“The one Michael’s been talking about. He was being all weird, and a few weeks ago he asked me if it were possible to love two people. At first, I was like what the fuck, dude. You can’t be cheating on Vee. That’s not cool. And he laughed and said he wasn’t cheating. And the whole conversation was weird, but then we got busy, and then I met you,” Hennessy said, looking at me. “And I’ve been kinda absorbed with that. And not to mention work’s been crazy and stressful.”

“He’s been stressed,” Angus said, nodding slowly. “That’s why I’ve been seeing them so much. It… helps—” He shrugged. “—relieve stress.”

“Wait,” I said, putting the pieces back together. “Your best friends Michael and Vee are Angus’ couple?”

Hennessy laughed. “I think so.” Then he pulled out his phone and hit a number. It answered on the second ring. Still smiling, Hennessy said, “Michael, my dearest friend in all the world. … Yes, yes, it all worked out really great, actually. I’ll be in first thing in the morning to catch up. … Nah, it’s fine. I’m here with Jordan right now and his two best friends. … Yeah, me too. Hey listen, if I said to you right this minute I was sitting across from a guy called Angus, what would you say?” Hennessy grinned as he listened to whatever Michael was saying. “Well, he’s a painter by trade, brown hair, brown eyes, cute as hell.”

I snorted at that, and Angus blushed. Hennessy handed his phone over to him, then Hennessy laughed and nodded. “Turns out it’s a really, really small fucking world.”

“No way,” Merry whispered excitedly.

“You’re not kidding!” I cried. “Holy shit.”

Angus was smiling and blushing and whispering into the phone. “Okay.” He ended the call and handed Hennessy back his phone. He was three shades of red but his smile gave him away. “Uh, this um, meeting thing we talked about?” He cleared his throat. “Dinner at their place next weekend…” He bit his lip. “If you want?”

I was stunned. “And I thought today couldn’t get any weirder. Hell yes, I want to meet them.” Then I blanched. “Oh God. I’ll be meeting your best friends and his couple. At the same time.” I put my hand to my forehead, already about to panic. “I need to give them the ‘don’t fucking hurt him’ speech for Angus, and they need to give it right back to me for you. Fuck. This could be a disaster.”

Hennessy burst out laughing and slid his arm around my shoulder. “They’ll love you.”

“I need an invitation to this dinner party,” Merry said. “There is no way in hell I’m missing this.”