Chapter 22
Milo
Tomorrow was not better.
In fact, in the first couple of hours of tomorrow, Milo had managed to sleep through his alarm, slam his pinky toe into a chair, put his shirt on backward and only realize once someone pointed it out at the bus station, and forget, FORGET his Stanley cup at home.
His precious, glorious, wonderful cup filled with coffee. The life force slowly drained out of him as he rode the bus to Blazin’ Hot. He stopped at a small corner store to grab a few energy drinks before walking into the restaurant and picking up the car keys.
They were already swamped with orders and he threw a careless wave over his shoulder to his coworkers before storming out.
Who ordered wings in the morning anyway? It was breakfast time. Arguably the best time. Because breakfast foods were superior to all other foods. And wings? Absolutely not breakfast food.
He missed his street.
Made a U-turn where U-turns should never be made. Totally saw the wayward trash can he nearly clipped with his mirror.
Delivered the wrong box. Got screamed at.
Corrected his mistake and apologized before rushing back to his car and breathing in as deeply as he could.
He gulped his energy drink down in three swallows then shook his head hard, expecting the caffeine to kick in. Expecting something to change because he was falling apart.
It wasn’t happening.
He pulled his phone out and scrolled through his contacts.
His finger hovered over Rowan’s name. Was he awake?
Was he already in meetings and too busy to think about Milo?
Even if he wasn’t busy, why would he be thinking about Milo?
The hotel probably had a pool and a sauna and plenty of other serious business dragons, parading around him half-naked and pretty.
He felt himself bristle at the thought and before he knew it he’d typed out a text and sent it.
Milo: Are there naked dragons there?
The moment the text went through he cringed so hard he thought he’d die.
Scrambling, he dialed the one person he knew would pick up.
“Milo?” Ray said.
“I did a stupid thing!”
There was barely any pause. “To be expected. Would you like to go into specifics or…?”
“You are so mean to me,” Milo whined, jumping when his phone pinged with a new text. “OMG no.”
“What?”
“I texted Rowan. He’s away for work and I texted him something totally stupid that was a result of a train of thought that went off the rails.”
“Those are the only kinds of trains you have, so…” Ray said, and Milo chuckled despite the chaos of his life because the only other option was to cry. “What did you send?”
“I asked if there were naked dragons there,” Milo mumbled, and Ray sucked a breath in through his teeth.
“Did not see that coming. Is there something you want to tell me?”
“Oh…um…” Milo floundered, realizing he’d never actually mentioned sleeping with Rowan to Ray. He had told him about trying to find his breed and all of the other stuff, but that detail, conveniently, had slipped his mind. “So…you know how he’s been teaching me to shift?”
“I do, yes.”
“Yeah, so…turns out I wasn’t very good at it,” Milo said. “And the way it worked is if I, um…got turned on. So we kinda…y’know…turned me on…regularly.”
“You’ve been sleeping with the guy who’s tearing down your building?” Ray asked.
“Well, when you say it like that it sounds wrong,” Milo whined.
“I’m just asking, Milo. I don’t really have any room to talk about questionable partners,” Ray said. “So you slept with him and now he’s away and you asked about naked dragons?”
“That about sums it up, yeah.” Milo nodded.
“Why naked dragons specifically?”
“I just had a bad morning. And I started thinking. He’s away for work and, like, they have a lot of money, so he’s probably at a nice hotel with a pool and a sauna, and people are usually half-naked around a pool or in the sauna, so…”
“Your brain should be studied,” Ray said. “So you asked him if there were naked people there. Did he reply?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
Milo shrugged as if Ray could see him. “I’m scared to look. I don’t want him to think I’m crazy.”
“Babe, honey, sweetie, you met him while you were chained to a tree and then proceeded to bite him,” Ray said. “I guarantee he already thinks you’re crazy.”
Milo let out what could only be called a meep. He meeped. He wasn’t a meeper. Usually.
“I’ll read it,” he said.
“You do that.”
“Wait here,” Milo added and Ray hummed.
He pulled the text up and opened it before he could talk himself out of it.
Rowan: Why would there be naked people in a finance meeting?
“He asked why there would be naked people in a finance meeting,” he recited to Ray.
“And do we think he has a point there?”
Milo shrugged. Again. “We might.” But something tickled in the back of his mind. “But in my defense, I didn’t think they would be naked in a meeting. Just at the pool. Or the sauna.”
“Ah…” Ray said. “Yes. Logic.”
“So should I clarify or…?”
“No. You absolutely should not. Just apologize and tell him you haven’t slept and your brain-to-text filter is even worse than usual.”
“Right,” Milo said. “I can do that.”
“Is the spiral over now? I do need to work.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
“Anytime, honey,” Ray said warmly before kissing into the speaker and hanging up. Leaving Milo alone. To type out something that didn’t sound like he was mentally unstable.
Milo: I forgot my coffee cup.
Was what he settled on before throwing the phone into the passenger seat like it was on fire and driving off. He didn’t have time to be a natural disaster today. He needed to get a grip. Where did people find grips? Were you born with them or was it a learned skill?
He fucked up two more orders.
And then ran out of gas in the middle of a delivery. His eighteen-year-old coworker had to come bail him out and he had a feeling he wouldn’t be living it down anytime soon.
He made it through his shift, but barely, and trudged home as if he had been hit over the head the entire day. He was bone tired and his head felt fuzzy. Like that weird sort of haze you get when you’re about to get sick.
He walked into his building and up the stairs toward his apartment. Each step felt like a mountain he had to climb.
He found his front door wide open and could hear all of his oldies shuffling around his living room.
He walked in, pausing as he saw them all gathered there in their best clothes.
Ethel wore a stunning dark blue lace dress with a blazer over it, Shelly was in her best…frock? He had no idea what to call the floral, floor-length, moo-moo slash cape type thing she was wearing. It was very…eye-catching.
And the three men were all wearing different versions of suits, vests, ties, and bow ties, their shoes shined to perfection and their hair slicked back.
“Milo!” Ethel said. “Just in time. I have your outfit ready. Hurry!”
“Um…” He frowned at her. “What did I miss?”
“Symphony! We won tickets at bingo. I told you about it. Put it in the calendar.”
“That’s tonight?”
“Yes!” She walked over and grabbed his arm, then pulled him toward his bathroom. “You smell like wings. Go shower. Your suit is hanging in your room. You have fifteen minutes before the car gets here.”
“The car?” Milo asked.
“We splurged for a ride,” she said.
“Ethel—”
“Not a cab,” she said. “The senior center has a service you can book. It’s cheap. And it’s a one-time thing.”
“Right…”
“Now go!”
“Wait…I don’t own a suit,” he said.
“You do now,” she said, pushing him fully into the bathroom and slamming the door behind him. “I’m setting the timer to fifteen!”
“Fine!” he called, running a tired hand over his face. “Make me a coffee, will you?”
“Already made!”
“Love you!”
“GET!”
“Pushy!” he threw back before forcing himself to do as he was told.
He still had zero recollection of anyone winning tickets to a symphony, but Ethel had said it so it had to be true. He survived a quick shower and stuffed himself into the suit she’d hung up for him without even looking at it.
There was coffee waiting. And symphonies were played in the dark, right? Nobody would see if he napped.
Good enough.