Page 47 of Just A Little Love

Jakob spread his materials across the dinner room table, with a notebook and pen to jot down ideas on.

“How much is too much glitter?” Jakob asked. There was never too much glitter, but Daddy didn’t like it so I suggested half the amount Jakob wanted. We voted, but I lost it two to one.

“Is a petting zoo too much?” Jacob asked. Anders pointed out a petting zoo would need permits, clean-up, and we'd be subjected to the wet weather of the Pacific Northwest. We all agreed the idea had to be shelved until spring or summer.

Everyone agreed that karaoke was a fun idea. “We could put in a bunch of love songs and the anti-love ones for those who are over VD day. It’ll be fun.” Anders suggested, and that earned him a round of high-fives.

“O.M.G. Rory, please tell me you won’t be singing?”

“Why can’t Rory sing?” Sweet, summer child, Jakob, asked with a puzzled expression.

“Because Rory is bad. Like cats join in because they think he’s yowling bad. On a scale of one to ten, he’s a thirteen. He should never, ever sing in public.”

“Rory, is this true?” Jakob asked, and eyed me suspiciously.

“Sadly, every word. I am a terrible, awful, make your eardrums bleed singer, so I might sit that part out.”

Besides the karaoke, we agreed on a card making station with pink and red construction paper and paper doilies that I don’t really understand their purpose in this world. They were too big for coasters, but what else could they be for? We’d put plenty of mottos and affirmations to put on the cards. What if someone wanted to make a card for themselves? It shouldn’t be about coupling foreverything. Our last station needed to be a cupcake and cookie station to decorate with edible glitter, frosting, and sprinkles.

“What about decorations? What size room are you talking about here?”

“Oh, we don’t have to worry about that part. Owen does all the decor at the club. He just needs to know how many stations, what we were doing at them, and tell him what we want the vibe to be. Once he knows all that, he’ll take over and you’ll lose your shit at how good it looks.”

“Barrett mentioned him before.”

“Yeah, they are besties, but Owen doesn’t come down to the club very much. His designs are amazing. I told him the feeling we wanted, along with the colors we liked and he figured it all out. I wasn't sure about the style and he helped us figure it out. I cried real tears when I saw it put together. Uncle Gabe did blueprintsfor the remodel though. This place had popcorn ceilings and plastic wood paneling, and no windows on the back walls at all. Uncle Gabe did the renderings for Wilde Dandies too.”

“Sorry to interrupt,” Anders said, “but what is Wilde Dandies?”

“It’s the kink club here in town. Oh. My. Gosh. You should join! Rory, you’d be on Uncle Gabe’s membership since you two are together. Anders, it would be so much fun. You wouldn’t have to go to the little room. You could hang in the big people's space too.”

“Sorry, buddy. I’m not kinky, and I don’t think my boyfriend would like me joining a sex club without him.”

“Oh, I didn’t realize you were dating someone, or I would have invited him too. Were his feelings hurt that he wasn’t invited too? You should have just brought him, and we’d have figured it out.”

I tried to turn away before Anders saw the face I made, but I wasn’t quite fast enough.

“No, he was spending time with his brother tonight. And you stop making faces. It’s rude.” Anders wagged his finger at me, but I was only sorry I got caught.

I saw the tight line when Anders said the words, but there was more to the story. John didn’t like me and the feeling was mutual, so it wasn’t a surprise he’d skipped on coming here with Anders, or he’d made other plans. Lately, though, all the thingsAnders hadn’t said added up to say a lot. I wanted them to break up, but only because Anders was fucking wonderful. His boyfriend was a tool who didn’t appreciate everything Anders did to make John’s life better.

“Is everything ok with you?” Jakob fussed with his board and pretended he wasn’t listening to every word of our conversation.

“Yeah, everything is fine. He’s just stressed. If the takeover does happen, I hope I can keep my job.”

“What do you do?” Jakob stopped pretending he wasn’t listening.

“I’m an admin at my boyfriend’s company.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! You are a helluva a lot more than that. You are the reason that everything gets done over there, and you work harder than anyone in John’s family.”

Anders gave an exasperated look at my fervent defense of him, but if he wouldn’t stand up for himself, then it was up to me to do it.

“Simmer down, killer. Jakob, I don’t think I caught what you do.”

“I don’t always like to tell people because sometimes they get weird about it and don’t want to hang out anymore.” Jakoblooked beaten down and I wasn’t sure what I had said that made him so uncomfortable.

“Why wouldn’t they want to be your friend because of that?”

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