“Currently the former. There was a brief chance of being the latter a year or so ago, but Angel screwed that up.”
That got Seth’s attention, not that Dev had thought he was losing it. Seth seemed like one of those people who was very much present in the company of others, at least one-on-one.
“There’s a story, I’m sure,” he stated, but didn’t quite ask.
“Angel dated Olivia for a few months. Then he went into his creative haze for something or other and forgot to call her or reply to her calls for a couple of weeks.”
“Ouch,” Seth hissed.
“Indeed. At least it was during the summer and not while studying. I try to keep him from doing that when he has lectures to attend and stuff to do for actual credit.” Dev shrugged, then smiled when Olivia’s little brother, Sammy, walked up the stairs with menus in hand.
“Hi, guys,” the teen said, smiling at them. “You need these or…?” He held out the menus.
“Nah, I’ll take the mozzarella pizza as usual. And water,” Dev said, grinning at Sam. He really liked the family and hated that Angel had ruined things. Sadly, his brother just wasn’t ready for any sort of commitment if it wasn’t to his studies or his art.
“I’ll have the veggie lasagna and any beer Ronny suggests with it. Thanks, Sammy.” After Sammy left, Seth made himself comfortable and looked at Dev.
“What?”
Seth smiled. “Tell me another story?”
Dev chuckled and shook his head. “Okay, but then you owe me one too.” He raised his brow at Seth, who nodded in agreement. “So, when we were adopted, we were two and a half or so. I had a different name, one that someone in the system gave me, but Angel was already called Angel then.”
Seth nodded, his whole being concentrating on Dev in a way nobody ever had before. It should’ve been disconcerting for someone prone to anxiety, but somehow it wasn’t. Instead, it felt like a hug, almost.
“After our parents took us home, it became glaringly obvious that Angel was an easy kid, no matter what he’d gone through before. Me, on the other hand….” He chuckled. Then Sammy was back with their drinks and Dev took a sip of his water. “See, I had issues with aggression when I was little. It’s gone away ages ago—I somehow mellowed out as a teen—but our parents soon figured that if Angel was the angel baby, I was the little hellion. So they renamed me Devin as a joke… almost.”
“Angel and Devil?” Seth looked incredulous.
“Uh-huh. It was all done very lovingly, and mostly because one of our cousins had the name I’d been given before. But it fit. The whole angel-and-devil thing has become family nicknames. Terms of endearment, really. So to this day our mother calls us her Angel Baby and her Devil Child.”
Seth smiled widely, then laughed out loud. “Oh man, that’s… that’s gonna be hard to top.”
Dev chuckled. “Yeah? Well, you gotta try because you promised.”
“Okay, okay,” Seth said, took a drink of his beer, and seemed to think for a while. “When I was nine, I accidentally outed my aunt to my whole extended family.”
Dev’s eyes widened as he took in the implications. “Holy shit!”
“Yeah. See, my aunt was in her late thirties then, and she’d been living with this ‘roommate’ of hers for like five years or something like that. And I’d spent time at their place, because it was much more fun than being home alone all summer. My mom’s an artist and my dad worked a lot, anyway. So, we were at this family gathering at my grandparents’ ranch, and those with kids were starting to gather us up for bedtime routines. Somehow, and I still don’t remember the context exactly, I managed to ask in a very bright, loud voice if my aunt would sleep in the same bed with her roommate here too, just like they did at home.”
Dev groaned out loud and let his head thump theatrically against the table. “You didn’t….”
“Oh yes. Everyone froze. That I remember.” Seth took another sip from his glass. “Now, let me remind you, this was almost thirty years ago. In rural Texas.”
Dev let out another wounded sound that made Seth laugh more.
“Oh my God,” Dev finally managed to say. “This is why I’d never have kids. Well, among other reasons, but you know. Kids can be horrible.”
“Agreed,” Seth said, grinning.
They chatted for a moment longer before Sammy brought them their food.
“Now, I know a lot of people would laugh at me for going into an Italian restaurant for pizza, but….” Dev trailed off as he inhaled the scent wafting from the basil and tomatoes.
“But it’s Martha’s.” Seth nodded solemnly, cutting into his lasagna. “It’s the same with lasagna, I think. It’s a bit of a cliché, but you know….”
“Yes, Martha’s,” Dev said in a nearly reverent tone, which made both of them burst out in laughter. “We’re such suckers for this place, aren’t we?”
