Page 43 of The Swap Masquerade

“Trust me, my friends are going to adore you, the same way I do.”

“Yeah, but what if they disapprove because I was your student? What if they think I’m way too young and you’d be better off with someone more mature?”

I squeezed his hand when I saw the real worry in his eyes. “First off, they already know you were my student and they’re well aware you’re not a student anymore. Second, they’re not going to judge us. They love me and want me to be happy, and you make me happy. Deliriously so. Third, you’re more mature than many men my own age so that’s not an issue. Fourth, and most importantly, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks of us. We’re the only two in this relationship, so we’re the only ones whose opinions matter. Okay?”

Elliott had started smiling the moment I told him how happy he made me, but it stretched across his face by the time I was finished. “Okay.”

I pulled into the restaurant parking lot a few minutes later. It was the same Mexican place we’d eaten at before. We got out and I offered Elliott my hand before we crossed the lot together. It was nice to be able to hold his hand in public without worrying we might run into someone we knew. Granted, we no longer held positions of teacher/student, but until the final grades were all in, we weren’t taking any chances.

Curtis and John were already seated by the time we walked in and they waved us over. They stood, hugging me and shaking Elliott’s hand politely as I made introductions. There was a bit of an awkward silence when we first sat down, but we filled it by looking over the menus and talking about what we were going to order.

“So, Gavin tells us you recently graduated with a degree in architecture,” Curtis said as soon as the waiter had taken our orders.

Elliott smiled. “That’s right.”

“Do you know what you’re looking for? What type of work you’d like to do?”

“Commercial architecture, mainly. I know I can’t afford to be too picky right now, since I only recently graduated, but I’m not afraid of hard work and don’t mind having to work my way up from the bottom. I’m going to be putting feelers out this next week.”

Curtis’s eyes lit up. “Oh, it sounds like I caught you right in time then. My firm is getting ready to add more people to the paid internship program. We could set up a time for you to come look around, maybe see if it’s anything you might be interested in, if you’d like.”

Elliott looked shocked but excited as he glanced at me then back at Curtis. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, that would be great. Thank you.”

“No problem.”

I couldn’t help but grin as the two of them launched into an animated discussion on the Children’s Hospital wing Curtis had been working on. If I hadn’t known any better, I would have sworn they were old friends instead of two people who’d met a handful of minutes ago.

“I like him.” I turned my attention to John and found him watching Elliott but then he turned his smile on me.

“You barely know him,” I countered with a grin.

“Not true. I know plenty. I know you haven’t been able to take your eyes off him since you walked in, and he’s barely taken his off you. I know the two of you have found a way to touch each other the entire time, whether it’s putting your heads together as you looked over the menu, or the way your hand is brushing over the back of his neck right now.” My hand stilled, as I realized he was right. I hadn’t even been aware I was doing it.

John laughed softly. “Don’t stop. It’s a beautiful thing to witness. I also know one other thing and it’s pretty significant, and the reason I decided I liked him already.”

“What’s that?”

“Because you smiled more in the first five minutes you were here with him than I’ve seen over the last year. He makes you happy and for that, I like him.” He glanced over at the two men who were still lost in conversation. “Curtis does too. I can tell.” I sat back in my seat, sighing happily and grinning from ear to ear. I’d been excited to have the three most important people in my life finally meet, but to actually have them like each other, was more than I ever could have hoped for.

The rest of the evening was spent enjoying delicious food and getting to know one another. Elliott laughed as we told him stories from when we were boys and he even added in a few tales of his own. He asked them about the baby, and John pulled out copies of the sonogram to show him as they talked about everything they’d been doing to get ready and what was left. When Elliott kindly offered to help put the changing table together for them, my friends readily agreed. I almost felt sorry for my boyfriend, but then I remembered what a pain in the butt assembling the crib had been and decided to keep my mouth shut.

John and Elliott were still discussing some band they’d discovered they both liked as we walked out to our cars. Curtis and I followed along behind and he slipped an arm through mine. “Can we keep him, Dad? Please? Please, can we keep him?”

I chuckled. “I take it you like him.”

My best friend smiled. “Very much so. I think he’s perfect for you.”

“You do?”

“Yep. He’s funny and smart, and holy shit, that ass!”

“Hey! Don’t be looking at his ass. That’s mine,” I said, covering his eyes with my hand.

Curtis laughed, pulling my hand away. “Fine, I won’t look, but only because I have a fragile ego and I can tell he only has eyes for you.”

“Um, and the fact the man next to him is your husband?”

“Oh, yeah. I knew there was another reason,” he joked. The sound of our laughter floated across the parking lot. All in all, it had been the perfect evening. I could only think of one other thing that might make the night better.

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