“Well, excuse me, honey, but you are not toasting to all of us in general,” Mike said as he came into the kitchen.“Not that I can see a reason why you’re drinking instead of carrying the food in.”He stacked serving plates onto his arms like a waiter.
“I’m making sure our guest likes the wine, Mike.”Corvin took a plate with a few sliced cucumbers.“And see?I’m helping.”
Mike groaned and shook his head, but the way he was smiling told Theo how in love he was.
“I can help,” Theo said, moving to put his glass down.
“Help by telling me whether you like the wine,” Corvin said as Mike headed off with the food.Corvin put the cucumbers back down.
Theo shrugged and took a sip.He wasn’t really much of a drinker and lacked the developed taste buds necessary to judge the wine, but it was nice enough.It tasted of hot summer evenings…and freedom.
“I like it.”
Corvin grinned.“Good.So how’d you two meet?Did he compel you so he could drink your blood?Then the compulsion didn’t really take because you fell in love?And you couldn’t sleep and had to seek him out, wandering all over New Elvenswood every night until someone tried to mug you, and then Peter showed up and saved you?Because he couldn’t get you out of his head either?”
“That’s, uhm…not too far from the truth, I guess.He ran into me at the university library.”
“Oh!I work there!In the archives, mostly.Are you a student?”
“English Lit and Film Studies.”
Corvin’s eyes widened in surprised pleasure.“Awesome!We need to get lunch together sometime.Exchange all the goss.”Corvin leaned in.“There are stories I can tell you about Peter…”
“Uhm, sure,” Theo said as Corvin started dragging him to the living room while Mike made a second run to move all the food over.
“Couldn’t even remember those cucumbers, could you?”Mike stopped Corvin by pulling him forward and into a kiss by the shirt.
“I should make a lewd remark about how I only care about your cucumber, but since we have company, I won’t,” Corvin said.
Theo watched them bask in each other’s gaze.It was…different from how it had been before when he’d seen couples happy.I have this too now.I’m not longing for it anymore, I’m just happy.
In the living room, Peter sat on the couch, a drink of what looked like scotch in his hand and a smile playing around the corners of his lips.Theo sat down next to him.
Corvin sauntered in and sat on the two-seater opposite.“Mike said you had a bit of trouble with an ex as well.The two of you should join a club or something.”
“What?”Theo asked.
Mike brought in the last of the plates and set them on the table.Theo found himself salivating a bit over the salads and the flaky pastry stuffed with something that smelled delicious.
The siren cleared his throat.“Well, I didn’t tell you the whole story, Theo, but I was dating a necromancer for while—”
“And I told Michael that was a bad idea,” Peter said.
Mike rolled his eyes.“Well, yeah.It was.What I didn’t mention was that Corvin and I had been dating for about less than a year when my ex decided he wanted me back.”
“Dead or alive,” Corvin added.He was putting food on a plate, and he gestured to ask what all Theo wanted, then handed it to him.
“I suggest you never spend prolonged periods of time with or near necromancers, Theodore.They have trouble understanding that death has boundaries,” Peter said.
“What’s that mean?”Theo bit into the stuffed pastry.Spinach and tomatoes, it turned out, and decidedly delish.
Mike and Corvin started eating as well, but Corvin took the time to answer between bites.“Means they are apparently a homicidal bunch.Cannot recommend.Also, zombies.Fun in the movies, but so disgusting in real life.”
Theo stopped chewing and looked at Corvin.“You had…a zombie apocalypse?”he said around a mouthful of food.
“You didn’t tell him the whole story?”Mike asked Peter.
Peter shrugged.“What was there to tell?Your ex raised a few corpses, made a few zombies, and sent them after us when the actual objective was to get away from skyclad Wiccans.”
