It’s a bright, brilliant morning. The storm clouds have moved on, leaving everything frosted and sparkling and slippery. The windows at the exhibition space all bear what looks like a light dusting of powdered sugar.

None of the art is up yet - since we scrapped the old plan in favor of Aiden’s new one, we have to start some things over - but the place seems to hum with potential.

I got here way before everybody else is scheduled to arrive. Aiden had to go to City Hall to pick up the archival lights that he ordered, so I dropped him off and came straight over. I have way more to do than I did in the original plan, and I intend to sink a lot of effort into it.

Aiden’s work is important to him. This exhibition, the first one he’s ever directed, is really important to him. I want everything to come out beautifully.

And after last night… I just want to do something special for him. Make it even bigger and better than he imagined or asked for.

I’ve been busy taking measurements in the smaller of the two rooms, working in the peaceful morning silence. Aiden told me what he envisioned for this, but the actual design and execution is up to me.

My mind is filling up with ideas as I float around the space.

Eventually I pause, hearing voices from the entrance of the building. I tuck my pencil behind my ear, cross through the short hallway, and come out into the main room just in time to catch what Noah is saying.

“I’m telling you, we should just break the fuckin’ window. Your hammer is in the truck, right?”

“That seems kind of drastic,” Raj answers. “Aiden will be here soon to unlock it, and then we can just, you know. Go in through the door?”

“Who wants to wait around for that, dude? Don’t you want to get started, so we can get home on time? Back to Niki and Mel?”

“Yeah, of course I do! But if we break the window, we’re the ones who have to replace it later. Also, Aiden is gonna kill you. Or Ripley will.”

“If those suckers can even catch me,” Noah scoffs, and Raj clicks his tongue.

“Aiden’s legs are like, the length of your entire body, man-”

“That’s an extreme exaggeration.”

“-and besides, him and Ripples have been hitting the gym together like, every other day. Not sure that’s the team you want to go up against.”

“So you think it’s a bad idea?”

“Yes, Noah, you dumb bastard, clearly it’s a terrible idea.” Raj lets out a deep, aggrieved sigh. “You’re lucky that I love you so much-”

“I know that, man, believe me.”

“-because it means that I’m always around to stop you before you can do wild shit like this. We’re not breaking in through the window, alright?”

“Fine, then what do we do?”

“We break through the door, obviously. A lock is easier to replace than a window, and-”

I push open the window right beside the front door, then lean out of it. Raj and Noah both whip around to face me, matching startled expressions on their faces.

“Hi,” I say, folding my elbows on the windowsill. “Don’t mind me. I just thought I’d come over here and see how long it takes you guys to realize that the door isn’t locked.”

Raj and Noah turn to stare at each other. Without a word, Raj tries the doorknob. The door swings open, and they both groan loudly.

“Poor Nik.” I press my fingers over my mouth, trying not to laugh. “She has two dads, but they only have one brain cell between them.”

“We didn’t fucking know anybody was here yet, Jamie!” Raj protests.

“You didn’t see my very obvious bright blue car parked across the street?”

Noah turns, catches sight of it, and then squints, shading his eyes with his hand.

“That’s a car? I thought it was a pile of scrap metal.”

“Make jokes, Noah, but I’m not the one who looks stupid. The window wasn’t locked, either.”

“Like, really sad scrap metal.”

“Okay, you know what?” I scowl at Noah, straightening up. “I am gonna lock the door. You can stay out there.”

There’s a silence, and then all three of us rush for it at once. But Noah and Raj have a head start, and they both dash through it before I can get there.

“Hah!” Noah breaks into a wide grin, stabs a tattooed finger at my face. “Who looks stupid now, Keane?”

“At least I’m not the one who was about to hurl a fucking hammer through the window for literally no reason whatsoever-”

“Um,” Ripley says. “What?”

We all spin around to find him standing there, Aiden right behind him. They can’t have gotten here more than a few seconds ago, which means that they only caught the very end of this conversation.

Ripley is suppressing a laugh, but Aiden is looking at Raj and Noah with an unnervingly calm expression.

“Did I just hear that someone is thinking about throwing a hammer through the window of my exhibition space?” he rumbles.

Raj and Noah exchange a glance.

“No, dude,” Noah says. “Of course not, what do you think this is?”

“Yeah, we wouldn’t do - don’t worry about it.” Raj quickly turns away from Aiden, and slaps Ripley on the back. “What’s good, Ripples? What’s all that you’ve got?”

“The lightbulbs came in.” Ripley holds up the box in his hands. “You ready to put them in, Noah?”

“Shit yeah, dude. But we should paint first, so - let’s get to work, right?”

Noah and Raj hastily lead the way inside, pulling Ripley with them. Aiden sets down his box of lightbulbs, then turns to look at me, his blue eyes warm and affectionate.

I wonder if he’s been thinking about last night, like I have.

“Hi,” he murmurs, bending to brush a kiss onto my mouth.

Already feeling the warmth of his presence, I smile at him, then lean up to kiss him back.

“Hi.”

~~~~

Ripley plugs his phone into the speakers, and Aiden hands out the wrapped breakfast sandwiches he brought for everyone from the food cart outside of City Hall. We sit together on the floor to munch on them before we get started.

Then we all fan out across the smaller room, and get to work.

We already spent a day painting this room white, but the revised plan calls for black walls. Aiden, Ripley, and I lay out tarps while Raj and Noah pry open the paint cans.

When we’re set up, everyone gets to painting, except for me. I sit cross-legged in the center of the room and start to cut up pieces of plastic tubing, working on what’s eventually going to be a simple, homemade irrigation system.

We start out quiet, but soon enough we’re all talking. The conversation wanders, laughter rising up into the rafters of the building.

I’m particularly happy to hear that Raj and Mel found a pediatrician willing to let Noah come with them to Nik’s check-up appointments, although it sounds like they caused a bit of a stir in the waiting room.

“All these moms were staring,” Raj laughs, “And we were worried it was a judgey thing, but they weren’t looking at the three of us. It was just Noah. They were deadass just staring at Noah.”

I snicker to myself, because I kind of understand.

To those who don’t know him, Noah looks like a weapon on two feet. Not a guy to be fucked with. It’s the combination of his personal style, the attitude he walks around with, and the don’t-give-a-fuck expression he’s always wearing.

Even right now, when he’s just calmly painting a wall. The sleeves of his Upper Playground sweatshirt are pushed up around his elbows. The sunlight catches on the ink all over his forearms, shimmers on all the piercings in his face, the coal-black hair escaping from the loose bun it’s tied up in.

I don’t blame the moms at the pediatrician’s office. A man who looks like Noah is an undeniably interesting sight with a tiny, sleeping baby cuddled against his chest.

“You scared all the other parents, didn’t you, Noah?” Ripley looks over at him, a teasing grin on his face. “They probably assumed your stick-n-pokes were like - jailhouse tattoos.”

“Okay,” Noah laughs. “First of all, if they were jailhouse tats, that would be badass. Second of all, most I’ve done is a night in county lockup, all the way back in high school. And Aiden was right there with me, so-”

“Noosh!” Aiden glances at me, his cheeks turning scarlet. “Don’t - Jamie doesn’t need to know about all the dumb shit we’ve done, does he?”

“Uh oh. Did I reveal too much, Jamie?” Noah twists around to grin at me, his paint roller still pushed against the wall. “Is Aiden’s one night in county lockup enough to make you walk away?”

“Yep,” I answer, setting aside a bit of plastic tubing. “Guess I’ve got to find a new boyfriend, now.”

“Don’t even joke about that,” Aiden says, beneath his breath.

I reach over and grab his sweater, lean up to offer my mouth to him for a kiss. He looks relieved as he bends down to give me one.

My sweet worrier.

I smile to myself, turning back to what I was doing.

“What about you, Raj?” I ask. “Do you need to get a new boyfriend, too?”

“No, man. Noah’s already enough to handle, I don’t have the capacity for any more - wait, you mean like to replace him?” Raj seizes Noah’s arm and pulls him closer, as if someone might snatch him away. “Don’t even say that shit, yo!”

“Ripples, please don’t tell Gabby about this conversation,” Aiden says, pouring more paint into the tray.

“Please, the guy’s as much of a delinquent as the rest of us.” Noah reaches over to smack Ripley’s arm. “Didn’t you get suspended in like, the first few weeks of school?”

Ripley tosses his bright green curls out of his face. His eyes flash to me and Aiden, a tiny smirk turning up his lips.

We’re the only ones who know that he’s been sneaking around Ketterbridge at night, doing large-scale art projects that could get him in way more trouble than being suspended from school.

Although - he never explained what happened with that.

“Yeah, why did you get suspended, man?” I ask. “What did you do?”

Ripley shrugs, dipping his roller into the paint tray.

“The school runs a magazine once a semester showcasing student art. They rejected some people’s submissions for all kinds of stupid fucking reasons. Including my painting, because it had nudity, but I thought it would be cool to show a - different type of body than you usually see in art…”

He fades off, shrugs again.

Noah arches a pierced eyebrow. “And that - got you suspended?”

“No. I emailed all of the artists who got their work rejected, got pictures of the pieces they submitted. We put together our own magazine, and I... snuck into the faculty office at night, made like a hundred copies on their office copier. Distributed all of them to pretty much the entire student body the next day.”

For a moment, Aiden, Noah, Raj, and I all stare at Ripley in wide-eyed silence.

“Jesus, Ripples!” Noah sputters. “That’s next-level shit, bro! All Aiden and I did was get a little too rowdy at a bar!”

Ripley lets out a soft snicker.

“Not gonna lie,” he says, biting back a grin. “It was fun watching the administrators frantically run around trying to recover all the copies.”

“You’re such a fucking handful,” I laugh, getting up to shove Ripley’s shoulder.

“Well, joke’s on your school,” Aiden chuckles. “Now you’re co-curating an exhibition. You can get that art to an even bigger audience.”

“Yeah.” Ripley smiles brightly at Aiden. “I know.”

His eyes travel over the exhibition space, and then he clears his throat, apparently ready for a change of subject.

“By the way - Raj, Noah, isn’t this your first time going back to work for a full day since Nik was born?”

Noah nods at Ripley, his lips pressed into a thin line.

“How’s it feel?” Aiden asks. “Being away from Nik and Mellie for that long?”

Noah and Raj glance at each other, then both shrug, apparently unconcerned.

“It’s whatever,” Noah says. “We’re grown fuckin’ men, we can handle it.”

“Yeah, it doesn’t feel weird at all,” Raj chimes in, all casual. “It’s totally fine, we’re all good. Besides, it hasn’t been all day yet, so it’s not even like-”

“Knock, knock,” comes a new voice.

We all turn to see Melanie easing open the hallway door, Nik bundled in her arms.

“Hi,” she says, fidgeting with her braid. “Sorry, I know it hasn’t been that long yet, but I thought I’d come visit, I was already missing y-”

She’s cut off by a loud clatter as both Raj and Noah drop their rollers in the tray and rush across the room towards her. She lets out a startled laugh, finding herself suddenly enclosed in two pairs of arms.

“What-?”

“We missed you so bad, angel!” Raj groans, tipping his forehead into Mel’s. “We were talking about it on the drive over - and oh, my baby - let me hold her, please!”

Melanie giggles, hands Nik over to Raj, and leans up to accept a kiss from Noah.

“I’m only here for a minute,” she explains, snuggling into his arms. “I just thought I’d come say hi before I go meet up with Dahlia.”

Aiden had drifted over to see Nik, but now he focuses his smile on Melanie. “Girl’s day?”

“Yep. We’re doing nails, and then we plan on hitting like, five different thrift stores.”

Noah’s eyebrows furrow. “Didn’t you do that last weekend?”

“Yeah, but today we’re picking out Dahli’s maid of honor dress. Last weekend was to…” Melanie pauses, like she’s only just realized what she’s saying. “To pick out my wedding dress.”

Noah’s smile falters.

He lets go of Melanie, folds his arms tightly over his chest. “Oh, you - you picked it out already?”

“Do you have a picture, Mel?” Ripley calls. “Can I see?”

“Yeah, um.” Melanie’s eyes flit to Noah, then away again. “Dahli took a photo of me in it, hang on.”

Behind Mel, Noah shifts uncomfortably, fidgeting with his lip piercing.

“Aw, it’s beautiful.” Ripley smiles as soon as Melanie shows him her phone. “Wow. What a find.”

Noah tries to pull the smile back onto his face. He does okay, although I can see what an effort it is for him, and it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. The color of them tells the truth. Right now, they’re a distressed, unhappy shade of steel grey.

He hesitates, seems to lose a battle with himself, and reaches for the phone. “Can I see, too?”

“No!” Melanie answers sharply, taking an immediate step back. “No, because-”

She cuts herself off, but I know exactly what she’s thinking. It’s bad luck for the groom - or grooms, in this case - to see the bride in her dress before the wedding day.

Noah stares at her, understandably startled by her reaction.

“Um - let’s just keep it a surprise, okay?” Melanie leans up to brush another kiss onto his lips. “Raj hasn’t seen it yet, either.”

Noah tips his head to the side, confused. “Well - yeah, but Raj is-”

“I know, but it can be a surprise for you, too. That would be nice, right?” Melanie bites her lip, gazing up at Noah. “Please? Just - not yet, okay?”

“Um… alright.” Noah lets out a puzzled laugh, then gives her braid a tug. “Whatever you want.”

Melanie smiles up at him. She looks relieved when she turns away to take Nik back from Raj.

I’m kind of surprised that Noah hasn’t figured out what’s going on here from this alone, but I know exactly why that is. Because he thinks the idea that he’d be asked to join in this is laughably ridiculous. Impossible.

I watch as Noah casts another puzzled, lingering glance between Raj and Mel.

Yeah, no. He’s not going to figure this out before it actually happens. Jesus Christ, that ring is going to take him completely by surprise.

It’s hard for me to stop smiling, trying to imagine what his face will look like.