Page 100
Corey ushered everyone inside with beaming smiles and encouraging words. When he got to Vince, who was just in front of me, he murmured in a slightly threatening yet still saccharine tone, “Best behaviour, Vincent.”
“I’m not going to do anything!” Vince sounded a little bit offended that he was being singled out, even though his track record was kind of working against him here.
“Brian!” I heard as soon as I stepped inside. I looked up and saw Nat sitting behind the front desk in the centre’s reception area, waving at me with an excited grin. I blushed automatically and waved back as a few of the others looked between us with curious expressions.
“Holy crap, that is the prettiest dude I’ve ever seen,” Kit whispered beside me. “How do you know him, Bri?”
“Um, he’s my—He’s the best friend of the guy I’m dating.”
Vince turned to look at me in surprise. “Who’re you dating? You never tell us anything, Brian.”
“Sorry,” I said, because it felt like I should. “I’m dating Klaus.”
Vince’s brows shot up even higher as Crossbody also turned to look at me in surprise. “Klaus? The incubus from the Elfknot?”
“Yeah.” I couldn’t stop the wide smile that spread across my face at the thought of him.
“And our new neighbour,” Dan added, his arm slung over Rafe’s shoulders. He nodded at Nat and returned the wave the shadowperson sent him. “Nat will be too, in a couple of months.”
Vince laughed, giving me a light punch on the arm. “I told you he was smitten after that meet and greet. Good for you, man. How’s it going?”
My grin grew even wider. “It’s going really great.”
“Don’t think I’ve ever seen Bri smile like that, so it must be,” Kit noted. “I wanna meet Klaus. How come everyone already knows him but me, Bri?”
“Uh, I…” I hunched my shoulders awkwardly. “I haven’t, like, introduced him to my co-workers or anything…” Because why would I? Was that a thing? Was I supposed to do that?
“Bri!” Nat was waving me over, so I managed to escape the conversation and head to the front desk. I gave him an awkward smile.
“Hi, Nat.”
“How are you?” He beamed up at me. “Klaus might be dropping by later to bring me lunch.”
“Klaus’ll be here?” The sound of Kit’s voice from right beside me made me jump, because I thought I’d left them at the back of the group. For some reason, they’d followed me to the desk.
Oh, wait, no, not ‘for some reason.’ For a very specific reason. They were staring at Nat in awe.
“I wanna meet him. Apparently a bunch of these assholes have already met him and I haven’t.” They hadn’t looked away from Nat once. To him, they said, “You’re, like, really pretty.”
Nat blinked, then smiled. “Thanks, sweets.”
“Your hair is so shiny and voluminous. Where did you get that T-shirt from?”
Nat glanced down at his cropped pink tee. This one read MILF In Training. “Oh. Just a thrift store.”
“Thrifting is so chic.” Corey joined the conversation, looking over Nat’s ensemble with a critical eye and apparently approving of what he saw, if his impressed little nod was anything to go by. “We are done with overconsumption.”
“Ugh, so gross,” Nat agreed, eyeing Corey’s attire back. “Love the vintage sportswear, by the way. Very nineties Gwen.”
“Thanks, darling. Those earrings are to die for.”
Nat touched one of the enormous gold hoops in his earlobes. “If I’m going to wear hoops, they need to be at least two inches in diameter or there’s just no point.”
“I could not agree more.”
“Alright, so—” Nat tucked his hair behind his ears in a way that reminded me of Klaus, and suddenly, I was even more desperate to see him. I knew I was going to spend the whole morning watching reception in case he did show up to bring Nat lunch. “—let’s go and get the equipment out of the storage room for you. The nets have been set up. There are five courts, so twenty of you can play at a time. Oh, I’ll also show you to the locker rooms so you can store your stuff.”
He grabbed a big ring of keys from the top drawer and stood, rounding the desk to take us into the main room.
