"I-" he spoke, freezing momentarily. "I'd.. Just a coffee for me, please."
Almost as soon as he'd gone, the doors opened. Xeno turned to see Doctor Aruda, tailed by Dr. Carmazan and Mr. Crossley. She waved at them and began walking over, clearly pretending not
to notice their shocked faces. "Hello everyone." She said, sitting down.
It was Jess that broke the silence. "Okay, I have to ask, what is going on here?" She gestured to Crossley. "This is your "Mystery man"? And you," her focus shifted to Carmazan. "I thought you hated each-other. I thought you all hated each-other, actually."
"I see your time back at university hasn't taught you tact." Aruda teased. "But yes, it's a long story. Essentially, Mr. Crossley and I started talking to each-other again immediately after Ms. Pepper's.. leaving of the museum. Especially since the department merge, we've realised we have a lot in common."
"What about Doctor Carmazan?" Xeno asked, turning to face her. He still didn't know where they stood- the last time they'd seen one-another was at her retirement party, where he'd seenher look at him, terrified, when he'd gotten promoted. Of course, now he knew why, but even that complicated matters further.
"Well, I can answer that." Carmazan locked eyes with him, immediately turning his blood to ice. She was still terrifying, even when she had no real power over him. "Kiara told me over email she'd terminated my contract with Ms. Pepper, and I was overjoyed. That's when we started discussing things. There was a lot to cover, so we got to talking for a while. After some convincing, she told me I should see you all again, which led to this." She turned to Aruda. "To be honest, I missed us being friends."
"Right," Jess turned to face them. "You're both officially the worst information gatherers I've ever seen. How could you not have told me about this?"
"I didn't notice, I swear!" Haiden protested, holding up his hands.
As the afternoon progressed, Xeno saw sides of Crossley and Carmazan he'd never thought possible. Conversation flowed freely, with no-one even bringing up the sabotages, the interviews, or Ms. Pepper herself. It seemed, as the dandelion hues of light in the windows shifted to marigold, that all the grievances of the past four months had passed them like water under a bridge.
The time to leave came faster than he had expected. Everyone left with the plan to make the bakery get-together a regular thing, and they filed out together at five o'clock, when the bakery closed, leaving only the pair together, alone in the bakery. "Are you ready to go home?" Haiden asked, putting a pastry into a to-go bag.
"Not yet." he replied, catching his father's eye from across the room. "There's one thing we haven't done yet. Are you ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be." he responded, standing up straight and taking a deep breath. It felt like hours before Xeno's father made his way over to them.
"Was everything all right?" He asked. "Cakes were all fine?"
"Completely fine. Tonight was perfect, actually. Dad?" Xeno began, gesturing to Haiden, who waved meekly.
"I'd like for you to meet my boyfriend."
