Page 85 of A Forgotten Mistake

Matthew is clearly not done complaining. “He’s made me do so much. I’m so tired.”

“Don’t listen to him, he enjoyed it,” I assure Gabriel, who raises an eyebrow.

Gabriel examines it all before giving me an approving smile that I eat up. “I can’t believe you did all of this for me. Sorry I couldn’t get here earlier… although you did tell me you wouldn’t start things until ten when I could be back here.”

“I didn’t want you to do anything when Matthew could do it all.”

Though Gabriel stayed here last night, he ran out this morning to help his mom who was insistent on making desserts, but since she still has no water at her house, she relocated to his house to finish up and take a shower.

“Your movers really did do fast work. We could have done it, but it sure wouldn’t have been done this quickly,” he says.

“Nah, why waste time?” I ask as he stops and looks at a picture hanging on the wall. He cocks his head this way… and then that way.

“That’s so weird. I have this exact same picture in my house.”

“Not anymore,” I say.

Gabriel looks over at me. “Excuse me?” Then he pauses and hurries over to pick up a lamp. “Isn’t this my lamp? And this is my favorite couch pillow!”

“Liam admitted that he’s been taking one thing from your house a day for weeks and you didn’t notice,” Matthew says. “It’s creepy, so why do I also feel like it’s kind of romantic?”

“It’s extremely romantic,” I declare.

“What the hell else of mine did you take?” Gabriel asks.

“Shhh. Don’t listen to Matthew. I just wanted you to feel comfortable while surrounded by things that make you happy.”

He looks at a godawful painting of Lucy Fur as an aristocrat that I’d hung up as the centerpiece in the living room. I was shocked to my core when he told me he’d paid someone to paint that and had asked if he meant that someone paid him to take it off their hands. It’s enough to make me cringe, but Gabriel does seem to love it.

“You’re ridiculous,” he decides on, but grins as he follows me toward the kitchen. Before we reach it, there’s a knock on the door.

“Ooh, I bet that’s Jesse,” Gabriel says, sounding far too happy for the words that just came out of his mouth.

“Why would you invite Jesse?” I ask. “His body is so little, I can’t fathom he’ll be of much use moving shit like Matthew was.”

“Because his family has Thanksgiving this weekend and he had nothing to do,” Gabriel says as he hurries over and opens the door.

Jesse greets us with, “I brought beer because I thought the only way to get through a meal with Liam would be with alcohol included.”

“Go put him in the catio,” I grumble.

Jesse’s looking this way and that with obvious interest. “Daaaaamn, Liam. I didn’t know your house was so fancy.”

“You want to hear something embarrassing?” Matthew asks.

“Matthew, if you don’t shut up, I’m throwing you out,” I warn as I press my weapon of choice against his throat. I’m displeased it’s a spatula which seems weirdly ineffective for threatening him.

“He bought this houseforGabriel and Gabriel didn’t want it,” Matthew says with a chuckle.

Jesse’s face scrunches up. “Gabriel, sweetheart… what the fuck is wrong with you? I’d date Liam for a month for this house. Ooh, that should be like a reality TV show. Whoever can date Liam for a month gets a house this damn nice… you’re right… no one would make it.”

“Fuck you and double fuck you,” I say as I glower at both of them and wave the spatula some more at Matthew.

“I brought Nefertiti!” Jesse announces as he holds up a little travel cage with his tarantula in it like we’re all just going to rush over to meet his monster. “She can’t stay long. My cousin’s boyfriend is thinking of getting a tarantula and wanted to meet her, so I swung by there this morning. On my way home to drop her off, I thought you guys would love to meet her.”

“You thought wrong,” I inform him.

Matthew visibly shudders and Gabriel leans in to me to whisper, “I was hoping we could set these two up, but now I’m questioning things.”

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