Page 20 of Follow Your Instincts

I trudged into the kitchen at 6pm from my home office. Ben and Lucas were already there, Ben almost bouncing with excitement. Despite myself, I smiled. His positivity was inspiring, if not annoying at times.

“Get in here and help us cook, you grumpy bastard,” Ben said and tugged me into the kitchen by my arm. “Lucas is making risotto to celebrate.”

“There’s no celebrating,” I said, warningly. “It’s a meeting, that’s it. We’ve had meetings before.”

“Can you please not be such a downer tonight?” Ben asked. “You’re making Lucas sad.”

Lucas laughed, not taking his eyes off the pan he was continuously stirring on the stove.

“How can I help with dinner?” I asked.

“It’s all handled,” Lucas said. “Ben isn’t doing anything other than distracting me. It should be ready in about ten minutes.”

Soren entered from the garage stairs. “Smells good,” he said and hung his overcoat up on the rack by the door.

Ben opened a bottle of wine and poured us each a glass. “Can we toast now, or do I have to wait until we’re sitting?”

“I don’t have hands for toasting!” Lucas said. “I’m at a very delicate stage in the process.”

“Sit down,” I said to Ben and corralled him towards the table.

“How can you not be excited?” He asked and grabbed my hand. “It’s obviously her.”

“Her who?”

“The Omega that Soren helped, the one from the station. The beautiful one that smells like peaches and ginger and got all of our dicks hard just from secondhand scent on Soren’s clothes.”

Soren rolled his eyes. “No way,” he said.

“I’m telling you it is,” Ben insisted. I just shook my head, and he pushed a glass of wine into my hand.

Lucas brought the food to the table; a large bowl of mushroom risotto and a plate of seared scallops with a lemon butter sauce. After selling his company off two years ago, he’d thrown himself into cooking to take up his spare time and we were all benefitting from his new skills.

“That would be an insane coincidence,” Lucas said as we all served ourselves.

“No, it’s fate,” Ben said and took a bite and hummed appreciatively. “Once again, you’ve proven yourself to be a culinary genius. This is so good!”

“It doesn’t matter who it is,” I said. “I don’t think we should go.”

Ben rolled his eyes. “Of course you don’t. Good thing we can outvote you, so it doesn’t even matter.”

“Nothing is going to come of it, so what’s the point?” I replied.

“If you’re so sure nothing is going to come of it, then what’s the harm?” Ben challenged.

“You getting your hopes up and then getting hurt again,” I said.

Ben didn’t reply for a moment and looked down at the table. “I’m sorry that I get… enthusiastic like this. I just want what’s best for the pack, and I don’t think that’s giving up,” he said earnestly.

I sighed. “You do deserve better,” I said. ‘All of you.”

“You deserve good things, too,” Ben said and grabbed my hand again, squeezing my fingers. I just shook my head.

“Guys, please back me up here,” Ben pleaded, letting me go.

“He’s right, Lach. We have to go,” Soren said. “But Ben shouldn’t get his hopes up too high. Expect the best and plan for the worst, right?”

“God, you’re so boring,” Ben complained.

---