Chapter One
JAMES
“What is Leon always calling you? A mensch?” Aspen asked, waving their hand between Leon and James. “What a mensch move to finish your New Year's resolution less than three weeks into the new year.”
James shook his head in exasperation, but Leon and Noah laughed good-naturedly.
“It wasn’t my only New Year’s Resolution,” James huffed.
“No, just the most relevant one,” Leon “The Traitor” Rabinowicz said.
They were out to dinner with Aspen and Noah, who were fast becoming their new best friends. Noah had started the conversation by sharing that he’d finally signed up for a gym that offered gender-affirming personal training. Aspen had bemoaned that their own goal of eating more protein, hoping it would help with managing their ADHD, wasn’t off to a good start. They’d just ordered vegetarian pho with no tofu because they liked the “bright happy vegetables,” but didn’t like tofu in soup.
That was when Leon had utterly betrayed James, telling their new friends that James had already completed one of his New Year's resolutions: to make a new friend.
“I have to say, that is one of the cutest New Year’s resolutions I’ve ever heard,” Aspen said. “I’m in love with the fact that you made that one of your goals, and then the very next day we hung out for six hours and solidified our eternal bond!”
Noah rolled his eyes as he sipped calmly at his tea. Leon had gotten a Vietnamese iced coffee, while Aspen and James had opted for smoothies.
Aspen had been very proud of themself for ordering the avocado smoothie until Leon informed them that avocado was actually a better source of healthy fat than of protein. Aspen looked utterly devastated and faux cried into Noah’s shoulder until their smoothies arrived, at which point Aspen announced the avocado smoothie was “the best thing I’ve put in my mouth since last night” and ceased all complaining. Noah hadn’t said a word, but the blush that spread across his cheeks spoke volumes.
“Thanks for suggesting this placeandfor suggesting the last two places. James and I will come up with something for us to do next time,” Leon said, and James quickly agreed.
“It’s no problem,” Noah said, grinning.
Aspen began waving their hands in the air again. “Truly, I have a list a mile long of cute little places I want to try around the city. Usually, they die a slow, painful death in my messages with Noah, but I’ve been able to tick off three just this month. Oh my god!” Aspen turned to look at Noah with a scandalized expression. “Why didn’t I makethatmy New Year's Resolution!”
“You can always change it,” James offered, but Aspen collapsed sideways against Noah’s shoulder. He dutifully wrapped his arm around their shoulder while somehow effortlessly bringing a spoonful of noodles and broth to his mouth.
“No, it’s too late for that,” Aspen said. “I’m on my protein journey this year.”
“What if you try to go to places that have interesting sources of protein?” Leon asked.
Aspen looked at him like he’d just invented the concept of protein. “That’s a wonderful idea, hon! I knew there was a reason we hit it off so fast,” Aspen said, sitting back up so they could continue slurping up noodles.
James always felt like he was about two steps behind on keeping up with Aspen, but he loved watching the sweet way Noah interacted with them, and the genuine affection Leon seemed to feel for them. It was also a bit of a revelation to have not one, but two new friends who were trans and nonbinary.
He’d met lots of trans folks but never had any in his inner circle. Not that he’d ever really had an inner circle, but still. In the few weeks he’d known them, they’d casually covered more trans and gender related topics than James had ever discussed before. That was probably one of his favorite things about Aspen. They had this ability to discuss the most complicated, sometimes emotionally charged topics in a casual way, making it feel as easy as deciding where to go for dinner.
Speaking of which. “If you want, you can message me some of the places you’re interested in, and I can create a shareable spreadsheet for us to track them,” James offered. “We can arrange it by how excited we are for each place, the type of food, or the location?”
Leon and Aspen stared at him while Noah looked duly impressed. “That would be amazing,” Noah said.
Aspen pressed the back of their hand to their forehead. “Me and my ADHD could never. But if that’s something you want to take on, that sounds lovely. And then you and Noah can use it to alphabetize, organize, prioritize, or whatever it is you wonderful boys like to do. I’ll just continue spamming you both with all the videos and posts I see that spark joy.”
Leon snorted. “I’d also like nothing to do with the spreadsheet maintenance, but I’m happy to contribute ideas.”
“We got this, right, James?” Noah asked.
James smiled hesitantly over at him. “Right,”
Aspen pulled out their phone to add everyone to group chats across three social media platforms. James promised to work on the spreadsheet that evening, and the conversation turned to one of Aspen’s favorite hair salon clients, Ben. He was fast becoming another one of Aspen’s friends, and Aspen insisted they would bring him along to one of their hangouts someday soon.
While James and Leon kept their circle small, Aspen seemed to have more friends than they knew what to do with. Noah, on the other hand, seemed to maintain a small circle of friends, which mostly consisted of Aspen, a woman named Rachel, and his friend Charlie, who ran a local dog shelter. Aspen had invited them to the shelter, even though Aspen admitted they hated walking dogs due to a catastrophic run-in with dog poop. Leon and James weren’t really dog people, but they’d promised to visit at some point.
They wrapped up dinner, and after exuberant hugs from Aspen on the sidewalk, they parted ways. It was a chilly evening, but Leon’s place was only a few blocks away, so they decided to walk rather than spend that same amount of time huddling in a bus stop, waiting for a bus that didn’t always show up.
For the first few minutes of the walk, James was so cold that all he could focus on was maintaining feeling in his toes by flexing them every few steps. After five or so minutes, he had warmed up enough not to worry about the safety of his extremities, and he glanced over to find Leon scowling at the sidewalk.
