“Mm-hmm,” Mateo agreed, licking icing off his finger. “So good.” He took another bite, then jammed the rest of it in his mouth. He laughed, wiping at his chin. “I’ve got icing everywhere, don’t I?”

“Kind of.” Archer giggled.

Mateo wiped at his face again. “Did I get it all?”

“You have a tiny bit of pink…” Archer reached for the corner of Mateo’s mouth, but then he realized what he was doing. His fingers froze an inch from Mateo’s face.

Mateo’s tongue slid out and licked along his lip. “How about now?”

“Um…” Archer’s brain tripped over the thought of what else Mateo’s tongue might want to lick. “Almost … There you go.”

Mateo grinned. “Worth the mess though.”

Archer finished his too, then they sat in a comfortable silence, sipping their lemonade and watching the passersby. Two young men, maybe eighteen or nineteen, caught his eye. They were sitting on the edge of the fountain, laughing and eating soft pretzels. One of them leaned over and pecked the other on the cheek. The man looked surprised for a moment, then kissed him back. Archer’s heart twinged.

“Things okay with you and Caleb now?” Mateo asked, startling Archer out of his thoughts.

“What? Oh, yes. I think so? I don’t know. I mean, it’s a little awkward, but … he knows he messed up. And he’s trying.”

Mateo leaned back, nodding. “That’s good. I feel like he’s trying more with me, too. He offered to write another email to The Broadway Broad asking them to retract but…” Mateo shrugged. “What’s done is done. And I’m old news now. I don’t think anyone actually cared this time.”

Archer wanted to reach over the yellow boxes to pat Mateo’s hand, but instead he fiddled with his empty lemonade cup. “That’s good. People have moved on, I guess.”

Mateo straightened the string on the box and squinted into the bright morning light. “Yeah, maybe.”

They caught the shuttle, chatting easily on the way back about fine-tuning their finale, then got to work getting ready for the party. After stashing their supplies in the cabin, their first stop was picking up the karaoke machine from Eileen’s.

“Why do you have a karaoke machine here anyway?” Archer asked her as he and Mateo hefted it between them.

Eileen gave him a withering stare. “What do you mean, why? It’s coming in handy right this minute, isn’t it?”

Archer laughed at her wink. “You’re right, you’re right. I’m sorry I asked. We’ll see you tonight!”