He laughed at her question. “Violetta, yes. Why do you think I’m coming home early?” A thought occurred to him. “Can we come see you right when we get home? I think I’ll explain everything to Matty on the way home and then he’s probably gonna wanna talk to you about it.”

“Of course.” She snuggled into him. “I’ll be free all day. And I’ll have Thanksgiving leftovers.”

She played with his chest hair for a minute. Enough to make him squirm a little. Gathering her courage, she finally asked, “Maybe this weekend you could bring my furniture over?”

“Your furniture?” he asked, leaning back to look in her eyes. “I thought you weren’t accepting it?”

“Well, if you’re still offering it, I really want it.”

“I’m still offering.”

SEBASTIAN CALLED TYLER from the road on his way back to White Plains.

“Lemme guess,” Ty said, without even the courtesy of a salutation. “You’re calling from some tacky chapel in Vegas.”

Seb rolled his eyes and laughed as he merged onto the highway, talking through speakerphone. “And rob you of the joy of wearing a tux and making a best man speech? Never.”

There was a weighted pause. “Wait. You didn’t actually propose, did you?”

Seb laughed harder. “Jesus, Tyler, we’ve only been dating for like two weeks. No. I haven’t proposed.”

“I mean, don’t get me wrong. I like Via, a lot. But damn, you almost stopped my heart.”

“I rushed things my first time around,” Seb said carefully. “And I’m not beating myself up over it or anything. But yeah. No. Slow and steady, that’s more my and Via’s style. Gotta make sure Via has her feet under her before we move forward too much. Gotta make sure Matty has his footing, too, you know?”

“You sound different, dude,” Tyler said. “Younger. Kinda like the old you.”

“Hmm.” It would be ironic, he supposed, if after all that worrying about their age difference, actually being in a relationship with Via was what helped strip away some of the worn-out weariness from Seb’s shoulders. “I feel good.”

“A sex marathon with a pretty girl will do that for ya.”

“Apparently.”

Seb waited for another joke from his friend. But there was just a long pause, heavy with some emotion he couldn’t quite put his finger on. “I’m happy for you, Sebastian. This whole thing, you deserve it. You really do.”

“Ty—”

“Yeah, yeah. I know. Gimme a call when you’re back in town. I’ll come over. Your girlfriend can make us brunch.”

When they hung up a few moments later, Sebastian couldn’t quite decide exactly which aspect of his life was filling his gut with champagne, making him want to laugh like a maniac, put the windows down in the flurrying snow. He also decided it didn’t matter.

This was his life. His. He wasn’t acting a part. He wasn’t pretending. He wasn’t watching the world move on all around him. He was living.

The next day, Via opened her door to Seb, Matty and Crabby. Matty’s fingers were a brilliant red from his refusal to wear mittens, and she couldn’t help but kneel down and squash them between her warm hands. “You look like a popsicle,” she told him.