Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 101168 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 337(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101168 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 337(@300wpm)
“This is Jamie,” Edgar said, having momentarily forgotten they were here. “My…boyfriend.” He tried the word out nervously. It tasted sweet on his tongue.
“Hey, Jamie, they/them. Nice to meet you, Poe. I’ve heard…a sprinkling about you.” Jamie smiled their warmest smile and stood, holding a hand out to Poe.
Poe looked Jamie up and down. “Hey, Jamie.” He held out his fist to bump, the sleeve of his jacket hanging halfway over his hand.
Jamie bumped fist to leather casually and sat back down beside Edgar, pressing their shoulder against his as if they could pass on Poe’s gesture.
They sat in a triangle of silence until Poe asked Jamie, “So are you the one who got my brother to wear a color?”
“I wear colors,” Edgar grumbled.
“Yeah,” Jamie said emphatically, and Edgar’s heart leapt at their defense. “Beige is technically a color, because it has shades of yellow and brown in it.”
Edgar grumbled wordlessly this time.
The right corner of Poe’s mouth tugged up. Jamie wouldn’t know, but they’d just elicited a rare genuine smile.
“Where are you living?” Edgar asked.
Once, there had been no one in the world closer to Edgar than Poe. Edgar’s mind knew they weren’t close anymore, but his body still recognized his brother’s, still retained the comfort born of years and years of flopping onto the couch together or the floor; of bumping shoulders to get the other’s attention and taking bites of food off the other’s plate; of falling, finally, asleep.
How did you go from sharing popsicles and socks with someone to not knowing what state they lived in?
Poe grinned, showing teeth. This was not, for him, a smile. It was a confrontation. “Guess.”
Anger kindled so quickly Edgar frightened himself with it. “How could I guess?”
Jamie was looking between them quizzically. “Is this a bit?” they asked.
“Nope,” Poe bit off as Edgar said, “He’s just being a dick, like usual.”
“So, um. Where do you live then?” Jamie asked.
Edgar could see Poe weighing whether to poke around in Jamie’s clockwork and learn what made them tick. He glared at Poe.
“Nashville. For the moment.”
“Cool. Are you into the music scene?” Jamie asked.
“On that note,” Poe said, “I gotta piss.” He stood up and loped off down the hall.
Jamie turned wide eyes on Edgar. “I can see why Allie didn’t ask him to be her birth partner.”
The comment was so not what he had expected, and the notion was so absurd that Edgar let out a bark of laughter.
“How are you? You looked pretty, uh, shocked to see him.”
Edgar nodded blankly. He felt like he was drifting closer and closer to the ceiling. “Been a while,” was all he could manage.
A warm hand cupped the back of his neck.
“Sweetheart,” Jamie said, low and gentle, and Edgar shivered, wanting nothing more than to be back in his living room with Jamie, head in their lap on the couch, as Jamie played with his hair.
A few minutes later, Poe came back, slipping his phone in his pocket. He hesitated at the door. “Y’all done talking shit about me, or should I give you another minute?”
“We’re done,” Jamie said lightly.
Cameron came back into the waiting room, clothes changed and carrying Allie’s weekender.
“How’s that puzzle coming?” she asked warmly.
“Oh, uh. We got a little…” Edgar began.
“Distracted,” Jamie finished.
Poe stood up to face Cameron. “Guilty,” he said, scuffing his heel against the linoleum. “Hey, Cam.”
Poe had always idolized Cameron. Hell, so had Edgar.
Cameron looked Poe up and down, and her expression said everything that Edgar wished he could say: Where the hell have you been? Why the hell haven’t you called your siblings? What the hell is wrong with you?
For a moment, he thought Cameron was going to say it all out loud. But her face went soft, and she said, “Uh-oh, it’s the Poe-Poe. Everyone hide your contraband!”
Edgar sputtered out a laugh. Poe, being the youngest, had gone through an irritating tattletale phase when he wasn’t included in their hijinks.
“That was one time!” Poe exclaimed.
Cameron and Edgar snickered.
“This one time,” Cameron told Jamie, “we had stolen a bottle of liquor from their aunt’s bar and were all gonna try it. Little Poe-boy here—”
Poe looked pained at the introduction of yet another old nickname.
“—ran to tell their daddy on us. Turned out we’d grabbed a bottle of mint schnapps by mistake, so maybe that was a blessing in disguise. I couldn’t brush my teeth for weeks without the taste of mint making me gag.”
“What did your dad do?” Jamie asked.
Edgar remembered the grip on his skinny upper arm and his father’s sweat, which smelled of sour mash and the applejack brandy he liberally added to his beer.
“Probably confiscated it to drink himself,” Poe drawled.
Edgar shut his mouth.
“You gonna give an old friend a hug or what?” Cameron said to Poe.
“I stink,” Poe said. “Been on the road.”
Cameron narrowed her eyes and shrugged. “I’m gonna go check on your sister,” she said. She got a few steps down the hall before turning back around. “Y’all coming?”