Oh, thank fuck.
Tuesday only had two arms right now.
“Tuesday, this is my brother, Derrick.” Ozzie waved between them. “Derrick, this is Tuesday.”
Tuesday stood behind Ozzie and draped his arms around his shoulders, beaming at Derrick. “Hi! Nice to meet you.”
Ozzie chewed his lip thoughtfully, his stomach doing somersaults as Tuesday embraced him so openly.
“Tuesday, huh? Hi!” Derrick immediately surged forward to grab Tuesday’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you too! Tuesday, okay. Do you have a last name?”
Tuesday laughed. “Of course I do!”
Derrick stared expectantly.
“It’s, uh… really hard to pronounce. Or spell.” Ozzie laughed anxiously. “Anyway hi, you met. Don’t you have that thing to be at? Right now? So, you should?—”
“What? My name is totally normal. You’re so silly, baby.” Tuesday giggled. “It’s Bobbiflay.”
It took every ounce of strength and self control that Ozzie possessed not to bark out a hysterical laugh at Tuesday’s improvised name. “Tuesday Bobbiflay,” he repeated, nodding and biting down on his lip. “Yup. That’s his name.”
“Tuesday Bobbiflay?” Derrick shrugged. “Oh, okay.” He grinned at Ozzie, batting his eyes. “Nope. I got nowhere else to be. I thought we’d have lunch together. But you didn’t tell me you’d have company.”
“Well, I, uh... You know... I like to keep things kinda quiet, you know. How I do… I do like that. Yes.” Ozzie had no explanation for the rambling nonsense tumbling from his lips, but he needed it to stop. He took a deep breath. “Lunch! I should order food then.”
“Which is how we met!” Tuesday chimed in. “I delivered his food, and we just hit it off. Yup. That’s what happened.”
“Yes.” Ozzie nodded automatically. “That is exactly what happened.”
“Oh, you’re a delivery driver?” Derrick asked. “DoorDash or Grubhub?”
Tuesday squinted. “Yes?”
“Yes,” Ozzie quickly confirmed.
“You work for both of them? Wow.” Derrick laughed. “Okay.”
“He’s very efficient.” Ozzie patted Tuesday’s arm which was wrapped around him and gave it a big squeeze. “Just crashed into my life with some take out and the rest is history! Speaking of, we should order food and change this topic!” He slipped away from Tuesday to swipe at his phone. “What’s everyone, uh, in the mood for?”
“You’re coming to the party, right?” Derrick ignored Ozzie, addressing Tuesday directly.
“Yeah!” Tuesday lit up. “I heard you guys talking about it when I just so happened to walk in.” He batted his lashes. “I love parties.”
Ozzie closed his eyes for a moment and tried not to panic. He had just met Tuesday and didn’t think bringing him to a big family get together was the greatest of ideas. It was a lot of pressure, there would be so many questions, and not to mention his family would be crushed when Tuesday eventually returned to his own world…
Planet? Reality? Whatever.
The thought of Tuesday leaving made Ozzie’s chest tighten, and he realized that maybe they should have discussed Tuesday’s future plans before they did stuff with tentacles.
“Our family has a shindig on Christmas every year,” Derrick said excitedly. “There’s food and we play games, sometimes people cry. It’s great!”
Ozzie tried to stay calm, adding, “Derrick cries when he loses.”
“What? I do not!” Derrick protested. “Because I don’t lose.”
“Sounds like a blast!” Tuesday glued himself to Ozzie’s back, cooing, “Can we go, baby? Please? I wanna go to the party and play games and see Derrick cry.”
Derrick laughed. “I don’t cry!”
