Page 82 of Back to You

“Then why are you yelling?”

“This is just how I talk!”

Brandon finished washing the big coffee pot and went over to stare at Marcus through the window. Sensing his displeasure, Marcus ended his conversation with the Chicken Lady and gave Kelly one last pat on the head.

“Jeez, can’t a guy live?” Marcus said as he walked back in.

“What’s with you and that chicken?”

“I don’t know, she’s just amazing and I love her.”

He caught the book club giving him an epic side-eye.

“What? She’s a cool chicken.”

“You know these kids today,” Rhonda said. “They’d rather be friends with chickens than other people.” All the other ladies at the table nodded sadly.

“Am I a kid?” Marcus whispered to Brandon.

“To them, yeah. Be careful, Rhonda got her hearing aids fixed.”

“Yes I did! And don’t think I’m not listening to you two!” Rhonda yelled.

Lake bopped through the door and made a beeline for the book club. “Ladies, I actually read the book this month!”

There was a thrilled screech from the members of the book club as they absorbed Lake into their ranks.

“And he was never seen again,” Brandon mused.

“I’ll pull him out in 30 minutes if he hasn’t come begging for caffeine,” Marcus said.

Brandon went back to the kitchen to try his hand at croissants. Those were a pain in the ass, maybe they’d distract him from his Ethan obsession.

Probably not, though.

Ever since he’d hung out with Ethan the other night at the bar, he couldn’t get him out of his head. Not that he was ever far from Brandon’s thoughts, but lately he’d been front and center 24/7.

Brandon could admit that seeing the more settled and confident Ethan was attractive. He loved Ethan no matter what, but this Ethan was more relaxed and calm, happier. It was exciting. Ethan was improving his life for the better, and that was everything Brandon could have dreamed of.

He couldn’t help but feel a little like Ethan was leaving him behind in the process, though.

He knew it was stupid. He was the one who had left Ethan, so he certainly had no room to complain. But seeing Ethan now, thriving without him, made him feel like he’d been the one holding Ethan back all that time.

Brandon shook off the thoughts and gave his attention to his dough. He had just put the pain-in-the-ass croissants in the oven when Lake popped through the kitchen door.

“Hey! Guess what! Rhonda got her hearing aids fixed! She can hear, like, everything now, it’s so crazy. And apparently Marcus’s best friend is a chicken. Did you know that? I don’t judge, if he’s happy I’m happy. I just worry because —” he dipped his head close to Brandon’s and lowered his voice, “the average lifespan of a chicken is like 5 to 10 years. I worry about him when the chicken eventually crosses the rainbow bridge, you know? Should we introduce him to another chicken at that point?”

Brandon looked at Lake a moment, then held up one finger. “Marcus!” he shouted.

“Yeah, boss?” Marcus said, opening the door. He looked surprised to see Lake.

“Did you give him caffeine?”

“Nope, he came in like this.”

“Jesus Lake, how much have you had today?”

“Don’t worry, this is entirely sugar based. Marco at work was having a birthday and I had three slices of cake! People kept handing them to me and I felt bad not eating them. What if people felt like I was rejecting an offering of friendship by rejecting their cake? I couldn’t live with myself.”

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