Michael was certain you two were being obvious recently, but he couldn’t bring himself to care all that much.

You’d met in high school, and immediately you, Mikey and Richie had bonded. You spent four years inseparable, and somewhere along the way, you and Mikey become… more inseparable.

Neither of you could pinpoint when the close bond of friendship turned into something more but it had, and after a while you couldn’t ignore it. A kiss you shared after school one day resulted in you two confessing your feelings, then very quickly agreeing to something that still went on today.

You agreed to keep your relationship secret.

It was an easy mutual agreement, and neither of you really expected it to go this far. But now you were three years out of high school, Mikey had started running The Beef, you were still best friends with Richie— and still, nobody knew about your relationship.

As time passed it became harder to hide your affection to each other. Or maybe you got more careless, but either way, it showed.

On a less busy day, you stopped by The Beef. It wasn’t unusual, you went there most days, and were always welcome, obviously.

You were greeted by a hug by Mikey and a small sneaky kiss to your cheek before anyone could see, and a whisper of “Missed you.”