She shrugged.“Your guess is as good as mine.Who moves at the end of November anyway?”
“The guy who’s tired of paying for a house he’s not living in,” Danny said.
Reese rolled her eyes.“Whatever.Stupid reasonable reason is reasonable.”
Dustin was our Director of Marketing for the game company I worked at, AcesPlayed.He had also been dating two co-workers for the last several months.
Speaking of, there were two of them now.Phillip parked his SUV behind mine.“Sorry,” he called as he and Adrienne headed toward us.“There was some confusion with our reservation at the truck rental place.”
“I told them, if they’d gotten the truck last night and we slept here…” Adrienne trailed off.
It made me wishI’dchosen the sleep in option, but I never saw them late to anything, so I could forgive it this once.“I’m not saying anything.I’m just glad someone’s tapping that ass.”I gave them an appreciative look.
“Excuse me?”Adrienne’s offense sounded fake.
“What?I meant his.”I jerked a thumb at Phillip.
Adrienne pursed her lips.“So did I.I can wear a strap-on as well as the next girl.”
“Nice.”Reese gave her a high five.
The dynamic in our small group of friends changed when Adrienne started dating Dustin and Phillip.Not in a bad way, but in an obvious way.
Then again, the dynamic had changed years ago, when Dustin started working with us.When Reese came back into Danny’s life.When I met Danny.
Had I really known Phillip for twenty years?We met when we started working at a tiny little gaming company no one had ever heard of.That had gotten big, been swallowed by a larger company, and started over again.
Rinslet was big again, but we’d left five years ago to start this new and risky thing.A massively multiplayer online role-playing game with adult content.Not just swearing and violence, but sex.The characters could get naked.They could fuck anyone in game, multiple people at once, whatever.
The game was in open beta now, and working with the content we did required a certain level of comfort with sexuality.Considering way back when we were young and reckless and horny, at that first tiny company, a lot of us unwound by fucking everyone else in the office, it wasn’t a hard transition to make.Those of us who were originals joked sometimes that we’d just brought our old orgy culture to the game, and stuck it in a magical cyberpunk society.
“And there’s the man of the hour.”Danny’s comment and pointing drew my attention to the end of the street.“Making a late entrance to the pleasure and surprise of the crowds.”
Dustin backed the moving van into the driveway.When he stepped out, everyone applauded.He bowed.“If I knew bringing donuts and coffee would get me this kind of reception, I’d do it all the time.”
“How did younotknow that?”I stared at him in disbelief.
“You stopped for donuts when you were already late?”Phillip asked.
Reese clapped.“You brought sugar?”
“Yes to all of the above.”Dustin looked at Phillip and shrugged.“What?I wanted some.I brought enough for everyone.”
Danny was already opening the passenger door of the truck and grabbing one of the drink holders.“Dibs on cream-filled.”
Adrienne snorted.
Dustin pulled a donut box off the seat.“I brought enough cream filling for everyone who wants it too.”
“TMI.Seriously.”Reese scoffed.
Dustin opened the box for her.“They had pink frosted.”
Her scowl vanished and she clapped twice.“Youdolove me.”
We all grabbed our donuts and coffee—Dustin knew our orders, including who would be on their second cup—and followed him into the house.He’d already moved out most of the smaller, personal stuff.Some of his furniture sold with the house, most was going into storage for now, and the rest would go to Phillip’s.
Or Dustin’s new place.Or whatever the proper terminology was.Dustin had already sorted everything, so he pointed out what went where, and we got to work.