“What were you using this for?” James asked, still flipping. “Business?”
“Mostly, though there’s probably a hastily scrawled itinerary in there for my leisure time in France as well.” Cassian walked over to James’s table and rapped his fingertips twice on the surface. “Now, Iassumethat you’d prefer to have some time to yourself to writewithout me looking over your shoulder. How do you like your brandy?”
“Are you asking me if I like itneat, which is clearly thecorrectway to enjoy the beverage, or if I like to ruin it with some ice?” James asked. Cassian lifted his eyebrows in response. Smirking, James said, “Ice, please.”
Cassian flicked his eyes to the ceiling and let out a loud sigh. James chuckled.
“Alright, neat,” he said. “If that’ll please you more. I’m not picky.”
“Itwillplease me more,” Cassian confirmed before turning to leave. “I’ll be back shortly. I hope to see some progress when I return.”
James continued to smile to himself as he leafed through the notebook. Finally, he found a mostly blank page. On it, there was only one thing written.
Can the pirate be named Frederick?
Chuckling to himself, James screwed up his face in confusion and shook his head. Frederick? What a strange thing. James would have to ask Cassian about it when he came back.
Heat still clinging to his cheeks, James started the story. Over the next fifteen or so minutes, he wrote as fast as he could while still keeping his handwriting legible. Normally, he would have hated to rewrite something that he had written but lost, preferring instead to have scrapped the entire story for something fresh and new, but he found that he wasn’t feeling so bothered to be rewriting the first scene now since it was for Cassian. Besides that, his second and third scenes had only consisted of the barely readable chicken scratch that he’d scribbled in his notebook the previous evening on the promenade. He’d have had to rewrite those regardless.
Soon enough, Cassian returned with two snifters. He took a seat next to James at the table, handing James his brandy the moment he was settled. Moving his wrist in small circles, James swirled the brown liquid around a few times and then smelled it. Cassian crooked an eyebrow, smiling a bemused smile. Finally, James took a sip. It was bitter, but subtly sweet, too.
“Oh, look, you waited onmethis time,” James said playfully.
Cassian scrunched up his nose. “Bite your tongue. I only brought you the brandy because I was fetching some for myself. I nearly missed catching someone to serve me in the Smoking Room, too.”
“Everything is closing for the night,” James said as Cassian tossed some of his brandy back.
Cassian lowered his snifter and frowned into it.
“Perhaps I should have ordered more than this, then,” he said.
James moved his snifter closer to Cassian.
“You can have mine, if you want.”
Cassian smiled warmly. “I’ll be fine, James. But I like that you offered.”
“I’d never not offer,” James said, smiling back. “For you, at least.”
Immediately, Cassian’s cheeks began to flush. James’s stomach fluttered from the sight. Cassian looked so... so beautiful like that, with his cheeks pink. Vulnerable, even.
“Yes, well, that better only be for me,” he said.
James let out a half-laugh. Vulnerable, maybe, but Cassian was never not himself.
“Of course,” James said sweetly.
Cassian’s cheeks became even rosier, their shade practically matching the carpet, and he threw back the rest of his brandy in one fast motion. Afterward, he set his snifter next to James’s, leaving his hand lingering there, close enough to hold. If only sucha thing was possible. Instead, James brushed their fingers together, and his own face began to warm, his skin starting to tingle, too. He only left it there for a couple of wonderful, risky seconds before pulling it back.
“I need you to tell me something,” James said, picking his snifter up again.
After enjoying one more swig of brandy, he moved the notebook closer to Cassian and then pointed to the line that Cassian had written.
“Why Frederick?” he asked.
“Ah, well, because it’s my confirmation name. In a way.”
“You’re Catholic?”
