Page 27 of Sinful Crimes for the Artistically Inclined
After a time, Percy came airily back into the room wearing a suit, the first time Joe had ever seen him dressed for whatever he labelled ‘work’. He wore no tie, nor did he do his hair particularly, which was so typical of Percy, who even after a shower always seemed to have rolled straight out of a delicious tryst and into the day.
He took a seat beside Joe, stretched his legs out across Joe’sthighs and leant back, harmonious with his surroundings, like he too was an expensive and luxurious addition to the room, which, in a way, he was. His long, handsome fingers made his too-small coffee cup slightly ridiculous, as though the very audacity of the thing to be held by such a perfect hand created only second-hand embarrassment in all those unfortunate enough to witness such an imposition. As Percy took the cup to his beautiful lips, Joe said, “Percy, why do you have a grenade in your bag?”
Percy took a sip of his coffee, slightly raised that one eyebrow with the scar and said, “Why were you going through my things?”
Joe’s face remained calm. “I wasn’t. I can see it from here.”
Percy’s eyes shot over to the suitcase. “How do you know that’s a grenade?”
“It says right there on the box.” They held one another’s gaze a few seconds longer until Joe said, “You didn’t think to take it out of the box? I thought for a moment I might be in the presence of a criminal mastermind, but…”
Another sip of coffee, a head tilt and a lightly challenging tone. “How do you know that’s really what’s in the box?”
Joe pursued, “Is it a grenade?”
Percy’s mouth twitched slightly to the side as he watched Joe, calculating, perhaps, how likely Joe was either to leave or to tell the police. Or both. Eventually, “There’s a grenade in the box.”
Joe nodded. “I’m not okay sleeping in the same room as a grenade.”
“The pin is still safely in there.”
“That’s not the point.”
“Duly noted.”
“And are you planning to blow something up with this grenade?”
“Only if I have to.”
“And are you planning to blow you up with this grenade?”
Percy’s face hardened. He placed his cup on the table and he let his feet fall to the floor. “Not if I can help it. I don’t want to talk about my work or what I’m doing today, and I thought I had been clear about that.”
The cold tone might have bothered anyone who hadn’t already seen Percy in a mood. It didn’t bother Joe at all. “That’s ridiculous. You can’t expect me to not have an interest in this. I’m staying in an apartment with a bomb, and I really don’t want you to kill yourself today.”
“You know,” came the vaguely puzzled and accusatory reply, “when we’re hunting demons, you never ask unnecessary questions. When we’re exorcising people or killing undead skeletons, you make no trouble at all. Why should this be any different?”
Joe stared back at Percy in confusion, disbelief, wondering all the while what he had got himself into. “Percy, we’re together now. Aren’t we? I thought I could expect some level of… confidence. Have I misread something?”
“You haven’t. Not at all. Joe…” Percy’s whole frame softened as he let go a sigh and leaned his head on the back of the lounge, studying Joe’s reaction to his words as he spoke carefully. “You know I adore you, and I’m sorry I can’t tell you everything… yet. I promise, when the time comes, I will fill in all the blanks, but for now, just for today, I need you to trust me. I have something very big on, and if I’m honest, it’s making me quite nervous. But I don’t want it to spoil our holiday. Or this. What we have. So far. So, please, can you put your trust in me? For today?”
Joe had already trusted Percy with his life. More than once. And he almost certainly would again. So why not trust Percy to take care of himself? And a grenade… “Fine. I will. Today. But no more grenades in the bedroom, all right?”
“All right.” Then an untoward smile. “Not that sort, anyway.”
Stupid lovely Percy with his shockingly handsome face and his suggestive eyes that he knew would have just about anyone forgive him for just about anything. What must it be like to have that sort of confidence?
Percy suggested some restaurants for dinner, they made small talk over pastries, and neither mentioned the elephant in the room until Percy had gathered his belongings, including the grenade, and was leaving. He stopped at the door, turned to Joe and kissed him, then, with a rare blush to his cheeks, he said, “In case I don’t come back, you should know that I intended to.”
Joe stared at Percy for about five seconds, then “I should know that you intended to come back?”
“Let me finish.”
“I thought you were finished… because of the silence there…”
“No, I wasn’t finished.”
“All right.”
