THEO
It was Cory’s idea to have a small Fourth of July get-together. He packaged it as an opportunity for me to finally meet Emilio’s parents, but I knew Cory just wanted an excuse to invite Emilio to our place. Given all the times Cory had stayed over at theirs, I figured it was about time.
Mr. and Mrs. Gomez —Markus and Leona— were good folks. He was a senior accountant at the Blue Cloud Shipping HQ downtown, while Leona was a full-time homemaker. They’d recently moved to Chicago from Texas due to his job. They were pleasant, easy to be around, and the fact that they brought a whole case of beer for us adults to split was an added bonus. I helped myself to a can.
I was on vacation, after all.
This was the most activity my backyard had seen in years. My old barbecue was getting a work
