Page 44 of Rules to Love By

“It’s a good town, at its core. Full of good people.” Eli shrugged. “But you ask Jake and his family, it’s not perfect. No place is.”

“It’s better than where I came from. Where Tris and I came from.”

Eli shrugged. “I agree with that. Better than where I went, when I left for school. But I like to think I brought a little bit of Griffon’s Elbow with me. The bar where I work is all right.”

“What’s it called?”

“The Den. There are a few assholes. The owner needs to respect his employees more and play favourites less. But there are way worse things than doing a job you love, even if the place you’re doing it isn’t perfect. What is perfect, right?” He smiled at Jake as he came to take their dishes away. “Thanks, Jake.”

“Sure. Dessert? Home-made ice cream and double fudge brownies.”

Eli glanced at Marcus. He was watching Eli, face so carefully neutral he might as well have announced he was keeping his thoughts to himself. Then he shrugged and grinned, and the moment passed. “Sure. Why not. Thanks, Jake.”

“Don’t thank me. I didn’t make it. Thank Tris.” He leaned in a bit and lowered his voice conspiratorially. “Kreed hates it, but Tris makes thebestdesserts.”

Marcus chuckled, and the laughter and smile finally reached his eyes. “I actually already knew that about him.”

“Lucky you.” Jake straightened and started back to the kitchen. “One more brownie!” He called through the pass-through window.

“Rub it in, Jake,” Kreed called back.

“Definitely.”

Marcus chuckled again. “Tris really landed on his feet here.”

“Took him a while to figure that out.”

“You don’t know how awful Johnathan was, to him especially. Don’t get me wrong. I never made any secret about being gay. But as far as Johnathan was concerned, I don’t look it, so he could ignore it. Tris, though…” He shook his head.

“Sounds like a real charmer.”

Marcus sighed but said nothing else about it. For a few minutes, they both watched people passing outside the window. Jake brought dessert with two forks, and they sparred over the delicious treat. In the end Marcus was laughing as he scooped up the last of the ice cream and fed it to Eli.

“I noticed you saved the last bite of brownie for yourself, though,” Eli said, licking his lips.

“Not a lot I wouldn’t do for Tris’s brownies,” Marcus agreed. “Not gonna lie.”

“That so?” Eli sat back, watching as Marcus scraped the last vestiges of chocolate and caramel off the plate.

Marcus glanced up. “What? You gonna order one to a room upstairs or something?”

It would be a lie if Eli said the thought hadn’t crossed his mind. But what kind of date would he be if he treated Marcus the same as every other guy had? So he said nothing.

Marcus watched him.

“What?”

A slow smile spread over Marcus’s face. “You tell me.”

“I want to see you again,” Eli blurted.

“You’re seeing me right now.”

“I mean after this.”

“You mean after you take me upstairs and let me fuck you.”

A jolt of shock bounced through Eli. Marcus actually did assume they were here only because Eli wanted sex with him.

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