“Nope.”
Jared sat at the table and rested his elbows on it. “Smells good.”
“You might not guess it from the contents of my fridge, but Icancook.”
“But you don’t often?”
Kyrone shook his head. “I’m nearly always running late for something. If it’s not a shift at Heaven and Hell, it’s a lecture. I eat a lot of sandwiches, breakfast bars, and ready meals.”
Jared straightened his back a little. “A lecture?”
“At uni.”
“I didn’t realise you were a student.” Not that he’d asked if Kyrone did anything other than work as a pole dancer and stripper. It hadn’t exactly occurred to him while he’d been seeking out hot, noisy sexy.
“Mature student, thank you very much.” Kyrone winked at Jared over his shoulder.
That figured. Although Jared didn’t know exactly how old Kyrone was, he knew he was older than twenty-two.
“Is that why you work at Heaven and Hell?” he asked. “To pay your way through university?”
Kyrone nodded. “Yeah, and I’m still up to my eyeballs in debt with student loans to cover the course fees.”
Jared winced. His parents had been wealthy enough to pay his course fees when he’d been at university. Not that it had mattered, because the accident meant he’d never completed his degree despite their assertions that he should go back and pick up his course again. Not doing so made him feel ungrateful and undeserving of the good start in life that he’d clearly had.
“Do your parents help?” he asked.
“My dad’s dead,” Kyrone said, hunching his shoulders slightly. “And Mum can’t afford to.”
“I’m sorry.”
“He’s been gone a few years.” There was a stiffness to Kyrone’s words that made Jared want to go and embrace him.
“I’m sorry,” he repeated stupidly.
Kyrone shrugged and started to plate up the food he’d made.
“What are you studying?” Jared asked as Kyrone sat down beside him. He stared down at the plate of food he’d been given as he waited for Kyrone to respond. “This looks great.”
Kyrone had made scrambled eggs with spinach on toast, with grilled avocado on the side.
“The avocado is drizzled with lemon juice,” Kyrone said. “Apparently it tastes nice like that.”
Jared raised his eyebrows.
“Google rocks,” Kyrone said with a smug smile. “Tuck in.”
Jared’s stomach was quick to remind him how hungry he was, so he wasted no time in sampling everything on the plate. “This is good,” he said around a mouthful of food.
Kyrone laughed at him. “Didn’t your parents ever teach you good table manners?”
Jared dropped his stare.
“I’m kidding!” He jostled Jared’s knee with his own.
“You didn’t answer my question…” Jared said, changing the subject. “About what you’re studying at uni.”
“Economics,” Kyrone replied without any excitement in his voice.
