“I wouldn’t want that.At all,” Darcy said quietly.
“Yeah.Sorry, I didn’t mean to get all serious on you.”
“No, you just told me it’s not a joking matter and that’s totally fair.”
“Good deal.We can move on now, eh?”Charma wanted to get back to the easy vibes they had going with each other.
“Yep, sounds good.So what are we Netflixing?Is that a word?”Darcy asked.
“It is now!”Charma was all about making things up if he needed to.
Darcy laughed for him, and Charma beamed back at him, then started scrolling through the icons on the Netflix screen.
“Squid Games?”He frowned.He’d seen that, but this was something different.
“Oh, that was brutal.I’m not against rewatching shows, but I don’t need to see that again.”
“This isn’t the original show, though.”Charma hit the more info button.“It looks like it’s an actual game based on the show.”
“Huh.”Darcy scanned the blurb info as well.“Okay, I have to admit, I’m curious as to how they’ve translated the show into an actual game.I mean, the show is about a game, but you die when you’re out.Obviously, they’re not doing that on this show, right?”
“Not unless we’ve stepped into some alternate universe.”
“Well, this I’m willing to check out.”
“Cool.”Charma hit ‘play episode’ and the show started.
“It’s still pretty brutal,” Darcy noted after the first game sent a bunch of people home, the departing contestants keeling over and playing dead.
“Except nobody is actually dead.”
“Yeah, you’re not wrong.”
The doorbell rang, and Darcy jumped up to go to the door.Charma pulled the blanket around his shoulders, just making sure he wasn’t flashing anything to the delivery person should they glance in past Darcy.
In the end, he didn’t even see the person, Darcy grabbing the bag and saying ‘thank you,’ all without opening the door the whole way.He put the food on the coffee table and headed for the kitchen.
“I’ll grab us some forks as well as the Cokes.”
“Sounds good.”Charma opened the bag, the scent of the spices hitting him in the face, making his stomach growl.“It smells amazing.”He pulled the containers out of the bag, putting his curry in front of where he was sitting, the pad thai in front of Darcy’s spot and the spring rolls between them.Now that the food was here, he found he was starving.The lasagna had been good and filling, but it had been quite a while ago now.
“I should have ordered us a dessert, too,” Darcy noted as he came back.“My stomach feels like a gaping hole.”
“Have you got cereal?”Charma asked.
Darcy gave him a frown.“Cereal?Sure.Why?”
“I find it makes a great dessert, or at least stomach filler when there’s nothing else.”
“I bet you’re right.I tend to do ramen noodles when I’m needing something extra.Especially as we have curry and pad thai sauce already—it would add a little flavor to the ramen noodles.”
“That’s a neat idea!”
“I know.And you can still get the cheap ramen at four for a buck twenty-five at the dollar stores.”
“I know!Been there, done that.”Living on his own sucked, especially when he was eating plain noodles for a week, which had happened, and knowing that if he was home he’d be enjoying all sorts of goodies.
Darcy opened the lid on the dipping sauce and grabbed a spring roll.He dipped the side in and took a bite, the vegetables crunching loudly.“Mmm.Oh, they’re good tonight.”
