"Mason!" Bee lightly shoved his arm again.
"He's not wrong," James said.
"Both of you are ridiculous." My face was probably even redder than Bee's. "And both of you have full lives. So you wouldn't get an empty feeling. Unless we broke up with you after you cheated on us."
"Here's to that," Bee said. I clinked my glass against the one she had raised.
"Well, I know that," Mason said. "But James already vetoed my first several ideas."
"Which were way worse," James said.
"I really don't understand the whole bachelor party thing," Bee said. "It's your last night as a single guy before you marry the girl youchoseto marry. That shouldn't be a big deal."
"Exactly," James said. "Which is why I don't want one."
"Fine, we'll just go with the first idea I had. I already have the place booked anyway," Mason said.
James laughed. "I don't think so."
"It's not like we have to participate in everything. Obviously." He gestured to Bee and me.
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Bee asked.
"Yes." Mason kissed her cheek and put his arm around her shoulders. "Wait, does this mean you don't want me to have a bachelor party before our wedding?"
"Um...yeah."
"I need to rethink everything now."
Bee laughed as Mason pulled her onto his lap and wrapped his arms tightly around her.
"Never mind, you're worth it."
James squeezed my hand and I looked up at him. We had an ongoing bet for when the two of them would get engaged. He had guessed Mason would pop the question sometime this summer. It was looking like he was going to win. He usually did win our bets. But I was always willing to give him the rewards he requested. I shrugged my shoulders and smiled at him.
"How about that tour?" James asked.
"Sounds good. What did this place set you back? I honestly didn't know apartments could be this big this close to Central Park," Mason said.
"It was actually two apartments that we had to combine. So we got everything custom done, which was great."
It was cute that he said we, even though he had kept it a secret from me until it was already done. I hadn't even known it had been two apartments before. But that made sense. I had just been thinking that I hadn't seen an apartment with a second story before.
Recently James and Mason had gotten really into talking about real estate. I was pretty sure the two of them were trying to buy up all the prime real estate in the city. Their conversationquickly turned into discussing copper versus aluminum wire and different light fixtures.
"Do you want a normal person tour?" I asked Bee.
"Absolutely." She stood up and followed me into the kitchen. "They lost me at light fixtures."
Eruption - Chapter 7
Friday
I opened up one of the last boxes. On top was a small frame. I smiled and turned it over. It was a picture of James and Rob. James was smiling brightly and Rob was giving the middle finger to the camera. I couldn't believe this had been taken two and a half years ago. James didn't look any different than he did in the picture. I wasn't sure if I looked any older either, but I felt older.
Rob joked around with me all the time, but I knew he didn't mean it. He had become one of my best friends. He was like the brother I never had. He teased me enough to make it true. And James' sister was like the sister I never had. I truly did fit into James' life. With everyone but his parents, that was.
"Do you need help finishing up?" Ellen asked and sat down next to me on the couch.
