Page 46 of Spoonful

“That’s... that’s okay,” Jaylin managed.

“Deepak brought his truck,” Aditi said, nudging her taller lookalike. “We weren’t sure how much you had to move.”

“I thought Deepak was in California,” Jaylin said in disbelief.

“I was,” Deepak said, sounding groggy. He stuck out his hand. “Just got back in town and Aditi’s putting me to work. Been dying to meet you though, so I’m forgiving her.”

Jaylin shook Deepak’s hand, glancing uncertainly at him and the rest of the crowd.

“I brought donuts,” Diego said cheerfully, holding up the boxes. He eyed everyone in the hallway. “I probably have enough,” he added.

A large, warm hand gently touched Jaylin’s back and Jaylin didn't jump. He breathed out under Hiro’s calming touchand did his best to muster a smile, stepping back to start letting people file inside.

“Thanks for coming,” he said, hoping he sounded as grateful as he felt without letting it choke him up.

“Psh,” Carlos said, flapping a hand in his general direction. “Yeah, duh, we weren’t gonnanotcome.”

“Yeah, kid,” Miguel said, eyes flicking to Hiro. “Happy to help you out.”

Aditi adjusted her glasses. “So what’s the plan?”

A weak laugh trickled out of him, and Jaylin rubbed the back of his neck. “I, uh, it was mostly ‘shove stuff into boxes’ I guess.”

Deepak grinned. “Just your luck then. I’m excellent at shoving stuff into boxes.”

Camille raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him before turning back to Jaylin. “I nominate myself as organization leader. Sound good?”

“Um. Sure?”

She clapped her hands. “Great! Okay, people–” she rounded on the crowd assembled in Jaylin’s small space. “We’re splitting into sections to divide and conquer. Andlabelingthe boxes. I don’t know you four–who’re you?”

“I’m Deepak,” Deepak said. “This is Aditi.”

“Diego.”

“Hiro,” Hiro said, looking amused and pleased.

“Nice to meet you,” Camille said briskly. “Pablo, you, me, and Diego are packing up the kitchen and pantry. Deepak and Miguel, living room stuff. Carlos– ” She rolled her eyes. “Yes, you can pack up the closets, on the condition you don’t make fun of Jaylin’s clothes.”

“You wound me,” Carlos pouted.

Camille ignored him and eyed Hiro for a moment before saying, “Hiro, you’re in charge of the bedroom. Aditi, you’reassembling boxes and labeling them and then you can work on the bathroom. Once we’ve gotten going, we can reassess who’s working on what. Moving might be chaos, but we’re looking for organized chaos here. Everyone got it?”

There were various nods and thumbs-ups and sounds of affirmation as everyone pulled off their shoes and coats, gearing up to get to work.

“Wait,” Jaylin said, frowning at Camille. “What about me?”

Camille looked at him. “You’re moving out of your apartment today,” she said evenly. “Your job is to tell us how to pack stuff up and let us do the heavy lifting.”

“And eat a donut,” Diego added helpfully. “I got them from that gourmet place on Evergreen.”

“El Guanaco’s covering lunch for everyone by the way,” Miguel called from across the room.

Jaylin bit his lip and did his best not to buckle under the onslaught of affection. “Okay,” he was able to say after a second. “Okay.”

***

Jaylin had figured that he and Hiro wouldprobablybe able to pack up his whole place in a day, just that it would be a very long one. He’d already twisted himself into a guilty knot over knowing that Hiro would be losing an entire Friday to helping him move out, and had been prepared to work as hard as he knew how to lift at least some of that burden from Hiro’s shoulders.

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