Page 79 of Take You Home

“Full offense,” Chester says, “but I don’t really want to marry my boyfriend at the same place he married someone else.”

Nack Bar George pats Chester’s arm sympathetically. “Don’t worry, Kyle. Obie and I were only married for about eighteen hours. No big deal.”

Obie wrinkles his nose. “No, wefiledwithin eighteen hours. It took two weeks for the divorce to go through.”

George blinks at him. “Really? We were married for two whole weeks?”

“Yep.”

“Huh. I didn’t know that,” George says. “I just assumed that we filed the paperwork and the marriage disappeared.” He makes a “poof” gesture with his hands. “Like magic.”

“That’s‍—that’s not how the legal system works, George.”

“Did you file the paperwork yourself?” Maggie asks. “Since you’re already a lawyer?”

Chester’s eyes widen. “You’re alawyer?Do I even know you?”

He looks comically insulted. Obie squints back at him. “You know how long I’ve been alive, puppy. Before streaming services existed, there wasn’t anything better to do than collect Ph.D.s.”

“I want to see your diplomas,” Chester says.“Allof them.”

He’s ridiculous. Obie kind of wants to kiss him on the mouth. “Sure. We can make a night out of it tomorrow,” he says, and he frowns at Maggie. “Also, what other unsolved mysteries does Redwater Bowl have?”

“I mean, I’ve always kind of wondered what happened to the ‘s’ in ‘Snack Bar,’” she says.

“Oh, that’s not a mystery,” Obie says. “The neon lighting behind the ‘s’ malfunctioned during the alley’s grand opening, and the owner didn’t pony up the cash to fix it for almost half a year. By then, though, calling it the ‘Nack Bar’ had become so much of a meme thatsomeonevandalized the new sign within forty-eight hours, and that same someone threatened to quit if the owner ever tampered with it again.” He raises his eyebrows at the culprit. “Right, George?”

Trevor’s jaw drops.“You’rethe mastermind behind the Nack Bar?”

Nack Bar George sniffs imperiously. “I can neither confirm nor deny the allegations.”

“George,” Obie says, “you confessed to the crime. Youbraggedabout the crime for months afterward.”

“I can neither confirm nor deny the allegations!” George insists.

“And was this before or after you got married?” Chester asks.

“You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?” Obie complains.

“Absolutely not.” Chester shoots Obie a crooked grin before turning back to Sasha and Trevor, who are predictably grilling Nack Bar George about the finer points of how to steal a letter from a neon sign.

Obie’s heart melts a little at the sight. Chester fits in so well here‍—he matches Trevor’s and Sasha’s snark like he’s been doing it for years, and he’s always so polite and respectful with Maggie andGeorge, and he’s started introducing himself to other bowlers as Obie’s boyfriend with an expression bordering onpride‍?—

And Obie wants that. He wants it more than he cares to admit, wants it far more than he ever should. He wants this to be real, wants to strip away the glamours and the secrets and the lies, wants to be able to introduce Chester Locke as his actual boyfriend.

He just wishes he had any chance of that ever happening.

“Your heart eyes are showing,” Maggie notes.

Obie sighs, turning away from the strangely wholesome scene in front of him. “Putting the heart eyes away now.”

Maggie’s eyes, though, linger over Obie’s shoulder for a moment before focusing back on him. “You really care about this one, don’t you?”

Obie fights back a flinch. “Yeah,” he admits quietly. “I do.”

Her eyebrows furrow. “But…?”

It’s not like Obie can tell her that “Kyle” is actually a Sanctum interrogator‍—or that they’re not actually dating, even though Obie kind of wants them to be. Decisively, he chooses the obvious answer. “But humans die. Even if I manage not to scare him away, he still has less than eighty years left. That’ll pass in the blink of an eye.”