I heard Jude clearing his throat and found him looking at Easton and me like he knew exactly what was going down with us. But when he opened his mouth it mercifully went in another direction. “Did Ari tell you about the moving in date?”

I nodded and smiled over at Easton, who was suddenly super focused on his hands. “Yeah,” I said, pointing a fork in my boyfriend’s direction. “His new landlord made sure the apartment was ready for him within a week.”

Easton rolled his eyes at Nesto, Jude and me like what he had done was no big deal. “It didn’t need that much work. It’s a studio. Took like two days to get it ready.”

“Uh huh,” Nesto said, putting his arm around Jude. “You’re charging him what he paid his uncle for rent, which I know was not very much, and giving him a brand new place downtown, which happened to be fully furnished. That ain’t nothing, my guy.”

I could see the color rising on Easton’s cheeks like it always did whenever anyone tried to give him a compliment.

After a moment he looked up from whatever he’d been closely inspecting on the table. “He’s gone through a lot this past month, so I’m glad that I can help on this one thing. It’s not like it comes at big cost to me.”

Before I could interject, Nesto voiced what I was thinking. “You also got him the immigration lawyer who took his case pro bono. And you didn’t have to do a thing, but you did it anyways. So stop trying to talk yourself out of your cookout invitation, bruh.”

That got us all laughing and moving on to discuss the logistics of getting Ari situated in his new place.

After some more talk about what each of us would get for a housewarming I noticed Easton’s yawns were coming more and more frequently. I’d been staying at his house pretty much every night for the past month, and knew he was back to leaving for the office before five in the morning, preparing for his next trial. So, when I saw him nod off, I ran a hand over his shoulder.

“Hey, you want to head home?”

The sleepy look he gave me did not match up with the cheeky response or the lopsided smile that appeared on his face when I said the word “home.” “Will you tuck me in?”

I could only laugh as I pulled him up with me. “Only if you’re good.”

“Well that doesn’t bode well for me then,” he said, feigning annoyance.

All I could do was shake my head. No matter how much I tried to keep my fortress of solitude act up, Easton always found a way to make me take myself a little less seriously.

I liked the person I was with Easton.