Page 29 of Forgotten

They wandered up to the outside and looked at the menus in the window.

“Have you ever eaten Korean food?” Kyrone asked.

“I don’t think so.”

Kyrone frowned. Surely Jared would know if he’d ever eaten Korean food before? He shrugged the comment off. “Are you willing to give it a try?”

“Yes. That was part of the game, wasn’t it? Eat in whatever restaurant we were closest to when we got spotted?”

“Yup.”

“Then let’s go in.”

The restaurant was dark inside, with walls that had been painted in chocolate brown and accents in vivid red. All the tables had grills in the middle, which caused Kyrone and Jared to exchange a confused stare. It turned out that they had to grill their own food.

“This is novel,” Kyrone said as they looked at the menus.

“Could be fun.”

“As long as we don’t give ourselves food poisoning.”

“I thought you said you were good at cooking?” Jared’s eyes sparkled with amusement as he poured them both a glass of iced water from the jug on the table.

Kyrone flashed Jared a grin. “I’m good at everything.”

“Everything?”Jared waited until Kyrone took a sip of water. “Even sensual massage?”

Kyrone had to fight hard not to spit the water out across the table. He covered his mouth with his hand, pointing at Jared with the other. “You’re naughty!”

“You’re easy.”

“Very.” Kyrone closed the menu and set it aside. “I’m going to go for the duck. You?”

“The beef,” Jared said without hesitation. “Maybe we could share and have some of both?”

“I like that idea.”

They laughed, joked, and made plenty of not even remotely subtle suggestive comments as they grilled their meat and wrapped it in lettuce and rice to eat it. The marinades the restaurant used made the beef and the duck taste amazing, and the whole experience was fun in an unexpected way. By the time they were done, Kyrone felt full enough to loosen his belt a notch.

He wrapped his arm around Jared’s shoulder as they left the restaurant and stepped out into the frigid late afternoon air.

“I’ve had a lot of fun today,” Jared said. “The whole spy idea was really goofy.”

“Goofy, but good?”

“Very good. We’d never have found that restaurant otherwise.”

That was true. They’d have gone somewhere safe and familiar.

“What now?” Kyrone asked. “There’s still some afternoon left andallnight.”

Jared leant against him as they walked. “Could we go back to your place and hang out?”

“I like that idea,” Kyrone murmured. “I like that idea a lot.”

10Jared

Their date had been unexpectedly great and completely different from anything Jared had done before. Or at least, it was different from anything he couldrememberdoing before. Not that he could imagine anyone but Kyrone suggesting something so silly and goofy as pretending to be spies for a day.