfortunately Heather, and a guy Tino had been instant messaging non-stop lately named Juan.
“Thank you for doing this,” he murmured after sending Ben to set the table.
I glanced at him, eyebrows raised in question. “For cooking?”
“Not just for cooking. For enfolding me into your family.”
I stopped what I was doing and went to him, circling my arms around his narrow waist. “Tino, youaremy family. You’re like the brother I once made out with.”
He snorted, resting his chin on my shoulder. “And you’re the sister I plan to impregnate when I’m thirty.”
I grinned, hugging him tighter until he hugged me back. “Ben says Jude makes me unhappy.”
His muscles tensed for a second, then relaxed. “Ben has ulterior motives. I don’t think being with Jude makes you unhappy. It’s being apart from Jude that does that.”
“Isn’t that the same thing, though, since he’s going to be gone so much?”
“Beautiful Natalia, he’s here now. Do not let Benjamin get inside your head. I told you that boy was troubled a long time ago.”
“And you said Jude wastrouble.”
He booped my nose. “I stand by both assessments.”
I booped his nose back. “What’s your assessment of you?”
He rubbed his chin. “I’m the best thing that ever happened to you.”
I lifted a shoulder. “Maybe. Are you nervous about your boy coming over?”
Tino had met Juan online in a chatroom for LGBTQ University of Maryland students. Because Tino was now a student—I had convinced him to enroll, to give him a direction instead of just sitting around his giant house, collecting rent checks.
A blush crept up his cheeks. “I’m nervous about you people acting a fool.”
“Well, if Juan wants to be your lover, he’s got to get with your friends.”
His lip curled with disgust and he took a big step back. “Did you really just quote Spice Girls to me?”
I giggled at his extreme reaction. This man really did light up my life. “They had a point. Their message was truly underappreciated. They were ahead of their time.”
He shook his head. “Girl, one day you’re going to be someone big in the music industry, and some reporter is going to come sniffing around yours truly for details about your past. I’ll be forced to recount this conversation in exhausting detail. Do you really want that?”
Arms crossed over my chest, I gave him a very serious look. “As I cannot currently travel back in time and undo this conversation, I will have to accept my fate. One day, the public will know about my endless admiration for the Spice Girls.”
We laughed until Ben returned to the kitchen, wanting to know what was so funny, and then laughed even harder. Tino kept singing Spice Girls songs under his breath while I got dinner ready, and each time, I’d dissolve into another fit of giggles.
By the time Jude and the Never Again boys arrived, I was a glass of wine in, and flushed with happiness. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed me breathless as soon he strode in the door.
“Hey, Stripes.”
“Hey, Jude.”
Rough fingers grazed my cheeks. “You’re pink.”
“Tino keeps making me laugh.”
He smiled, and my heart beat wildly. Jude’s smiles always did that to me. “I like seeing you like this, all happy and rosy-cheeked.” He took a step back, still gripping my waist, and scanned me from head to toe. “This apron is fucking ridiculous.”
“In a good way?”
