Page 5 of Wandering in Darkness
There’s a knock on the door, so he happily runs off to collect either Antonio or some random person who is here to abduct us and drag us off to make us do their bidding like the last time Felix got wound up in something.
Thankfully, it’s Antonio, who comes in and warily looks around.
“What?” I ask.
“Nothing, nothing. I was just sure this was a setup. Felix was like, ‘Come for food,’ and I was unsure if that was code for something. The last time he was like, ‘Oh, come over for a fun time,’ and he ended up making me paint the entire inside of his new office. Like…is that fun?”
“Felix’s definition of fun is swindling a casino, stealing an expensive watch, getting held at gunpoint by the watch’s owners, breaking into a charity event, trying to murder me with a projectile safe and somehow not dying, so yeah… I think painting a wall sounds significantly more fun,” I say as I put the ground beef into the pan to cook.
“You know… you’re right.”
“Cal is smart, isn’t he?” Felix interrupts. “Like, when you look at him molding himself to my furniture, you go, ‘He really seems to be lacking in the intelligence tree,’ but then you realize it’ssecret intelligence that only comes out when you least expect it. Must be a skill he’s acquired.”
“I’m not a video game character,” I mutter.
Felix raises his hand, then lowers it to about knee height. “Yet he’s likethishigh in lethargy and this low in stamina.”
“Says the man I could run circles around,” I say.
Felix tsks, like that might not be true.
I pause cutting up tomatoes and turn to him because I’m not going to let him win this conversation. “Let’s do one lap around the house. Loser has to finish making dinner.”
Felix jerks out his phone. “Hold that thought, I’m getting a call,” he says, even though his phone’s screen is obviously blank. “Hello? Oh! Mr. Hemsworth… you know you’re not supposed to call when Lane is home.”
“Is… Is he pretending Chris Hemsworth is calling him to get out of running?” Antonio asks.
“He told me the other day he wants to dress Lane up as Thor… for sex purposes… and he wants to dress as Loki.”
“Oh no. Aren’t they brothers? Like maybe not biologically, but?—”
“Don’t question it. At least his fake phone call got rid of him,” I say. “Do you like tacos? I guess I should have asked.”
“I do! My grandma would make tacos, and she’d make them so hot we’d be crying. I’m confident she just liked our tears. It was the only time I ever saw her smile at her grandchildren.”
I laugh before questioning if he’s not joking. “I hope you’re joking.”
“I’m not! She was evil. It was impressive, honestly. Do you need help? I suppose I could do more than just stand here and watch.”
“It’d be great if you could put the shells in the oven.”
“I can do that,” Antonio says as he begins arranging the prepackaged shells Felix got. I feel a nudge at my leg and lookdown as Brigs stares up at me with his beady eyes, evidently confident I should start shoveling the food into his mouth. I grab a piece of tomato and hand it to him, which he eagerly eats. And then suddenly Copper is there, confident that he should get something too.
“Do you actually want a piece of tomato?” I ask as I hand him a small piece, feeling certain he’ll spit it out and Brigs will get that too. But nope, he swallows it.
Brigs is now rooting around for more so I toss him a piece of lettuce, but because he can’t catch like a dog, Copper grabs it. Copper is less than impressed, but he’s determined to chew it all up and spit it out on the floor, maybe hoping it will grow flavor the longer he chews. Brigs looks horrified that the dog would choose to take his treat and when he finally gets it, it’s mauled, slobbered, and disgusting, but he eats it without a care in the world.
“What is happening over there?” Antonio asks.
“I don’t know. Something disgusting, for sure. Where’s Frank?”
“He’s out of town with some buddies of his. I think with one of his former CEO partners or something. It sounds like he’s trying to convince Frank to go in on something together and Frank said that he has absolutely no interest but was willing to meet up with them. I guess he’ll be back next week, but he’s been gone so long.”
“How are things going with you two?”
Antonio is all smiles as he forgets he was helping me and leans against the counter. “So good. He’s so sweet and nice and lovely. Like I’ve gone on dates with people before and they were so pushy and rude and clearly just wanted to sleep with me, and I hated it so much. It made me not even want to go out for drinks with guys. But he’s the sweetest.”
“Good, I’m glad,” I say.
