Darcy nodded and added, “Mostly dead is slightly alive.”
“I do not mean to pry, but you don’t by any chance happen to have six fingers on your right hand?”
"Life is pain, Highness.Anyone who says differently is selling something."
“We should totally watch the movie,” Charma suggested.
“As you wish.”
“Oh, good one!”
“How about when we’re ready for supper?”Darcy was enjoying playing Mario Carts.
“That sounds great.After all, now that I’ve got the game, I need to beat you a few more times.”
“Oh, it’s on.”Darcy queued up the next race.
Charma had no idea how long they raced each other, but it was almost dark by the time they came up for breath.He needed a pee break, and he was gagging for more water.“I think I’m done,” he noted as he came in second and Darcy hit third.They’d been beating on each other badly enough with the extras that one of the computer players had sailed by him at the last second to move them both down the leaderboard.
“Yeah.”Darcy blinked as he looked around.“Wow, it’s dark already.”He got up and turned on a floor lamp in the corner of the room, which lit the place up nicely.“The overhead feels like you’re being interrogated.”
Charma laughed as he stood and stretched.“You know you could probably buy a lower wattage bulb.”
“Don’t baffle me with your logic.”
That got more laughter out of him, which increased his need to pee like tenfold.“I’ll be right back.”He took off down the hall and did his business, sighing with relief as his bladder emptied.Gaming really did suck you in and make you unaware of anything around you—including the passage of time and the needs of the bladder.
Darcy was waiting at the door when he opened it.“Sorry, I gotta go too.”
They traded places, and Charma headed for the kitchen for more water.He detoured back to the coffee table to grab their glasses and noted that Darcy had left out a take-out flyer for a Thai restaurant, which he assumed was for him to check out.He filled their water glasses up first, drinking about half of his right there at the sink and then topping it up again.Then he brought the glasses back to the coffee table and grabbed the take-out menu as he sat.
Darcy had mentioned Pad Thai, and they had several on the menu, but he was more interested in the panang curry.And maybe they could go halfsies on a Tom Yum soup to start with or some green papaya salad.He checked out the prices—maybe they could do both.Of course, he wasn’t paying Darcy for his half until he got back to his place.At least he hadn’t brought his wallet or his phone with him to the beach, so nothing had been stolen.
He also loved spring rolls and Thai dessert… maybe next time, when he actually had the ability to split the bill immediately instead of having to wait until he got back to his place.Now that he was thinking about it, had it been a good idea to agree to stay even longer without his phone?He worried his lower lip.
“Everything okay?”Darcy asked from right next to him, making Charma jump.
“Sorry!I didn’t hear you come back.”
“Yeah, you seemed pretty far away.Which was why I asked if everything was okay?”
Charma shrugged.“There’s nothing wrong per se—I just realized that my wallet is back at home, so I can’t pay my half for dinner until I go home and get it.And it doesn’t seem fair to ask you to pay for dinner yourself until then.”
“Well, I did get paid recently so I can afford to wait until tomorrow for you to pay me your half.But I do need to go for groceries tomorrow, so I can’t really wait longer than that,” Darcy admitted.
“You could come home with me tomorrow so we can square up asap?”
Darcy’s face brightened up.“That works.I’m not really ready for you to go home yet.”
“Yeah, me either,” Charma admitted.
Darcy’s smile widened.“Is it wrong that it feels like I’ve known you for more than twelve hours?”
He shrugged.He didn’t know if it was wrong or right or what, but he did feel the same way.“They’ve been an eventful less than twelve hours.”
“True that.I guess that makes it make more sense.”
“Does it need to make sense?”He was a shifter for goddess’s sake; magic didn’t make sense, not true magic.It just was.
