The next two weeks were crazy with work, Aidan, and finals looming. Even though he was as busy as ever, he found himself spending more time with Seamus. It started when Aidan had a bad day. Matt offered Seamus his apartment key so Aidan could be at home and settle. When he got home, Seamus had dinner going. It kind of progressed from there. School, work, Aidan, finals, and Seamus.
When school finished for break, Seamus filled the free time. The only time he didn't see Seamus was a few days around Christmas when Matt stayed with his dad. Seamus even made it possible for Matt to have a personal life, to hang out with his friends outside of work and school.
Matt missed that the most, the freedom of doing what he wanted, when he wanted. Eating lunch with his two best friends at a restaurant where they didn't work was as good as it was going to get for a while.
"The big question is—what the fuck are we doing for our birthday weekend?" Kase asked.
"There's a million bars. We could do a bar crawl or something?" Hilary offered. Of the three she was the least into it. She enjoyed parties but didn't like planning her life around being hungover.
"What about Purple Canary?" Matt asked.
"Yeah," Kase scoffed. "You buying?"
Matt knew Purple Canary was a little on the high end but had underestimated just how much. The cover alone was insane.
"It would be dope," Hilary rested her chin on her fist and ate a fry. "I've heard it's legit. Not like those crazy clubs where everyone is standing on each other. Nah, this place is classy. Famous people go there when they're in town."
"Yeah right," Kase eyed her like she was insane.
"They do. I'm not saying famous people are there all the time but I know for a fact Shae Bennett was there six month ago."
"We could just ask Seamus," Matt said.
"What does Mr. Ryan have to do with anything?" Kase questioned.
Matt was confused, he thought everyone knew Seamus owned the club. The only reason he hadn't known was because he'd only just been in town for a few months. Kase and Hilary had been around for years.
"Because he owns it?"
His friends straightened in their seats. "Mr. Ryan owns the Purple Canary? Holy shitballs. You gotta get us in."
"What? Me?"
"Yeah," Kase nodded quickly. "You guys are like, married or whatever. He'll say yes to you."
"What? We're not married."
"Okay,
co-parenting
." Hilary looked at Kase like there was some super secret inside joke.
"You guys are being ridiculous. I'm not going to ask him."
"You literally just said '
we could just ask Seamus
'."
"Yes.
We
could ask Seamus. Together."
Neither Hilary or Kase pressed the issue until two days later they were all working.
Seamus came out with Aidan to get an afternoon drink. It wasn't crazy busy so Matt took a second to see his brother. He was getting so big. It seemed like overnight he was practically sitting up on his own. Matt put his hands out and watched as Aidan brightened and leaned toward him.
Seamus rolled his eyes but as soon as he was settled on Matt's hip, Seamus leaned in. "C'mere," he held his hands out like Matt had just done. Aidan, who'd just wanted Matt more than anyone else in the world suddenly reached for Seamus.
This was a new war they fought, watching with humor as Aidan went back and forth between the two.
The next time Matt had hold of him, he walked away before Seamus had a chance to steal him back. He could hear Seamus grumble "cheater" but when Matt turned to give him the stink eye, he was smiling.
"Would you mind making me an ice breve?" Seamus asked Hilary. "Small."
"Absolutely." Hilary looked between Kase and Matt as she grabbed the cup. "Anyway," she said casually as if she was picking up where she'd left off. "We need to figure out what we're doing for our twenty-first birthdays. It's a monumental event and I bought a new dress. I was thinking of someplace nice. I don't want to hit the crappy bars on the east side. I want to go big, ya know. Hmm," she hummed oh so thoughtfully. "Any ideas?"
Matt was glad his back was to Seamus so he could glare at Hilary for being totally and completely not smooth. Kase, however, thought it was genius.
"I second somewhere nice. I want to drink an Old Fashion that's lit on fire."
"I don't know," Matt smirked. "Isn't getting drunk at dive bars on your first legal drink day a rite of passage?"
Hilary glanced at Seamus, who wasn't paying attention, then quickly glared at Matt. "Not the kind of passage I want," she bit out. "I want to dress up and Kase wants his drink on fire. Is that so much to ask?"
Seamus came over and waited for his drink. "I was gonna take Aidan home so he could practice rolling over. Are you good or do you want me to pick you up after work?"
"I'll meet you there."
"We were gonna stay a few minutes late," Hilary added. "Our birthdays are in three weeks. The big two-one, so we gotta plan something epic."
"All three of you have the same birthday?"
"Yeah. Kase and I share the same birthday and Matt's is the day before."
"Older and wiser," Matt said, earning himself playful digs from his friends.
"Cool." Seamus took a sip of his drink. "Take your time."
Hilary, not at all detoured by Seamus' lack of interest in their big birthday, pressed on. "Any recommendations? I want to dress up and Kase wants his drink something that's on fire."
Seamus looked at Matt. "What do you want?"
It was the perfect opportunity to ask Seamus about Purple Canary. He could slyly mention wanting to do something nice, then casually say "oh, hey, what about Purple Canary. Any chance you could hook us up?" but Matt thought the power was better used to annoy his friends.
"I thought bar hopping at some dives would be fun."
Yep, if looks could kill—
"Do you need someone to watch this little guy?" Seamus said more to Aidan than Matt.
Matt leaned close to Aidan and took his little baby hand. "Nah," he said in a ridiculous baby voice. "Grandpa had dibs so Matt can be as irresponsible as he wants."
His baby impersonation had earned Matt a smile. "I'll see you at home when you get off."
Matt could feel eye daggers slicing his back to shreds as he watched the two walk away. When he finally turned around, his friends looked sweet. Too sweet. It was the thing nightmares were made of.
"You will fix this or we will fix you." They simultaneously turned their backs to him. They ignored him for the rest of the shift. Even when he tried to say bye, they looked at him then dramatically turned away, making him laugh.
****
"We need to talk," Matt said as he walked through the front door. Seamus was laying on his back while Aidan practiced the baby yoga on stomach. Seamus put Aidan on the floor and sat up.
"I messed up the other day. We were talking about options for our party and I mentioned that you owned Purple Canary. They went crazy."
"Is that why they were being weird today?"
"Yes."
