"No, that was not a thing I had known or ever needed to," Hardison said, rubbing his temples. His first thought was, of course, to rib Eliot about it--right. Eliot was gone. With Parker. Together. While he was left alone.

Ugh. Everything about this was the worst.

"Don't y'all have better things to gossip about?" he asked before he got upset again. "Like boys? Or girls? Your own age? Surely y'all have some cute crush to talk about rather'n us old people. Or them old people an' me."

HE WASN'T EVEN THIRTY YET.