Chapter 41: Walking on Eggshells

POV: Noel (Third Person)Benjamin was frying eggs when Noel came down the next morning, humming to himself, clearly delighted to be standing in his own kitchen again."Sit," Benjamin said. "I'm making enough for three. Gabriel's coming by later, so I figured I'd practice.""Don't make them dry," Noel said, sliding onto a stool. "He'll defend them anyway, but..."He stopped. The rest of the sentence was already formed, a joke about Gabriel's eggs and the argument they'd had over them more than once, an argument that belonged to a kitchen on the other side of town."But what?" Benjamin asked, glancing back."Just don't overcook them," Noel said. "I like them soft.""Soft it is."Benjamin turned back to the pan, and nothing in his face had changed. Noel picked up his coffee and held on to it a little too hard. He had not lied. He had only swapped one sentence for another. But the swap had cost him something, a small flash of effort he could feel in his shoulders, and the day had barely s

Last Updated : 2026-10-26

Chapter 42: An Opening for Someone Else

Benjamin was emptying the dishwasher when he started counting on his fingers. "That's four dinners this week," he said, pointing a plate at Gabriel. "You have a perfectly good house across town, you know."Gabriel looked up from the glass of water he had been holding for several minutes without drinking. "I like your cooking.""You like my wine." Benjamin slid the plate into the cupboard and laughed at his own joke. "You might as well move in properly. Take the guest room, save yourself the gas. You've been eating at this table since before Noel could hold a fork, so it's not like anyone would notice the difference."Noel sat at the kitchen table with his laptop open to a brief he had read the same paragraph of three times. He opened his mouth to say something easy and found that nothing easy was within reach. What came out was a laugh that arrived a second late and sounded like it belonged to someone else."You'd regret it within a week," Gabriel said. "I'd have you on a chore chart

Last Updated : 2026-10-27

Chapter 43: Only You

Noel waited until Friday night, when Benjamin had gone to a dinner with old colleagues and Gabriel's house was quiet around them. He had rehearsed the question on the drive over and decided the best approach was to sound mildly curious, the way someone might ask about a traffic delay. He was leaning against the kitchen counter with a glass of water when he said it."Did Priya ever finish that Hendricks memo? She seemed off after the strategy meeting yesterday."Gabriel, who was slicing a lemon at the other end of the counter, did not look up right away. "She finished it this morning.""Good. I just noticed she left in a hurry.""She asked me to dinner," Gabriel said, in the tone he might have used to report a filing deadline. "I told her no.""Oh." Noel turned the glass a quarter turn on the counter. "That's a pretty direct thing to do at work.""It was.""Was she okay about it?""She said she understood." Gabriel set down the knife and finally looked at him, and something in his expr

Last Updated : 2026-10-27

All Chapters of Falling For My Father's Best Friend: Chapter 41 - Chapter 43

Chapter 41: Walking on Eggshells

Chapter 42: An Opening for Someone Else

Chapter 43: Only You