Chapter 359: Day One Hundred and Twelve of Growing-3

The moment we step into the room, the people standing closest to the door turn to look at us. I find that their eyes immediately find my hand which Elliot is firmly holding on to and a chill of self-consciousness runs through me. Impervious to their gazes, Elliot steadfastly holds my hand and crosses the room with his group of friends. The moment I've taken a seat, I hear Ray exclaim. "Eli. Isn't that Dad's friend? Paul Whathisface?" she asks, pointing in the direction of a man who is round-faced, pot-bellied, probably around my father's age and looking as pleased as punch to be here. "Paul Whittling," Elliot nods, "We should go say hi." He turns to me. "Would you like to come? Or do you prefer to stay?" "I'd like to stay," I tell him, not really wanting to start my socializing yet. "Don't worry, Eli. I'll make sure she's properly fed and hydrated," Marco says, from two chairs down as he waves a waiter over and Isa away as she disappears to speak to important looking people. Elliot kisses the top of my head and walks in Paul Whittling's direction with Ray and Juliet. As everyone else disappears from around the table, Marco moves to the chair next to mine and slides about five canapes on to the side plate between us. "Help yourself," he says, his mouth already occupied by what appears to have been a devilled egg. "Thanks," I tell him, picking one up. "Have you been for one of these annual conferences before?" he asks me. I shake my head. "I never really did get the chance to travel for one and this is the first one they're having here. I'm sure you've been to a few." Marco holds up two fingers as he puts a piece of bruschetta in his mouth. "My second time. How come you're not out there, working the floor? Elliot and I were talking about how we're not the important businesspeople in our relationships and we prefer to keep it that way." "Happy to sit on the sidelines?" I ask him. "Happy to be the arm candy." "You aren't being much of arm candy right now," I tell him. Marco shrugs and nods to the other end of the room. "Isa is surrounded by enough eye candy for now." I turn to see Isa standing next to Ace, Elliot and Aiden, speaking to someone. "That's Aiden's Dad," Marco tells me, "He flew in only yesterday." I nod and turn to look at him. "Should I apologize?" "For what?" I shrug. "Coming between you and your soulmate?" Marco breaks out into a wide grin. "Oh, please. You could never. Elliot is so loyal. Anyway, he's incredibly overjoyed to have you in his life. Seriously. He wept the other day. You should have seen him. A complete, blubbering mess." Shaking my head at him, I laugh. He's silent for a beat. "I'm actually glad you're here – around – a part of his life," Marco says, his voice lowering, getting serious. I run my fingers along the rim of the side plate. "Why is that?" "He seems – I don't know," Marco breathes out, "Lighter? If that makes sense. Like things aren't really weighing him down? I've seen him at other times. I've known him since his first girlfriend – in college." Marco grins a grin that I've come to realize is a signature Marco grin. "You're significantly better. You also have a better sense of humour – Elliot told me how you enjoyed the time I moved everything in his room about two inches to the left and he was so disoriented for a full week before he realized – and there's the Meal Prep Extravaganza." Frowning in confusion, I ask, "What's the Meal Prep Extravaganza?" "He told me what you did, Al. One day Elliot opens his door to find that a meal prep company has shipped him a whole box of meals that he can cook for himself in fifteen minutes or less to sustain himself for the better part of two weeks?" he says, "That was so incredibly thoughtful of you." "Elliot doesn't properly cook for himself when he's working!" I complain, as I remember how appalled I was at Elliot's working-day eating habits, "Apparently, he runs on the bare minimum, and you know he's some kind of freak during working days and he doesn't eat from out and insists on eating only home-cooked food? He eats oats, Marco! Oats! That he takes from home! For breakfast, lunch and dinner when he's in hospital!" "I know!" Marco agrees, sounding just about as exasperated as I am, "He's one perfect bastard, but he does not take care of himself. Do you know that he made himself grilled chicken and vegetable wraps to last himself almost three weeks once? At the end of it, he was so sick of grilled chicken and vegetables that there were tears in his eyes when we went to McDonald's at the end of them. He also poisoned himself because I think he didn't properly defrost the last batch and he was out of service for about two days." I laugh, despite the fact that Elliot is terrible at managing his food in spite of being, as Marco said, a perfect bastard. "He's truly shit at taking care of himself," Marco nods. He surveys me for a moment, putting another devilled egg into his mouth. It's almost as if he's regarding me. Finally, he opens his mouth. "Can I tell you something?" Taking a sip from my glass of water, I nod. "Sure." He blows out a long breath. "I don't know if you know this, but some time ago, I was a major idiot and Eli was pretty instrumental in getting my head out of my ass and he pretty much singlehandedly ensured that I didn't lose Isa because of my idiocy. Every single day of my life that I smile because of Isa" – Marco grins in her direction, watching her flit across the room – "I owe something to Elliot. So, I feel like it's my duty to reciprocate in some way." Marco offers me the last devilled egg, but after watching his zeal as he ate them for the last ten minutes, I cannot bear to deny him, so I shake my head. He gives me a smile and eats it whole before he continues, munching furiously.