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“The cup was literally upside down! No matter what I ordered I always got that until he quit his job!”
Ruben squinted. “Wait, was that Brian?”
“His name was Oscar!” Rowan fumed. “I know, because he wrote, ‘my name is Oscar’ on every order.”
“Maybe I called him the wrong name. I’m sure I apologized!”
“Just order,” Rowan said through his teeth. “Nothing else.”
He got a huff and a roll of the eyes in return, but Ruben stood up in a waft of cologne and sauntered his way to the counter. He leaned one elbow on it provocatively and Rowan knew he wasn’t going to listen to a word he’d said.
The encounter went about as Rowan expected, Ruben flirted. The waiter giggled, completely flattered. A number was handed over.
When Ruben sat back down he held up his hands. “Hey, I didn’t ask for anything. They just gave it to me. It seemed rude to turn them down.”
Rowan resigned himself to finding a new diner.
“So what’s the damage, baby brother?” Ruben asked seriously, crossing his arms.
“I’m taller than you. Stop calling me that.”
“No can do.”
Rowan grumbled and looked out the window toward the street, brooding.
“Do you have a boyfriend? Do I need to protect your honor?”
Rowan whipped his head around. “He’s not my boyfriend!”
“Phew!” Ruben said. “It’s not as dire as I thought. Boyfriends are too complicated. Same with mates.” He shuddered.
It got Rowan’s scales up more than it normally did, and he couldn’t work out why.
The food arrived before he could say anything else, the waiter ignoring Rowan and flirting shamelessly with Ruben.
Rowan speared a mouthful of waffles. He was going to miss these when it all inevitably went to shit.
The waiter left reluctantly and then Rowan was brooding again, chin on his knuckles, elbow on the table. “How do you do it?” Rowan asked.
“I was born with natural charm. Ask Mom.” Ruben grinned.
“No. I mean the whole ‘new guy every day, keep it casual, no ties’ thing,” Rowan said.
Ruben grew serious, reaching across for the hot sauce to slather onto his eggs. “It suits me. I don’t want to be tied down yet.”
“But when we were younger you didn’t think that way. What changed?”
Ruben smiled, looking lost in thought before he shook it off. “I grew out of looking for fairy tales, that’s all.”
It wasn’t the answer Rowan wanted to hear. Because deep down…he wanted that.
The fairy tale. The mate.
He’d never done anything casual in his life. His whole life was steeped in responsibility.
“Get it off your chest, Rowan.”
“There’s this guy… We slept together last night and now I don’t know what to do because we need to keep seeing each other.”
