Devil's Drop

Maneki-Neko

Chester looked up from where he was sticking candles into the double layer cake. Mike was across the room, standing on a chair by the windows as he hung up the party banners they'd bought. Happy Birthday in multi-colored letters was now stretched across their ocean view. "Sexy Boy, that looks fantastic," Chester offered, giving his partner a smile before he looked back down at his own work. His homemade double chocolate fudge icing was smoothed over every bit of the yellow cake that was hiding inside, along with the chocolate ganache, which was layered through the middle. Chester had already carefully covered the top with pink and yellow sprinkles, and after pushing the last of the birthday candles into the top, he stepped back to take a look at what he'd created. It looks good. Maybe a couple of fresh strawberries on top. Or glazed strawberries. No, fresh ones.

He spun around and headed to the refrigerator. He sucked in the aromas of their kitchen as he did. His chicken alfredo was in the oven, the top layer of grated cheese melting. And Mike's garlic bread was already out, and sitting on the stove top keeping warm. His boyfriend had mixed together the butter, garlic, parsley, and parmesan before he had spread the concoction on the double loaves of french bread, and it was making the entire loft smell like an Italian restaurant. Mike had also taken care of the salad, slicing up tomatoes, cucumbers, and carrots before he tossed them all together with the romaine lettuce they'd brought back from the market. All that was left was for each person to pick out their favorite dressing to drizzle over top.

I hope we made enough. Eight people. That's a lot. Chester looked at his watch. They still had ten minutes before the party was officially supposed to start. Ryan had texted him earlier, saying he and Jason would be a few minutes late, which Chester was taking as a good sign. He was hoping the others would show up before the birthday boy so they could all yell surprise at once. Well, not really surprise. More like Happy Birthday. And Mike can play it on the piano while we sing. Jason will really get a kick out of it. I hope.

Before another thought could escape across his mind, there was a knock at the door. "I'll get it!" he hollered over to Mike, who was blowing up a few pink and yellow balloons. Chester had to take the extra few seconds to admire how cute his boyfriend was, with the mouth of balloon between his fingers and his cheeks puffed out. I love him. He's really getting into this with me. I think he and Jason hit it off on a new level last week. At least something good came from Seattle. Just the thought of the rainy city made Chester shiver as he got to the door. He smoothed his hands down the front of his army green button up shirt that had the silver buttons and matching dragon head on the breast pocket. He shifted the waist of his black dress pants, and took a deep breath.

He was ready to play host.

He cleared his throat before he opened the door. "Hey guys," he greeted with a smile as Devon and Caleb stood in front of him, both with shiny wrapped packages in their hands. "Come on in." He stepped to the side, and motioned for them to enter.

"Thanks, Chaz," Devon was the first to say as he stepped in, and Caleb followed behind, shadowing the greeting. "Oh man, it smells incredible in here, and looks totally awesome!" Devon said as he lead the way. His eyes bounced from the birthday banner, to the punch bowl on the kitchen table and all the little cups sitting beside it. There was a long table by the windows, where a rectangle shaped box with bright blue wrapping paper and a yellow bow was sitting, and Devon pointed in that direction. "You want us to put our gifts over there?"

"Yeah, that's mine and Mike's," Chester said, eyeing the gift that Mike had actually wrapped only about an hour ago while Chester had been busy with the chicken alfredo.

"This is a really cool place," Caleb offered as he nervously shoved his hand through his sandy blonde hair. "Have you been here before?" he asked Devon a little more quietly.