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Percy blinked. ‘Yes,’ he replied. Her signs were far more confident than his own, but she had the slowness of the other beginners in his own class. ‘You too?’
She grinned. ‘Yes! I’m learning at school. Are you studying at the university?’
He only understood about two-thirds of what she’d signed, but context filled in the rest. “No,” he told her aloud, having run out of vocabulary. “I’m a bit old for the university. And I’m four weeks into my lessons.”
Alicia nodded, and she made a Y with her hand and tapped it in the air as her lips formed peh-peh. He’d seen that sign used a lot, but he wasn’t sure what it meant. “Well, if you ever want a study buddy…” She trailed off and shrugged. “I mean, not to be totally unprofessional or anything. But I know it’s hard to get started when you don’t have anyone else around you who knows it.”
“My niece is Deaf,” Percy explained. “I’ve only just met her, so I thought I ought to get a wriggle on, learning it all.”
Alicia’s eyes widened. “Oh. But…you’re learning ASL.”
Percy frowned again. “Yes,” he said slowly.
“But you’re British.”
Holding back a slight laugh, Percy nodded. “I am. So’s my sister, but Lila’s American. My sister moved here to adopt her.”
“Oh. God. Sorry, Jesus. There’s probably some colloquial phrase about me constantly putting my foot in my mouth. I should ask Seth about it.” When Percy lifted a brow, she waved him off. “ASL professor. You know,” she said after a beat, “I should give you his email address. I bet he’d do private lessons. The Zoom classes are really good, but nothing beats being able to sign with the people here. Like, there’s this café not too far from here that hires all-Deaf staff, right?”
Percy’s heart started to flutter in his chest. “Ah. Yes, I know it. Had a coffee from there.”
Alicia’s smile widened. “They’re so great, aren’t they? Well, most of them are great. This one guy who works there is in my lit class, and he kept inviting us to the café, so we went by like two weeks ago. It was cool, but the owner’s brother, Wren? He kept asking my friend out. She started to say yes, but then we found out he was literally living with my classmate. Like how are you going to literally hit on someone else in your boyfriend’s place of work?”
Percy felt his heart start to beat too fast with panic. Shitshitshit. “Oh. That’s…not good, is it?”
“He was so nice too, but it was a total dick move.”
For a moment, the only thing Percy could hear was ringing in his ears. Wren had cheated? With him?
He felt like he was going to be sick.
“Will you—” His voice cracked, and he cleared his throat. “Will you excuse me? I just remembered I’m late for something.”
He turned on his heel without waiting for her to respond and found himself walking out the front door. He made a beeline for his car before bypassing it, and it was only when he was halfway down the street that he realized where he was going.
He had to confront Wren. Percy had been on the wrong end of this in the past with his ex, and he couldn’t be the man that helped ruin someone else’s life. He was only just starting to look at himself in the mirror and feel worthy, and he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he didn’t say something.
Wren had seemed so damn genuine. He seemed so…
Kind.
He was nothing like Evan. Percy had been in the new relationship fog with him for a long while, but looking back, he could see all the signs he’d missed. Wren didn’t have any of those. So how could he do this? How could he…
Percy stopped when he realized he was standing at the edge of the little strip mall where the café sat. God, how was he going to survive with the place so damn close to his office?
He felt sick all over and took a fortifying breath before putting one foot in front of the other. All the parking spaces in front of the shop were empty, and Percy wasn’t sure if he was relieved or disappointed that there was no one in the lobby when he opened the door.
It smelled like coffee and baked goods and all things that should have comforted him. But now, it was just the scent of betrayal.
His gaze scanned the counter and landed on the very tall man who disliked him—Luke, he was pretty sure Wren had said he was called. Luke’s gaze met his, and then he scoffed loudly and turned, walking through the swinging door. Percy didn’t really have the space to deal with that though.
He approached the counter, and when he got close, he spotted two figures in the little nook off to the side of the massive espresso machine. As he leaned forward, his heart started pounding in his throat when he realized that the shorter man was Wren, and he was tenderly cupping the face of a much taller, bulkier man with brown skin and very thick black hair.
He wanted to scream. Or maybe punch something.
Instead, he just stood there like a complete ass until Wren looked over. His face did something complicated as he drew his hands away from the other man—his lover, was he? Fiancé, even?
The dark-haired barista turned and looked at Percy for a second, then signed something Percy couldn’t understand before walking through the swinging door. Percy watched as Wren took a slow breath, then affected a customer-service smile as he approached.
