Leaf smiled and shook his head at the closing door. That was Julien in a nutshell. He liked the guy a lot, and the flirting felt like the norm with him. There were also no illusions that Leaf would ever seriously flirt back, let alone do more than that. It was all harmless fun, and they both knew it.
“Such pretty babies you have,” Leaf cooed at the momma dog and patted her white head. “I hope your white pups can hear like you do. They don’t need anything else to mess with their chances of finding a forever home, right?”
Chapter Four
FOR SOMEreason Dev didn’t feel like telling Angel about his new… well, crush. Seth was Angel’s mentor, but Angel rarely spoke about him and… Dev chickened out. Part of him insisted it was because he wanted to keep the tiny glow in his chest secret for the moment. Then there was the fact that Angel was pissed off at Dev for a couple of days, one of which included a package from Anaheim from a protective and equally pissed-off mother.
While Dev worked over the weekend, his mind kept wandering to certain slate-gray eyes that seemed to somehow sparkle every time Seth laughed. Dev would’ve given his left nut to be the guy who made Seth laugh from that moment on.
He didn’t want to seem overly eager, so he only sent a message—Uh-oh, I guess I’m in trouble now—with a photo of the package from their mother attached. He got back a text with a smiley emoji and the wordsHide, hide quickly. It made him laugh, and when Angel grumpily asked him who was texting, he brushed it off and went back into his room.
On Monday hereallywanted to send Seth a message to ask him for lunch, but he didn’t. For whatever reason. He was scared to meet Seth again—he knew that. It even flared his anxiety a little to know that nobody could be as fascinating, gorgeous, and perfect. That he’d somehow made Seth up into something he wasn’t. He’d had to, right?
On Tuesday morning, when he got a message asking if he would be free for lunch that day, Dev might’ve made an embarrassing squeaking sound as he invited Seth over for lunch at his and Angel’s house.
Sure. Text me the address and I’ll be there at midday? :)
Angel was feeling a bit better, thanks to their mom’s package, so he’d gone off to some museum thing somewhere and wouldn’t be home until later. It was only ten, but Dev decided to go not quite all out, but nearly all out, and dashed to the grocery store closest to their house.
He carried home two bags of groceries and set to prep some omelets and homemade breakfast buns. He chopped peppers, mushrooms, and tomatoes, made dough, and once it had risen enough, put the buns in the oven so they’d be ready just after twelve. When a car hummed in the driveway, he couldn’t help the butterflies having a rave in his stomach.
The doorbell rang when he was a few steps away from it, so he slowed down and waited for a couple of extra seconds—all he could in his excitement—before opening the door.
“Hi!” he said brightly, feeling relieved at the matching grin on Seth’s gorgeous face.
“Hello,” Seth replied, and thrust a bottle of good orange juice at Dev. “Here. If it was dinner, I would’ve brought wine, but….”
Dev took the bottle and chuckled. “Yeah, I get how that would’ve looked. Please come in.” He closed the door behind Seth, who was taking the entryway in.
“This is a very nice house,” he commented as he hung his coat on the row of pegs by the door.
“Thank you. No need to take your shoes off,” Dev said, and walked quickly to the kitchen when the oven pinged. “I prepped stuff for lunch,” he said while pulling the tray out of the oven and setting it down on the counter.
Seth looked a bit stunned when Dev turned around to see why he was so quiet. “You made bread?”
“Yeah. I like fresh breakfast buns for lunch. Or any meal, really. These are super easy to make too.”
“I like freshly baked bread as much as anyone—nobody has just really ever baked me some,” Seth explained, fidgeting in a way that looked endearing to Dev.
“So, omelets okay?” Dev decided not to comment on the baking-for-Seth thing. He didn’t bake often at all, but when he did, it was alwaysforsomeone.
“Sounds good to me. Need help?” Seth came closer to inspect the situation.
“If you take out plates and glasses and such, and tell me the ratio of things you want on yours, I’ll whip these up in no time,” Dev said, threw him a smile over his shoulder, and pointed at the correct cabinet.
“Okay, I can do that.”
For the next fifteen minutes, they assembled their lunches and finally retreated to the breakfast nook under the largest kitchen window to eat.
“So, dig in.” Dev gestured at everything and buttered a bun for himself. The first bite was always the best, and he couldn’t quite contain the nearly pornographic sound that escaped his lips. When he opened his eyes, he could see Seth concentrated on his omelet with a light flush on his face.
“What have you been working on?” Seth asked, peering at Dev with genuine interest.
“Oh, well this is supersecret, so no telling anyone,” Dev began, and Seth did the zipping-his-lips gesture, smiling. “My dad has me working on testing parts of this game for Nemo Gaming. It’s a Supersecret Project, also known as SSP”—that got him a grin while Seth grabbed a bun for himself—“and it’s supposedly being revealed at the end of the year at this gaming convention. It’s huge, because it’s the first new game they’ve released in five years.”
Seth frowned in confusion. “Wait, I thought they’re gigantic?”
“Oh, they are. It’s just that their older games are mostly MMORPGS—massive multiplayer online role-playing games—so they’ve been developing extra content for those. They’re all hugely popular and successful, but times are changing and they need new things to pull in more people.”
