Page 77 of Cosy & Chill
Worth It
A dark green cloth covered the dining table, bringing out the white of the china plates, the sparkle of the champagne flutes, and the red of the rose on Finn’s plate. Tea lights surrounded a branch of candles and Finn’s favourite playlist provided the background music.
Finn gaped at the sight, trying to take it all in and not knowing how to react. Leo had gone to so much effort. It seemed too much, even for a celebration dinner. His worries resurfaced with a vengeance. “Leo…”
“Here. Come and sit.” Leo pulled him across the room. “Dinner is ready.” He poured champagne, then disappeared into the kitchen and returned with deep plates holding nests of spaghetti in a pool of yellow sauce. “I have roast beef in the oven for our main course.”
Finn had no personal experience of breakups, but he didn’t think a man about to give the it’s-not-you-it’s-me speech would go to the trouble of creating such a romantic setting or cook an elaborate dinner. Finn’s mouth watered at the thought of thick slices of roast beef and rich, red wine gravy. The pasta in front of him, decorated with herbs and green olives, looked just as toothsome. “It smells lemony.”
“Because it is. Spaghetti in lemon butter sauce. My grandma used to make this whenever we had something to celebrate.”
The easy companionship had vanished once more. Leo wasn’t looking at him and Finn found that hard to take. “Leo…”
“Come eat before everything gets cold.”
Finn gave in and joined Leo at the table. He couldn’t deny that he was hungry, and maybe eating together would help. “Roisin should be here,” Finn decided after his first mouthful of spaghetti. “After all she’s done, she’s as much a part of our store as we are.”
“I know,” Leo defended himself. “I invited her. She said she’ll celebrate with us another day.”
“Another day won’t be our opening day. I really… I don’t understand her.”
“Neither do I, but… if she’s not human shewouldthink differently, right?”
“I suppose so.”
They returned to an awkward semi-silence that was nothing like the easy interaction they’d enjoyed before the night Leo hadn’t come home.
“Leo, please. Sitting here as if we’re strangers isn’t fun. Please tell me what’s wrong. How can I help?”
“You can’t, but I should…”
Leo finally raised his gaze from the table, and Finn realised that Leo wasn’t embarrassed. He was afraid. “You realise I’m not mad, right? We’re new—you and I—but that doesn’t mean we have to live in each other’s pockets. I’m not…” He didn’t know how to finish that sentence. “I just want to help if I can.”
Leo took a deep breath. “Can you just listen to me? It’s not something I like to talk about, so the faster I can get through this, the better I’ll feel.”
“Of course. Let’s go sit on the sofa,” Finn suggested. He wanted to hold Leo, tell him it didn’t matter… except it did. It mattered to Leo. He topped up their wine glasses and turned on the fire, trying not to mind when Leo huddled into a corner of the sofa and stared into his glass.
“My grandma died a year ago,” he said eventually. “I looked after her while she was ill. I lived in her house. When the solicitor read the will, it named me as the sole beneficiary. Not my father, or anyone else from the family. Just me. It said that I deserved it, because I’m gay and she didn’t think my family would handle that well.”
“They hadn’t known?” Finn remembered his own reluctance to come out to his parents. Imagining someone outing him like that, without warning…
“God no.” Leo shuddered. “I didn’t know where to look or what to say. Then my father promptly proved how right my grandma had been. He went ballistic, right there in the solicitor’s office. Mr Griffin, my grandma’s solicitor, had expected that. He had guards—can you believe that! —to keep me safe the first few nights. He also had money ready for me and helped me to find a place of my own.”
“You couldn’t stay in your gran’s house?”
“That’s what my grandma wanted, but my father immediately said he’d challenge the will, so there was no chance to apply for probate and all these things. He also demanded access to the house until the matter was resolved. Which meant I had to get out because…”
Leo didn’t seem to know how to continue, but Finn had an idea. “Your gran had been protecting you from them.”
“From my elder sister. She has a temper and is vicious with it.”
“She put the scars on your back?”
“Yes. I couldn’t defend myself, of course, even once I was big enough to do so. Because no ‘real man’”—he made air quotes— “would raise his hand against a woman.”
“Your parents didn’t help you?”
“They took her side. I was provoking her, talking back, making her angry. Do you know that I believed that shit? For years?”
