The others teased her about being a mother hen, and Michael could see why. “Maybe they’re stepping outside of their comfort zones.”

“Mm,” Olivia replied, noncommittally, making Michael laugh. She tilted her head towards him, laughter in her silvery eyes. “I’m just saying. They’re not going to last.”

“I’m sure you’re right,” he said agreeably. Truth be told, his only interest was because he wanted to see if things would ever shake down between Jake and Sharon.

Damn.

He was getting as nosy as all the other gossip-hounds in this group.

“So I hear you’re scening with Ellie tomorrow.” Chris’ dark eyes gleamed with amusement as Michael let out a resigned huff of air. They’d gone to a bar not too far from Kate’s school which wasn’t too loud but was also kind of full. They’d ended up scattered around separate tables by necessity.

It was a big group of friends.

A big, nosy group of friends.

“I literally asked her to scene with me about half an hour ago, and I’m pretty sure everyone in this group already knows,” Michael said dryly before taking a long sip of his beer.

“That’s just how we roll,” Patrick said. Before Justin had come up, Patrick, Jake, and Lexie had all been chatting with Michael, thankfully not about Ellie. He wasn’t entirely pleased with the conversation turn.

“It’s not my fault,” Chris protested, although he was still grinning. “Jessica wanted to know.”

“And yet you don’t see Justin over here,” Lexie pointed out, teasing.

Justin, Chris, and Jessica were in a poly relationship centered around Jessica since both Justin and Chris were straight and dominant. They also looked alike, having the same height, broad-shoulders, and dark hair and eyes, but in personality they were fairly different. Justin tended to be much more serious whereas Chris was more playful; outside of the bedroom, Justin tended to lead - and from what Michael had witnessed of their public scenes, he tended to lead in the bedroom as well, although Chris had no problem dominating Jessica on his own. Justin was just as big a gossip as the others in the group though, even if he wasn’t nearly as blatant about it as Chris.

“Yeah well, I’m nosy,” Chris said cheerfully.

At least he admitted it.

A smile on his face, Michael turned his head towards Jake, and was immediately distracted by the way Jake was looking at Patrick. Turning his head to face the other man, he was a bit surprised to see Patrick staring off into space again with his forehead wrinkled so much it was pulling at the scar next to his eye. Group gossip said Jake had accidentally given him that scar when they were teenagers.