Page 30 of Dance This Song With Me?

"So..." a puddle of beer slurped over the glass as Jason planted it down forcefully in front of Emi. Then he directed his attention at me, placing my drink onto the table more carefully. "Lucas, how did you guys meet?"

It seemed like a loaded question although it shouldn't have been, but there was something about his manner that flashed a warning.

"Ah, well, Emi was my dance instructor for a while," I said cautiously. I smiled at the memory. "And he's bloody good at it."

Emi flashed me a grateful glance. He fidgeted restlessly in his seat.

"Oh yeah, I've seen him dance. He's amazing," Eddy chimed in.

"Don't you think that's a little inappropriate?" asked Jason, sternly, ignoring Eddy's comment and glaring at Emi.

"Oh, we didn't get together until after the lessons were all done. The lessons were gifted to me..." I defended Emi.

"I know."

Now that stopped me cold. "H-how do you know?"

Jason glared even harder at Emi. "Did you tell him?"

Emi squirmed. "Of course, I told him. I just haven't told him who you are."

"Who he is?" I frowned, totally confused. I'd thought he was an ex.

Jason turned to me.

"I'm Aunt Macie - most of the time. But Emilio filled in while I was on holiday. He was the one who answered your email."

"Eeeeee!" Eddy clapped his hands in glee. "Cute! Another one!"

My mouth simply fell open. That explained who Jason was and I guess I could understand why he was a bit prickly. I didn't understand Eddy's reaction though.

Jason narrowed his eyes at his boyfriend.

"Can you not? This is serious!"

"And so are we," said Emilio. I found my hand clasped in his warm fingers and resting on the table in full view. "I did tell him. And we didn't do anything until after we'd ended our professional relationship."

"It's no different than us," pointed out Eddy. "You were the one who sent me the gift voucher for that restaurant where we met. You need to chill."

"I just don't want it to become a thing, y'know."

"Hey, really? Is that how you guys met?" I chimed in, hoping to segue the conversation.

Eddy and Jason exchanged soppy looks. Jason's features softened.

"Yeah," he said. "It actually was... it wasn't meant to..."

Eddy jumped in, eyes bright, clearly eager to share their story. "I wrote to Aunt Macie asking for help with my douchebag boyfriend who never paid me any attention..."

"You wrote in specifically about Valentine's Day," Jason corrected.

"Well, yeah, but he was a douche all the time, anyway. Jase - as Aunt Macie - sent me a gift voucher for this cool Thai restaurant - actually we should so go there with you guys - and Jase came by to check the date was going well, only Mitchell didn't come at all... anyway, Jase had dinner with me instead and that was the start of us."

"Yeah, but..."

Eddy shook his head. "Nah-ah. If it's good enough for us, it's good enough for them. Emilio's a good guy and I like Lucas already. Emilio's been a one-and-done kind of guy the whole time I've known him. If Lucas has made a serious man of him, he totally deserves this."

"It wasn't intentional," Emi said seriously. "Remember, I was out of the picture by the time it came to sending Lucas the voucher for lessons. If Eddy hadn't called me, I would never have met Lucas at all."