“Pyxlevir, are you okay, dude?” Dasan asked.
Although Pyxlevir knew little about Dasan, he appeared to be both kind and caring. Pyxlevir liked him.
“Yep, sorry, just had a memory pop into my head and I forgot to move my feet,” Pyxlevir replied, rushing to get out of the doorway of the grocery store.
“Dasan, come with us,” Colburn insisted, urging the hummingbird to follow him and his twin as Gramlithyn grabbed a cart. “We’ll grab meat and stuff.”
“Cool,” Dasan agreed and jogged after the quickly disappearing twins. “We’ll meet up with you guys later.”
“You barely eat meat,” Gramlithyn argued, but Dasan waved him off and gave his attention to Colburn and Crispin.
The lovely recollection of the past was long gone as the awkwardness of being near Gramlithyn settled deep into Pyxlevir’s bones. They shared a glance. Pyxlevir shrugged.
“Guess we should grab what we need,” Pyxlevir suggested, heading in the direction of the fruits and vegetables.Their apartment building had a full kitchen, so Pyxlevir was interested in grabbing some snacks, and that was about it.
“Where are they going to put what they grab?” Gramlithyn muttered as they trudged toward the extensive selection of fresh offerings. “They didn’t take a cart or a basket with them.”
“Something I’m sure they’ll figure out the second they get to the meat section or wherever they were headed.”
Pyxlevir surveyed his options. Thankfully, there were tons of pre-cut choices, so he could easily snack without having to work for it. Tyndarios had insisted Pyxlevir learn the proper way to prepare fruits and veggies, but he had no desire to dust off his knife skills.
“They have carrots over here,” Gramlithyn offered.
Although Pyxlevir had loved carrots since he was a baby, he’d secretly grown to detest them. It wasn’t their taste. They still bloomed lovingly on his tongue despite his dislike of their smell. Fate hadn’t done him any favors by making Gramlithyn reek of the damn things. Of course, no one but Pyxlevir was aware of that, so he had to choke down carrots constantly so no one figured out his secret.
But now he was on his own, and he refused to answer to anyone.
“I’ll pass, thanks,” Pyxlevir said.
Gramlithyn’s eyebrows flew up in surprise, but he made no comment as he grabbed several containers of the aforementioned root vegetable and added them to the cart. While Gramlithyn had eaten plenty of carrots thanks to Pyxlevir’s love of them, it was odd for the hybrid to make that his first choice. But perhaps that was one of the many things that had changed in the past six years.
Doing his best to ignore the handsome hybrid and the scent of carrots clinging to the air around him, Pyxlevir chuckeda few packages into the cart. He barely paid attention to his selections. Thankfully, Pyxlevir wasn’t overly picky. Happy that he had enough to last him far more than a week, Pyxlevir stood next to the cart and studiously kept his gaze trained away from Gramlithyn.
The hybrid cleared his throat. “Need anything else? Fruit, maybe?”
“No,” Pyxlevir replied. “But I’ll walk over there with you if you want to grab something.”
“I think I’m good. The building has a full kitchen.”
“Yeah.”
What the fuck are we supposed to do now?Pyxlevir wondered. They’d finished their shopping in about two minutes and had no clue how long their housemates would take or where they were meeting up.
Gramlithyn muttered something under his breath.
“Excuse me?” Pyxlevir asked.
“This is stupid. We’re already done. They could’ve come here with us. Dasan will definitely want fresh shit. Are they expecting us to wait here awkwardly with the cucumbers?”
The corner of Pyxlevir’s mouth quirked. “I know Colby. He’ll want ice cream. That shit is going to be cold to carry since they didn’t think to get a cart or basket. Serves them right for running off.”
“Unless his tastes have changed, he’ll need like six hands for all his ice cream fixings.”
Pyxlevir’s gaze fell to his silk loafers. “Plenty is different, but Colby’s dessert preferences aren’t.”
“Nice to knowsomethingstayed the same,” Gramlithyn grumbled.
Lifting his chin, Pyxlevir stared into the dark brown eyes that had haunted his dreams for years. “Of course thingschanged. The twins were teenagers the last time you were around them.”
