Page 63 of Five to Love Him
“No, come on, you don’t have to know anything.” Xander stood in the center of his studio where the wall of mirrors doubled his reflection. He put his hand on his hip and looked at us over the counter that divided the training space from the desks. “I want to know whether I can harness a vibe here.”
“You mean you want to know whether you look hot enough people will watch and like?” Adam asked.
We decided to focus our attention elsewhere. We told Leo how much we liked holding him while we mentally prepared to ask him to be allowed to continue his grandmother’s business.
After all, he’d given us his promise that he wouldn’t say no.
twenty-eight
“Oh man, I can’t believe it’s still so hot and muggy,” Tate said as we finally left the classroom behind us. “Ezra said he was going to go to the university pool. I should have just skipped class and gone with him.”
“I heard that, Mr. Moore,” Instructor Arick said from inside the room, the voices from both of his heads echoing after us.
“Oops. Sorry, Instructor Arick,” Tate called as we fell in step, Tate, me, two hivelings.
“It’s not too bad inside the building,” the hive said.
I nodded. “Yeah. Although cooling down would be nice. What was that about a thunderstorm later today? Or ice cream. Hive, you made that sorbet, right?”
“Yes, with pineapple and mint. We’ve never tried this particular recipe before.”
Other students walked past us as Tate slowed. His face looked like a light bulb had lit up.
“I know what we should do.”
“Head back to mine and have some fancy sorbet?” I asked.
“We made enough for seven, easily,” the hive said. They really were spoiling me.
Tate shook his head, put a finger to his lips, and gestured for us to follow him into a bathroom.
“What—”
“Shh!”
Tate grabbed me by the elbow—his own damn fault, I was sweaty all over—and pulled me along. That meant the hive kept very close though they knew I thought it was too hot for touching constantly, so they didn’t.
“Tate, what the fuck,” I asked as the lot of us stepped into the bathroom.
“I have an idea,” Tate said. “Hello? Any ladies or gentlemen in here?”
He bent over to look underneath the stalls while the hive and I stood in front of the urinals.
I sighed and decided to wash my hands and face with some cold water.
“I don’t think there’s anyone here,” the hive said as I turned on the water.
“Oh, good idea about the water, Leo. That way Instructor Arick definitely won’t hear.”
“Hear what?” the hive and I said together. They shrugged at me, meeting my eyes in the mirror.
“We are going to the Dazzle. I’m going to need your guys’s help for Ezra’s birthday surprise party, and this is as good a time as any to plan. He gets so grumpy around his birthday, and he wouldn’t ever even tell me when it was, so I had to get really creative in the first place, but I got him to tell me the month at least.”
I let the water fill the bowl of my hands and dunked my face, enjoying the cool liquid. “Tate, if he doesn’t want you to know his birthday and if he gets grumpy around this time of year, then maybe that’s because he doesn’t want to celebrate it.”
Tate shook his head and crossed his arms. “No, that’s not it. He said it was something about his family. They don’t like celebrating anyone’s birthday, so he doesn’t want to do it, but he told me it was in early fall. October, he said, but you wouldn’t believe the amount of begging that went into getting that confession. Anyway, we’re going to make it a really special day for him, fuck family tradition.”
“We can save you a table for today,” the hive said. “And our boss at the Dazzle has been looking forward to meeting you, Leo. We like the idea of going.”
