Page 159 of Terms of Exposure
And that's when it clicked.
The rambling. The nervous stories. The overeager enthusiasm.
He's doing what Damien does.
When Damien gets uneasy, or unsure, or overwhelmed with affection he's not ready to name—he talks. He fills space with memories, with little stories, with warmth disguised as noise.
Sebastian was the same flavor of awkward. Just louder. Less polished. Less filtered.
I turned to find Damien watching me.
His mouth curved—small, private, a little embarrassed.
A silentyeah… that's us.
And I felt my heart crack open.
Because he was right.
It was cute.
All of it.
Them.
Us.
This ridiculous, chaotic dinner was cute in a way I hadn't known my life desperately needed.
Dinner blurred into one of those soft-focus memories I knew I'd replay later.
Rosie bullied us into second servings. Sebastian dropped his fork twice. Damien stole a mushroom off my plate and pretended I didn't catch him. Candace laughed—really laughed—three separate times.
And somewhere between the garlic bread and the second round of meatballs, the air in Rosie's little dining room shifted frommeeting the familytobelonging.
Plates were scraped clean. Wine refilled more times than should be legal. Rosie declared the sauce "saved" and Sebastian declared himself "abused."
Candace's shoulders loosened, inch by inch, until she no longer looked like a guest perched on the edge.
We drifted back to the living room—Sebastian limp-walking with the medical boot, Candace hovering just enough to be subtle, Damien trailing a hand along my spine as if he couldn't help himself.
I settled beside Candace on the floral couch, the doily under my thigh itching like a hostile lace coaster.
"Hey," she murmured. "So… there's a fair in Riverside."
"A fair?" I asked, intrigued.
She nodded, biting back a shy smile. "It's… silly. But I thought maybe you'd want to go? Next weekend? Just… something light. Something not hospital or work or—"
Her gaze flicked downward. "Not… everything."
"Of course," I said quickly. "I'd love to."
"Count me in." Damien said, dropping onto the arm of the couch.
Candace's eyebrows shot up. "Really?"
"Emma's going." He shrugged, all the explanation needed.
