JOSH:But you love this kind of treatment!
TOBIAS:See? This is why Josh is on my list. He’s smarter than all of you.
RILEY:Agreed.
22
“WHY WON’T YOU ERASE, damn it?”
Josh was trying to draw a shrimp in his sketchbook, but one of his guide lines wasn’t erasing completely. It probably would have been easier if he did it on the computer, but he found it relaxing to sketch with pencil and paper. It was more real and tangible to him.
Until the damn lines wouldn’t erase, then it was a pain in the ass.
It wasn’t helping that he was waiting for Riley to come home from his lunch with Sophie. He had been nervous about it all morning, and Josh wondered if he would tell his sister about the new developments in their relationship.
They should probably talk about them too. Was Riley his boyfriend? It felt weird to say they were dating. It’s not like they’d been on an official “date.” However,plenty of their nights together could have been considered dates. Maybe they’d been dating this whole time and he didn’t even know it. No, that didn’t make sense.
He’d be sure to clear it with Riley as soon as he was home. In the meantime, he could keep working on his secret project for his friends.
When he heard Riley’s footsteps outside their door, he hurriedly closed his sketchbook and put it in his drawer in their coffee table. It was a surprise for Riley as much as it was for everyone else.
His heart rate escalated when he heard a key in the lock and the turn of the knob, and he was graced with Riley’s presence in his doorway. He was carrying a to-go bag and wore a content smile.
“Hey, how’s Sophie?”
“Erratic and energized as usual, but good,” Riley said as he dropped his wallet and keys on the high table by their front door and showed off the bag. “I brought you wings from Hero’s with extra blue cheese.”
Josh groaned in delight. “Oh my God, I love you. That’s exactly what I was craving.”
Riley’s eyes widened and he headed toward the kitchen to plate Josh's meal for him, stumbling around the couch on his way there like he was nervous all of a sudden.
“It was no problem,” he rasped, washing his hands and pulling a plate from their cupboard.
Josh followed him to the kitchen.
“Is everything okay?”
Riley had been focused on the takeout container he was pulling out of the bag. His gaze snapped to Josh’s.
“Of course, yeah. I, um…” he trailed off as he continued plating Josh’s meal. Josh was perfectly capable of doing it himself, but Riley had always enjoyed taking care of him, and Josh did it in return every chance he got. “Well, Sophie found out about us. I hope that’s okay.”
His nerves suddenly made sense, and Josh nodded quickly.
“Why wouldn’t that be okay? She’s your sister. She’s practicallymysister. Well, step-sister? Adopted sister? You know what I mean.”
Riley let out a breath as he finished plating Josh’s meal and slid it over to him. He went to the fridge to grab a beer for each of them, opening it with the magnet they got from their trip to the Poconos that month.
“What do you mean she found out? You didn’t tell her?” Josh asked.
Riley’s head dipped. A nervous smile joined the blush covering his cheeks.
“I guess it was kind of obvious thanks to this,” he said, pointing to a spot on his collar bone Josh hadn’t noticed.
“Oh, shit. Did I do that?”
“Uh, yeah. I didn’t notice before I left.”
Why was he so nervous about it?
