18. Leo
18
LEO
“ H ow’d you know it was my birthday?” Sage sniffed. “And the tea.”
Leo rolled his eyes. Emotional little thing. It only took the tiniest of digging to find out Tavy was away at another tournament and Roz was hired to do a live wedding painting three hundred miles away.
And that was it. Those were her friends.
“The tea,” Leo said, copying her exaggerated tone, “was quite tricky to procure considering there is only one manufacturer and they no longer sell retail and only sell wholesale to a few select establishments.”
“Yeah,” Sage said. She opened the tea tin and inhaled. “I have been rationing the last bit I had for months."
"I am aware. Quite the sad sight to see.” She occasionally opened her old tea tin of tea, took a deep sniff, smiled, and put it in the far corner of her tea cabinet. He’d only seen her make one cup and that was after a particularly rough day of streaming, when the bots and spammers were particularly gruesome.
“Where did you get this!”
Leo shrugged. “I have my ways. Mostly sweet talking to the ladies at the club.” That was grossly simplifying it. He pretty much begged, borrowed, and flirted his way into nabbing a tea tin for his tea-loving Subject.
“This—” She sniffed again and opened the tin, inhaling the tea leaves. Then she capsized his world for a moment because she set the tin aside, took two steps toward him, and hugged him. Like actually wrapped her arms around him and squeezed. It was like a real embrace and for a moment he considered reciprocating, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her even closer so he could smell her hair (what? It smelled like strawberries).
So he did. He allowed himself a moment to hold her close. But only a moment. Then he remembered he was a Professional. And she was his Subject. So, he peeled his arms away and settled for patting her shoulder like he would pet the rat-dog.
“You’re welcome.”
She took a step back and grabbed the tea tin, holding it close to her in one hand, like a baby on her hip, while she pulled the mug toward her. “Tavy and Roz are out of town.” She sniffed again. “Cutting onions?”
“Yes,” Leo lied.
“Ah, figures.” She wiped her teary eyes again. “We normally do something but not this year. I mean, we’ll go out or something when they get back but this?—”
“You’re welcome. Now, let’s eat.”
“I can’t—” She looked upstairs. “I told another streamer I’d pop into their game. Another practice match. You know how it goes?—”
He did. She had been busy, downright avoiding him if he thought about it. Part of that delicate balance between them was him cooking and them hanging out for just a little bit so he didn't go insane in this creepy house by himself. He even started talking to the rat. He was slowly running out of home improvement projects. He updated the system of the agency's computer tracking several times over, so much so that his boss asked him to slow down so the other servers could catch up. Plus, in between the arguments over dumb stuff (like really, why did she have to be team orange when tangerines were far superior, and don’t even get him started on her Smash Bros opinions), they could have some fun conversations.
“No,” he said. “Go for it. Have a good stream.”
But divine intervention was on his side and just as he finished his last words, the power went out.
“Hello?” Sage yelled.
“The power went out, I didn’t evaporate!” Leo said, grabbing his ringing ears.
“Where are you?” she shouted again.
“Good grief, right in front of you.” She smacked his chin with her mug. “Ouch. Yes, right there. Just stop moving.” He rummaged around one of her many junk drawers and pulled out a flashlight and shone it in her face. She took a step back into the stove, shrieked, and ran into him.
“Ouch.” She rubbed her backside.
“Just stop moving for two seconds!”
“What about Squash! ”
“She’s already mostly blind. This is her normal life.”
“I think the power went out.”
“Shocker.” Leo rolled his eyes so hard he hoped she’d hear it. “I know you don’t have a generator so it looks like a candlelit dinner and some good old-fashioned conversation for your entertainment tonight, birthday girl.”
Squash found them in the dark but tumbled down the stairs in the process. The rat bounced well and showed no signs of injury and was more than happy to twist under Leo’s feet in hopes that he would drop a piece of steak (which he did, the poor thing didn’t have much to live for so who was he to deny the thing it’s last meal?) and Leo finally got the food plated and candles lit.
All in all, it looked pretty cozy, especially after he got a fire roaring in the fireplace. It felt like the final goodbye to winter, the final fire of the season, and tomorrow any remaining snow and ice would melt and be replaced by flowers.
They sat on the floor, using the coffee table as their table.
“This is so good,” Sage said, chomping down on another piece of asparagus. “You’ll have to teach me how to do this so when you’re gone I can still have some sort of vegetable in my life.”
Leo rolled his eyes. “Love, that is cooked in butter and prosciutto and topped with parmesan. It’s not exactly the best thing for you.”
She held up an asparagus with her fingers. “So, this is just a vessel for the good stuff.”
Leo laughed and started in on his steak. He was lucky the lights went out after he had finished dinner otherwise he’d be cooking by candlelight and that didn’t seem nearly as fun. What was fun was seeing Sage illuminated by the glow of the fire, a gentle smile on her face, and the tea tin next to her. She touched it every so often, as if to make sure it wasn’t a dream and that he had really gotten her the elusive and favorite tea of hers.
“I can’t believe you did this,” she said, whispering to the tea tin. She pointed her fork at him. “You must tell me your secrets!”
“Cannot. I need some bribing power in the future considering how long this job is going.”
Her face faltered. “Yeah, so strange. But the competition will come and go and everything will be okay. You’ll go back to your big fancy D.C. statesman and actually have some real action.”
Leo scoffed. “I’d say that you have given me enough of a headache. And the agency called and asked me to come out for a high-profile oil guy flying in next week.”
“Oh?” Her face was hard to read, but her eyes jumped from the fire to the asparagus, to his eyes, and back to the fire.
“I said it would be too much of a hassle to train a new guy to take my place here.” It was true. The call had caught him off guard and while he had been yearning for some action, something to keep his mind sharp, he’d also fallen into a routine here. He hadn’t had one of those in years. It wasn’t domesticity, but it was nice knowing what his day-to-day was going to look like. Sure, it got a little old at times but he had the umbrella flapping job to keep him busy and he went on the hunt for Filbert the other day when his caregiver lost him. (Filbert had been wandering the local orchard picking up apples to feed to the ducks at the pond and had gotten a little turned around.)
But maybe, deep down under his (impressive) muscle and hidden behind his heart was a small piece of him that wanted to spend more time with this woman.
“Too much of a hassle?” Sage prompted.
Leo shrugged. “Told him there were certain demands the Subject made that would be difficult to train on such short notice. I’m very deep undercover so it just wouldn’t do to have a new person jump into that role.”
“Bob is very well established.”
“Plus, I think I am in a few of your social media photos and people have begun to speculate about my role.”
“True,” Sage said. “Wouldn’t want people thinking I already fired my assistant, Bob. Not good for the brand image.”
“Exactly.” Leo nodded. “It would just unravel the whole balancing act we have created. So, I am afraid you are stuck with me until you win this competition thingy.”
Sage nodded, biting back a smile. “I appreciate your sacrifice in the name of maintaining the balance.”
“To the equilibrium,” Leo said, raising his water in a toast.
Sage clinked her mug against his. “The equilibrium!”
Except Leo’s equilibrium was slipping. Tipping. Totally off-kilter. The balancing act was getting harder to maintain.
What was this thing he was feeling? Admiration, dare he say…fondness? No, this was Sage. There was no room for these…emotions.
It must be the asparagus. Stupid of him to have an aphrodisiac on a date. Except it wasn’t a date, obviously. It was a birthday dinner. He was only being nice. But he could have made the table nicer, like added flowers and some music. And music would lend itself to the idea of dancing. Dancing was always fun and definitely the sort of thing one might do at a candlelit birthday dinner in the dark…
This was clearly the asparagus talking.
He was always sensitive to substances. It’s why he didn’t drink, he didn’t like feeling floaty or out of control. It’s why he didn’t take allergy medication, even the non-drowsy stuff would put him in a slumber. Now he had to cross asparagus off the list because it, too, was making him feel floaty. His head was in the clouds and he had trouble focusing on anything other than the stunning and beautiful (the asparagus’s words) woman in front of him.
Sage sighed, sipping her tea, leaning against the couch. “Thank you for this.” She gestured to her now empty plate. “And this.” She lifted her mug. “It’s silly that tea could bring me to tears but it was the first tea George made me after a panic attack. I know it’s more of a placebo than anything, but whenever I feel nervous or on the edge of losing it, this tea just feels like the perfect medicine.”
“I’m like that with watermelon.”
Sage snorted. “What?”
Leo shrugged, leaning back, and smiling. “Not necessarily moved to tears but watermelon was always served at picnics and family events. I had cousins and places to escape to and outside and sunshine. And there was always watermelon. Takes me back to simpler times.” The words poured out of him and suddenly nothing sounded better than a cool, crisp watermelon slice.
“I don’t have cousins. Just Cherry.”
“Your brother.” He wanted to add “the jailbird” but held his tongue.
Sage nodded. “Yeah. We were close until he went off to join the circus.”
Leo laughed. “I was like that with my sister but I felt like she and I actually got closer when she decided to do something crazy and be a stunt double.”
Sage laughed but shook her head. “No, I literally mean he joined a circus. He was a pretty good juggler I guess. Swords. He’s only missing two fingers now.”
Leo couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows. “Well then. Here’s to crazy siblings and tea.”
Sage beamed and sipped her tea, closing her eyes and letting her head roll back. It was like she was in this intense moment of joy and Leo suddenly felt hot and uncomfortable as if he were intruding on a private moment but he couldn’t stop staring at her face and the way the glow of the fire made it light up.
It was definitely the asparagus making him crazy.
They sat like that for a while, enjoying the crackling of the fire. Squash even found her way to Leo’s lap nearest to the fire and circled up next to him. Sage looked on in complete awe and maybe with a hint of jealousy.
“What can I say?” Leo whispered (he didn’t want to scare the rat away and have it accidentally scurry into the fire in its blind state). “I am the rodent whisperer.”
“They can always find a leader in their own kind,” Sage said.
Before he could respond she grabbed their dishes and set them in the sink, returning with a carton of ice cream. “Since the power is out, we should probably not risk this melting.”
“You know it could last a long while in the freezer as is so long as you don’t open the door too many times?—”
“It’s a sacrifice we must make!” She tossed a spoon at him.
There was something special about sharing a tub of ice cream with Sage. It put them on an even playing field. Neither one was trying to prove their job was important to one another. Neither one searching for the next sarcastic thing to say. Just staring into the glowing fire, scooping ice cream. This was something friends might do. Close friends.
That dang asparagus was making him floaty again.
And when the ice cream had been consumed and the candles died down, they bid each other goodnight (Sage did the initial bidding) it occurred to Leo it was time to do some research.
Turns out asparagus isn’t an aphrodisiac after all.
L eo woke with a harsh reminder that asparagus hadn’t actually betrayed him but instead, it was his own…emotion. Most people had several of those things (feelings) but Leo prided himself on only being able to fe el one thing at a time. It made him sharper. More focused. Which was an issue when his head continued to go all floaty when he smelled strawberry shampoo lingering on the couch or heard laughing upstairs. He needed to get his head in the game. So, he texted her that he was going on a run around the neighborhood after he checked the perimeter and power problems.
She liked his text which almost seemed worse than a simple “K” but he was determined to outrun this feeling (undefined at this moment in time).
Admiration was a normal thing.
And he was a little starved for friends. Sure, he had a few he kept in contact with, he even got a chance to meet up with some old buddies during his stay here, but it was all surface-level. His closest friend was Tess and she seemed to be hiding something major from him anyway so how close were they really?
After walking half a block he decided he was warm enough (maybe it was just the pent-up energy) and he took off down the street. His legs burned. It always took his bad knee a few blocks to go from an agonizing pain to just a dull throb. He was almost there.
Today’s podcast was all about revolutions. Specifically the moons that revolve around Jupiter. But he was stuck on the root word here. Revolve. Everything revolved around something. Someone. Why did Sage’s face pop into his mind?
His life always revolved around someone else. First, it was his parents. Making them happy. Keeping the peace. Then it was the military. It seemed like a good thing to do. His dad had been a career man and had done well for himself. Military and then medicine. But that exploded. Literally.
“Sorry Dad, the idea of going through med school just to kill myself as a doctor makes me want to take a long walk off a short pier” just didn’t seem like the right move to make especially considering he had no idea what he actually wanted to do with his life.
Sure, he was good with technology but where would that take him? Did he even enjoy living out of a suitcase? He’d done it for years now and it just seemed…normal.
He shook the feeling of frustration away and moved on to feeling confused. Where was he going in life?
Around the block again, apparently.
A new feeling overcame him. Curiosity. Why were all the porch lights still on in the neighborhood? Why could he hear the hum of heaters in the early morning? Why were there glowing windows? And most importantly, why was their house the only one without power? (He would later reflect upon his use of “their” in that thought—like he was some domesticated rat or something but at the present he had no time since he was being a macho sleuth.)
It only took him a few minutes to discover the source of the issue. The breaker box lines had been cut. When he, early this morning, went to check on the breaker box to flip the switches in hopes of getting the power back, he had been so lost in his own feeling (of admiration—not any other nonsense like…. liking ) that he had totally missed, just feet away, the severed lines .
He needed to Get. A. Grip.
A professional didn’t act this way. A professional didn’t get floaty and goofy over a candlelit dinner and a gamer girl. She was just an adult teenager trying to avoid hard work. But deep down even he knew that wasn’t true. She had a business mindset and yeah, it was kind of cool that she got to live out every teenage boy’s fantasy of playing games all day.
There he was. Getting all…floaty again.
It only took a few minutes to call the right people to ensure that the power would be restored and lines repaired, but it was still unsettling.
Someone had been outside. Someone had been there. And why hadn’t his blasted cameras caught it?
Leo decided not to tell Sage what had happened. He explained that someone would be coming out to fix the lines and she could just work from her phone. She chatted with Jared and Lily going over the plan for the next (quickly approaching) gaming event. She was sequestered in her room (avoiding him maybe?) and didn’t come out much so he was spared having to explain why her house was the only one on the block getting work done to it.
He checked the cameras. And double-checked them. Then put in a formal complaint to the company that set them up and acquired his own cameras (with his own money) to actually get them working right. The stream was better, clearer, and more accurate. For having such a techy brain, he was letting the protocols of the agency stand in his way of good quality. It felt good to get back into the headspace of a tech guy and to get back to the gritty part of protection work. No more of this making dinner and watching movies and domesticated-type life. It was back to business.
Now if only he could figure out a way to anchor himself to the floor…
T he following days passed in a blur and Leo was kept busy running and prepping for the next gaming event. He had secured nice connecting rooms at the hotel where the event would be held. This one was a much larger convention, kind of like a comic con for gamers, and Sage was expected to be on several panels. It was going to be a busy weekend for sure, and he was doing his due diligence to know the place inside and out. As her bodyguard. Not as her personal assistant, though he was now realizing the line between the two blended often enough to get confusing to anyone looking in at their weird partnership.
“You were really going to drive by yourself?” Leo asked as they boarded the plane.
Sage shrugged. She wore jeans (practical) and a sweatshirt with the LilyTech logo (finally something not dog-related). “I was going to take two days and maybe take Squash with me. But the vet recommended she stay home.”
Leo nodded. “It would be a shame for it to die abroad.”
“Shut up. Roz is stoked to have her at her place.” Roz loved Squash but was very adamant about not staying in the “house that could eat people” by herself.
“Where are you going?” Leo asked as she continued down the aisle of the busy plane.
“To the seat Jared booked for me?” Sage said. She hoisted her overstuffed backpack on her shoulder and held her tote bag in front of her (white with patterns of pumpkins and Squash). She frantically pulled out her phone, probably looking for her seat.
Leo shook his head, lifted the backpack off her shoulders, and put it in the overhead. “We fly first class, Love. I already changed your ticket.”
“What?” she squeaked.
Leo gestured for her to sit next to the window and she slid in, open-mouthed, glancing around like she was a naughty kid about to get in trouble for trespassing.
“For being such an anxious traveler, I’m surprised you didn’t see your boarding pass changed.” Leo shoved their bags overhead and took the aisle seat.
Sage opened the window. “Jared booked the ticket weeks ago. I just had it memorized…”
“Nervous traveler?”
Sage shrugged. “More like inexperienced. I’ve seen lots of the country, on four wheels. Not in a maze they call airports.”
Leo closed his eyes, willing the throbbing in the back of his head to go away. “It’s like a second home to me.”
“What is?”
“Airports.”
Sage sighed. “Do you like that?”
“Sure.” He wasn’t sure if it was the truth .
The trip went in relative peace. There was some minor turbulence which surprised Sage, as evidenced by how she grabbed his arm for a moment before quickly correcting herself and grabbing the armrest. (He allowed himself a brief moment to get all floaty at her touch. It was allowed, since he was literally floating in the clouds, after all.)
“Fun fact: most plane crashes occur during take-off and landing. Odds are in your favor here.”
She answered him with a withering glare and refused to speak to him the rest of the flight. (She clutched his arm during the landing, so not all was lost.)
The Uber to the hotel was quick and short and they both retired for a little afternoon nap before heading down to the Friday night dinner a few of the sponsors were putting on.
He laid down for what felt like two minutes and was woken with a startle by Sage knocking on the door connecting the room. “Leo?”
“Here,” he said, sitting up. “Is there a problem?”
“No, no. I just wanted to give you this.” She handed him a black ice pack wrapped in a thin towel. “I got it from the concierge downstairs. It should help with that headache.”
“Headache?”
She was already retreating back to her own room. “You’re not the only one to observe things. I noticed you don’t take pills, I have some if you need them?—”
“No.”
She nodded. “I figured.”
She had? Was he that easy to read? Did he really have a sign on his forehead that said “Hi, I had a bad injury and took too many pain pills and it took me nearly a year to taper off of them and sometimes I still think about them years later and I can’t even handle Tylenol because the temptation to take more than I need is still there?”
Instead, he just muttered a quiet, “Thanks.”
“You looked like you needed some relief. Ice on the front of the neck. It helps with migraines. It cools the blood before it circulates around your head. At least that’s what the doctor told me when I needed help for George.”
He nodded. “I’ll give it a go. I have my alarm set. Don’t leave the room again unless I’m with you. You might not be worried about your safety but I?—”
“I know, I know. You don’t want to get fired.”
“Glad we have that established.” That and he really wanted this event to go smoothly for her. She had been stressed about it for the days leading up to this. It was becoming more and more apparent that this “little niche side of gaming” wasn’t so little after all.
“I’ll be up in an hour to go to the dinner thing with you.”
She sighed. “Got it.” She stepped through the door and closed it as she spoke the last word.
“Sage?” Leo called.
“Yeah?” she asked through the door, muffling her voice.
“Thanks again.” He was already lying down, wrapping the long, cool ice pack around his head and neck.
“Just start feeling better and be ready to play the part of Bob.”
“At your service. ”
He might have imagined it, but he thought he heard a laugh from behind the door. And he got all floaty again. This time it was because of the headache and not at all because of the idea that she was paying as much attention to him as he was to her.