Page 10 of Demon's Heart
Harper shrugged. “I’ve never played.”
“Really?” Ollie was sure Harper hadn’t mentioned that before.
“I never had a chance. We didn’t have anything like this where I grew up. It wasn’t the kind of thing my family wanted me doing.” Dark emotion flashed across Harper’s face before disappearing as he turned back to his food.
“You should give it a try,” Dex offered. He didn’t know the details of Harper’s family situation but always opted to encourage people. “We can do a racing game and take turns playing the winner.”
Ollie nudged Harper. “Go on. Plus, when you lose, you can eat your cinnamon roll while you wait for another turn, and is that really losing?”
Harper set his plate aside. “All right, good point. But this might be painful to watch. I won’t even know what buttons to push.”
It was more hilarious than painful. Harper couldn’t seem to stop waving his arms and moving his whole body when he turned. Ollie’s stomach ached from laughing.
“There’s too many barriers,” Harper whined as he smashed into a wall.
Dex’s car shot past him. “Look how much fun you’re having.”
Harper laughed as he rear-ended another car. “Yeah, but I need a lot of practice. I don’t even know how to drive in real life.”
Ollie polished off the last of his cinnamon roll. “I don’t think it would help. I haven’t driven in at least a year, and I’m great at this game.”
He borrowed his parents’ car when he was home to visit, but there was no way he’d keep a vehicle in the city.
At the end of the race, Harper forfeited the controller to Ollie.
“Speaking of, I think I’m going to sell my parents’ car,” Dex said way too casually. “That way, I can rent out the parking spot.”
Ollie put the controller down and faced him. “Are you sure?”
Dex averted his gaze. “I don’t use it, so there’s no point keeping it. I figured it was time.”
Ollie’s chest pinched. Dex holding on to the car had always been more sentimental than practical. “You ready for that?”
Dex cleared his throat. “Yeah. I am. I dunno. I might sell the condo too.”
Ollie’s eyes widened.
“Not right now,” Dex hurried to say before focusing on the controller in his hands. “I’ve changed my mind on the whole thing. I wish I’d made this decision a year ago and moved in with you. Then you’d never have met Kirt.”
Ollie wrinkled his nose. “That would have been nice, but I refused to move in with you first. So Kirt is on me. Besides, we wouldn’t have met Harper if that whole thing hadn’t left me with a room to fill.”
Dex lived in his late parents’ condo and had offered Ollie a room for free the last time he’d been looking. They’d lived together after Ollie left Brayden years ago, but Ollie hadn’t wanted to move in with Dex again.
They were best friends, but Ollie still needed space. Independence helped him feel like his own person. Not that Dex ever tried to change him. But he couldn’t move in with Dex just because Dex wanted him to, and Dex understood why Ollie didn’t do it.
Too bad that particular shot at independence had turned into Ollie latching onto his roommate Kirt, sleeping with him, and ending up with another guy who used him.
But that was over. And the months between Kirt moving out and Harper moving in had been a good adjustment. Even if it had been lonely as fuck living by himself.
“I still can’t believe how lucky I was, moving in with you,” Harper said.
“Yeah, it must have been fate or something.” Ollie laughed.
Harper cocked his head like he was seriously considering fate playing a role. Who knew? Maybe Harper believed in fate. Ollie hadn’t asked for details about what his family’s cultbelieved or what mystical things Harper might still subscribe to, even if he’d clearly left all the Satan worship behind.
Harper’s phone dinged and he shook himself out of his thoughts. A tiny smile appeared on his lips as he read the message. “Do you guys want to go to an art show this Friday?”
Dex’s face lit up. “Yeah, totally. What kind of art?”
