Page 26 of Gratification in Gluttony (Passing Through Cafe #2)

Chapter twenty-six

Trapped in a Sailor’s Net

Tuesday night, as Toni was getting ready for bed, his phone vibrated with a text from Jude.

I told Oliver.

And?

It’s fine. I told you he wouldn’t care. He likes you. He was just hurt that I hadn’t told him sooner, but we talked about it. All good.

So he isn’t gonna hunt me down with his dad’s shotgun?

Har har.

When Toni arrived at work the next day, he wasn’t exactly nervous, but he wasn’t feeling entirely comfortable either. He’d never worried over Oliver’s reaction, but the instinctual anxiety of “what if?” was impossible to ignore completely.

As he walked in the front door, Toni gave his usual greeting to Gem, Rusty, and Oliver. Gem waved, and Rusty mumbled indistinctly back. Oliver stiffened, attention locked on the register as his throat bobbed. Not sure what to do with that, Toni made his way into the kitchen, grabbing an apron and securing it around his waist.

“Hey, Toni,” Oliver said from behind him, and Toni slowly turned around. “You got a minute?”

Toni studied the fidgeting human a moment before he nodded. “Sure, Ollie.”

He led the way out the back door, and Oliver followed him. The teal sand shifted under Toni’s boots as he casually tucked his hands into his pockets and watched the human cross his arms over his chest, worrying his bottom lip. Oliver’s weight went from one foot, to the other, then back again as he struggled for words.

“So you and Jude, huh?” he finally said, and Toni swallowed a laugh.

“Yeah, me and Jude,” he confirmed.

Oliver nodded. “I wasn’t exactly surprised when he told me. I saw how you looked at each other at the ranch. I didn’t realize it had been going on all summer, though.”

And sure, Toni did feel bad about that, so he said, “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I just didn’t think it was my place to say nothing, not when Jude and you are so close.”

“You’re my friend too,” Oliver said quietly.

The sentiment warmed Toni’s chest. “Of course we’re friends. But we ain’t friends the way you and Jude are friends, you know? It had to come from him.”

Oliver kicked at the sand absently. “I know, and it’s also a little my fault. I just wasn’t around a lot. Things with Liel have been a whirlwind—a good whirlwind,” he hastened to add. “But I lost sight of other things. Probably should’ve noticed it sooner.”

The human wasn’t wrong, but Toni tended to have the same fixation issues. “Yeah, I know something about that.”

“I know I said stuff before, about not flirting with my best friend or whatever. It was just talk, mostly. I think you’re great, and Jude’s really great, so I’m happy for you both,” Oliver said, cheeks pinking. “I hope it works out.”

“Thanks, Ollie. That means a lot, especially coming from you,” Toni said honestly, and Oliver offered a fleeting smile.

“But Toni…” he drifted off, frowning at the deep yellow sky.

“Is this the part where you threaten to kick my ass if I break his heart?” Toni asked, and Oliver snorted.

“If you break his heart, he’ll kick your ass way harder than I could,” Oliver said, and Toni chuckled.

“You ain’t wrong.”

“But, no, that’s not what I wanted to say.” Oliver stepped closer, uncharacteristic somberness thickening his voice as he said, “Be gentle with him, Toni. He acts tough, and he is. He’s probably one of the strongest people I know. But he doesn’t trust easily, especially with his heart. So just be careful with him.”

Not wanting to betray Jude’s trust by saying too much, Toni chose his response carefully. “It ain’t nothing to me, the fact that Jude chose me too. I know what it means. I may not know everything he’s been through, but I know enough to understand that him loving me is a gift. I don’t plan on squandering that.

“If anyone’s getting their heart broke, it’s me. I’ve been head over heels for him from the start, from the moment he did a shot from between an Orc drag queen’s tits.”

Oliver laughed, and Toni rolled from his heels to his toes and back again. “I just wanna make him happy. Whatever that means, for however long he’ll let me.”

The smile on Oliver’s face softened, along with his eyes. “That’s good. He deserves to be happy. You both do.”

“I agree.”

“But if you break his heart, I’m gonna kick your ass,” Oliver said with a frown that was far less intimidating than Toni assumed he intended.

With a chuckle, Toni clapped Oliver on the shoulder. “If I break his heart, I’ll let you.”

As they headed back inside the cafe, Toni hooked an arm around Oliver’s neck, and the human grinned up at him, giving his back a pat. “You really love him?”

“What’s not to love? He’s, like, the best.”

“Yeah, he is.”

“It’s not gonna be weird that we’ve slept with the same guy, right?” Toni asked as they entered the main kitchen area, causing Glyma, Willow, and Zef to turn toward them.

Oliver flushed bright red and shoved Toni off. “Well, it is now that you said it!”

Shrugging, Toni sauntered over to his side of the table and retrieved a cutting board. “Meh, it’s only weird if we make it weird.”

“You’re making it weird!” Oliver cried as he practically fled the kitchen, Toni’s laughter chasing him out.

At the end of Gem’s shift, before he could leave for the evening, Toni snagged him by the wrist and dropped his voice so the younger workers out front couldn’t overhear him. “Hey, so you know that pretty shit you buy?”

“I buy a lot of pretty shit. You need to be more specific.”

“You know, the pretty, sexy shit.”

Several of Gem’s eyes widened. “My lingerie?”

“Yeah, where do you buy it?” Toni asked, doing everything in his power not to blush like a teenager.

“Toni,” Gem said with a conspiratorial smile, “are you going through a sexual awakening?”

“Perhaps.”

Gem’s fur vibrated, his pleased hum mixing with a squeal from his throat as he squeezed Toni within an inch of his life. “That’s amazing! I’m so happy for you. I’ll send you the store address.”

On Toni’s way home, he stopped by the store Gem had shared and picked out a few things. Since Jude wasn’t crossing the veil until the weekend, Toni had a few days to try the clothes on to make sure they fit—and to make sure he knew how to wear them. Some of them had many, many straps; Toni ended up so tangled at one point he had to call in reinforcements.

“First, let’s get you out of it. Then we’ll figure out how to get you back in,” Gem said as he tugged and yanked on the delicate fabric.

“Watch it,” Toni said as Gem twisted his arm at a painful angle.

“How did you even get like this?”

“It’s not my fault it has so many straps. I got confused!”

“Honestly, I think you have it on upside-down.” Gem stepped back and bent over, staring at Toni’s mostly naked body at different angles. “Yeah, I think that part’s supposed to be by your ball, not your head.”

“How?” Toni demanded. “There are too many strings.”

“Some of those are supposed to go up your butt,” Gem explained impatiently as Toni complained loudly. “Oh shut up. Beauty is pain, bitch. Get used to it.”

When they finally had the thing finagled correctly, Toni stood in the middle of his bedroom as Gem inspected him. “I look ridiculous,” he said.

“No, you look hot,” Gem said.

“I look like I just got caught in a sailor’s net,” Toni snarled.

Gem grimaced. “Honestly, I think that’s the intended vibe. But here, try one of the others.” He rifled through the pretty outfits Toni had bought, pulling out a pale pink one. “Here, put this one on.”

The fabric was sheer and soft, a little frilly, and Toni’s face flushed hot. He’d liked this one the best, but it was the most feminine. Which made him uncomfortable while simultaneously exciting him. It was a very strange dichotomy.

“I don’t think it’ll look right on me,” Toni said as he smoothed his thumb over the delicate material.

“What does ‘look right’ even mean?” Gem placed his middle hands on Toni’s shoulders as he cupped Toni’s face with his upper hands. “If it makes you feel good, that’s all that matters. You’re allowed to be pretty if you want to be.”

“I know,” Toni said, because he did.

Gem’s smile was only a little condescending as he tapped Toni’s temple and said, “You know it here.” His lowest hand pressed to Toni’s chest plate over his heart. “You still need to know it here. And that’s okay. You’re on no one’s timeline but your own.”

Once again, Toni was reminded of how much he did not deserve Gemae Akyllo. Without a word, he leaned in and pressed his face to Gem’s neck, and the Araknis enveloped him in a six-armed hug that felt like home.

“Oh, my repressed little Elas,” Gem cooed as he petted the back of Toni’s hair.

“I’m not repressed,” Toni mumbled into Gem’s skin.

“You’re a little repressed,” Gem corrected, kissing his temple. “But look at how far you’ve come, Toni. You’ve been wearing eye-liner and nail polish out in public, and you’re about to go put on a lacy, frilly, baby pink lingerie outfit for your hot, human boyfriend, who can fuck you with a different dick every night. I’m so proud of you.”

Nuzzling the nape of Gem’s neck, Toni whispered, “I just feel silly. You wear this shit, and it looks right on you. I ain’t pretty like you are, you know?”

“Of course you’re not pretty like me,” Gem said, not unkindly, pulling back to gaze down at Toni with all eight eyes. “You’re pretty like you.”

To stop himself from tearing up, Toni popped onto his toes and pecked Gem on the mouth. “I love you, Gemmy, you know that, right?”

“I love you too,” Gem said, knocking their foreheads together, before he pushed Toni away. “Now, go put on the pink babydoll. And”—he turned back to the pile and after finding what he was looking for, he tossed a black, lace jockstrap at Toni—“put this on. He’ll probably fuck you while you wear it. It’s super hot.”

“Gemmy, Gemmy,” Toni said as he untangled himself from the sailor net, “always coming in clutch.”

And Gem beamed at him. “You’re godsdamned right.”

Friday evening, Toni spent the last hour of his shift prepping for Saturday, when the younger, weekend crew would be working. The closing shift was full of young kids too, mostly teenagers with a few uni students mixed in, and most of them ignored Toni, which suited him just fine. A Sypent ten years his junior had hit on him when they’d first started working here, but Toni had shut that down fast.

Not only were they barely legal, but they spoke with a haughty Pride accent that grated on Toni’s ears. He tried not to judge people too harshly based on their district, but Pride and Greed tended to produce entitled assholes, so it made it difficult not to jump to conclusions.

The Sypent—Toni could never remember their name—still flirted every now and then, but they’d mostly taken the hint. So Toni would pop in his earbuds and listen to his own music—the radio channel the kids listened to was happy-clappy pop music that made him want to rip his ears off—while he finished out his shift.

When the kitchen doors swung open, Toni glanced up, expecting to see the Sypent kid as they were one of the only ones brave enough to come talk to the adult who worked the day shift. Instead, it was Jude, wearing an unsure smile and a pink button-up with orange clouds all over it.

“Well, well, well,” Toni said as he removed his earbuds and tucked them into his pocket. “If it isn’t my favorite human-slash-boyfriend. What did I do to earn the pleasure of your company?”

Jude rolled his eyes as he met Toni halfway across the kitchen. “You knew I was crossing the veil tonight.”

Sliding his arms around Jude’s waist, Toni leaned down to kiss his brow, inhaling the fresh shampoo wafting from his still-damp hair. “Not this early, I didn’t.”

“Surprise,” Jude deadpanned, and Toni chuckled.

“A very nice surprise.” He ducked down and kissed Jude firmly, practically purring when Jude immediately reciprocated, clasping his hands behind Toni’s neck. As they parted, Toni glanced at the doors, and several heads ducked out of view of the windows. “We have an audience.”

“Well, let’s keep it PG, seeing as they’re children,” Jude said, yelping when Toni scooped him up and sat him down on the steel table. “The, uh, snake demon nearly stopped me from coming back here.”

Toni didn’t know what a snake was, but he assumed Jude meant the Sypent, since they were the oldest of the closers and had a bit of an attitude problem. “The Sypent? With the long hair?” he asked, just to be sure, and Jude nodded. “Yeah, they enjoy pretending like they’re in charge.”

“Adorable,” Jude said flatly.

“I just gotta finish this up, but—”

“Take your time.” Jude pecked his mouth chastely as he settled more comfortably on the table. “I got my class schedule for this semester figured out today.”

“Oh? Do tell.” Toni resumed chopping as Jude swung his short legs.

“Thanks to summer school, my course load this year is pretty light. I signed up for mostly online classes.” He drew absent designs on the metal, stealing glances at Toni. “Which means that, as long as I have internet access, I can attend my classes from anywhere. So I could, maybe, be here more often.”

Toni paused in his chopping. “For real?”

“I mean, if you want me to be,” Jude rushed out, staring down at his lap. “I know you’ll be working, and I’m trying to see if there’s some sort of internship with an architecture firm I could do that would pair with my classes well. So maybe that would mean I couldn’t cross the veil as often, but as of now—”

“You can use all my internet if you want,” Toni said, lifting Jude’s head with two fingers under his chin. “But are you sure? I don’t mind coming to Chicago.”

“It’s a long commute,” Jude said, and Toni snorted.

“Ollie does it all the time.”

“True.” Jude chewed on his lip and shrugged. “I like it on this side of the veil. And Oliver’s here a lot, and all your friends are here. I don’t have much in Chicago, you know?”

Abandoning his knife, Toni stepped between Jude’s parted knees and placed his palms flat on the cool metal, angling his head to catch Jude’s wandering gaze. “I want you around all the time, baby. So, if you wanna do your school at my place or here in the cafe, then I would be fucking ecstatic. But know that if you find an internship or another job or whatever, I’ll come your way. I’ll be around so often, you’ll get sick of me in your bed.”

“I won’t get sick of you,” Jude said, fingering the collar of Toni’s t-shirt.

“We’re in this together now, Jude. We’ll figure it out and make it work. I’m all in, remember?”

With a pleased hum, Jude leaned forward until his forehead met Toni’s chin. “I know.”

“And you know, my family has connections. I could put some feelers out to see if there’s some internships you could apply to on this side of the veil. You know, if you want,” Toni said carefully, not wanting to overwhelm him.

Jude lifted his head. “Really? You could do that?”

“Well, yeah, if it means you’d be around more and wouldn’t have to travel back and forth so much. I mean, I don’t know if architecture jobs are different here, but, like, if you wanted—”

“Yes,” Jude said quickly, kissing the underside of Toni’s jaw. “That would be—thank you.”

“Of course.” Toni kissed him sweetly, and Jude sighed into the caress.

“If there are architecture firms willing to hire me, let them know I’ll be taking language classes to learn Hellia. That should make me less of a risky hire, right?” Jude said, and Toni blinked down at him in surprise.

“You signed up for a language class?”

“Of course. It seems rather one-sided for our relationship to only exist in my language and not yours.” Shrugging like it was no big deal, Jude fingered the purple apron Toni wore. “I’m trying to get Oliver to come with me, but he was all, ‘I’m not good at languages; I’ll look stupid.’”

Jude’s terrible impersonation of Oliver made Toni laugh, but he was honestly touched that Jude was willing—and apparently, eager—to learn Toni’s language. He wouldn’t have cared if their relationship remained in English, simply because Toni had been speaking English most of his life anyway. But the idea of conversing with Jude in his own tongue—maybe even Elani if Jude wanted to learn that too—had Toni choking up a bit.

“That’s really cool, Jude,” Toni said, voice cracking pathetically.

“Toni,” Jude said fondly, cupping his face in his hands. “Why are you—you emotional weirdo.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” Toni sniffled glumly. “It’s just really nice, is all.”

Snickering, Jude drew him down into a kiss. “Don’t be sorry. I want to learn your language. Just be patient with me, okay? It’s not as easy as math.”

Toni hugged him, pressing his face to Jude’s neck as he mumbled, “The fact you’re even gonna try is all that matters.” With a sniff, Toni withdrew from the hug and pecked the tip of Jude’s nose. “Now, let me get this done so we can get outta here.”

“Do you have big plans for me tonight?” Jude asked, an attempt at levity now that Toni had made things ridiculously emotional.

“The biggest, and I’m not just talking about my dicks.” Toni waggled his brows as Jude snorted. “I’m gonna seduce you with my cooking, and after, I will use my rocking bod to seal the deal.”

Laughing up at the ceiling, Jude shook his head. “You’re confident.”

“I’m a very good cook.” Toni dumped the vegetables into a container and dated it before storing it in the walk-in. “And I already know you like my body. So it feels like a rebound.”

Jude quirked his head. “A what?”

Pantomiming the human sport, basketball, Toni said, “You know, a rebound. When they smash the ball through the net and score a point.”

“That’s called a slam dunk.”

“Whatever,” Toni grumbled, kissing Jude’s next chuckle off his lips. “What I’m saying is, I’m very confident that I’m going to score. As long as you want to score as well. Your consent is vital to my plan’s success.”

Slim fingers dragged down Toni’s torso until they met his jeans. “I guess you’ll have to seduce me and find out.”

“Challenge accepted,” Toni whispered as he hoisted Jude into his arms and carried him toward the back exit.