Page 83 of Back to You

“You better not be back here asking for caffeine,” Marcus said.

“I’m not! By the way, how old is your chicken?”

“Okay Lake, what do you need?” Brandon said.

“I just wanted to say how glad I am that you and Ethan are hanging out more. It makes him so happy, and that makes me happy. Are you happy? I just want you and Ethan to be happy, preferably together. But if you can’t be together, then … wait, why wouldn’t you be together? You’re perfect for each other! This is just a temporary stumbling block on your path to true happiness.”

Now Brandon and Marcus were both staring at Lake. “I’ve seen people on hard drugs less high than this,” Marcus said.

“Seriously, what was in that cake? Steroid sugar?”

“Can sugar be on steroids?”

“No, Lake.”

“Huh. Because that would certainly explain this feeling.” He wandered over to poke at some ingredients on the counter.

“He is going to crash so hard later,” Marcus said.

“As long as he gets home first,” Brandon said. “I’ll call Ethan to see if he can come get him.”

“Oh, looking for reasons to call Ethan, are we?” Marcus smirked.

“Hey! I need more coffee! Where is everyone?” Rhonda yelled from the front counter. Marcus ducked back out the door to handle that, leaving Brandon in charge of Lake. He sighed and grabbed his phone.

“Brandon?”

“Hey Ethan, sorry to bug you. Lake is up here at the shop — he had three pieces of cake at work today.”

“Uh oh.”

“Yeah. The sugar crash is coming, but I figured he should be home first. Can you come get him?”

“Uh, yeah, no problem. Give me like 30 minutes?”

“See you then.”

Brandon fed Lake a still-warm croissant, then set him lose on the walls of the cafe with a dry-erase marker. Lake quickly got on a math binge, writing increasingly more terrifying equations across the walls. Marcus and Brandon watched him go, stopping only to say goodbye to the octogenarian book club.

Ethan walked in and stared at the walls. “Hoo boy.”

“Yeah. I got some non-sugared food in him, but who knows how long this could go on?”

“I feel like we should let him loose in your play area.”

Brandon eyed the setup next door appraisingly. “He’d probably fit.”

“Lake?” Ethan said, coming up behind his best friend.

“Ethan! I’m so glad you’re here! Look at this!” He dragged Ethan to the far wall and began explaining his equation. Brandon laughed as he saw Ethan’s eyes cross. None of them had the capability to understand Lake when he got into Big Math mode.

“Come on, Lake, let’s go get a nice healthy dinner in you,” Ethan said, tugging the dry erase marker away from Lake.

“But my work …”

“Brandon will take pictures of all of it and send it to you. And he’ll leave it all up on the walls so you can come back to it.” He glanced at Brandon to confirm and got a nod. “Let’s go get some baked chicken and a salad, huh? Then I’ll take you home and you can sleep this off.”

“Okay.” And with that Ethan was able to pull a pliant Lake to the door, stopping briefly to give Brandon’s hand a squeeze. “Thank you,” he said with a warm smile.

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