Chapter 11
Hugo
“Do you guys have plans this weekend?” Jett asked me between customers.
I shrugged. “Not really. Zay’s studying Saturday morning and probably some on Sunday, but we don’t really have any plans.”
“Since we’re both off for once on a Saturday night, do you wanna go out to dinner? A kinda double date thing?”
I gave him a hip-check as I walked past. “Let me ask Zay.” Jett gave me a nod as he helped someone, and I asked Zay through our link, “Do you wanna go on a double date with Jett and Ward on Saturday?”
“That could be fun.”
“I think so too.”
“Where do they want to go?”
I glanced at Jett to see if he was free, but he wasn’t, so I said to Zay, “Jett said to dinner, but I’m not sure where. He’s serving someone right now, so I’ll ask later.”
“Sounds good, mezelie.”
“How’s class going?”
“Fine. Beatrix seemed a little sad and lonely when I got here, so I asked her to sit with me. Not sure it’s helping, but I don’t know what else to do.”
I frowned at that as I cleaned one of our blenders. “I’d tell you to invite her along on Saturday, but she’d probably feel like a third wheel—well, a fifth—but you know what I mean.”
“Yeah. True. Maybe we can invite her out to lunch this weekend or something. It’d be nice for you to actually meet her.”
I smiled at that, happy that Zay wanted me to meet his new friend. “Yeah, babe. I’d like that.”
“Cool. I’ll run it by her after class.”
“Sounds good.”
“Shit, I gotta go. I don’t want to miss anything.”
That made me hold in a laugh because he was just so damn cute and endearing about learning new things, especially when it came to healing.
I pulled my consciousness away from Zay so he could concentrate, and then I went back to making drinks and taking food orders from people.
We had a pretty decent lunch crowd these days since we served some good food, but we weren’t nearly as busy as we were at night or on weekends.
Which meant we had to restock, take stock of everything so Drin knew what to order, and clean things extra well if we had time.
It was like doing an extra deep clean when you were having everyone you knew over for a party instead of just the everyday stuff you normally did.
I didn’t mind, though. I’d rather be doing something than just standing around waiting for more people to show up or whatever. I liked feeling like I was helping out.
A couple of hours later, Arzu came over and slouched on one of the barstools. They looked tired and kind of sad or something, so I headed over and asked, “Are you okay?”
They sighed. “Yeah.”
“You sure? You don’t seem okay.”
They stared at me for a moment before sighing again. “Well, you asked for it… I’m just… kind of bored and sick of not having anything to do outside of work. I thought I’d be meeting people here, and I am, but it’s just… weird.”
“What do you mean?”
They shrugged but sat up a little. “Well, you know I moved here from up north, right?”
I nodded.
“Right. So I don’t really know anyone besides my uncle, but I thought I’d meet more people working here, you know? Buuuuuut… I feel weird asking someone—a customer—to, like, hang out or whatever. It feels inappropriate or something, not to mention just… uncomfortable.”
Before I could suggest they hang out with us, Jett butted in—I didn’t even realize he was eavesdropping—and he said, “You should come out with us on Saturday. You have off Saturday night too, don’t you?”
All three of us typically worked nights every other weekend.
Drin liked to give everyone a chance to make the really good tips, so we rotated.
I didn’t mind. I kinda liked how fair he tried to be, even if I used to agonize over not always having enough money.
Living with Zay helped with that quite a bit.
It was hard to accept things sometimes, but I was starting to get used to it.
Knowing how much he enjoyed helping me—feeling how happy it made him—went a long way.
Arzu perked up a little bit. “Yeah, I have off.”
“Then come out with us.”
I smiled at them and added, “We’d love to have you join. You can meet our viramores.”
“Yeah?”
“Definitely.”
They smiled, and I swore it changed their entire face. Their very, very dark blue, almost black, eyes lit up and their cheeks scrunched up in an adorable way. It was like their entire face turned happy. “That would be really great. Thanks, guys.”
“Of course.”
Jett said, “We like you, so no biggie.”
That made them laugh as they stood up and pushed their black hair behind their ear. “I’ll give you my number so you can text the details.”
“Sounds good.”
They gave us a wave, then immediately looked like they regretted the gesture, so I waved back to make them feel better. My movement made them snicker a bit as they headed toward the back, probably to grab something to eat before their break was up.
As soon as they were out of earshot, I turned to Jett. “That was nice of you.”
He shrugged. “I like them.”
“So do I. I’m glad they’re coming. It’ll be really great getting to know them outside of work.”
“Totally agree. They’re sweet.”
I pursed my lips, about to point out the fifth wheel thing, but then an idea popped into my head. “Do you care if Zay brings one of his school friends?”
“Nope.” He popped the P. “That’ll help Arzu feel better about being there with two couples too. Ooh! Let’s invite Quinn too. Then no one will feel like an outsider or like we’re setting them up or something.”
“Oh. Yes. Perfect.” To Zay, I said, “Arzu, my new coworker I told you about, is coming on Saturday, so you should invite Beatrix. We’re inviting Quinn too.”
“Oh, that’ll be great. Thanks.”
“Cool. Let me know if she says yes.”
It only took Zay a minute to say, “She’s in. Thanks, mezelie. She’s really excited to meet you.”
That made me grin, and I did my best to send Zay a rush of love through our bond.
Before I could even take a breath, I felt that love flow right back to me.
It was like Zay was giving me a hug, but even deeper than that.
Like his soul was wrapping around mine and offering the most comforting affectionate embrace ever.
The feeling brought what I was sure was a goofy smile to my face, but I couldn’t help it. It was just so warm and loving and fuck… it was something I hadn’t felt in so long. Actually, I’d never felt it, not like this.
Sure, my sister and I loved each other, but the love I felt with Zay went way beyond that. It was deep, soul deep, and I was grateful every second of every day for it, for Zaos.
“I love you so much.”
“I love you too, isa mezelie.”
With that same grin on my face, I rejoined Jett to get back to work.
Hopefully I didn’t scare off any customers with my silly smile.
I was surprisingly excited—and a little nervous—about dinner with our friends. It was so weird to me that less than a year ago, Jett was my only friend. Now, I had enough to fill my entire living room. I had enough to need to go out in groups, just so I was able to talk to everyone.
We’d thought about inviting Kian and Phia as well, but we didn’t want to overwhelm Beatrix or Arzu.
I was pretty sure Quinn would be fine no matter what.
From what Zay said about Beatrix, she seemed like an anxious person, and Arzu was super shy at times.
So we figured a smaller group made more sense.
I was okay with that.
Plus, we made plans with Key for next weekend, anyway.
If he stayed for the weekend again, maybe we could have all of these guys over for brunch or something too.
If tonight went well, anyway.
Since Sebastian and Ailin hadn’t vetted our new friends yet, we decided to go out to a restaurant, and if we wanted to keep hanging out, we’d find a bar or somewhere else to go.
Since Jett and Ward’s place also had enough wards around it to stave off a bomb—Ellwood wards were stronger than I could ever imagine—we couldn’t go there either.
If things went well, we’d ask Zay’s grandparents to officially vet our friends so we could have them over either of our houses.
I was hoping it’d go well. Actually, I kinda felt like it would. I kinda felt like I was maybe finally finding my people.
It was still weird to me that I had to run people past someone else. But after everything that happened with Bart, the kitsune who’d tried to kill us all, I was definitely on board with Sebastian and Ailin doing their magical whammies on anyone who wanted to come onto our property.
None of our new friends knew we weren’t bringing them to our house for a reason.
We just made plans outside of our home so we didn’t hurt anyone’s feelings.
If I’d been on the other side of things before I’d known the things the Ellwoods faced on a regular basis, I could admit that my feelings would’ve been hurt.
Or perhaps it was more that I would’ve been offended.
And that was the last thing I wanted to make our new friends feel.
When Zay and I arrived at the restaurant, Arzu was already there, looking nervous and adorable. I grabbed Zay’s hand and dragged him over to them.
Arzu’s eyes went wide when they caught sight of Zay. I couldn’t blame them. He was a sight to behold. He was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen.
But. He. Was. Mine.
So I grabbed Arzu’s attention, saying, “Hey, Arzu. This is my viramore, Zaos. Zay, Arzu.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Zay said, wrapping an arm around me, clearly feeling my protectiveness and absolutely amused and delighted by it, the butt.
Arzu smiled shyly. “You too.” They turned to me and mouthed, “Wow.”
I couldn’t help but snort at them, and some of my tension left.
It was very clear that they had no intention of putting the moves on my viramore.
They’d simply been… checking him out. I grumbled in my head a little at that, but I really couldn’t blame them.
Just because I got to look at my pretty boyfriend every day didn’t mean others were used to his beauty.