“He is.” Turning to Bryce, they repeated, “You are.”
Thoroughly embarrassed now, he rubbed the back of his neck and mumbled nonsensically as Oliver snickered under his breath. He led them further into the apartment. Liel was in the kitchen finishing a charcuterie tray, and he took the wine from Oliver with a pleased smile.
“Oh, you have excellent taste,” he said as he read the label.
“Bougie,” Oliver teased, and the Gymnot rolled his eyes with a huff.
Over the next hour, the rest of the cafe crew arrived. Glyma and Quin with Willow and her boyfriend, Krul, hot on their heels. Toni, Jude, Gem, and Rusty arrived together, Gem and Jude bickering aboutStar Wars, for some reason.
Jude took a fortifying breath, like he was fighting for patience. “They’reJedis—”
“Yeah, space wizards,” Gem agreed, and air whistled through Jude’s nose on a slow exhale.
“They use the Force—”
“Space magic,” Gem interjected, and Jude’s eye twitched.
“To fight against the dark side—”
“Space villains,” Gem said, and Jude threw up his hands in frustration.
“Argh, Toni! Gem’s making it sound stupid!”
Toni hooked an arm around Jude’s shoulders, black eyes narrowing at Gem. “Stop making Jude’s movie sound stupid!”
“I’m not!” Gem crossed several arms over his torso and pouted. “If anything, I’m making it sound way more interesting.”
Tad appeared at some point, entering the living room from the direction of Oliver and Liel’s bedroom. “How did she get in here?” Oliver asked Liel, and the other man shrugged.
“I didn’t let her in.”
“She breaks into our place all the time,” Bryce said around his sip of apple cider. “I’ve stopped questioning it.”
“But we’re, like, nine floors up,” Oliver said.
“I don’t think that can stop her,” Liel said.
“Few things can,” Bryce said.
“Oi, bitchin’ hat, Zef,” Tad said, and Zef beamed at the Anura.
“Thank you, Tad. Look at the sweater Nan made me. Is it not wonderful?”
Fashionably late, Enfys strolled confidently into the apartment in a red cocktail dress and green knee-high boots. Her orange moth wings were folded flat to her back, her fluffy antennas fluttering as she sent Bryce a finger-wave.
“Merry Christmas, Bryce. Don’t you look…” Her inky black eyes scanned him from head to toe, a sultry smile on her face. “Handsome.”
The word itself was innocent, but the way she said it somehow made it sound wholly inappropriate. Which made him blush horribly. That was the point, of course. He didn’t think Enfys was genuinely interested in him, but she flirted all the same, her own form of entertainment.
“Uh, thank you. You look very nice too.”
She tittered deeply. “I know I do, precious, but thank you for the compliment.”
“Nan made his sweater,” Zef said from behind Enfys, making the Lepid jump. “She made me one too, and in my favorite color.”
“Deities below, you can’t sneak up on a girl like that!” She pressed one of her four hands to her flat chest. “And what in the world is a nan?”
“My grandma,” Bryce explained as Zef shifted to stand beside him, showing off their sweater proudly.
