Page 26 of Soar

“I love you like a brother, but goddamn, man. What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Aleeeeeexis, please, you know I’m bad at relationships! Gregori is too good. I’d run roughshod over him and break him without even meaning to. Would you inflict me on him? Knowing how badly I sabotage relationships without even trying? Be honest.”

“It’s really a pleasant reminder of your emotional growth, you now being self-aware enough to know when you’re being an ass.” Alexis shook her head and for some reason reached for the landline phone on his desk. “But yes, in this case, I would.”

Salem stared at her over the tips of his fingers. “He’s not done anything to offend you, has he?”

“Look, any man who can take your personality in stride and then manage to tease you? Clearly isn’t looking at you with rose tinted glasses. I have never in my life seen you blush until today. And you still let him kiss you, which tells me volumes.”

Oh. Oh shit. He rather had given too much away by not breaking the kiss. “I was taken by surprise!”

“Honey, I’ve seen you dead drunk and still able to punch a man out for trying to kiss you.”

Shit, she would remember that incident.

Alexis bent down enough to look at the directory taped to the wall, then punched in three numbers.

“What are you even doing, anyway?”

“Calling the Psych department. You need an examination.” She shot him a deadpan look that screamedtry me,motherfucka.“You’re normally a smart man, but this? This is stupid. I’m getting you checked out.”

Salem just sighed. At least the lunch was guaranteed to be good. The rest of the day looked like it was going to suck, though.

Salem came in from work absolutely dead tired. He’d had one emergency surgery after the next, with upset parents—one had actually attacked his nurse, and Salem had jumped down the man’s throat before security got there, throwing his screaming ass out—then he went an hour over his shift time due to the paperwork about the incident. He’d not eaten the lunch Gregori had dropped off—had in fact left it in his office—breakfast was a faraway memory, and honestly, he was so tired he wasn’t even sure if he was hungry at this point. Appetite? What was that? Must be something for people who had energy. AKA, not him.

He really should eat, though. Salem had been exhausted like this many, many times before. Ever since he started med school, really. He and energy deprivation were old buddies at this point. He knew from experience, if someone put food in front of him right now, he’d consume every bite like a starving wolf. Healsoknew if he didn’t eat, and slept instead, he’d wake up at three a.m. absolutely starving.

All right. Food. Food that was fast. Ramen?

Maybe ramen. Yeah.

He stumbled over to the stove, turned it on, rummaged for a pan, found a clean pot and got it on the stove. Then he rummaged in the pantry.

Ramen? Raaaamen? Yoo-hoo? Dammit, where was the ramen? Oh no. Oh no, was he out? Dammit, unless the ramen pack had developed ninja powers, there was none to be found in this pantry.

Salem leaned against the counter and felt like crying. He didn’t have the energy to think of what else to eat. It was too complicated of a question. He didn’t even have food in the house. Just ingredients to make food, and that wasn’t the same thing at all.

From the exterior hallway, he heard footsteps—a very familiar heavy tread—and he knew who it was before the man even arrived.

“Why’s the door open?” Gregori questioned. He stripped off his shirt the second he came in, throwing it in the general direction of the laundry cubby, nose flaring as he sniffed. He had his hair in a braid today. He should braid it more often, he looked great with his hair pulled back. “And what’s that smell? It’s like burning metal.”

Salem focused on him and all those lovely muscles. He never got tired of looking at the muscles. “You only wore a shirt today?”

“Yeah, weather was nice.”

The weather had not been nice. It had been above freezing. Then again, for an ice dragon, today was probably balmy.

“You’re fine shirtless,” Salem murmured.

“I know,” Gregori replied, tone rich with amusement. He came in closer, nose still working. “Uh, is the burner on?”

Oh. Right, Salem had turned it on for ramen. But there was no ramen. And he’d forgotten to put water in the pot. Oops.

He moved, fetching the pot off the stove and then putting it in the sink.

“Ack!” Gregori swooped in and snatched the pot up. “What are you doing, there’s plastic Tupperware in there—ugh, it’s now ruined.”

Oh shit. Salem took the pot away from him and set it on the counter so he could survey the damage.

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