“Together? All three of you?”
“Unfortunately.”
Gwen kissed her teeth and shook her head. “You didn’t tell me you were working a case with him. How did you manage that?”
Taking the trays from Gwen, Oliver laid them on the unused table and began the tale of Herman Judd’s death and discovery. Between bites of his cheese sandwich, Oliver told his best friend about everything that happened at the Institute for the Betterment of the Soul and after. As soon as he finished, Gwen’s brown eyes narrowed behind her glasses.
“You are exceedingly unlucky, Oliver Barlow. At least Felipe is willing to be a buffer between you two. I’m sure that’s helped.”
It did, though it didn’t take the sting out of Ansley’s barbs. Oliver filled and doctored up two cups of coffee, all the while wishing Felipe would return. Setting the cup in front of his best friend, Oliver realized the knot that had been lodged in his chest all week had loosened. He missed afternoon coffees, he missed spending time every day with Gwen, and he hoped she knew how much he appreciated her being in his life for so long.
His face must have given him away because Gwen reached across the table and laid her hand on top of his, but her loving look turned into a cat-like grin as she said, “I hope you know I would pay good money to see you at the Green Daisy.”
Oliver snorted into his coffee and rolled his eyes. “I have been to a club like that before, you know. I mean, I didn’t like it, but this is for work. I don’t need to pretend to have fun and mean it.”
Before Gwen could respond, the laboratory door opened, and Felipe stepped inside. The tether tightened around Oliver’s heart at seeing his partner for the first time all day. Sometimes he forgot how beautiful he was, but when Felipe stood framed in the doorway with his russet suit bringing out the warm notes of his skin and his dark brown curls catching the light, Oliver couldn’t imagine how he had gotten so lucky as to have him at his side. A tired smile crossed Felipe’s lips as Oliver gestured toward the uncovered tray waiting for him. Dark circles rimmed his eyes, and the way Felipe quickly took the tray and sank beside Oliver made him think he was hiding his hand tremor. Oliver hadn’t noticed Felipe’s symptoms as often, but he wasn’t sure if that was because they weren’t occurring or because Felipe had gotten better at hiding them. Either way, the sandwich piled with roast beef would help. The needy noise Felipe stifled as he bit into it went straight to Oliver’s groin, but he hid the redness in his cheeks by filling Felipe’s cup at the percolator.
“How did it go with Ansley?”
“It was fine,” Felipe replied around his food. “He was surprised you didn’t come but didn’t give me a hard time about it. I’ll go over everything with you later in more detail. The general idea is that we’re going to show up at the club, get the lay of the land, and then find Joe. I’m assuming he’ll be upstairs in one of the private rooms.”
“Are you all going to go up?” Gwen asked, giving Oliver the eye over Felipe’s shoulder as he stirred sugar into his coffee.
“Depends. I would like to have more than one of us there to ask him questions and take notes, but if there’s someone managing it, that might be more difficult. I guess I could always say my friends like to watch.”
Oliver choked as Gwen laughed at the look of horror on his face. When he turned, he found Felipe biting back a smile.
“You’re both menaces, you know that?” Sitting beside him with a scoff, Oliver handed Felipe his drink. Felipe gave him a good-natured nudge and a kiss on the cheek for his troubles. “Anything else interesting happen? You were gone for a while.”
“I spent almost two hours in the archives. Big surprise, Joe probably isn’t his real name. If he did work here in the eighties, I couldn’t find any mention of anyone being fired named Joe or Joseph who was an airmancer.”
“I could ask around. Do you know what department he was in?” Gwen asked.
“No, though I don’t think he was an investigator, or I would remember him.”
“I’ll ask; it couldn’t hurt. Did I tell you about Mr. Turpin’s latest kerfuffle?”
Oliver listened rapt as Gwen told them about the head librarian’s ongoing feud with one of the plantmancers over a missing book.
“She’s adamant she returned it, but Turpin has had us check every shelf and nook for it. It’s not there. She blames us for being sloppy. He thinks she’s trying to pull a fast one and keep the book, which apparently is pretty rare and valuable, so now, she isn’t allowed to borrow more books until it’s found. She has been expressing her displeasure at having her research stymied by sneaking into the library and growing things. Poor Bennett had to drag Theo down from the greenhouses to help him hack through a shelf with a mangrove tree growing over it. I hope to god she finds the book in her room and sneaks it back onto a cart because I am tired of dealing with poorly behaved old people.” Glancing at the clock over the door, Gwen released a heavy sigh. “I should go back before Turpin gets testy. I will let you know if I find anything about your airmancer, and have fun at the Green Daisy tonight.”
“You know I won’t.”
“I know,” she said with a wink as she shut the door behind her.
Gathering their cups and plates into one pile, Oliver watched Felipe from the corner of his eye as he propped his head up on his arm and stared at his papers. Despite eating, he still looked haggard. Felipe had gotten up early to spare Oliver the stress of dealing with Ansley when he could have used the rest as well, and that meant more to Oliver than he could know. Slipping behind Felipe, Oliver wrapped his arms tightly around him. A contented smile crossed Felipe’s lips as he held onto Oliver and leaned back against him with his eyes shut.
“You all right?”
“Yeah, just tired. I’ll be fine. Did you enjoy your quiet morning?”
“I did, thank you. You certainly didn’t have to deal with Ansley on your own, but I appreciate it and being able to catch up on evidence testing.” Kissing the top of Felipe’s head, Oliver returned to the dishes and added, “You got a letter from Teresa. I left it on the side table.”
“Thank you. Here, let me take those back down to the kitchen for you. I thought maybe when you’re done today, we could do a little sparring. Just an hour or so to practice and kill time.”
Oliver could think of few things he wanted to do less than practice his clumsy swordsmanship in front of other people. By the time the remaining tests were done and the equipment cleaned, the training rooms would be full and smelly. “You’re tired, and you want to spar?”
“Sometimes moving around helps me wake up,” Felipe replied, hefting the tray of dishes. “Plus, my current student is very handsome, especially when he’s a little disheveled and sweaty.”
