Page 28 of Regret Me Not

Dammit.

But he owed his niece a present and had just decided on the Monster High Mansion when Hal came around the corner, one giant stuffed pink bear under one arm, and a giant stuffed bear with green eyes and light brown fur held against his chest with the other.

Pierce looked from the bear to Hal’s face and back again. “Is that supposed to be me?” he asked dryly.

“Do you let me cuddle you like this?” Hal asked, waggling his eyebrows.

“I might.” Pierce waggled his back, wondering how long they could flirt without actually mentioning the damned blowjob-in-the-dark-room thing that had happened the night before.

“Then yes,” Hal said archly, putting both bears in the laden cart. He paused for a moment and looked at the cart again. “And we’re going to have to stop debating on which bear I’m going to sleep with and check out. This thing’s full and”—he raked Pierce’s body over with a critical eye—“unless I miss my guess, you’re getting tired.”

“No I’m—” Pierce yawned. “—not.”

Hal raised an eyebrow, looking bored.

“Fine. And I’m starving. Let’s go.”

The line was damned long, and by the time they got through it, Pierce was limping badly. Hal made him go sit down in the CR-V while he unloaded the cart, and when he got back into the car, he sighed like he’d made a big decision.

“Okay—here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to call a chain restaurant for takeout, we’ll go park in the takeout spot and I’ll run in and get it, and we’ll take it back home with us. That way you can eat and crash, and I can start immediately on making a Christmas tree out of Legos because honestly, itisall about me, and that sounds like the most funever.”

Pierce laughed—because how could he not. “Yeah,” he said, wishing he was a woman with ibuprofen in her purse or something. “That sounds awesome.”

Hal’s hand, warm on his shoulder, surprised him. “I’ll take care of you,” he said softly. “I’m young, but I can train up quick.”

And Pierce, tired, confused, and in need of some reassurance, took it for what it was. “You’ll do a great job,” he said. “I don’t know why you worry.”

Hal looked away. “Yeah. Yeah, you do.” He pulled out his phone and started tapping into it without looking up. “So, Applebee’s—what’s your favorite item there?”

Pierce ordered a sandwich, and they were both quiet on the drive. Hal parked, and Pierce leaned back against the seat, eyes closed.

“It’ll be a minute,” Hal said softly. “I’m going to run next door to get something before getting our food.”

Pierce kept his eyes closed and nodded. He wasn’t even sure when Hal came out, takeout bags rustling as he put them behind the driver seat, and he tried hard not to drool on the way home.

HE WOKEup for takeout at Derrick’s little glass-topped table, the Target bags sitting accusingly in the corner of the room.

“We forgot wrapping paper,” Pierce said, halfway through his sandwich, and Hal smacked his forehead with his palm.

“D’oh! God, we suck at this!”

“Right?” Pierce couldn’t help the shocked laughter. “We’re, like, epically bad. We’ll have to learn to make lists.”

“Either that or set up a little minicamp at Target. ‘Hello, we’re the eternal shoppers. We go home between trips, but we have a cot for the times we forget half the shit we came for.’”

“That would totally work,” Pierce agreed. “Like in those apocalyptic movies, where people gather in a shopping mall or Target. You’ve got years’ worth of canned goods and all the clothes in your size you could ask for.”

“And they’ve got video games and probably their own generator,” Hal said, because maybe when you were twenty-three you remembered the important stuff.

“And sleeping bags and futons—”And condoms and lubricant and privacy.“—and we, uh, you could be totally comfortable there for quite some time.” Oh God. Pierce had just remembered why he was the bear and why Hal would rank videogames as a postapocalyptic necessity.

But Hal didn’t seem to think there was anything amiss. “We,” he said, eyes to the side like he was imagining something pleasant. “Wecould be happy and comfortable for quite some time.”

“Okay,” Pierce mumbled, not sure what he was agreeing to. Suddenly he didn’t care. “Wecould be happy and comfortable in Target after the apocalypse. It’ll be our destination place when we’re running from the zombie hordes.”

They finished dinner, talking about the best strategy for defeating the vicious undead, and Pierce got up to help clear the table while Hal raided the bags.

“You can throw the pillows on the couch,” Pierce instructed, rinsing silverware and cups. “That’s where they were meant to go anyway.”