“What’s Advent?”
“Oh boy,” Carl replied. “Good thing Meemaw isn’t around to hear you say that. She’s a good Episcopal gal, and Advent was a big deal.” He snapped his fingers. “We should get an Advent calendar. One of those Lego ones.”
“A Lego what?” Alec asked, returning.
“Advent calendar,” Carl explained. “Kit asked me what Advent was.”
“It’s the countdown in December until Christmas Eve. Lego sounds cool, but they do ones you hang on the wall, and they have pockets with fabric ornaments inside, and you hang one each day on the tree, plus you can put candy in each pocket. My mom has one she made, and she managed to fit three miniature chocolate bars inside each pocket, so we each had a candy. You know, the ones from Hershey’s that people sometimes give out on Halloween."
“Now I’m torn.” Carl moaned.
“We could do both,” I suggested, liking the idea of having an ornament and candy to eat, but also knowing just how much Carl loved Lego. His office at the college had a typewriter and a space ship from a movie made of the stuff gracing it. I hoped they didn’t come apart during shipping, given how long he said it took to build each of them.
“Capital idea!” Carl said, clapping his hands and kissing me on the cheek before sitting back down.
We restarted the movie to finish watching the end, having only stopped as Carl had declared he was ‘busting to go’ and Alec admitted he could use a break as well. I’d gone earlier, between the end of the original version and the start of this one.
We finished polishing off the food as we watched, and once it was over, cleaned up after our meal and replicated the ice cream sundaes.
“I don’t know if I can watch a third movie,” Alec said with a yawn.
“Okay, let’s just watch some YouTube videos while we eat these, and then we can go to bed.”
I was relieved to hear this and nodded my agreement. It was probably the nanite treatment, but I was feeling tired and a bit off. A good night’s sleep could only do me good.
“Have you guys watched the ones from Everything Auto?” Alec asked.
“No? Is it about cars?”
“Sort of. It’s a tow truck company, and they film their tows. It sounds like it would be boring, but it’s not. Not bad wrecks or gory stuff, more illegal parks and people getting stuck. Some of it gets kinda wild.”
Carl looked unsure and glanced at me. I shrugged. He looked back at Alec. “Sure, we can watch a few. If we don’t like it, it can just go on your personal watch list for when we’re not doing a group TV thing.”
“Cool! I’m sure you’ll like it. Even my mom is a fan.”
He settled back with his sundae and asked Xeranos to pull up the chosen YouTube channel. To my and Carl’s surprise, it was indeed interesting.
“How on Earth did he end up there?” Carl asked, shaking his head as the tow truck driver and his wife figured out the best way to get someone out of a culvert. “Oh, his car slid down that steep drive without anyone in it. Yikes!”
We finished our ice cream and agreed that we all enjoyed watching this company at work. After recycling our dishes, we folded up the towel we’d used as a tablecloth and put it in the refresher, then laid out the sleeping bags we had delivered courtesy of Xeranos, who had them replicated by the supply office, and got in them.
“Xeranos, lower lights to sleep mode.”
The lights dimmed, so we were in near total darkness, with a faint light along the wall and hallway to light our way to the bathroom remaining.
“I’ve had a lot of fun,” Alec said to my left. “I think this is just what I needed, to bond with you as good friends first. I did hookups in the past, but I want to really get to have all the feels when we finally take that step.”
I ruffled his hair. “I’ve had fun too. I’m glad you’re becoming comfortable with us.”
“Well, I already was crushing on you guys, so I’m pretty sure after I get used to hanging with you, I’ll be head over heels. I’m not a complicated guy, and my parents always say that I wear my heart on my sleeve.”
“I’m already feeling that same instant attachment to you that I did with Kit,” Carl admitted. “Pretty sure you won’t be the only one totally into the others.”
“Once my mating fever kicks in, my emotions will be ramped even higher, too. But you already feel like you belong in our group, whereas no one else ever did. Carl and I would do things with others we knew, but it was somehow always Carl and me as a unit, and the others separate somehow.”
“Because we were meant to be.” Carl wriggled closer, snuggling against my side.
“Yeah. And the match proves it,” Alec’s voice trailed off.
