Evenfall (108 page)

"Nope."

"Well, that wasn't exactly the sort of job I had in mind," Boyd said, amused.

"Thought I'd throw it out there just in case," Johnny continued with a smirk and winked at Boyd. "I heard I may be your type."

Sin raised an eyebrow at Johnny. "I don't believe those were the exact words I used."

"Oh really?" Boyd drawled. "What were the exact words, then? I'm curious how 'my type' even got brought up."

"I was trying to entice him into a threesome. Me, you and him," Johnny informed Boyd as he waggled his eyebrows. "He told me I'm not his type but I might be yours so I should take it up with you one-on-one."

"Ahh," Boyd said. "Yeah, sorry; I'm not really interested either."

"Well, can't say I didn't try." Johnny shrugged. "Guess I'll have to stick with my girlfriend."

Estella frowned at him. "You're such a pig."

"I know," he replied with a charming smile.

Sin snorted and grabbed one of the shot glasses from the table, ignoring the other people who began hovering around the table. Several people tried to engage him in conversation but he ignored them as he usually did and watched the interaction in front of him with a mostly uninterested expression on his face.

Estella rolled her eyes and turned to Boyd again. "Don't mind him. He's pretty unrelenting in his search for as much sex as possible. Although I think under the hound dog persona he's a sweet guy." She poked Sin suddenly, making a face at his lack of participation in the conversation. "Same goes for Jase. I bet he's just a talkative bundle of fun under that brooding exterior."

"You would lose that bet," Sin replied blandly, knocking back the shot.

She waved him off dismissively and looked at Boyd. "How do you put up with this guy? How did you even get to be roommates or friends anyway? You seem so opposite."

"He's not so bad," Boyd said in amusement. "We met 'cause I put an ad out on the internet saying I'd need a roommate when I moved here for the summer. He was one of a few who answered but he seemed least likely to fuck up the apartment or decide he didn't have to pay his half of the rent." He raised an eyebrow and gave Sin a sidelong, wry look. "Then it turns out he gets the steady job anyway, the fucker. A few more months and I'll be the one mooching."

"You're mooching already," Sin informed him.

"So more importantly," Johnny cut in before Boyd could respond. "Why'd y'all start fucking?"

Sin shrugged. "Why not?"

"Yeah," Boyd said unconcernedly. "You live together long enough in this heat, it's probably inevitable."

Estella raised her eyebrows, seeming intrigued by the topic. "Did you both know the other was gay or bisexual or whatever the heck you are? Well, I guess if you're gonna be roomies, it'd have to come up. Honesty is usually the best case for things like that. It'd suck to bring home a guy for the night and find out your roommate is a homophobe."

"Well, it's not like I put I'm gay in the ads," Boyd said casually. "That'd give me way too many annoying answers. I left the ad pretty generic but, yeah, that was part of the problem finding someone because I also wasn't gonna not tell them. So I told whoever responded and that narrowed it down. When I told Jason he just said it was fine, so," he shrugged, "it worked for me."

Estella's gaze swung to Sin. "He didn't share his sexual orientation?" She asked, directing the question to Boyd.

Boyd shook his head. "No, he didn't."

"So then how--"

"You ask a lot of fucking questions," Sin interrupted.

"--Did you hook up?" She finished, ignoring him.

Most of the people who had been surrounding them started to wander away when they realized that Sin was ignoring them. Because of that, Johnny and Estella were pretty much the only ones who were paying attention to the conversation. Boyd and Sin had discussed before what their cover was, how Kadin and Jason supposedly met, why they ended up being roommates. But they hadn't really talked about how this conversation would go; what they would tell anyone who asked about their sexual relationship. Boyd wasn't about to tell the truth but he could get somewhat close just to make it more believable.

"After a while I got a vibe that Jason was interested," Boyd said with a slight smirk, "so I just did what I wanted one day."

"A vibe." Sin stared at Boyd for a moment. "Why in the hell did you suddenly decide to come on to me anyway? What vibe did you get exactly?"

Estella snickered and waited for Boyd's response as Johnny looked on curiously.

Boyd looked over and met Sin's eyes. He'd forgotten that he never told Sin what he'd seen and heard that night, why his advances wouldn't be rejected, but this was hardly the place to explain. Besides, it somewhat amused him to keep that information to himself, to leave Sin wondering. Raising his eyebrows, he said, "The kind that said you'd be okay with me wanting to fuck around with you? That it wouldn't mess up the whole living situation."

"But--" Sin broke off and stared at Boyd, eyes narrowed slightly.  "I see."

"Did he ogle you?" Johnny asked with a dirty grin. "I sure would have."

"You ogle everyone," Boyd said with a smirk.

"Lucky bastards," Estella said with a pout. "When I put out an ad for a roomie I didn't get any hot applicants. All I got were weirdoes and slutty females."

"At least you had something in common with them," Sin replied, matter-of-fact.

Estella glared at him and smacked him in the arm while Johnny sputtered with laughter.

Boyd smirked but before anyone could say anything else, there was the sound of someone tapping a glass across the room. They looked over to see Jess sitting on the edge of the bar, long legs crossed as she held a wine glass in one hand. Her eyes were focused on the group of her employees that hovered around the lounge area like greedy children and she announced with a smile, "I'd like to propose a toast to Jason."

Boyd stood back to watch her in the pause that naturally followed her words like a dramatic effect.

Jess looked around the club for a moment and her mouth stretched into a genuine smile. It was a far cry from the mortified expression that had been on her face minutes ago and it seemed that she'd managed to pull herself together quickly, most likely wanting to save face in front of her employees.

"After the war this city was a mess, but it's back on its feet now and it's one of the most thriving cities on this side of the world. I'm proud of it, I'm proud of its people. I'm proud of all of the people who moved here with the purpose of helping to make it better and who stuck by it through thick and thin. I'm proud of the people who work here who helped me turn this place around from a dive bar and into one of the most popular and prestigious clubs in Monty."

She paused and shook her head slightly. "We've had a lot of rough spots, a lot of times when it looked like this place would be shut down or that we'd never find a staff of people who were loyal, who we could trust. But over time I did and a few months ago I thought I'd found the perfect addition to it, the last piece in the puzzle. Someone who, despite his stand-offish attitude and intimidating behavior, managed to charm all of us in one way or another." Jess focused on Sin and her smile turned fond. "We're all sad to see him go after we only just started to get to know him better but I hope someday in the future, no matter what totally awesome job he ends up with, he'll always come back to the crazy people at Lunar and that he'll miss us as much as we miss him."

She raised her glass. "So here's to Jason."

Surprisingly, people cheered and smiled and clapped Sin on the back, echoing the sentiments that Jess had just declared. He stared at them in a kind of confused dismay, completely floored and disturbed by the actual genuine smiles he was receiving, by the fact that for some reason they really seemed to care that he would be gone. He scratched the back of his head awkwardly and glanced over at Boyd, obviously not really knowing what he was supposed to do in a situation like this.

Boyd leaned in and said quietly, "Say thank you."

Sin's mouth turned down into the beginnings of a frown and he looked at Boyd for a moment as if asking why the hell this had to be happening to him of all people and then he shook his head and glanced over at his coworkers.

"Uh. Thanks," he muttered.

Several people snickered and Estella laughed out loud. "I think we're embarrassing the poor man." She smiled at him widely and latched on to his arm, giving him a half hug as she rested her head against his shoulder. "Too bad. We like you, damn it. Deal with it!"

Thankfully mostly everyone began wandering away from him now that they'd made him thoroughly uncomfortable and Sin glanced over at Boyd again, a strange expression on his face. He looked away and stared down at Estella blankly, disentangling himself from her stiffly.

"I'll be back," he said when she gave him an almost hurt look, and he turned around, walking quickly towards the staircase and away from everyone else.

Boyd started to follow Sin but he was stopped by someone saying, "Kadin."

He looked over before he took the time to recognize the voice so he was mildly surprised to see Jess standing there watching him. He really didn't feel like talking to her but he couldn't exactly walk away now that she'd caught his attention. Turning toward her, he slid his hands into his pockets and gave her an almost bored look. "Yeah?"

Jess crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head to the side, studying him for a moment as if she were debating turning around without saying another word. She shook her head and shrugged languidly. "I want to talk to you."

Boyd found that odd but he didn't turn away from her. "Okay."

She looked around for a moment, noting that most people had moved out of earshot and then spoke. "I wanted to apologize for what you walked in on."

That mildly surprised him; he hadn't expected her to say that but he didn't bother to respond at first. If she had a problem with what she was doing or felt it was something she'd have to apologize for later, he felt she just shouldn't do it in the first place. He watched her a moment, waiting to see if she would continue or explain her thoughts further, but she didn't. They stared at each other until he finally asked, "Why?"

Jess shrugged. "I don't know. I guess because I'm not exactly sure what Jason is to you and I don't want it to come off like I was trying to put on a show for you? I had no idea you would be coming in so early."

As if it would have mattered if he came in later? "I didn't realize it'd be inconvenient for you if I did," he said neutrally, shrugging with one shoulder.

She raised an eyebrow and gave him a strange look. "I wasn't trying to imply that it was. I was just saying, I didn't want you to think I chose that moment on purpose."

His expression remained neutral but something about her wording irritated him. "What would've been a better moment for it?"

Jess stared at him silently for a moment. "Um. That wasn't the point. I was just trying to tell you I didn't pick that particular one just so you could see us kissing on purpose and that the reason I'm even mentioning it is because I'm not entirely sure what your feelings about him are. But I already said that, so..." She trailed off.

"Yeah, you keep saying you don't know how I feel but that supposedly it concerns you. Which is why I find it interesting that you went out of your way to talk to me, but not to apologize that it occurred at all. Only that I saw it." He watched her without giving anything away in his expression or tone. "It's an interesting distinction."

Once again, she shrugged. "Because I'm not sorry that it happened, only that I may have rubbed something in your face if it turns out you have deeper feelings for him than was implied."

Boyd was feeling more irritated the further this conversation went. "That's my point. Honestly, I don't really feel like explaining anything to you on my end. But you're not making sense. If you're assuming I may have 'deeper feelings than was implied,' did it not occur to you that this conversation would be even more offensive? You supposedly care if you hurt my feelings but only if it's in a way that makes you look bad, which is just more insulting. Maybe next time you should think about the situation before you suddenly decide to assuage your guilt. It's just the principle of the matter."

"Listen, I'm not trying to be offensive. I was merely saying that if that was the case, I'm sorry you had to see it. I don't feel guilty about anything. I'm not sorry I kissed Jason, I'm not sorry he kissed me back. I think I'm being fairly straightforward here." She flipped her hair over one shoulder, looking annoyed by his responses.

Somehow, the conversation just served to aggravate him. First of all, she didn't know shit about what Boyd really thought or felt and she didn't know him at all so he didn't appreciate her assumptions about his feelings. Secondly, he highly doubted she really cared what he did actually feel. Thirdly, even if she was pretending to care about his feelings, it was still only selective. From the way she spoke, it was like she could have just fucked Sin in the back room and everyone would know, and all along she would realize how Boyd may potentially feel about Sin, but she would do it anyway and feel absolutely no need to say anything about it. Which, assuming he felt the way she said, would be even more hurtful for him. But because he'd run into them kissing in the middle of a crowded room when she wasn't expecting him, she was suddenly now all apologetic.