Page 112 of Joey

Thomas bows his head a little. “I know what this looks like,” he says, panning his hand towards the tent and party preparations. “Your visit, unfortunately, coincided with baby Malinda’s birthday party. But I assure you, the dinner tonight is all for you, Mr. Boston. Adults only, with the exception of the hors d’oeuvres served beforehand.”

“That sounds fun,” I say. Trying to lift Joey’s mood.

“We’re staying,” Wald decides. “I’m sorry for the confusion, Thomas. My friend here is just a little… stressed. But thank you for the hospitality. We’d love to see our suite and get changed for dinner.”

Joey shoots Wald a look. Wald shoots Joey one right back.

“Very good,” Thomas says, deferring to Wald. “Please follow me.”

“I don’t like this,” Joey whispers as we climb the main stairwell ten steps behind Thomas. “Something’s happening. They have some plan. It’s not going to end well. We should leave.”

Wald ignores him. And Huck and I are in front, and we don’t want to make a scene since there are dozens and dozens of people milling about, so we don’t engage in the conversation behind us.

We’re taken to the second floor, but it’s quite a climb because the first-floor ceilings in the grand foyer are easily fifty feet high.

Then we are led into a whole separate wing and finally we stop at a set of double doors.

“We had you in separate bedrooms before we realized our mistake,” Thomas says.

“Mistake?” Huck asks.

Thomas smiles. “I’m sure the four of you will be very comfortable in here.” He opens the doors to reveal a massive bed.

Just. One. Bed.

And suddenly we all know what their little mistake was.

They thought Joey and I were a couple and Huck and Wald were just friends.

But one look at this room tells us that they certainly don’t think that any more.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE - JOEY

“What the actual fuck?” I mutter. “What is their game?”

I look at Wald for answers. He’s always the one with the answers. But he just rubs two fingers in the center of his forehead like he’s hoping to prevent a headache. “I don’t know,” he finally says. “I just don’t know.”

“Hey, maybe they just accept us?” Huck says. “They’re like… all progressive and shit?”

All of us—every single one of us, even Brooke—just look at Huck like he’s delusional.

“Are you kidding me?” I say. “Do these people look like they’re all cool with a four-person polyamorous relationship? Do you really think they look at us and say, ‘Yeah, that’s a great situation for little Maisy to get involved with?’”

“I dunno,” Huck says. “It’s no big deal. All parents fuck, Joey. No one looks at a couple and wonders if they’re gonna be doing it in front of the children.”

“Well, that’s definitely how they’re looking at us right now,” I say. “You can bet that for sure.”

“Maybe we’re reading this wrong. We can’t even fit in that bed,” Brooke says. “It’s big, but not that big.”

I take a deep breath. “I wanted one thing. One. Thing.”

“We didn’t fuck this up for you,” Huck says. “What we’re doing is fine. They are the ones fucking this up for you.”

“So what do you want to do?” Wald asks. “Do you want to leave?”

“We just told them we were staying,” Brooke says. “How do we change our minds again?”

“None of this is going to work,” I say, walking over to the bed and taking a seat. I rest my elbows on my knees and rub the side of my head with my hands. “It’s all gonna blow up in our faces, I can feel it. This place…” I look up at my friends. “It’s creepy as fuck.”