Kurt’s sitting outside on their small balcony. Inside, his guests are all having fun, but he excused himself. So far, the evening has been great. Kurt wishes that he could say that there’s an instant connection, or that he remembers some things, but neither are true. Nevertheless, he’s enjoying himself and he likes his guests.

It’s just a bit too much, so he needed some fresh air. He’s nursing a glass of red wine and he is enjoying the terribly polluted New York air.

The door slides open and to Kurt’s surprise, Mae is looking at him. He’d expected Blaine, not Mae.

“Am I interrupting something?” she asks.

“No, come join me and listen to the sound of cars.”

Mae chuckles and she raises her own glass. The balcony isn’t very big, but it’s big enough for two small chairs. Mae sits down on the other one. “How are you? It got kind of loud inside. I don’t think we’ve spoken.”

“Ever,” Kurt adds.

Mae nods solemnly. “That is true for you.”

“I’m fine,” Kurt says honestly. He is fine, truly. He’s enjoying himself and his guests are very nice. It just feels a bit too formal. He’s sitting on his balcony, which is part of a fancy New York apartment, drinking red wine and mingling with others.

“You’re fine,” Mae nods, “But?”

“This is a bit grown-up for me. Dinner parties with potlucks and fancy bottles of expensive wine. The last time I hung out with a group of friends, we all got hammered after a night of clubbing.”

“Sounds like Santana,” Mae says.

“You know her?” Kurt asks, surprised. He knows that Brittany and Santana have left New York a few years ago.

“Not really, but I’ve seen her a couple of times at parties. She’s fun. So, you feel like you’re missing out on your stereotypical college experience by having dinners with friends?”

When she puts it like that, it sounds like of stupid. Most people regret the crazy shit that they did during college. Kurt’s just never experienced it.

“You must’ve heard of the idea that people have to grow up fast? After my mom died, my dad tried his best, but I did feel like I had to grow up faster. My dad still gave me enough room to be a teen, but it was different. I thought that back then that I had to grow up fast, but no, I went to sleep as an nineteen year old, and bam, I wake up and I am thirty-four.”

“No one is stopping you from going out and getting hammered, although I truly do not recommend that, especially since Blaine doesn’t drink. And you’re still fun! Adulthood doesn’t mean that you can’t get crazy and have fun. I know you’re nineteen, so your thirties sound like a weird, boring, adult period, but it doesn’t have to be. It isn’t. We have loads of fun, some even ‘less formal’ than this.”

Kurt doesn’t say anything. Instead he sips his fancy wine and he watches the lights of New York City.

“I know that you’ve lost your racy young adult period of your life,” Mae says and Kurt snorts at the ‘racy’ part, “But you’re never too old to have fun. Honestly, I am having more fun now than when I was a college kid.”

“It’s just going so fast out of nowhere. I don’t know how to deal with it,” Kurt says and he clutches his glass of wine to prevent himself from trembling, “I am apparently getting married in a few months.”

“Blaine wouldn’t force you,” Mae points out.

“Of course, you know about the wedding.”

“I am your bridesmaid,” Mae tells him, “So yes, I do know. We love - or we used to love - talking about weddings, since you’re definitely planning mine.”

Kurt tries to find a ring on Mae’s left hand, but there’s nothing there.

“You’re getting married?” Kurt asks and Mae puts a finger on her lips.

“I’m going to propose to Wes soon. Maybe around Christmas, I don’t know yet. You’re the only person I’ve told and you were supposed to go ring shopping with me last week.”

“That is amazing!” Kurt exclaims. Mae pretends to bow. “Why me, though? I know we’re friends, but why me instead of Blaine?”

Mae looks over her shoulder. Inside, Wes is talking animatedly to the others and Mae has a fond look on her face.

“It was December, 2023. I was walking around Central Park with some friends when suddenly some guy bumped into me and we both fell on the ground. This guy was Wes. You and Blaine were watching from the side and according to Blaine, you both saw us fall in love. Apparently, you were the one who told Wes to get over himself and ask me out. I’m certain that we would’ve dated without your help, but you definitely pushed us towards each other.”

“That sounds nice,” Kurt says and he wishes he could remember it. He takes Mae’s hand and Mae looks up in surprise. “If you’d let me, we can still go ring shopping together.”

“I don’t want to overwhelm you! You just found out that you’re engaged, so I don’t want to push my own soon-to-be-engagement in your face.”

“You’re too late, Mae. I am already far too overwhelmed, but I think we can be friends again.” Kurt means it. Kurt can’t remember Mae, or Sebastian, or even Adam. There are no past pretences here. There’s no bad blood. And again, if there is, then Kurt doesn’t remember it.

It doesn’t make it okay. Kurt still longs for his memories, but he can do this. They can do it.

“Okay. Yes, yes! Let’s do it!”

Adam is next.

Kurt and Mae had gone back inside and the evening had continued. Eventually, they all ended up in their living room and Sebastian jokingly demands desert.

“You can have a peanut butter cookie from the Pret across the street,” Adam says.

“I’ll take it, babe!” Sebastian kisses Adam’s shoulder.

“A chocolate chip for me!” Mae chimes in and Blaine seems to agree with her.

Everyone turns to Kurt for his order. “Uh, I am unfamiliar with the menu?”

“You can come with,” Adam says casually – too casually, “They have a huge vegan cookie assortment. It started two years ago, or so, and it just kept growing.”

“There’s even a broccoli flavoured one. It is as gross as it sounds,” Blaine says.

“Rude, broccoli is OP!” Wes yells out and Mae scrunches up her face.

“Who says OP in 2027? Wes, dear, grow up!”

The couple is bickering playfully, but Adam is staring at Kurt. He has a welcoming look on his face.

It’s not even supposed to feel this awkward. Adam is clearly totally in love with Sebastian and Kurt can’t even remember dating him, so Kurt pushes his uneasy feeling aside and he nods.

The others are still bickering about cooking flavours (Sebastian and Blaine have joined in) when Kurt and Adam leave. The shop Pret A Manger is literally across the road. Kurt’s seen it several times, but the brand is unfamiliar to him, so he never bothered.

“It’s originally from the UK. I think the first store opened in Chelsea around a decade ago, but then it bought Subway and now it’s everywhere,” Adam explains when Kurt asks about it.

“So, you feel quite at home.”

“What?”

“You know, with it being from the UK.”

Adam looks startled for a second, but then he barks out a laugh. Kurt smiles as well. Maybe this isn’t going to be that bad.

“Oh, wow! You made that joke on our second date. It wasn’t funny then and it still isn’t funny now.”

Kurt’s smile falters. Never mind.

Adam senses the change of atmosphere. “Blaine- He did tell you that we used to date, right?” he asks, alarmed.

“No, no, he did! I just never expected- how did we- did we have a mild break-up, or why are we able to be so okay with each other?”

“We did not have a mild break-up. In fact, you shattered my heart in thousand pieces-” Kurt gulps “-but we’re fine and we’re friends. Same way your incestuous glee club members can still be friends with their exes."

Adam holds the door open and Kurt feels a bit awkward. Kurt shattered Adam’s heart into thousand pieces?

“We were serious?”

“Dead serious,” Adam says and Kurt follows him to one of those digital order screens.

“Then, isn’t this weird for you?” Kurt gestures between the two of them.

Adam taps the screen and sighs. “Kurt, I’m over it. It’s been eight years and I am deeply, madly in love with Sebastian. Sure, it was weird in the beginning when my boyfriend introduced me to your boyfriend, but we’re fine. When you broke up, you told me that we ‘were probably better of as friends’, and you were right. Is this weird for you? I mean, I wasn’t really expecting it to be weird for you, since you don’t remember us being together. Is it weird?”

Adam holds his Apple watch against the El-Pay payment spot and the two of them join in line.

“Kind of, but not because I remember us, but because I never expected to be so friendly towards an ex. Then again, in my eyes, I’ve never had a boyfriend before Blaine, so I wouldn’t know.”

“That’s fair. But hey, if Blaine and Sebastian can be friends, so can we!”

Their cookies are ready and they are ready to make the short trip back home. Kurt decides that he wants to know more, so he asks Adam if they can make an extra round around the block.

“It is easier to meet you and Sebastian and Mae and Wes. Like you said, I don’t know you. It’s easier in some ways to meet you guys than to meet my friends from high school again. Not knowing our history does make me feel a little bit uneasy.”

“Do you want me to fill in the blanks?” Adam asks.

Kurt doesn’t really have to think about it. He wants to know more, so he nods.

“We met at NYADA. You asked me out.”

Kurt’s eyes widen. Kurt asked him out?

“We dated briefly, but it didn’t really work out. Fast forward two years, to 2015, and we just happened to walk into each other in the Village and we reconnected. You had just broken up with this other guy and I was pathetically single as well, so we started dating again. We were in love, truly. I think many expected us to get married and have babies.”

Kurt does not want to think of marriage at all.

“We’d even moved in together. You desperately wanted to leave that terrible loft, Kitty was already gone, and Rachel had moved in with Jesse.”

“Holy shit, we lived together?” Kurt asks in shock.

“Kurt, do you really think you lived in that place for years? You had no walls. Kitty and Rachel certainly did not appreciate it.”

Kurt nods awkwardly. He knows what Adam is implying and he doesn’t know how to feel about it. So, he puts the topic back on track.

“Wow, we truly were serious. What changed?”

“Blaine arrived in the city.”

“Oh.”

He should’ve seen that coming.

“I watched the man who I loved fall in love with someone else. It still managed to last for two more years, but when you broke up with me to be with Blaine, we both knew it was a long time coming.”

“Did I cheat on you?” Kurt interrupts.

“Oh no!” Adam reassures quickly, “The reason you broke up with me was because you did not want to cheat. You’ve always been so awfully noble, Kurt Hummel. You wanted to do it the right way. I mean, it was a genuinely messy and terrible break-up, despite it being predictable. Stuff was thrown, words were said, there was a lot of crying and you left the apartment without taking your stuff. Kitty came to pick it up later.”

“Why was it so predictable, yet so messy?”

Adam shrugs half-heartedly. “I did not want to let go. My mind knew that you were in love with Blaine, but my heart did not accept. Again, words were said. Words that I later regretted, but they were said and I think it’s best if I don’t repeat them. So we screamed, we cried, we fought and you left. I thought I’d never see you again and after a while, I accepted it. I was in love with you and to the core, love means that you want the other to be happy.”

Kurt studies Adam’s face for a sign of heartbreak or agony, but it isn’t there. Adam has a more melancholic look on his face, but he doesn’t seem bitter.

“So you moved on,” Kurt states. It’s not a question, it’s a matter of fact.

Adam nods. “I did. I fell out of love with you, went back to school, and fell in love with this pathetic asshole in my class.”

“You went back to NYADA?”

Adam has a weird look on his face, as if Kurt’s asking something ridiculous.

“Not everyone can be on Broadway by their thirties, Kurt. I reschooled and I decided to study business and administration. That’s how we met again. Sebastian majored in communications and PR. He and Blaine ran into each other again and they talked it out, so when Blaine’s music career was taking off, he enlisted Sebastian. Sebastian dragged me along. You should’ve seen the look on Blaine’s face when Sebastian introduced me as ‘my boyfriend, Adam, who’s the best administrator ever and he also has a great ass’.”

Kurt barks out a laugh. He only just met Sebastian, but that does sound like him.

“It must’ve been really awkward.”

“Oh, definitely! We started a-” Adam coughs “-professional relation, but we all became friends. When it became clear that the two of us were better of with Blaine and Sebastian, it all went well. Our friendship between the four of us is based on mutual trust and that’s really helped.”

“Hm,” is all that Kurt can say.

He likes Adam, but probably as a friend only. The two of them make their way back to Kurt and Blaine’s apartment and Adam’s talking about how their break-up has become an inside joke in the group and Kurt feels content.

It’s the same feeling that he got with Mae. He’d like to remember this weird story on his own, but for now, he’s fine with the idea of becoming friends all over again.

They arrive back home and Sebastian hurls himself across the room to get his cookie. Everyone laughs and Kurt sits down next to Blaine and he cuddles closer. Mae and Wes share their cookies and Adam is joking with Sebastian.

The connection isn’t there yet, but Kurt is sure it’ll be there.