Page 37 of The Human’s Heart

That guy could talk. Dang.

Since everyone had to work the next day, our friends didn’t stay too late, so as soon as they were gone, I pulled Hugo into a cuddle on the couch.

“You okay?” he asked me quietly, his fingers brushing through my hair.

I sent him a smile, then nuzzled his neck, speaking into his skin. “Yeah, I just need some Hugo cuddle time.”

He chuckled quietly and tucked himself farther against me. “I could use some Zay cuddles too. It’s the only way I’ll make it through tomorrow without you.”

For one moment, I thought he was making fun of me, but then I realized he was actually being totally serious, and my heart melted. So sweet.

I kissed his neck and settled in, happy to simply breathe him in for the next little while.

Chapter 11

Hugo

“Do you guys have plans this weekend?” Jett asked me between customers.

I shrugged. “Not really. Zay’s studying Saturday morning and probably some on Sunday, but we don’t really have any plans.”

“Since we’re both off for once on a Saturday night, do you wanna go out to dinner? A kinda double date thing?”

I gave him a hip-check as I walked past. “Let me ask Zay.” Jett gave me a nod as he helped someone, and I asked Zay through our link, “Do you wanna go on a double date with Jett and Ward on Saturday?”

“That could be fun.”

“I think so too.”

“Where do they want to go?”

I glanced at Jett to see if he was free, but he wasn’t, so I said to Zay, “Jett said to dinner, but I’m not sure where. He’s serving someone right now, so I’ll ask later.”

“Sounds good, mezelie.”

“How’s class going?”

“Fine. Beatrix seemed a little sad and lonely when I got here, so I asked her to sit with me. Not sure it’s helping, but I don’t know what else to do.”

I frowned at that as I cleaned one of our blenders. “I’d tell you to invite her along on Saturday, but she’d probably feel like a third wheel—well, a fifth—but you know what I mean.”

“Yeah. True. Maybe we can invite her out to lunch this weekend or something. It’d be nice for you to actually meet her.”

I smiled at that, happy that Zay wanted me to meet his new friend. “Yeah, babe. I’d like that.”

“Cool. I’ll run it by her after class.”

“Sounds good.”

“Shit, I gotta go. I don’t want to miss anything.”

That made me hold in a laugh because he was just so damn cute and endearing about learning new things, especially when it came to healing.

I pulled my consciousness away from Zay so he could concentrate, and then I went back to making drinks and taking food orders from people. We had a pretty decent lunch crowd these days since we served some good food, but we weren’t nearly as busy as we were at night or on weekends. Which meant we had to restock, take stock of everything so Drin knew what to order, and clean things extra well if we had time. It was like doing an extra deep clean when you were having everyone you knew over for a party instead of just the everyday stuff you normally did.

I didn’t mind, though. I’d rather be doing something than just standing around waiting for more people to show up or whatever. I liked feeling like I was helping out.

A couple of hours later, Arzu came over and slouched on one of the barstools. They looked tired and kind of sad or something, so I headed over and asked, “Are you okay?”