Page 57 of Fool Me Twice
“Staying here long?”Rob the Copper asked.
Zig glanced at Si.“Hope so.”
Si sent him a tender look, and the female copper cooed,Aw, blessat them.
Then they went their separate ways and Zig could relax, thank God.
Si leaned in close.“He’s a decent bloke, Rob is.Not one of them racist bastards you hear about.Saw him at Pride this year with rainbow face paint.”
“There’s a Glastonbury Pride?”
“Course there is.We had a brunch this year, with a blessing by a priest of some gay Roman god.”
“There’s gay gods?”
“Blimey, where you been?Course there are.All over the place.Romans, Greeks—especially the Greeks—Egyptians, Hindus, probably a shedload I don’t know about and all.”
“Huh.I need to get back to the library.”Zig huffed a laugh.“All them old British classics I’ve read, they weren’t big on diversity.”
Si grinned.“We gotta broaden your horizons, then.”
Zig reckoned that was happening anyhow, simply by being here.Funny how he’d always thought London was as broad as it could get, but somehow, Glastonbury was making him think about stuff like he never had before.Like, London might contain multitudes, but it was easy enough to spend a whole life in one small corner.Here, they didn’t have the space to separate everything out.It was all mixed in together, King Arthur legends rubbing up againstsome gay Roman god.Zig liked it.
Zig kept an eye out for Kai, thinking they might have come to the Fayre.He didn’t see them, but there were a couple of other rough sleepers tucked discreetly around a corner.One of the men called out, “Merry Yuletide!”as they passed, and raised a steaming takeaway cup to them.Zig grinned and crouched down.“Same to you, mate.What are you drinking?Smells good.”
“Mulled wine, from the lovely lady on the stall over there.Go buy some, it’ll warm your cockles.”
“Thanks for the tip.You have a good day, mate.”Zig passed him a fiver, then rose and returned to where Si was standing watching a bloke in medieval gear doing tricks while riding a unicycle.“You up for a mulled wine?”
“Course I am.”Si slung an arm around Zig’s waist and squeezed him.
“Wait here,” Zig said, extricating himself with regret.“I’ll grab us a couple.”
The mulled wine stall was next to one selling German Christmas cookies.Zig stared at the selection, which included Lebkuchen, Spekulatius, and Zimtsterne, and opted for the least pronounceable for the hell of it.“A couple of...paffeffernusses, please?”
“Pfeffernuesse,” the young girl corrected him with a smile as she served them.
“Feffernyooser,” Zig repeated dutifully, and turned to go.
Only to find himself looking straight into the eyes of Si’s mate Adam.He swallowed.
“Quick word?”Adam’s face was unreadable.
Zig pasted on a smile.“Course.”He was glad he hadn’t got the wine first, so he still had one hand free.Then again, hot beverages could be a useful makeshift defensive weapon...
Get a grip.He’s not gonna deck you in the middle of a family crowd.
Probably.
He followed Adam to the edge of the crowd and couldn’t help noticing they’d moved farther away from Si and out of his sightline.
Pushing down his nerves, Zig decided to get the first shot in.“I’m not messing Si around, all right?And I’m not gonna hurt him.I love him.”
Adam’s eyes narrowed.“Right, cos no one’s ever hurt the one they love.”
“Hurting Si’s the last thing I want.”Zig put every ounce of the sincerity he felt into his voice.
Was that a softening in Adam’s face?He sighed.“It’s not a question of youwantingto.But you and me both know it’s gonna happen.Like it did last time.Because of who you are.”
