Lark (First & Forever 5)

His last message made me squeal with delight. It said: Count on it.

I waited to make sure he didn’t send anything else before closing my laptop and setting it aside. Then I tried to remind myself not to get my hopes up about this guy. I didn’t know anything about him, except that he was probably in the same time zone since he was on his way to brunch. Obviously I’d learn more as we continued chatting, but one thing at a time. I’d heard from him again, and I was happy about that.

While I was sitting there looking out my window, a shiny black town car pulled up in front of the house. A minute later, Hudson Royce—my housemate Kel’s big, blond boyfriend—walked out to the car carrying a small suitcase and a garment bag. It was pretty obvious where he was headed. Hudson didn’t actually live here, so he must have spent the night with the intention of heading to the airport first thing in the morning—without Kel.

As I watched Hudson drive away, I felt so disappointed for my friend. It wasn’t that I thought his boyfriend was a bad guy. They seemed to love each other, but Hudson wasn’t out, and that was tough on Kel. Since Hudson was a professional football player, I could understand why coming out publicly was a big deal. But hiding their relationship meant Kel ended up getting excluded from a lot of things in his boyfriend’s life, including wherever Hudson was going this morning.

The timing was awful too, because today was December thirty-first, and it looked like Kel would be ringing in the new year on his own. We’d all been invited to a huge party, and I’d been on the fence about going. But Kel really needed to go out and have fun instead of sitting home and moping, so I had to convince him to come out and celebrate with me.

When I went downstairs, I found Kel and Eliot seated at the table in our retro pink and purple kitchen. The last time the hot pink Victorian had been remodeled was the sixties or seventies, and I thought the vintage kitsch really added to its charm.

After we said good morning, I asked, “Where are the grown-ups?”

That made Kel grin and Eliot frown. At some point I’d divided myself and my five housemates into two categories—kids and adults. Eliot Gutierrez was a thirty-year-old librarian and aspiring drag queen who felt he belonged in the grown-ups category. But Casey, Yolanda, and JoJo, besides being well into their thirties, also had their crap together in a way the three of us just didn’t. Plus, Eliot was a skinny little twink, just like Kel and me, and in my opinion that also landed him in the kids category.

“Casey spent the night at his boyfriend’s house,” Kel replied, as he reached for a half-empty glass of orange juice, “and Yo and JoJo went out to breakfast before all this stuff was delivered. Please help yourself to a bagel, and anything else you want. There’s enough here for like, ten people.” The kitchen table was loaded up with over a dozen bagels, tubs of cream cheese, bottles of juice, containers of fruit salad, and some other things. That told me Hudson had guilt-ordered a bunch of food before he took off.

As I picked out a cinnamon raisin bagel, I said, “I have a favor to ask you, Kel.”

“Sure. What do you need?”

“I really want to go to that big New Year’s Eve party tonight, but I don’t want to go by myself. Please come with me.”

A frown line appeared between Kel’s dark brows as he pushed his bangs aside. He was Korean-American and incredibly cute, and he’d recently bleached his hair white-blond, which looked amazing on him. “You saw Hudson leaving and figured out he was headed to the airport, didn’t you? Now you’re worried about me being alone on New Year’s Eve, and that’s the real reason you’re trying to get me to go to the party.”

Wow, he figured out what I was up to in record time. “I did see him leaving,” I admitted. “What’s he up to?”

“One of the networks is flying him to L.A. to be a guest commentator at a game tomorrow. This is his last season in the NFL, since he’s been dealing with several injuries. Now he’s really hoping to follow in his dad’s footsteps and land a job in broadcasting, so this is a big deal for him.” His father was an NFL Hall of Famer and one of the best-known football commentators on TV. From everything I’d heard, the man was also a jerk and a homophobe, and a big reason why Hudson was still in the closet.

I asked, “Why’d he leave a day early?”

“There’s a fancy dinner tonight with some bigwigs from the network, and Hudson thought it was important to go and schmooze.”

“Great, so you’re free and can come with me to the party,” I said, as I stuck the bagel in the toaster and took a seat on the counter.

“I have plans tonight,” he said.

“You do?”

Kel nodded. “I plan to stay home in comfy PJs, get very drunk, and pass out before midnight.”

“Please come with me,” I said. “I really want to go, but not by myself. You need to come along too, Eliot.” I knew that last part was a long shot. Eliot was a total introvert and a borderline hermit.

Predictably, Eliot muttered, as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, “There’s no way in hell I’m going to a big party.”

“You won’t be alone anyway,” Kel reminded me. “The rest of our housemates are going, and you can tag along with them.”

I shook my head. “That’s worse than going alone. Casey and his boyfriend are all sappy and in love, and Yo and JoJo are sappier than ever now that they’re engaged. I’d feel all sad and left out if I was the only one without a date.”

“I don’t know if you’re aware of this,” Kel teased, “but you’re actually adorable. If you go to that party on your own, it’ll take you about three minutes to pick up a hot guy to kiss at midnight.”

“Thanks for the compliment, but I’m terrible at flirting or trying to be sexy.”

Eliot asked, “What are you talking about? You literally make a living doing those two things.”

“I make a living taking my clothes off and shaking my ass for horny strangers.”

“That’s not all you do,” he said. “I heard you when you were doing an online chat in the living room the other day, and you were very flirty.”