Vik snorted. Mae’s phone vibrated in the pocket of her hoodie.
Vik: are you really just seeing it?
Mae: they look EXACTLY ALIKE
Mae: okay not exactly
Mae: but close enough
Jackson was thinner, and didn’t have The Voice—and Mae felt grateful for that, because their friendship would have been perhaps a touch different, if he did—but still.
Vik was full on laughing now.
Vik: told you I understood falling in love with Dell
Mae: there is something too queer about this
Mae: I just can’t put my finger exactly on it
“Hey. Earth to Vik and Mae.”
Mae glanced up at the sound of Jackson’s voice. And noted his single raise of an eyebrow. Which was…almost exactly mirrored on Dell’s face.
She dissolved into giggles.
“You do realize,” Jackson continued, “that the two of you are just standing there, right next to each other, texting each other?”
“Yeah,” Vik shot back, “as is our right, as friends.”
“Well, sorry to break up this weird moment,” Jackson said, “but we should get going to dinner soon.”
“Dinner?” Dell put a hand on his belly, glanced at Mae. “We sort of just ate…”
“Sorry.” Mae stuffed her phone back in her pocket, ran the backs of her thumbs over her eyes to calm herself. “We’re meeting everyone for dinner soon. You can stay here and relax”—she returned Dell’s glance—“if you want.”
But Dell only held her gaze for another beat before he shrugged and said, “Nah, that sounds good. I’d like to meet everyone.”
Jackson led Dell back to the kitchen then, chattering on about his sourdough starters. Mae watched Dell’s retreating form. She never quite stopped watching Dell, really: as they met the whole gang at their favorite pizza place—minus Dorsa and Camille, as expected, and of course, Steve and Jesus. As he dozed in an armchair back at Jackson and Vik’s afterward, his beard nuzzling into his chest. She watched his shoulders move under his T-shirt as he prepared to sleep on the couch. “I’m all right out here, Mae,” he finally said to her as she lingered. “I’ve slept on couches before.”
And yet Mae hovered a minute more. Struggling to see, as she had all day, any signs of tension in those shoulders, hiding in the corners of his eyes. Any indications that he was regretting this, being here, in Portland. But he only looked back at her, eyes tired but calm.
“Go to sleep, Mae.”
She bit her lip.
“Thank you,” she said softly. Vik and Jackson were already in bed. “For coming with me.”
Dell’s gaze was steady.
“I’m having a good time.”
And maybe he was telling the truth. He’d smiled with everyone, laughed a few times at dinner while he nursed a soda. Maybe he only wanted her to go to bed.
“See you in the morning,” she finally said.
“See you in the morning.”
And as she tucked herself into the foldaway in Vik’s office, only a wall away, she thought about how nice it had felt, saying goodnight to Dell.
