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Joe

“ T his doesn’t feel real. Are you sure you want to do this?”

Aiden laughed as his mom fussed over yet another box of clothes she had set in the empty room. It wouldn’t be empty for too much longer. After much struggling, I’d gotten all the guys over and they’d helped me haul my bed out of my sister’s basement, and it was on its way over in the back of a U-Haul truck.

The room was bright. A large bank of windows covered one wall and opened to a sweeping view of downtown Seattle. The rent on the place was insane, and more than I’d ever thought I’d pay, but with the income I was pulling in by including Aiden in my filming, we’d be sitting pretty for a while. Turns out my viewers thought watching me breed his ass was pretty fucking hot. We’d even been able to invest in additional cameras to capture more angles. Things felt more natural, and we could be ourselves more while we filmed.

“I’m sure. Jesus, Mom. I don’t remember you being like this when Nathan moved out.”

Casey sighed. “No, but he’s not my baby. You are. I’m really going to have an empty nest now. My boys are all grown up and on their own. Is this what getting old is like? This isn’t what I signed up for. Take it back.”

Aiden laughed, pulling her into a hug. “Oh, Mom. We’re both your babies. Always will be. It’s not like we moved that far away. You know you’re always welcome here.”

I looked around the room again as the front door swung open. Nathan and Chase walked in, a six-pack of beer tucked under Chase’s arm as he adjusted his Seahawks ball cap on his head. If they were there, it meant that the rest of the guys weren’t too far behind. Andrew had insisted on driving on the truck with Brandon. At least I could trust that the two of them wouldn’t do anything freaky with my belongings. Anyone else and I’d be using a black light to inspect things.

“There’s trouble when you need it,” I called, rushing to help my friends into the apartment. Maybe a studio wasn’t something to aspire to, but for the view we got and the location in Seattle, I was happy. Aiden had agreed on everything, and we’d picked out the place together.

A smile spread across Nathan’s face but then morphed into a blush as he looked around the space. While he’d been less of a jerk over the last few months, he still hadn’t completely adjusted to me really being in a relationship with his brother. Taking in that we’d be living in such a small space, he could put two and two together on what would happen here after what he’d walked in on .

“Not too bad of a spot, man. A little on the small side, isn’t it?” Nathan asked as I took the beers from Chase. I pulled two bottles out of the cardboard case after setting it on the kitchen island and popped the caps with the magnet I’d hung on the fridge.

“It’s fucking Seattle, dude. What the fuck did you think we were going to find? It’s a miracle one of us didn’t have to sell a kidney to afford this place.”

Casey gasped. “Is it that expensive? Aiden, honey, do you guys need help with rent? I’d be more than happy to give you guys a little assistance.”

Nathan’s face fell. “Really, Mom? What about me and Chase? You don’t help us that way!”

Chase shoved Nathan’s shoulder. “Would you cool it, babe? You act like we struggle.”

“We don’t, but it would still be nice to know she’d give us the extra support,” Nathan pouted.

Mrs. Grant rolled her eyes before smacking her oldest son on the back of the head. “Nathan, if you need help, just ask.”

It wasn’t even a few minutes later when Daniel, Shawn, Andrew, and Brandon showed up. We all went down to the truck to get the bed into the elevator. Thankfully, the building had a larger lift, designed to help residents when they moved because the standard elevator car would barely fit a twin bed.

Once the bed was in the apartment, everything seemed so much smaller. We still had room to add a couch and entertainment center to create a living room, and the apartment complex already provided some stools for the kitchen island. Our place wouldn’t be the prime hangout spot for our friends, but since the guys all knew what we were doing for a living, that didn’t seem to be a problem. Most of them had a problem even touching the mattress no matter how much I told them we’d cleaned the damn thing. It wasn’t like we hadn’t moved their shit knowing full well what they got up to.

Once things were more settled and all the boxes were inside, we ordered pizzas and brought in more drinks. Mrs. and Mr. Grant left us to handle things so we could celebrate our new space.

Since space was so limited, people ended up on top of each other more than usual. It wasn’t the end of the world since we’d all somehow ended up in some sort of relationship. Over the course of the last year and a half, Nathan had rekindled things with Chase, Brandon and Andrew finally pulled their heads out of their asses and took a shot at what the rest of us saw the entire time, and Daniel and Shawn discovered they didn’t actually hate each other—and some of that aggression was better worked out in the bedroom.

And then there was me and Aiden.

As I stared at the man with light brown hair and deep brown eyes digging into his slice of pepperoni pizza, I knew everything was as it should be. What started off as a group of friends embarking on the crazy adventure of college turned into so much fucking more. I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome for my life or even theirs .

And maybe someday soon, I’d be able to tell Aiden how much I really loved him.

The End