Page 27 of Five to Love Him

He pulled away from us a little, not fully, hungry for our touch. We decided to let the matter rest for now, but we wouldn’t give it up. We couldn’t. It was a matter close to the heart of our gleaming one.

We said, “We used your lemon. Is that okay?”

He blinked up at us. “My what now?”

“The lemon in your refrigerator. We used it. In the tea.”

“Okay.” He lifted his laptop. “I’ll go set this up. I’m guessing you’re helping.”

We smiled. “You understand us so well, Leo. We’re impressed.”

His grin was perfect, and we watched him walk back to the front room before following. There was nothing about the sight we didn’t enjoy.

***

Leo was at home with what we thought of as his private movie theater. While lowering the screen, he told us how he’d screwed it to the ceiling by himself, and how, in the process, he’d torn a good chunk of skin off his thumb. We would never let him touch a sharp or pointed tool in the future.

He had a tiny projector on a tripod and explained to us that the speakers hidden all over the room were good, at least that was how we understood it. He used a lot more words to get the point across.

“We enjoy going to movie theaters, but we’ve never dared to go all of us,” we told Leo as we poured the tea and plated the snacks. We found ice in the freezer and added what juice the lemon had to make it an improvised iced tea version.

“People are noisy in theaters, and the floor is always sticky,” Leo said. He sat in the rocking chair, and we watched him go through his streaming library on the screen.

“We like the dark. It’s cozy.”

Leo looked up from the screen. His face was heating. We had an inkling of what he was thinking, and it made us hopeful that we would succeed in winning his love, his trust even.

“It’s, uh, day out. Can’t darken this room all the way, not even with the shutters.”

“It doesn’t matter. You make it cozy.”

We brought the food and tea over. We were satisfied with Leo’s reaction.

“Dude. Is that what you call snacks? I thought maybe a few chips and popcorn.”

“We have both,” we said and lifted the relevant bowls. “But the mochi and dango are quite good. There’s a place in the underground where they make them fresh every day, and they happened to have chocolate-covered strawberries today.”

“Uh-huh,” Leo said. “Are you going to feed those to me? I mean, it’s a little bit like having a harem, I guess.”

He sounded not entirely averse. We didn’t see the similarities, but now that he’d said it, we were definitely going to feed him the strawberries.

“Should we get the movie started?” we asked, wondering whether he’d lick the chocolate off our fingers.

thirteen

I looked at the three hivelings in the window seat, the blinds behind them drawn, the new shadows that mixed with the daylight making them appear mysterious.

“Let me get the floor cushions,” I said. One of them had put the popcorn bowl on the pile of cushions.

“We can do that. Please come sit with us, Leo.”

A hiveling had snuck up behind me and was deviously leaning close, the gentle press of his warm hands making me take a step toward the other three.

“Need to start the movie,” I said, pointing to the rocking chair that held my laptop.

“We’ll do it,” said the fifth. He had moved the small table I usually used for my laptop closer to put some of the food on there. They had the tea on a tray on the floor.

“Okay, just click on it.”