“Seb, I’ll ask our friends for your most embarrassing stories.”
“We’ll shit. Never thought of that. Fine. Jake, I’ll hit you up another time.”
“Sorry. I can’t remember new people,” Jake replies.
“Don’t worry,” Seb says, waving him off. “You and I are gonna be good friends in no time. In fact, I have an idea. Be right back.”
“He seems nice,” Jake says.
“He is. Seb helped set up your condo and did most of the painting here. Have you been able to recognize Will or Janus at all?”
“Janus was sort of familiar today, but I couldn’t tell you who she was when she walked in with Dad.”
“That’s an improvement, Jake. You’ll get there,” I tell him, grabbing his hand.
Seb comes back in with paper and tape, hanging the paper beside Will’s printout. It’s a picture of Seb, and it says, new friend. “Jake, I’m Summer’s friend Seb, and now I’m your friend too. Next time I come visit, you’ll have a reference,” Seb beams.
“Good idea,” I tell him.
Seb and Jake talk more about sports, and Seb tells him about the weather here and how I freaked out during the first thunderstorm. That leads me to tell Jake about Mara and the connection to gardening we have. By 9:30 pm Jake's tired, so I kiss his cheek, tell him I love him, and that I’ll be in the living room until his dad gets home. Seb squeezes his hand, saying goodbye too, then follows me out. We sit on the couch, and Seb turns on the tv. “Sunshine, your other boyfriend is hot,” Seb tells me.
“I know,” I wink and then giggle. “You were great with him tonight.”
“I’m glad we met. He seems to be handling everything well.”
“He’s doing amazingly. Ray and I have a therapist lined up for him when he needs one, which could be anytime, but most definitely after we tell him our stories.”
“When is that gonna be?”
“When Jake settles into a routine and remembers his nurses. Ray will go first, then me.”
I hear the front door open, so we get up to help Ray. He has a shopping cart full of stuff and looks tired. “Hi. Were you able to get everything you needed?”
“Most of it,” he replies. We help him unload everything onto the island, and Seb offers to bring the cart back downstairs.
“Ray, maybe you should set up a delivery service, or even pickup once a week. You look tired.”
“It’s good for me to get out of the house once in a while.”
“True, but maybe you could get deliveries and use your downtime to hang out with Zander, to go to a movie or something.”
“I’ll think about it,” he smiles. “I have to do online ordering anyway, since I couldn’t get everything. How wasJake?”
“Great. He and Seb talked most of the time about sports. I made him coconut cream, and the rest is in the fridge.”
“I bet that was a hit. I’ll give him some more after lunch tomorrow.”
We are just finishing putting everything away when Seb returns. “Jake's sleeping. Do you need anything before we leave?”
“No Summer. I’m good. You guys get home.”
“Okay. Goodnight Ray.” I drive this time so I can drop Seb off at his condo. Once I park in front of his building, Seb leans over and kisses me passionately. We’re both breathing hard when we pull back. “Thanks for letting me meet Jake tonight, Sunshine.”
“I’m glad you did,” I smile. “Good night, Hurry.”
“Night,” he says, leaning over to give me one more kiss before getting out. “Call me later,” he waves.
Once he’s inside the building, I drive home. Zander is in his office when I get there. “Hi. I’m back,” I say, sticking my head inside.
