Jacob frowned. “Why? Is something happening?”
“Dinner,” Felix said, suddenly deciding. “At my new place.”
“Oh.” Jacob sat back. “You’re moving in with Shane and Nate, then.”
“Yep.”
“Oh,” Jacob repeated. Then, after several seconds of staring into space: “That’s great.”
“Itisgreat,” Felix agreed, ignoring his heart thumping painfully in his chest. He was growing up. Putting some sensible distance between him and his childhood best friend.
Sure, Jacob didn’t want him. But he could still impress him with his new cooking skills. Hell, he could even clean up after. Prove that he was an actual adult, house-trained and everything. Jacob would be proud of him. Or at least not disappointed in him anymore. That would have to be enough.
“What’s that?” Jacob asked suddenly.
Felix looked down to where Jacob was pointing with a concerned expression. There was a smear of red icing on his hoodie. It did look a little like blood, Felix realized.
“Nothing,” Felix said, licking his finger and dabbing at it. “Had some cake before.”
This was true. He’d eaten alotof cake that morning, thanks to a crash course in Jack’s kitchen in how to make red velvet cake. The first try was awful, but the second was okay. Much like cooking, Felix actually liked baking when he knew what the hell he was doing. Unless it involved dough. Felix refused to make bread again after the previous week’s disastrous attempt.
“It’s not blood,” Felix insisted as he brought the hoodie to his mouth and sucked on the icing-stained fabric. “Quit looking at my hand like it’s gonna start peeling.”
“I’m not,” Jacob said, tearing his gaze away from Felix’s healing hand. “Have you been using the burn cream? It looks irritated.”
“It does not, it looksburned. Because it’s aburn.And it’s healing fine!”
“It’d heal better if you used the burn cream.”
“I do! I just don’t lather it on every second of every day like you want me to!”
“I don’t want you to ‘lather it on,’ I want you to use it like the directions?—”
They both fell silent when Hot Librarian himself burst out of the stacks to glare at them. He had horn-rimmed glasses and a tight shirt and didnotlike jokes about being a porn parody of a librarian, no matter how many times Felix tried them.
“Sorry,” Jacob whispered.
“We’ll be quiet,” Felix agreed.
Hot Librarian glared harder. Felix almost swooned. Tall and frowny—he had a type.
“Every time you two come in, you cause a ruckus,” Hot Librarian said. “Cut it out or I’ll add you to the banned list.”
“There’s a banned list?” Jacob asked, appalled.
“Yes,” spat Hot Librarian with a frown that rivaled Jacob’s. “And if you keep this up, you’ll find yourself on it.Be quiet.”
“Yes, sir,” Felix muttered.
He waited until Hot Librarian—who still refused to tell them his name after two years—vanished back into the stacks. Then he turned back to Jacob.
“Dude, that was so hot,” he whispered. “Want to go make out?”
Jacob narrowed his eyes at him. Trying to tell if he was joking.
“I’m serious,” Felix said, heart racing. “We’re almost out of time to finish the list.”
Jacob sat up, the tips of his ears flushing adorably red. “Wearefinished. Right?”
