Page 34 of The Light Within

Something behind Julien caught his father’s attention.

“Why don’t we ask him that himself, hmm?”

Julien twisted in his chair.

Putain.

There was a figure fumbling about at the café’s cash register. One wearing a grey hoodie and green beanie. Holding up the line by counting out dozens of small coins to pay for his order.

Cinn eventually cleared the counter, then headed towards them with a takeaway cup and paper bag in hand. Seeing Julien shooting daggers at him only enticed him over to their table rather than repelling him out the door.

“What are you doing here?” fell out of Julien’s mouth before he could stop it. “You were supposed to wait at the library.”

Cinn shrugged. “I got bored. They do good cakes here.” He held up his brownie before taking a large bite, covering his top lip with chocolate. Cinn shot a courtesy, artificial smile at Julien’s father before asking, “You almost done?”

“Oui.” Julien sent his chair flying backwards. “Père.I hope you and Carrie have a wonderful Christmas,”he said, allowing sarcasm to ooze through.

His father only looked amused.

Julien pushed Cinn towards the exit while his father relayed his festive good wishes.

“What’s your deal?” hissed Cinn.

Leading the way back to Maz, Julien checked over his shoulder that they were out of earshot. “I had the most intense conversation with him. About you. Him and the director of MEET apparently need your help on some sort of ‘project’.”

“Me?”

“He wouldn’t tell me what it was. But I don’t have a good feeling about it. I told him you weren’t interested.”

“I could play along for a bit, to see what’s what?”

Julien’s steps faltered. “Non! Are you mad? If necessary, once the office reopens in January, I can dig around. But you’re not going anywhere near either of them.”

Cinn’s attention was diverted by a tiny robin perching on a branch. He reached his hand out.

“Cinn, listen to me. Promise me you’ll keep your guard up. If he or Jonathan tries to talk to you… fuck it, ifanyonetries to talk to you—”

“Yeaph shurre shurre,” Cinn mumbled, mouth full of brownie.

“Excusez-moi?”

Cinn swallowed. “I’ll be careful. Don’t worry so much.”

“I’m sorry. But I can’t take you seriously right now. You’ve got chocolate literally all over your face.”

“Kiss it off then.” Cinn stepped towards him, puckering his lips.

Don’t tempt me.

Julien pushed him away. “You’re not treating this situation with the gravity it deserves!”

Cinn held up the last chunk of brownie to Julien’s lips. Julien opened his mouth, allowing him to feed it to him. He only chewed the overly rich dessert once before Cinn followed it up with his lips.

They exchanged chocolate kisses until the taste of cocoa was a distant memory, replaced with a lingering warm sweetness that made Julien wrap his arms around Cinn’s waist, lest he have any notion of moving away.

“I’ve got the message,” Cinn said, nuzzling into the hair near his ear. “If your dad comes near me, I’ll drop-kick him.”

“And if he kicks you back?”

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