Page 8 of Cash

“Spoiled rotten, huh?”

“Naturally.” Brick grinned. “Have you seen me? I deserve to be spoiled.”

That at least earned a chuckle from Jules before they fell into working in a companionable silence for a few minutes. The cleanup was going fast with two of them, and soon all that was left was the tedious task of retrieving little bits of plastic and glass shrapnel. Brick’s curiosity was getting the better of him, and he couldn’t let the quiet continue.

It gave Brick way too many opportunities to gawk at Jules’s body instead of focusing on his equally attractive face, and he was going to burst if he didn’t say something. Maybe he was imagining it, but he swore Jules was checking him out too.

“So, what brings you to Raleigh?” Brick asked at last.

“Work.” Jules dragged the trash can to another spot. He didn’t say anything else and got back to picking up colorful bits of trash.

“What kinda work?” Brick pressed.

“I fix things.”

“Uh-huh.” Brick wanted to ask more, but it was apparently his turn to answer questions.

“What do you do?” Jules asked him.

“I’m a translator for a publishing company.”

“What’s that mean?”

“You know those little instruction booklets that come with new appliances that everybody pretty much puts in the trash as soon as they open the box? I translate those, textbooks, and other stuff.”

“Huh.” Jules grunted. “From English to Korean?”

“And Korean to English.”

“How do you tell someone to fuck off in Korean?”

Brick laughed. “Seriously?”

“Yeah.”

Brick wiped some sweat from his forehead, laughing again. “What are you, six?”

Jules only grinned.

“Why does everyone only wanna know the curse words?” Brick wondered out loud.

“Because that’s the fun stuff. Come on.” Jules nudged Brick’s arm. “Tell me.”

“Okay, fine.” Brick’s face got hot from the brief contact. “There’s not exactly a direct translation for telling someone to fuck off, but you can tell someone to go away or not to talk to you in an impolite way.”

“Impolite?” Jules raised a skeptical brow.

“Super impolite.”

“Huh.”

“Trust me. It’s just as good as telling them to fuck off, okay?” Brick grinned. “Ya! Malhajima sibalsaekki!”

“Ya! Malhajima sibal-shacky!” Jules growled. Even with his pronunciation off, the phrase sounded nasty as hell in his deep voice.

“Okay, try again.”

“Ya! Malhajima sibalsaekki!”

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