Harlow made a choking noise.
Foxx rolled his eyes. “No…he realized I liked men.”
“Ah…right. I had assumed it would be something you neither acknowledged back then, nor told anyone about, considering it was likely a death sentence.”
“Ahh, yes… As my bright, bubbly personality definitely screams…straight. I, of course, hid it soo easily back then, because all of me just screams lover of tits and vaginas. No one wouldeverhave a clue!” Foxx deadpanned.
Wes smiled. “I take it there was less telling, and more guessing on his part.”
“The man was a twat, but he wasn’t stupid.” His nose wrinkled and he quickly corrected himself. “No, he was stupid, but he wasn’t THAT stupid.” Foxx glanced at the clock and burst to his feet. “Oh, what do you know, time's up! Feel free to take another brownie on your way out. I need to go and reorganize my yarn, so unfortunately, I can’t walk you to the door. See you next time, bye!” Foxx awkwardly waved and scurried the fuck away.
Harlow snorted,smirking as he heard the door of Foxx’s craft room open and then slam shut. “Good luck with that.” He chuckled, eyeing Wes.
The human sighed. “You were supposed to be the difficult one.”
His smirk widened. “Yes, about that… I ain’t got nothing on him. My issue is that I feel nothing. Whereas, his is that he pretends nothing happened so he can avoid feeling it all. You got all he was willing to say right now, without something prompting him to say more. And usually there is something prompting him when he talks to me about things. Mostly things come out when he feels he owes people an explanation after they witness some reaction of his.”
“Is all you know of him and his past due to these explanations?”
“No. I have asked before if he’d like to talk about it. And to be clear, I never forced him to tell me anything. Nor will I tell you what I have seen or what he has told me.”
“Nor do I expect you to. It would be a betrayal of his trust. Which would get neither of us what we want—to get him help.”
Harlow crossed his arms and ignored his stitches pulling. “Then let me just be extra clear. Next time, he may not tell you any more than he told you today, he may say more, but whatever he does tell you will have to be enough. I asked him to see you because I’m hoping it will help. But I will end all contact, job be damned, if you ever try to force him or trick him into telling you something he doesn’t want to.”
“As I told him, this won’t work unless he talks to me willingly. I can’t help him unless he can trust me enough to know that what I am telling him, or rather guiding him towards, when it comes to coping mechanisms and dealing with repressed trauma, isn’t me trying to harm him.”
“As long as it’s clear, doc. Now…shoo.” Harlow waved him away. “And you can take ONE more brownie. Don’t even think about getting greedy, the rest of those are mine.”
Wes chuckled. “I see you no longer care enough to hold back.”
“Even less so now that I know it was all fucking pointless.” He glared, and found himself grabbing the plate, holding it safely to his chest. “You know what, you don’t even get one more. Thanks sooo much for making me AND Foxx have the realization that I’ve NEVER gained an ounce of fucking fat in my life.” He pointed towards the entrance hallway. “Leave.”
The human burst into laughter, but stood and left.
He groaned. Not even an ounce?! Fucking hell, part of his life was a lie…
Well…most of his life was a lie. Hard to be fucking real when for years and years you murdered people, that others hadn’teven known existed, for a living. Sighing, he set the plate on the coffee table and grabbed a brownie, popping it into his mouth with a moan. “Ohh, so many brownies…cookies and more…wasted!”
The homemade sweets alone that Foxx had offered in the months that he’d lived here, that he’d passed up on!? Pizza…so much pizza wasted…
Harlow groaned again and slowly flopped over on the couch onto his stomach. “Fucking hell…”
Harlow eyed the bar for the cable pulldown and took a deep breath before grabbing it. Taking another breath, he…pulled down. Instead of moving slowly as he intended, the weights slammed into the thick metal rod that was holding the pulley system. The rod, pulley system and all, broke off, the rope snapping. While most of the weights clanged safely to the floor, the top one seemingly got caught on the rope, went flying behind him with the end of the rod.
Harlow winced at the sound of a crash and something shattering. With the bar still in his hand, now no longer attached to anything…he slowly turned around. Some were looking at him with what may have been pity… Others were…staring at the weight that was embedded in the wall, where a mirror used to be…
Eyeing just part of the damage, he sighed. “Ah…shit…” That…was going to cost him…
Sittingwith his legs crossed on the couch, the TV playing some sowing competition but muted, Foxx held on tightly to Harlow’s new leather jacket, a threaded needle in his other hand. Harlow stood there in front of him, hand gripping the other end of the jacket. A jacket the dhampir had just tried to tug from his hold. Harlow, honestly…looked hot. But then, he’d just come back from the gym, so… T-shirt and shorts—yum.
“Have…a nice work out?”
“I broke something, so no,” Harlow growled. “What…the ever-loving fuck are you doing, Foxx?”
“Uh…a…new hobby?”
“A HOBBY!?!” the dhampir cried, before grounding out, “Give. Me. My. Jacket!”
