Stella before following suit. There was nothing left to do but eat—finally—and mingle.
Stella, however, had other ideas; grabbing their coats, she shepherded them onto the back porch. It being after eight, the sun had already set, and they sat in the iron deck chairs Dad had already brought out of the shed despite the temperatures not having quite crawled up past zero. Spring in Toronto meant they could expect snow until the end of April.
“Sorry,” Stella said, sticking a fork into pasta salad. “I couldn’t hear myself think in there.”
“Not like we’re needed right now anyway.” Anna sat back and kicked out her legs. “Mom’s holding court.”
Tay balanced his plate on his lap and speared a meatball. “As it should be.”
“Hear, hear.” Anna chewed thoughtfully. “At what point is it okay to start kicking people out?”
“Did we put an end time on the invitations?” Tay asked.
“Nope.”
“Why not?”
“Stella’s idea.”
“Hey, I didn’t hear you rebutting,” Stella said, mouth full. “Besides, you only include end times on invitations if you’re in grade school.”
“Follow-up question, then.” Anna held up her fork. “At what point is it okay to sneak out?”
Tay sipped his beer. “When we’ve put away all the food, taken down all the decorations, and haven’t left anything for Mom and Dad to clean up.”
“So, never.”
Tay snorted a laugh. The night was brisk, and a shiver ran through him from head to toe, making his chair shake. Why hadn’t he thought to grab his toque? Or his gloves? He was about to suggest they head back inside when Stella said, “How’s your comic book coming along, Tay?”
“Uh, good.” His first instinct was to change the subject, but Dakota’s words from their lunch at The Loose Moose picked at the back of his brain. Has it ever occurred to you that they might not know how to talk to you either? Maybe this was them trying, which meant he had to meet them halfway. “I’ve been working on it in my spare time.”
“Almost done?”
“Not really? I decided to go back to the first book to update it since my art style’s changed a lot since high school, so I haven’t had a lot of time to work on the final book in the trilogy.”
“Trilogy?” Stella slapped his arm. “Holy crap, Tay! Here I thought you were just drawing a short comic, but three books? That’s amazing.”
“I look forward to reading it.” Anna said. “I can’t believe you wrote a book. Drew a book? Either way, that’s more than I’ll ever accomplish.”
Tay stared at her. “You’re a doctor. You literally save people’s lives. How is that not accomplishing something?”
“Speaking of saving lives.” Stella picked a mushroom out of the rice pilaf and flicked it onto the grass with a grimace. “Exams this week?”
“Next.”
“Ready for them?” Anna asked.
“Sure.” No, he most certainly was not. In fact, he was missing them both because he was traveling with his team for games three and four against Boston. He was making them both up, on the same day, the weekend he returned. Already the pit in his stomach yawned wide. The remainder of his practicals hadn’t been as big of a failure as his first two, no doubt owing to his conversation with Professor Lai that took away some of the pressure. Still, it’d be a stretch to say he’d passed with flying colors. There had been no flying. Or colors. Just anxiety and second guesses that made him feel like he was about to go splat all over the ground.
When Desie had gotten hurt, it had proved to Tay that he wouldn’t lose his shit under pressure. It was a comfort knowing that he wasn’t a complete screw-up of a paramedicine student. Still, after his exams, he was hitting pause on his classes to reevaluate whether it was what he truly wanted.
Anna wasn’t convinced by his lackadaisical answer. “You know I’m here if you have any questions, right?”
“Uh-huh. I’m good, thanks.”
She shared a glance with Stella Tay would’ve missed had he not been paying attention and had he not had Dakota’s words at the top of his mind.
“Listen,” Stella began, apparently having been appointed the point person during their silent conversation. Tay stiffened, expecting a lecture on how he wasn’t cut out to be a paramedic. Yeah, he’d figured that one out all on his own, thanks. “I know we weren’t there much for you when you were a kid,” she said, shocking him still. “The only excuse we have is that we were self-absorbed teenagers and then