“Yes, but never in my house!”
August cocked his head. “Still not getting why that’s a big deal.”
“You wouldn’t,” Michael said over his shoulder.
“It’smy house,” I reiterated. “I own it. That makes it so much better.”
“Technically, it’s the bank’s house,” August clarified. “You only own like 20% of it, or whatever your down payment was.”
Kai chuckled to himself and said, “Well…” But when I glanced at him, he pretended like he hadn’t said anything.
“Is that true?” I asked. “The bank owns this place?”
“They’re the ones with the loan,” Michael explained. “So yeah, in a way, they own four-fifths of it.”
“Until your loan is paid off,” Kai said pointedly. “Then you’ll own all of it yourself.”
I groaned. “You just killed my lady-boner.”
“Way to go, asshole!” August smacked Michael in the back of the head. “Now her lady-boner is gone!”
“Why are you upset?” I asked. “You wanted another round?”
“Hell yeah I do. I want to fuck you inyour houseagain. Maybe it will mean something to me the second time. Or perhaps a third…”
“Let’s watch the movie first.”
The Godzilla ripoff was spectacularly bad, in all the best ways. Kai got into the swing of things and started riffing on it halfway through the movie. The four of us laughed and teased each other as we watched.
The doorbell rang near the end. Michael answered the door totally nude, though he covered his junk with one hand. When he turned around, he was holding several buckets of mini tacos, which caused August to squeal excitedly. “It’s like Christmas morning!”
“I ordered them when nobody was looking,” Michael proudly admitted.
“You’re my favorite,” I said, grabbing a bucket and reaching inside. The taco I bit into was crispy on the outside and savory in the middle.
“You guys hear that?” Michael asked. “I’m the favorite.”
“Hey, woah, let’s justsettle down,” August said defensively. “You got her tacos. I got her Fritz. I totally win.”
Michael gestured with a taco. “I picked Ginny over Bill for the job months ago. Without that, none of this would have happened.”
“He’s got a point,” Kai said.
August rounded on him. “What about you? You’re just her video sex partner. She could have done that with any random guy.” He said it jokingly, not with any real sting. They usually had a playful banter together, which was a huge relief to me.
“Maybe so,” Kai said with a shrug.
August frowned. “Why are you so smug?”
“I just don’t feel the need to compete.”
“That’s what people say when they’relosing. I totally win. Fritz, get out here and celebrate with me!”
The lanky adolescent Bernese Mountain Dog came trotting into the living room. Frank followed closely on his heels like a begrudging older brother.
“Atta boy,” August said to the dogs as they crowded around him, begging for some of his tacos.
“The value of a gift isn’t that important,” Kai insisted. “Just because you spent a lot of money on Fritz doesn’t mean it wins.”