AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Anthony blinked. “Sorry, come in.”
Jay stepped into the apartment, and Ethan whistled loudly.
“Shut up,” Jay grumbled.
“Unlikely.” Ethan came closer and nodded his approval. “Damn, you look good, man. I should’ve brought you the flowers.”
“Keep your flowers, and I look the same.”
“Remind me to buy you a mirror.”
“It’s no big deal. Just felt that it was time to stop looking like I’m in a shitty band.”
“Mission accomplished. By the way, you know that Anthony and I are a couple, right?”
Jay plopped on the couch and put his legs on the table. “Yeah, what about it? You guys waiting for a greeting card or something?”
Ethan gave Anthony a smug look.See?
Once thesignificanceof the moment sank in, Anthony smiled like a dummy. It couldn’t have been so easy putting his doubts to rest, right?
Another knock, much tamer than Jay’s. Anthony opened the door to tired-looking Chris. No, he seemed more beaten down than tired, but Anthony didn’t want to put him on the spot.
“Come in.”
Chris entered and stopped when he noticed Jay. “You look handsome.”
Anthony expected a witty response, but Jay only said, “Thanks.”
Ethan, who had just cracked open the bottle of wine, frowned at Chris. “What’s wrong?”
“What? Nothing.”
Ethan put the bottle down and crossed his arms. “Let’s try again.What’s wrong?”
There was one person in the world who could instantly make Ethan shift into a protective lioness, and that was Chris. Anthony had seen it happening many times throughout the years.
“Can we talk about it after dinner?” Chris almost sounded pleading. “I’m sure Anthony worked hard on putting this together.”
Ethan seemed like he would argue, but he ended up nodding. “Okay. Ant, can we start?”
The air felt heavier, but Anthonyhadworked hard on this dinner, so they were going to eat and deal with any sort of drama on a full stomach and wine—like Italians.
*
They loved his food, but that wasn’t enough to make dinner a success. Jay tried to make an effort, but his attempts quickly dwindled. Chris barely ate, constantly looking distracted. It felt more like a date night between Anthony and Ethan.
“Maybe you should tell them about what we talked about earlier?” Anthony told Ethan, hoping that hearing about his job search could spark conversation.
Ethan hesitantly nodded and put his fork down. “So, I’m going to bottom for Anthony.”
“No! I meant about your job interviews.”
“Oh, that. Yeah, I’ve been interviewing.”
“With DHL and shit?” Jay asked.
Ethan rolled his eyes. “No, for tech companies.”
