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When George had owned this house, the for room had been little more than a place to store stuff But Eden and Casey had cleared it out, painted the walls a pretty shade of pale blue, and refinished the table Since the last tiht a stylish set of chairs with blue-on-blue geo otten done in just a feeeks

The glea, modern white china, linen napkins, and an awful lot of silveras perfectly arranged on a dark blue place plates of different heights were interspersed hite and blue floral arrangements

I idly wondered how , or if it was all Eden My brother and I had grown up in a blue collar household, where Saturday breakfast was a bowl of cereal in front of the TV Eden, meanwhile, had been raised by a pair of workaholic restaurateurs with a taste for the finer things in life His situation at ho and he’d al our senior year of high school, he’d practically moved into my house It was shabby compared to what he was used to, but he said he loved it He even used to make fun of his parents’ upscale lifestyle Some of that taste and culture had obviously seeped into hih

When Eden entered the roo a white ceramic dish with some sort of quiche, I looked at Seth Just like I kneould, my brother instantly caravitated to Eden’s side Eden lit up in exactly the saeous display in the center of the table and slid his arm around Seth’s waist Only then did he look around the rooaze finally landed on me, he smiled and said, “Hey, birthday boy How’ve you been?”

“You know, saood, same as always He was six-four and muscular, with very short hair, a radiant se, but while I looked tired and showed every one of my years, he was as flawless as a er than me

The one good thing was that my attraction to him had finally dissipated I could look at him and appreciate the fact that he was an exceptionally handso anye of sadness

Okay, so e, and no matter how hard I tried to just be happy for Eden and Seth, it felt weird to be here This place had gone from a ho out had been ht call—but that didn’t make it any less painful We’d been a trio, the very best of friends Noas an outsider

This wasn’t the ti smile and teased Eden about his hoity-toity “tablescape” while various dishes were passed around I heaped my plate and tucked into the food, which was all delicious The thing in the white dish turned out to be a frittata, and there were also lots of veggies and several healthy side dishes, because Eden was all about that

While George and Flora gossiped about solanced at Seth and s about it, he caressed his boyfriend’s cheek, then leaned in and kissed his forehead It eet and tender, and it seeot the rest of the world existed Then both of thelanced at me at the same time

And that was exactly why this was so aard They looked…not guilty, exactly It wasout of their way not to rub their relationship inthem uncomfortable in their own home

I got worried about all of this beco aard as hell, so for lack of any better ideas, I went into full loveable buffoon mode It hat I did best I practically did a stand-up comedy routine about the trendy health food we’d been served—the kale salad, and the bulgur wheat concoction, and hey, what’s the deal with quinoa anyway? Everyone laughed, and the meal seemed to flow smoothly Even so, I really just wanted it to be over