“Aww, Bennie, he loves you.” My shoulders shake, holding back a laugh. “It’s just that… Well, sometimes you two need to have space.”

“I don’t need space. I never need space.”

“Yeah, but Cal is…”

“An asshole,” he finishes for me.

“Sometimes. And he’s more independent than you. Most of the world’s population is more independent than you.”

“Shut up,” he says, swinging the pillow.

Laughing, I catch it, and clutch it into my arms.

“He can have Tristan Becker, anyway,” he says. “I hope they’re very happy together. Wanna go get some food and make him jealous? If he knows you came out, he’ll be pissed he didn’t invite me. Then maybe he’ll trash his new best friend Tristan and come hang with us.”

“Sure, and I’m ignoring the fact that you’re using me to make Cal jealous. Sondra’s having a dinner party tonight. I was just about to walk up to the market to get a few bottles of wine. Come with me, then we’ll walk across the street to the Tavern. I’ll just have a coffee or something since I’m eating at Sondra’s.”

“Alright. Is your hot friend Mindy going to be at Sondra’s?”

“Mindy?” I stand, smoothing out my shirt, and head to gather my things.

Bennie stands from the couch, following behind. “Mindy from the wedding… With the fire-red hair… Guh, I fucking love redheads.”

“Oh! Mindy Monroe. She works in Sondra’s office. I don’t know if she’ll be there.” I swipe my wallet and keys from the kitchen counter and grab my shopping bag.

“Talk me up, bruh. Is she single? Wait, she’s totally single because we made an intense connection from across the dance floor. She eye-fucked me for like a whole three minutes.”

“Jesus, Bennie.” I scrunch my nose. “Keep it to yourself.” I open my front door and Bennie walks out, behind me.

“Where’s your dude, by the way?”

“Who?” I ask, locking my front door. “Oh, you mean Aleck?”

“Aleck, your perfect lawyer boyfriend,” he teases in a British accent.

“He’s not British, dumbass.”

“Yeah, but he seemed all preppy and uppity like he uses expensive hair products.” He runs his fingers through his curls. “He had nice hair.”

We take the stairs, then push through the heavy exterior door to Linkshire Street.

“So, if he’s preppy and rich, he’d have to be British?”

Bennie shrugs. “I mean, yeah, kind of. Like royalty, hello…”

I laugh. “Anyway, he’s not my boyfriend. We were only keeping each other company through the duration of the wedding. Everybody hooks up at weddings.”

“Nope…” He shakes his head vehemently. “Don’t wanna hear about my baby sister having casual wedding sex.”

We turn the corner, heading toward Hayward Market. Though it’s really more of a spirit and dessert shop than a market. It has the absolute best maple truffles.

“You asked…”

“Yeah I asked where he was, not about you two hooking up. I thought you two were like, dating. You mean to tell me, that asshole walked out holding your hand all confidently to meet your very protective dad, and your very protective handsome-as-fuck twin brothers knowing that he was only sleeping with you.” He shakes his head again. “Nope. That doesn’t sit right. I don’t like the way that sounded.”