Page 58 of Fool Me Twice
“And who am I, then?”
“You’re a chancer.You think the rules don’t apply to you.”
And here it came.“Thinking of any rules in particular?”
“Since you ask, yeah.The ones relating to property ownership, for a start.Come on, are you seriously gonna deny you were one of the bastards who did my dad’s site over?”
Part of Zig, the side of him that always came out when he was with Trent, or Dad, or anyone he wanted to impress, wanted to say,Oi, that was six years ago.Let it go, already, can’t ya?
He didn’t like that side of himself very much, so he took a breath before he spoke, and let the honesty come out.“All right, so I was a bit of a shit when I was a teenager.But for what it’s worth, I didn’t know about the raid on your dad’s until afterwards.Swear it.On Si’s life, and you know that’s an oath I wouldn’t take in vain.”
“Do I?”Adam countered, but it sounded like he was going through the motions.He sighed again.“Swear to me you’re not involved in anything illegal anymore.”
“Hand to heart.”Zig smiled wryly, holding his bag of pfeffernuesse to his chest.“Learned me lesson, didn’t I?”
“Did you?”
“God’s truth.”He meant it too, and maybe that came across, as the tension in Adam’s frame relaxed.
“Guess I’ll see you around, then.”Adam turned and walked away.
Zig let out a ragged breath and went back to the mulled wine stall, needing a drink more than ever.Juggling his purchases in hands that, okay, might have been a little shaky, he returned to Si, who flashed him a fond smile.“Bit of a queue, was there?Shame.You missed him standing on his head on that thing.”
Zig shot the unicyclist a frankly disbelieving look.“How does that even work?Never mind.Here, have a feffernoose.”
The cookies he’d bought, which were round and covered in an all-over dusting of icing sugar, turned out to be sweet and spicy, with a tart orange flavour, and went well with the mulled wine.The food and alcohol doing their calming work, Zig glanced over at Si, and huffed a laugh, his breath steaming in the cold air.“You’ve got icing sugar in your beard.”
Si laughed too.“Can’t take me anywhere, can you?”
Zig wanted to take himeverywhere.“Come here.”He gently dusted the white specks away from around Si’s lips, and then, because he could, dropped a kiss on them.
There was a softAwwwfrom a girl standing next to them.Smiling, Zig took Si’s arm and they turned to walk on—only to find themselves faced with Adam, now joined by his bloke, Corin.
Si breathed in audibly.
Nobody spoke.Zig could feel the tension in Si’s body; Corin’s face was twisted in discomfort.Adam looked confused.Zig gave a mental eye roll, guessing they were pretending that little heart-to-heart hadn’t happened.“All right, you two?”
It broke the spell.“Yeah, we’re good,” Adam said, still staring at them oddly.“Uh, you?”
“Never better,” Zig said with a tight smile.“No Sasha tonight?”
“She’s still working.Didn’t want to close the studio early.”
“Nice of her to let you out to play, then.”
Adam nodded.There was a brief silence, and frankly Zig thought he’d done his bit.Up to the rest of them if they wanted to break it.
“Are you working tonight?”Corin asked awkwardly.
Zig nodded.“No rest, and all that.See you in there later?”
Corin brightened.“Maybe.We haven’t really made plans.”
“Uh...”Adam’s gaze darted to Si and then back to Zig.“Not tonight.Another time, though.You, uh”—and now he was looking at Si again—“you take care, okay?”
“Right,” Si said.It came out hoarse, maybe cos he’d been silent so long.“You too.”
Adam nodded, and he and Corin walked away.
