Page 73 of Cover Up

Dei was rushing toward Jeremiah’s office when he heard a raised voice and came to a skidding halt. He’d had the misfortune of walking in on Jeremiah and Max arguing once or twice, and the last thing he needed right then was to get involved in more of their drama.

He almost turned away, but then he heard Max all but shout, “…going to murder him. He fucking broke my best friend’s heart. You have to fire him. I don’t care if you don’t have a chef. I’ll learn to cook and take his place.”

“Babe…”

“Don’t babe me. You don’t hurt my friends, Jer. You just don’t.”

Dei sagged forward, his forehead thudding against the wall as his worst nightmare came true. He’d been balls to the wall busy when he’d sent Felix the text that morning, and it had taken him all day to be able to look at his reply. The response had been short and terse—exactly what Dei hadn’t expected, and it took him another ten minutes before he realized what he’d done wrong.

He had meant they needed to talk—but not because he wanted to end things. He needed Felix to know that space was the last thing he wanted. He needed to be with him. When he came home from a long day at work or a painful day with his mother, he didn’t want to be alone anymore.

He had no goddamn desire to be an island.

But he’d fucked up. He tried texting Felix, but the messages remained undelivered, so either his phone was off, or he’d been blocked. And right now, a very pissed-off Max was his only hope in fixing it. He just had to be able to explain himself before Max murdered him.

His hand trembled as he reached for the door and slowly pushed inside.

“Hey…”

“You,” Max said in a low growl, shooting up to his feet from where he’d been perched on Jeremiah’s desk.

Jeremiah had his eyes closed, his hand pinching the bridge of his nose. “Please don’t make me sit here for this.”

“I’m gonna need a witness. An alibi,” Max said.

“They won’t take my word for shit, babe. I’m blind,” Jeremiah reminded him.

“That’s ableist and bullshit,” Max said. “And I know you wouldn’t tolerate that crap, so try again.”

Dei put up his hand in surrender. “Hey, listen. For what it’s worth, I know I fucked up, but I didn’t mean to. We got hit with a reservation for three tour busses who asked us to cater, and your boyfriend there said yes.”

Jeremiah opened his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. “I gotta pay y’all, don’t I?”

Dei sighed and ignored him, turning his attention back to Max. “I wasn’t thinking. I wanted to pick him up and tell him that I’m in love with him and that space is stupid. I just said it all wrong, and now he’s not answering my texts.”

Max stared at him for a long, long while before sagging against the desk. “God. Why are men such emotional morons?”

Dei shrugged and offered him a hopeful smile. “Wish I could tell you, but the only answer I want right now is to know that I can fix this.”

“You can fix this,” Max said, rolling his eyes. “That fucker is so in love with you, you could probably run over his feet with your car, and he’d make sure you weren’t feeling bad about it.”

Dei wanted to argue, but he knew it was true. Mostly because he felt the same way. “Did he block me?”

“He probably turned his phone off. He didn’t want to meet with you tonight because he wanted one more day to say you were his.”

“Fuck,” Dei whispered, clutching at his sternum. He loved Felix so goddamn much, and the idea that he was hurting was threatening to send him over the edge. “Is he home? Do you know if—”

“He went out with Jamie,” Max cut in.

Dei’s face pinked. “Like a date?”

Max blinked, then burst into laughter. “No, you absolute fucking nightmare. Jamie took him to the Sea Sanctuary to feed the dolphins or whatever and distract him from how shitty he feels.”

Dei rubbed his face, then dropped his hand to his side. “Should I go over there?”

“It’s closed, bud,” Jeremiah cut in.

“Then I’ll wait,” Dei said firmly. “I’ll sleep in the goddamn parking lot if I have to, but I can’t let him think… God, I fucked up so badly, and I can’t let him think I wouldn’t offer him the universe if I had the means to do it. I just need to finish cleaning up the mess after that service, and—”

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