Page 28 of Back to You

“First you eat the food, then you get the latte.”

“Thank you so much!” Lake plowed into the food in a way that suggested he hadn’t eaten for a while, which was standard. Brandon ducked back into the kitchen for another muffin, because he was pretty sure this might be the only food Lake ate until he came out of his math frenzy.

Marcus watched critically as he waited for the espresso to brew. “You sure about this?”

“This might be the only way to get him to eat. I’ll take that win.”

“Dude needs a keeper,” Marcus muttered.

“You get right on that,” Brandon said with a smirk.

Marcus scoffed and walked the latte over to Lake’s table. Lake looked at the cup avariciously, but Marcus pointed silently to the remaining muffin on the table. Lake nodded and began to eat it.

Brandon left them to it and went back to his baking. Marcus and Lake had a weird dynamic. Most of the time, Lake was as oblivious to Marcus as he was most people, and Marcus seemed unsettled by Lake’s quirks. But they got along, and Marcus was protective over the little genius.

A while later, Brandon was removing his last batch of muffins from the oven when Marcus came back into the kitchen.

“He gone?”

“Yeah, he yelled something about equations before he ran out the door.”

The morning rush began as soon at they opened the doors at 6. Marcus took orders, poured coffee and distributed baked goods, leaving Brandon to make the more elaborate drinks. It was a good system honed over many years, and the two worked together flawlessly.

Right in the middle of morning rush, Ethan walked into the cafe.

“Hey,” Brandon said in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

“I figured I’m going to be drinking coffee when I get to work, so why not stop for the good stuff?”

“Well come on back here,” Brandon said.

Ethan stepped around the counter and gave Brandon a quick kiss. “I can get my own, keep working.”

With ease of experience, Ethan got himself a large dark roast, and snagged a muffin from the case. They’d long since established that Ethan was welcome to food and drink from the cafe free of charge. In exchange, he’d helped them with a couple of small legal matters over the years.

He stepped back up to Brandon and gave him another kiss. “I’ll get out of your way.”

“You are never in my way.”

Ethan smiled and kissed Brandon one more time. “Love you.”

“Love you too.”

Ethan left, and Brandon went back to making drinks. Seeing his boyfriend and getting morning kisses? Brandon could tell it was going to be a good day.

CHAPTER 7

ETHAN POKED MOROSELY at his lunch, unable to sustain any enthusiasm for it.

“What’s with you?” Nia said.

“Nothing, just … missing my family.”

“Oh for God’s sake, Ethan, you act like you’re deployed overseas or something. Your family is right here, and all you have to do is go see them.”

Nia was clearly done with his shit.

“I know! I was talking with Brandon last night —”

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