Page 25 of Fated Mates and How to Seduce Them
“Mm, I thought about it, since she’s more comfortable with others now, but it would mean a two-hour journey for her. I have to take a bus most of the way out of the city with a few transfers, then a rideshare the rest of the way. That’s a bit much to ask of a cat.”
“Or you could just let me take both of you, make it more like an hour.” André tilted his head up and over his shoulder to look at Ian. “I’ll be going out there Saturday anyway.”
Ian got that strange look on his face, like he couldn’t fully understand what André was saying. “Don’t you have friends to hang out with on the weekends? You used to spend almost every weekend at the bar, and you had that one guy who often hung out with you.”
He probably asked because André had spent the past several weekends at Second Sun, and he now only stopped by the bar to chat with Ian before leaving. “Eh…sorta. Not really? I spent most of my childhood and teenage years outside of America. Mom loves spending time with family, but work kept taking her to France and different countries, so she always took me with her. Well, me and whatever tutor spoke the local language.”
“Not you and your brother?”
“I mean, when she could convince Benedict to go, he did. But most of the time, Benedict refused to leave Felix, so he stayed. At the time, Felix still lived with his parents, who refused to let him travel. You’ll discover Felix and Benedict are basically joined at the hip. I think only a nuclear bomb could separate them. Anyway, because I didn’t really grow up in this country, I don’t have a lot of close friends here. Most of my friends are also Benedict’s friends.”
Especially after the fallout with the psycho wanting to play chemist, he didn’t feel comfortable hanging out with Todd anymore. Todd had tried to play it off, saying “you’re a vampire, it couldn’t be that bad” and “she just liked you dude, chill.” Which had obviously ended the friendship. Not like André needed a wingman anymore.
Ian sat on this information for a second. “So you’ve only really stayed in country when you started college.”
“Yeah, basically. I put my foot down, told my parents I wanted to stay in country while I pursued my degree. I’m tired of going all over the place. If it’s any longer than a vacation, I’m not going.”
“On paper, living that kind of life sounds like a dream. But I suppose it does come with its cons.”
“That it does. Besides, going out to the group home is fun. I need to check up on the repairs of the building anyway, but I promised some of the kids I’d help with their homework. Will and Luke both are failing French. I’m bringing the secret weapon to help tutor them.”
Ian blinked down at him. “Secret weapon?”
“Cartoons.” André grinned when Ian snorted. “No, seriously, the best way to absorb words and phrases is to hear them repeated often by a native speaker. Aside from going to the country itself, cartoons and movies are the second-best option. If the kids spend, like, an hour a day watching something, trying to decipher what the speaker is saying, it’ll help a bunch.”
“Of course, you’ll bring a fun way to do it.”
André shrugged. “It’s when it’s fun that things stick. So what do you say, ride with me?”
Ian hesitated for only a second before shrugging. “Fine.”
André kept his shout of victory clamped behind his teeth. Yes! Ian was definitely softening. He turned back to playing with Casper to hide his grin. It would give the game away just then.
“André, tell me if this isn’t my business, but…you said your brother and Felix were inseparable.”
André had no idea where he was going with this, but there wasn’t anything Ian could ask that he would refuse to answer. “Yeah?”
“I saw the video going around campus last year, where Benedict asked Felix out in the middle of the courtyard.”
“I think everyone and their dog saw that video. What about it?”
“Your parents didn’t mind?”
André suddenly had a lot more investment in this conversation. Was Ian subtly asking what he hoped he was asking? Or had André read too much into it? He wasn’t looking at Ian right now, but the inflection of his voice and the scent of him suggested nervousness. Oh-ho, what was this? “No, my parents didn’t mind. My mom basically said the polite version of ‘fucking finally’ because we all could tell those two were in love with each other. Why it took them this long to get together is a mystery. I mean, they’re childhood best friends turned lovers and go all the way back to a time when they were both in diapers, so maybe it took a minute for the lust to kick in and make things obvious.”
“Oh.” Unable to hold back any longer, André glanced at Ian again, and his expression was this cross between curiosity and something André couldn’t quite read. Was it interest? Hope?
“Why?”
Ian turned away, suddenly fascinated by the lint on his comforter. “No reason. Just curious.”
André wanted to press the point but chose to bide his time instead. If Ian was checking to see if his parents were against their sons having male partners, then it was an excellent sign for André. It was a concern Ian had briefly mentioned before, but the subtle emotion behind the question had shifted.
If there was anything he’d learned over the past few weeks, it was that Ian was as cautious as André was impulsive. He wasn’t sure if it was nature or nurture, but Ian never committed to anything unless he’d felt his way into it first. He wanted a full grasp of the situation before deciding what to do. Perhaps asking a question like this meant he was thinking about dating André after all and not just humoring him by hanging out.
The thought made André ridiculously happy.
Chapter 8
