“I hope there’s room on the street for him to park,” said his mom. She stirred the milk slowly, making sure it wouldn’t stick to the pan as it warmed.
“He’ll be a little surprised to see Kelvin, I’d think.”
“I can move my car if you want,” said Kelvin.
The front door opened and a tall man, blond with glasses, a round face like Kelvin’s, but not as grotesquely big as Mattie. He looked in and his eyes lit on Kelvin.
He grinned, and ran in, hugging Kelvin. “How are you? How’s it been? What are you doing here?”
“Good, it’s been fine, and it’s Thanksgiving!” Kelvin laughed. “Let me introduce you to my boyfriend.”
Kelvin’s father came into the kitchen as Mattie shut the door. “And hello, dad.”
Kelvin’s dad waved a hand at Mattie. “I see you all the time.” He chuckled, put an arm around Kelvin’s shoulders. Andy was standing behind his chair.
“So this is the famous Andy,” said his father, holding out his hand. “Kelvin told me about you in his emails.”
“Yes, sir,” said Andy, shaking his hand firmly.
“I’m glad to finally meet you. Layla, you being nice to Kelvin’s boyfriend?”
“He said he can play music later after dinner!”
“Good! Serenade us while we fall asleep.”
“I’m gonna dance!”
His father laughed, went over to Mattie. He shook his hand and pulled him into a hug. “How’s it going? Where’s Nancy?”
“Home sick,” he said, rolling his eyes.
Kelvin’s mom put out four mugs of hot chocolate. Layla grabbed one. Kelvin took another, and pushed one to Andy. “You’ll never have hot chocolate like this again,” he said.
Layla got up from the table and returned with a plastic bag of marshmallows. She plopped a big marshmallow into her mug and offered one to Andy. “Want one?”
“Sure,” Andy said, and offered his cup. She dropped one in.
Andy sipped, and it was warm heaven. “Oh. My. God.”
Kelvin smiled. “See?”
His mother smiled, and poured more milk into the pan. She grated chocolate into two mugs. His father took the other mug and handed it to Mattie. His father said, “You’ll be staying for a couple of days, right, Kelvin?”
“I plan on it,” said Kelvin.
“Downstairs?”
“Yes.”
He nodded. He got out a jar of instant coffee and put some in one of the mugs. “You’re ruining it,” said his mother, slapping his arm.
“Would you rather I put some whiskey in it?”
“Is it that bad?” asked Kelvin.
“It’s a holiday. I figured I’d get caught up on a few things. Your mother is going to put me in the poorhouse tomorrow on Black Friday.”
“We have someone new to buy for,” she said, smiling at Andy. Andy blushed.
“Be careful,” said Kelvin’s father to Andy. “She’s memorized your body type and already knows your sizes.”
“She can send me some more of this hot cocoa,” said Andy, raising his near-empty cup.
Mattie sat down at the table, his knees banging the bottom of it. “Still got the kids’ tables?”
“You’ll be sitting at the counter, like usual,” said his father. “We’ve got a stool.” He leaned back on the counter and got his now-full mug of mocha. He sipped it, sighed contentedly.
There was a knock at the door. “Come in!” called Kelvin’s mom.
The door opened, and a young woman with black hair and blue eyes, pale and thin-faced, peered around the door. “Mom?”
“Juliet!”
“Are we late?” She stepped inside, holding hands with another tall, thin man with seemingly empty black eyes and bangs that were in his face.
“Turkey’s almost done,” said his mother, as Juliet came into the kitchen. She hugged her parents. Then she saw Kelvin.
“Kelvin!” She hugged him. “When did you get here?”
“Earlier,” he said, and turned her to face Andy. “This is my boyfriend, Andy.”
Andy put his mug down and went to shake her hand. She gave it to him, shaking his hand daintily. She wiped her hand on her pants. “This is, um, Brian.”
“Hello,” said Brian with a deep voice that Andy didn’t expect him to have. He also shook his hand like a limp fish.
“Can we eat dinner now?” asked Layla. “I want to show you my dancing!”
Andy saw that his mug had disappeared. He felt a little sad. “Layla, help set the table.”
They made the table bigger by adding two large leaves into it, grabbed three more chairs from places in the house, and set the table. It was a little cramped, even with Mattie sitting at the counter. Kelvin’s father pulled out the turkey, letting it rest on the counter while everyone took their seats. Food came out one by one: mashed potatoes, sauteed fall squashes, brussel sprouts in bacon, cornbread stuffing, meat stuffing, gravy, multi-colored corn, peas in their pods, string bean almondine…Andy was overwhelmed and the table was quickly full of plates. Champagne and wine were the beverages—and another steaming mug of hot cocoa for Andy.
Layla ate quickly, not eating much because she was in a hurry to dance. “Aunt Juliet and Andy are going to play a song for me to dance to.”
“What song do you want us to play?” asked Andy.
Juliet looked pained. She sniffed and looked at Andy. “What school did you go to?”
Andy blanched.
