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Kai sucked in a painful breath and looked away. “Then we be as straight as possible without breakingThe Rule. But I’m not pissing him about. He’s a good kid.”
Quint frowned, then leaned close, that same fight for the survival of their relationship winning through. “We do it properly. And that means doing the decent thing by breaking it off between me and Leo, if it hasn’t been broken already. And then…? Then we figure the rest out.”
Kai nodded, but then fell quiet for a moment. “I think I have a plan.”
ChapterTwenty-Seven
Leo kicked the flattened Coke can all the way up Kingly Street until he frustratingly lost it as it fell victim to a drain.
He wasn’t even sure why he was so angry. There seemed to be some unspoken connection between Kai and Quint that Leo sensed but didn’t fully understand. It was like they were members of some secret club or something. He’d seen Quint behave in the same way before when he knelt by the dying man at the zoo.
Yet it was different between Quint and Kai, almost like watching two people fall in lust with each other for the first time even though they’d loved each other for so much longer.
Perhaps it was something to do with Quint’s psychic ability? Was Kai another of his ‘past-life’ lovers, or was that simply a ruse he used to get what he wanted? He shivered it away, focussing on his empty belly for now.
He stumbled across a late-night patisserie just off of Carnaby Street and the coin toss between drinking or eating his sorrows away let cake seize the day.
The warmth of the indoors hugged Leo’s face as he entered the patisserie, the array of cakes behind the glass counter in front of him making his mouth water and his stomach sing.
He toyed with the abundance of choice laid out before him, cakes decorated with finely sculpted chocolate, candies or glazed fruits, sliced and displayed meticulously, adding to the visual orgasm Leo was having.
“I’d strongly urge you to go for the Black Forest one,” came a voice from one of the tables behind him.
As Leo turned around, the man went from being polite to?—
“Whoa, you… you’re... Konshus? From TikTok, I mean?” The man scrambled for his phone in an attempt to prove to Leo who he was as he came over.
Leo smiled and humbly pointed to himself. “Guilty. Sorry to put you through all my nonsense,” he said, placing his palms together, mock-begging for forgiveness.
“Where’s the other guy? The grumpy one?”
Leo spat out a bitter laugh. Yeah, that was Kai. But then he remembered he was still pissed off with him. “Living it up in some member’s club. La-di-da, eh?”
The man laughed, and it sounded so good on him, almost musical. “Bet they don’t have cake quite like this lot, though,” he said.
Leo inspected the rows of cakes in front of him and smiled. “No. No they don’t.” He slid a look to the man, the shine in his eyes. “I think Iwillgo for the Black Forest after all.”
“You honestly won’t regret it. You can er… join me if you like? If you’re not busy, or don’t have to get back to the Grinch?”
Leo laughed at Kai’s new nickname and ordered a slice of Black Forest with an oat milk flat white and moved back to the man’s table and sat with him.
He was quite clean-cut, wearing a black, floral short-sleeved shirt buttoned up to the top. The wooden frame of his retro-styled glasses intensified his deep brown eyes, and his flat cap was perched atop his head, completing that chic East-London look like a Flake would an ice-cream. Tattoos crept out from beneath his shirt with intricate designs of beasts and they really helped sell the look. “Is that a Beholder?” He shuffled himself closer over the table to get a better look.
Odd. Leo wrinkled his nose. He kind of smelt like Quint. A frown came his way off the man too, almost as if he knew Quint. Which was stupid.
Then the man’s eyes widened and he smiled. “You’re a geek as well?”
Leo rolled up his sleeve to reveal his version of the mythical creature on his forearm. “Yeah, and proud, mate,” he said. “This is turning into such a weird night.”
“How’s that?” The man leaned forward.
“Just some weird stuff has been going on. People acting odd all around me, now this little coincidence.”
“Keeps life interesting, though, doesn’t it? Now we’ve got something to talk about. That is if you fancy chatting?” The man oozed nervousness now.
The patisserie owner chose that moment to come over to drop off Leo’s slice of cake and his coffee, breaking through the bit of awkwardness that was threatening to come between them.
“We do, indeed,” said Leo, stirring his coffee, disintegrating the intricate patterns in the foam. “I’m Leo, by the way.”
