Page 5 of That One Moment

“Caiden!” Duncan yells, his jaw clenched again, his nostrils flaring. “Do not be so rude. I raised you better than this.”

Caiden opens his mouth to respond but is stopped when Cooper places a hand on his shoulder.

“Cade, it’s fine, have my potatoes and veg, I’ll take your meat. Next time we can cook something you like for Maria and Jamie,” Cooper offers quietly. Not for the first time today, the hostility in Caiden dissipates under his brother's touch. Caiden offers him a mumbled ‘thank you’ under his breath and the two exchange food until Caiden’s plate is piled high with veg.

Cooper smiles at his twin, then his eyes meet mine and he offers me the same lift of his lips. His gem-like blues dance in the light of the dining room and my stomach flutters with little baby butterflies preparing to take flight. It’s a weird feeling that I try to bat away by turning my attention to my food.

The playlist we had on earlier starts over and I stifle a laugh as Alannis starts on again about life being ironic. It would seem that irony has just slapped me in the face. I've met the man of my dreams and his dad is about to marry my mum.

Chapter Two

Jamie

“Hey, Sage. Did you know that dogs can’t operate MRI machines?” I say, with all seriousness as I take a seat at the sticky table, pushing a cold glass of rum and coke her way. My best friend raises one perfectly manicured eyebrow, the corner of her lip twitching while she tries to maintain the same level of seriousness. A pregnant pause passes between us and then, I drum my hands on the table and add “but catscan!” The rest of the table groans loudly, Sage rolls her eyes and I burst out in a rumbling laugh.

God, I love a dad joke.

Lulu, Sage’s housemate and our favourite doctor in training, grins at me, her hand landing on my shoulder with a playful squeeze. “One day, Jay Bear, I swear, we will get sick of you and your jokes.”

I huff a little laugh - no they won’t! “You’d all be so incredibly bored without me.”

A few others chuckle then return to their conversations, a quiet din of chatter meshing with the low beat of music coming from the overhead speakers. Sage scoots closer, almost sitting on my lap when more of our friends arrive, squeezing into the booth and dragging chairs over to place at the end of our long table.

Our group of eight - all of whom met in our little seaside town secondary school - meet at this bar once a week to listen to the cover bands and open mic nights. The Shed sits in the centre of town, a stone’s throw from the railway station and not far from Mum’s place. It’s rustic, with old music memorabilia on the walls and even an old jukebox that still works.

We’ve been coming here since we were eighteen. Back then, we had these big ideas of what our lives would look like - university would be a nonstop party, work would be fun and everything we wanted would be right there for the taking. Part-time jobs, midterms, essays, student loans and the general reality that comes with growing up soon changed our views, though our dedication to our weekly meetups never changed.

These are the people who have known me the longest, who have stood by me on my hardest days and have celebrated every win with me along the way. No matter what happens, these Wednesday nights together will always be our thing - even when we’re ninety and tired of listening to cover bands.

Given that it’s still too early for the band to come on, we break into conversation, catching up on the week gone by. To my right, Dominic, the once upon a time football star of our school, complains about his part-time job at a local supermarket; frustrated that the hours are eating into his studying time but also not willing to cut down because of his plan of visiting America later this year. When he’s finished his rant, he turns his attention to me.

“Did you ever get your work experience placement sorted?” One of the requirements of my architecture course is mandatoryon site work experience - something I’m so fucking excited about - the opportunity to see what my future could look like.

“Yeah, I did thanks. Your dad hooked me up.”

“There’s a dad joke or a dirty innuendo there somewhere,” Sage jokes with a wink.

“Oh God, please don’t. It’s bad enough that Lulu calls him ‘hot dad’ to his face.” Dominic rubs a hand along his reddening cheek and Sage laughs evilly, fully satisfied that she’s made the guy blush.

Dominic’s dad is hot but I’m not into older guys. He is also a hugely successful lawyer and has contacts in all sorts of industries and was more than happy to help me out.

“Seriously though, thank you for giving me your dad’s number. He managed to set me up at a placement with one of his clients and it’s just what I’m after. They’re currently working on an eco seafront hotel. Functionally brilliant, aesthetically stunning, well proportioned with state of the art -”

Before I can continue rambling, my excitement building to epic proportions - despite the eyes of my friends glazing over with lack of interest - there’s a crash from behind me and I spin around to see that the band has arrived and are setting up on the small stage. I love this band - we’ve seen them a few times now and they’re one of my favourites. They do these pop-techno-rock remixes of old songs which are fucking wicked.

“So, Jay Bear.” A voice from the other side of the table grabs my attention and I turn to meet Leo’s smirking face. Objectively, he’s gorgeous. Short and lean with wavy, copper hair and a line of freckles over his nose and piercing green eyes that I’ve looked into far too many times while ramming my dick into him.

He was my very first boyfriend. Things didn’t quite work out for us, but thankfully we’ve remained friends and surprisingly, there’s very little awkwardness between us. His boyfriend, Marcus, is the only newbie in our group but he’s cool and fitsright in, not in the least bit phased that Leo and I still flirt in the way only old lovers can.

“Rumor has it,” Leo continues, his eyes shifting quickly to Sage then back to me. “That your soon to be new brothers are hot.” He smiles - all teeth and dimples - and I can’t help but return it before I turn and glare at Sage. She shrugs unapologetically while chewing on an onion ring. “You should bring them along one night,” Leo suggests.

Sage makes a choking sound that I think is meant to be a laugh. “Pffft, I wouldn’t hold your breath, Leo, you’d die. It’s been three weeks since Jay met them and do you think he’s invited me over to family dinner? Nope. Not once!” Sage wrinkles her nose and Leo finds the exchange amusing, leaning forward and resting his chin on his hand like he’s waiting for juicy gossip.

“Oh! Interesting. So you’re keeping these hotties to yourself? I see how it is,friend.” Leo flutters his eyelids at me and his boyfriend chuckles.

“That’s not true! I’m just….I…” Floundering over my reply, my cheeks grow increasingly warm and more of the group stop what they’re doing to join the conversation. It’s not that I don’t want to invite Cooper to meet the gang, I just don’t want to do ityet. So yes, maybe I do want to keep him to myself. So what? Call me selfish if you must.

“I’d like to get to know him a little better first,” I finally manage to say.

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