Page 65 of Forget Me Not

Cal was back within moments, door locked again, bags of food in his hands. Hehadzipped up, although he was still flushed and damp. Onion and spices wafted over from the bags. Cal sort of waved the bags at Ray before putting them down, probably trying to distract him with food.

“I’m sorry,” Ray said stiffly anyway, working his jaw to relax it. “I don’t know why I...”

“You were attacked, Ray,” Cal interrupted, “yesterday. You have every right to be jumpy.”

“Jumpy.” He was more thanjumpy. Ray brought his hands up to examine them. “I could’ve hurt you. Or the delivery driver.”

“You wouldn’t.” Cal opened a bag, seemed to debate getting a plate out and then just gave up and brought the whole container over to Ray. “Eat.” He handed over a disposable spork made from cornstarch a moment later. “You’re still healing, Ray.” Cal unloaded an impressive amount of food onto the table, then sighed. “Tomorrow, we go back to focusing on the magic part of this. Talk to Cassandra again… maybe one of Benny’s friends will have an answer. I don’t know. But for now, rest and eat, and we’ll…. Fuck, I don’t know.”

“You eat too,” Ray urged, and got a sour look for it. But Cal popped open one of the containers and ate from it, the scent of caramelized plantains following the action.

“Come on,” Cal said after a while, and sat, or plopped, into a chair at the table. He patted the spot next to him, not where Ray had been before. “Come here, and sit, and rest, and eat, and we’ll worry later.”

He was worrying now, but Ray didn’t say so. He came over and sat, putting the container in front of him. He paused before opening it, then yanked at the knot in his tie to pull it loose. He tossed that toward the sink too.

Cal was smiling faintly when Ray turned back.

Ray wanted to touch his mouth. “Penn called me anal today,” he offered instead.

Cal’s smile grew. “You are. I think it helps though. Helps you interact with the human world.” He glanced down to Ray’s shirt, still buttoned, and exhaled heavily. “Please eat. I got your favorites.”

If Ray focused on the food, his mouth would be watering. “You’re good at this.”

This time, Cal didn’t get lofty. “Sometimes it isn’t flower crowns and pears. Sometimes it’s onions, and chicken, and black-eyed peas, and rice.”

“Half the rice is yours,” Ray reminded him, his heart finally slowing at how Cal wrinkled his nose but then opened Ray’s container of food for him. Cal waited until Ray picked up the spork before he went back to his plantains.

Ray glanced at him again. Cal’s heart was still rabbit quick. “The kiss didn’t…”

“I know, Ray.” Cal ended that by popping a plantain in Ray’s mouth. “I doubt whoever did this planned that merciful of an ending. You’re welcome to keep trying, though.”

The plantain was delicious. Ray could not have cared less in that moment.

“I never thought I would have a… someone.” He said it carefully, quietly, attention on Cal’s eyes and the flutter of his tiny wings. Cal stared at him, marvelously surprised for once. Ray imagined years spent trying to get this reaction from Cal and was vaguely jealous of his past self.

“Then you got stuck with me?” Cal made it a joke, a sad one, but fluttered his wings and released a rain of glitter when Ray pressed a kiss to his mouth. A second burst of sparkles followed the first. “But you still don’t know me.”

There was too much to say to that, scents and feelings hot behind Ray’s eyes. “You’re pretty,” he explained again at last, hoping Cal understood.

Cal must have. He took another moment to stare, wide-eyed, and then he was clambering out of his seat and into Ray’s lap, apparently expecting Ray to catch him. He squirmed until he was comfortable, put his face to Ray’s throat, then mumbled, “I’ve been itching to do this for almost two days now. Don’t mind me.”

He weighed so little, yet was a solid presence on Ray’s thighs. Ray looped an arm around him to keep him from falling.

Cal pushed his nose into the side of Ray’s neck. “You’re pretty, too.”

Ray sat for a while, inhaling food-scents and Cal-scents, and trying not to shiver at any ticklish nuzzling because he didn’t think this was about that. He listened to Cal’s heartbeat and waited until Cal’s breathing finally slowed, and then he reached to get some rice. He offered the rice to Cal without a word.

He got a huff, and a clucked tongue, but then Cal took the spork from him.

He spilled a few grains. Ray picked up each one and ate it, content despite the mouth-watering smells before him.

For a few minutes, he could pretend his head didn’t hurt and that this was how he was meant to be.

Chapter Nine

RAY ATE a cold dinner without minding much; were senses were often misunderstood in that respect. While he appreciated the experience of quality food, he also didn’t object to things a lot of humans did. What irked his senses were things like the scent of rot or the taste of plastic, and even plastic he’d almost gotten used to ignoring.

Cal finally got up to reheat some of the food for Ray anyway, only to get distracted by his email before the microwave had even dinged. Ray watched him for a while, then pretended to be engrossed in his phone. He didn’t have many messages to respond to, but he did have a photo gallery, mostly pictures from Cal that he’d saved. A lot of them were of places, people, the sky, a dog. More than just Cal himself, although he was there too, sometimes dressed, sometimes not.

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