Being close to Chad simultaneously closed a wound and sliced it open again.
It wasn’t once, it was a thousand times with every lingering look, and small smile.
It hurt and it soothed and not for the first time Romeo cursed Chad making him feel what he had never before.Anger was simple, and it was so easy to retreat into it and snap at Chad, but he exhaled a slow breath and attempted to be civil.
“Some might think so.”
Chad rolled his eyes.“Well, they are.Obviously, you prefer magpies.”
Romeo put his focus firmly on Chad, hiking one of his eyebrows.
“The cushions, the plates,” Chad explained.“There’s a magpie pen in the other room.”
He crossed the kitchen, opening a cupboard he grabbed a glass then filled it at the tap.
“What’s with the magpies?”Chad muttered beneath his breath.
“I told you about the magpie.”
“Amnesia, remember?”Chad paused with the glass against his lip.He lowered it.“Magpie?Notmagpies?”
“Magpie,” Romeo confirmed, but offered nothing else.
Chad waited, but when it became clear Romeo was done talking, he drank his water, content to watch the birds.
Romeo missed the magpies.
He missed his Chad more.
So much more.
“So ...we’re almost out of food.”
“I’ll sort it,” Romeo replied.
“You’ll sort it?”
“I do the shopping online using your card.The company has instructions to deliver to the front door then leave.Other companies only deliver to the shed at the beginning of the track road.They don’t want to risk their cars breaking down,” Romeo sipped his water, “That could have unfortunate consequences for them...”
“That doesn’t fit the compromise.”
“What you don’t know can’t hurt you.”
Chad sighed.“I actually think it can.”
He had a point.Romeo didn’t know why Chad had tried to kill himself, and that hurt worse than any pain he’d experienced before.
“Did you?”
Romeo narrowed his eyes.“Did I what?”
“Ever ...you know, hurt one of the delivery drivers.”
“By hurt you mean kill, and no, I haven’t.I agreed to the compromise.I don’t break my promises unlike some.”Romeo couldn’t help himself, and he liked the way Chad recoiled then curled in on himself whenever he brought up the broken promise.
Chad hung his head.Romeo glimpsed him from the corner of his eye, then slumped.
“I’ll order the food now.If we pay extra, it’ll come today.”
