“So your guy is still doing things that gives you grey hairs, you’re still stalking him, and you’re still spending eighteen-hour days in your computer chair, is what you’re saying.”
“The man inspires my inner serial killer sometimes. He really does. Anyway, I’m fine. Just hungry. Go be horizontal for a while.”
“Music to my ears. Call if something comes up.”
“Sure, sure. Night.” Relieved he’d gotten Ari off the phone, Kyou pocketed it and went inside. The hostess took his name and showed him to his table, a small round one with a snowy white tablecloth. Kyou had even worn a suit for tonight, as this wasn’t the kind of restaurant you could wear jeans into. He felt a little posh sitting there, perusing the menu and having a sample glass of wine extended as a complimentary service.
Maybe he should treat himself to a nice dinner more often.
Ari and Carter married, huh? Honestly, Kyou had expected them to be married before Ivan and Aiden. Those two were joined at the hip. Neither of them would take jobs without the other anymore. But their worry over Remi made sense, in a way. She didn’t always react in a predictable fashion. But Kyou was pretty sure she’d be over the moon if they tied the knot.
Kyou placed his order—sushi had won—and sat back. Brannigan would enter any second. Kyou was perhaps a touch more excited about this than he should be. Normally he saw Brannigan at weird angles via a security cam. It was rare that he got to see him in real life like this, mostly because Kyou didn’t dare get that close most of the time. He still wasn’t sure what had prompted him to come out tonight. He’d just found the idea of sitting at home, watching this train wreck from afar, to be unappealing. After ten minutes of fidgeting, unable to settle, he’d made a reservation without questioning himself too deeply.
And there he was. Kyou felt a little flutter in his chest seeing his quarry. Ah, damn. Every time he did this, he remembered why he shouldn’t. It was far too tempting to do it again. And tonight, especially, would push the restraints of his control.
Brannigan Genovese looked downright hot tonight in the dark-grey, three-piece suit he wore like it was tailored to him. (It likely was.) Every strand of his dark hair was styled in a loose wave, suiting the strong, masculine lines of his face, and there was a smile etched onto his lips. A very strained smile.
Ouch. Date was going that bad already, huh? Kyou bit down on a cackle.
His date certainly looked the part of a supermodel. She was tall and thin, her immaculate blonde hair draped over her shoulder in a curling waterfall, every trace of makeup perfectly done to emphasize her high cheekbones and smoky blue eyes. She wore an off-the-shoulder dress that seemed to be giving her some trouble staying up. Or at least, she kept ‘stealthily’ rearranging her boobs in the top.
If she was trying to draw Brannigan’s attention there, it wasn’t working. The man was steadfastly looking anywhere else. Kyou could have told her Brannigan wasn’t a boobs man. He could and did appreciate an attractive person, but that wasn’t his primary focus. He was pan-sapiosexual, in fact, and it was why Kyou kept maintaining that asking out shallow people wouldn’t work for him. Brannigan seemed to feel social pressure to date, so he asked out anyone that people deemed attractive, but it backfired every time. He needed to find someone he found attractive, which was a very different kettle of fish.
The two sat, the model leaning forward to emphasize her boobs. Again. Brannigan focused on the menu so hard, it was like the man believed life’s source code could be found within its pages.
Unable to resist, Kyou took out the spare burner phone in his pocket and texted him: Need me to rescue you yet?
Brannigan took his phone out, read the message, and grimaced. He did not reply before slipping it back into his pocket.
The model started chattering about some inane thing, and Brannigan looked steadily at her, as if he were paying attention. But his eyes also glazed over. She could be talking about how Stonehenge was in fact a giant Nintendo screen, and it would have gone right past the man.
Kyou’s phone buzzed and he picked up the call, although he kept his voice down. He was, after all, only four tables over. “Hey, princess.”
“Hey. Where are you? I want to come over.”
“Yeah, I’m out right now.”
“You’re out?” Remi asked suspiciously. “Why?”
“I’m at dinner. Well, dinner and a show.”
There was an evil cackle. “You followed Brannigan out on his date, didn’t you?”
“I did not say that,” Kyou said, feigning innocence.
“Uncle Ivan! Uncle Kyou’s stalking Brannigan on his date again!”
Kyou spluttered. Again?! He’d never stalked a date in person before. Doing it virtually didn’t count. “Anyway, I can’t play right now. I’ll be home in an hour or so. You can meet up with me later, if you still want to come.”
Something suspiciously like a giggle came out of her mouth. “Okay. Tell me how the date went.”
“Why do I like you, again?”
“It’s ’cause I’m cute.”
“Yeah, Ivan’s definitely rubbing off on you. Be good. See you later.” Shaking his head, Kyou hung up and put the phone back in his pocket. He started in on the sushi—which was quite excellent—keeping a weather eye on the other table. Supermodel was still talking, hands flapping about her head. Brannigan wasn’t even pretending to pay attention to her.
The burner phone buzzed with a text. Have you ever been on a date and thought, dying alone doesn’t sound that bad?
Kyou almost spat out the wine in his mouth. It was hard not to laugh out loud. He texted back with one hand, I can still trigger the fire alarm for you.
You know, the penalty for it actually sounds worth it right now, Brannigan texted back.
He did look pretty desperate.
Kyou debated between taking pity on him and letting him suffer. Kyou had, after all, warned him that this was a bad idea. Eventually, pity won out. He texted back, Give me 5 min. I’m going to call you screaming. Take that as your excuse and run for it.
Kyou calmly called for his bill, put a few twenties into it, then left his table. He retreated outside before clearing his throat. Brannigan answered on the first ring. Kyou did his best impression of general screaming without going into a falsetto.
He could hear Brannigan’s deeper baritone hastily telling his date, “I’m so sorry about this, something has obviously happened, I need to go. Here, use this to pay for dinner and a Lyft home, okay? Sorry, sorry.”
Kyou stopped the screaming as it was clear he was away from the table. He started walking away from the door since Brannigan would be through it any second. “See? Didn’t I tell you that it was a bad idea?”
“Oh god, was it ever. I didn’t think she’d be that shallow.” Brannigan’s voice became clearer as he exited the front door, a scurrying quality to his stride. “I mean, she’s an advocate for two different nonprofit organizations.”
“Yeah, man, that just means she’s got really good PR people. Next time, have more than a ten-minute conversation with a person before you ask them out, okay?”
There was a pause.
A little concerned, Kyou asked, “Bran? You still with me?”