Not much had changed. Angus and I still lived together, only now we rented a bigger apartment in Surry Hills, and Hennessy lived with us too. We still had Bruce and Ali, the Siamese fighting fish, though they were now Bruce the Second, and Ali Prince Junior, because apparently fish only had teeny-tiny mortal coils. And Spike still sat on the windowsill, and Hennessy still talked to him every day.

Angus was still involved with Veronica and Michael, and while he was still resisting making the final move in with them, we all knew it wouldn’t be long. He was at their place three or four nights out of every week, and they now considered their marriage—not just relationship—to be between three people. It was kinda weird, but it really worked, and the three of them were utterly, ridiculously happy.

Just like me and Hennessy. My family tolerated him just as much as they tolerated me, but his family had totally adopted me as their own. It was all I’d ever need.

Merry had met and fallen in love with Jodie, and they were sickeningly happy, living together for almost two years, and Merry and I still drove Mrs Mullhearn crazy five days a week.

Hennessy still worked with Michael, still jogged in the evenings, still listened to audiobooks, and he still kissed like a motherfucker. He still ran the Surry Hills Ace Support meetings, and the Soup Crew had established a recipe and garden community group that now met every month at the library.

And life was, somehow, perfect.

We’d spend lazy Sunday afternoons cozied up on the couch, me reading a book, Hennessy would do a crossword, or choose recipes and write shopping lists, or one of his many lists for every little thing. Sometimes he’d pull my feet into his lap, or sometimes he’d rest his head on my chest, and sometimes he’d fall asleep when I ran my fingers through his hair.

But sometimes he’d have to work late, which was totally fine, and I’d have to run the support group at the library. I’d done it a few times without offending or injuring anyone, so when he called me to say he had to work late and asked me to run the group, I didn’t think anything of it.

The usual faces were there, plus a few more we’d collected over the years. There were now eleven regular attendees, and they knew Hennessy and me well. According to the general consensus of the group, we were the poster boys for an ace relationship.

We were just like any other couple. We did everything they did. We held hands, we kissed, we hugged, we argued over cleaning and laundry, and we shared a bed. The only thing we didn’t do was have sex.