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“Add karaoke night with my friends,” I tell him with a grin. “I promised Mak I’d bring the two of you, and Annie will love it.”

“Done,” Ben says. I scan the rest of the list and let out a choked groan when I reach the end.

“We arenottaking her to a BDSM club!”

“Killjoy!” Ben laughs, tucking his phone back into his pocket. “Why not?”

“Because she’d enjoy it too much! And then she’d ask you to build her one in the office, and you’d do it because you’re a sucker.”

“Ah, you got me there,osito. Don’t worry though,” he murmurs, pressing me up against the door and cupping the back of my neck, “I’m a sucker for you too.”

The next few weeks, I can only describe as…happy.

Every night, the three of us squeeze into my queen-sized bed with Ben in the middle, because we still aren’t sure if it’s a good idea for Annie and I to be too close. Rex curls up beside Annie’s pillow, or in the little space between her body and Ben’s. In the mornings, Ben makes breakfast and drops us off at the shelter for work. When he’s not doing research at the library, he’s with Monty at the park, playing chess or throwing a ball for Roger; or he’s at home working on some of myStar WarsLego sets, which I help him with at night while we watch movies.

One day, he comes out of the bedroom wearing gym clothes and tells us he wants to start running again. I decide to go with him a few mornings a week, but Annie is absolutely horrified at the idea of exercise. She rides along inside me, grumbling and grousing the entire time about how she would much rather be on the couch watchingTom & Jerryand eating her favorite jelly-filled donuts. Most of these mornings end with Ben and Annie in the shower together while I watch. Something about the glass partition makes it easier, but keeping my hands off her is still one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.

Slowly but surely, my phone fills up with videos and pictures of them, and of us. Stupid selfies, candids, various outfits Annie creates that she wants to remember ‘for later’. Memories. We’re all painfully aware that there might not be a ‘later’, so I let the images take over my phone storage.

The night before Halloween, we let Annie wear her wings and horns out to a costume party at the club where Zayd works as a manager. The tail is just a little too realistic, so she keeps that tucked away. She wears the tightest, shortest red dress I’ve ever seen and, unsurprisingly, is the most popular girl there. Ben’s self-control teeters on the edge all night as we drink and dance and watch Annie politely shoot down half the people in the club. When we finally leave, Ben is so worked up that he takes us straight to the car and pulls her into the backseat, wings and all. I sit in the front and watch her hike the dress up over her hips, use the wings to brace herself, and ride him until the windows are thick with fog. Afterwards, we’re all so drunk and exhausted, we almost fall asleep on the bench seats, and just barely manage to stumble home. Rex greets us with a series of judgmental little chirps that we interpret to mean: ‘You idiots smell like sex and Fireball. Get it together and feed me’.

The next day is Halloween, but I have to work. When Annie and I come home, we find Ben wearing a corset, fishnets, garter belt, and three-inch heels, plus a full face of drag queen makeup. I’m stunned into silence, but Annie is delighted and immediately makes herself a matching outfit. Ben says he’s taking us to a midnight showing ofTheRocky Horror Picture Showand hands me a pair of loose, white boxers. I watchedRocky Horrora few times in college, but I’ve never gone to the show and I have no idea what’s happening.

“It’s either the boxers or a gold bikini,osito,” Ben tells me as he applies some bright red lipstick to Annie. I let out a loud groan, but his grin is so infectious and he looks so damn good, I relent.

“Fuck it,” I laugh, “gimme the bikini.”

It takes us an entire week to recover fromRocky Horror, but the next weekend is karaoke night. Mak and her girlfriend Skyla, plus Zayd and Jaime, meet us at a little bar downtown. We have to explain karaoke to Annie, but as soon as a few other people get up and start singing, she understands and gets excited, even though she isn’t sure if she wants to try it yet.

“I do not know any songs! I do not want to look like a fool!” she eventually yells to me over the pounding of the music.

“What do you mean, you don’t know any songs?” laughs Skyla, who is already three sheets to the wind, securing her long, black hair into a messy bun in preparation for her next performance.

“She’s from the Netherlands!” Mak cries.

“What?” Skyla screams back.

“TheNETHERLANDS!” Mak breaks down in a fit of giggles and Skyla pulls her toward the DJ, where Ben and Zayd are waiting for them. We haven’t even been here two hours, and Ben has already lost a bet to Skyla, requiring him to swap shoes with her, then get on stage and sing a song of her choice. He’s surprisingly graceful in the four-inch, hot pink, strappy stilettos.

“I thought I was from Sweden!” Annie laughs, but I just grin and shrug. “What areyougoing to sing?”

“Oh no,” I tell her, “I’m just here for moral support.”

“Theo!” she chides. “If I cannot sing, then you must!”

“If I sing for you, what will you do for me, sweetheart?” I ask, feeling a bit frisky after several tequila shots. Annie runs her hand over my chest and slips two fingers between my buttons. She tugs me closer, but before she can give me an answer, Ben screams our names from the stage, where he’s about to sing with Zayd, Mak, and Skyla. Jaime joins me and Annie at the table, laughing at the scene the four of them are causing.

He cups a hand around his mouth and yells, “Where did you find a man who can work heels like that, Theo?”

“He was a rescue!” I call back, and Jaime cackles.

As always, Ben takes center stage, jeans rolled up to show off Skyla’s shoes, and leads the entire bar through a rousing chorus of ‘Pink Pony Club’. When he stumbles back to our table, he plants a long kiss on my lips, snaking one hand up under the back of my shirt. In the stilettos, he’s now taller than me, but before I can really enjoy it, Annie whirls around and sucker punches a random man standing at the table behind her.

“Shut the fuck up!” she screams. Ben and I exchange a look and go after her, but she doesn’t stop swinging or hurling creative threats, even when Ben grabs her around the waist and hauls her away. The guy pulls himself up, wipes his bloody lip, and looks straight at me.

“Keep that psycho bitch on a leash, you stupid fa–”

I don’t let him finish the sentence. Without thinking, I swing, and my fist connects with his jaw. He goes down, and two of his buddies start toward me from across the room as the bar descends into chaos. I duck and rush through the crowd, catch an elbow hard to the face, then spot Ben handing Annie off to Zayd, who pulls her out the door while she spits profanities. Ben somehow finds me, his eyes alight with mischief, and pushes me against a wall, kissing me hard.