Page 25 of Back to You

“It’s 8 o’clock.”

“I know, that’s early for you.”

“Yeah,” Ethan said with a tired smile. “How was your day?”

“Not bad — got dragged shopping with Michelle.”

“Oh. Yeah, I’ve noticed your clothes were getting pretty worn. I’ve been meaning to take you shopping for a while.” Ethan looked pretty downcast. “I’m sorry I missed it, I know you hate shopping.”

“It’s okay. Michelle had my back.”

“Yeah.” Ethan trudged off to change clothes.

“Are you hungry?”

“I ate at work. Thanks though.”

Back to roommates again, Brandon thought. He hated this so much. He hopped up off the couch, earning an indignant “mrow” from Barnabus, and followed Ethan into the bedroom.

“What’s wrong?”

“Huh? Nothing.” Ethan said as he slipped into a shirt and track pants.

“You’re acting like I killed your ferret.”

Ethan paused, diverted. “Why a ferret?”

“I couldn’t say cat, what if Barnabus heard me?”

“True, true.” Ethan shrugged. “I just feel bad I couldn’t go shopping with you.”

“Well … I mean, you could have, you were just busy at work, so you didn’t.”

“I know, I know, I know. You don’t have to remind me.”

Brandon clenched his jaw, then relaxed it. “Look, there’s no point in beating a dead horse.”

“Why are you so homicidal against animals tonight?”

“Let’s just go about our evening and talk about other things.”

“You’re right.”

Brandon went back to the couch and waited for Ethan to get a drink and join him. “How was your day?”

“Busy. We have the Williams case coming up next week, so I’ve been trying to get all my ducks in a row for that. It’s going to be a tough one.”

“Why?”

Ethan elaborated more about the case and the potential problems they were already preparing for. Brandon realized that he never asked Ethan about his work anymore, as he harbored a great deal of resentment for the job. But that wasn’t fair to Ethan, he deserved to be able to come home and talk about his day. What little time they had to talk.

“Anyway, that’s enough shop talk. How was your week, other than the shopping?”

Brandon thought for a moment. “We have a senior citizen book club that’s started meeting in the cafe every couple of weeks. They’re all at least 80 and one of them called me ‘sonny’ the other day.”

Ethan laughed. It was a good sound, one of Brandon’s favorites. “How is that working out?”

“Well, half of them seem to be hard of hearing, so they’re kind of loud. It’s really disconcerting to hear old ladies yelling about how Randall was the sexiest man alive and how they swooned when he finally confessed his love to Bridget. And then they started talking about the sex scenes. Marcus was just bug-eyed.”

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