Page 99 of Should the Sky Fall

“Thank you,” Cal says with a huge sigh of relief. “I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”

Ellis' eyes find Dawson for a moment. Dawson can hear the unspoken question: Why haven’t you talked about this?

“Just stay away from the bottle and we’re golden,” Ellis says, a dark undertone to the words. Cal must hear it too because he has trouble looking Ellis in the face.

“I…have no need to be close to the bottle.”

Ellis raises a skeptical eyebrow, then turns to Dawson.

“It’s true,” Dawson confirms, still quite disbelieving himself.

Before the following silence can get any worse, Ellis speaks. “So, what’s for dinner? I’m starving.” As far as transitions go, this wasn’t smooth at all, but at least they got the most uncomfortable part out of the way.

“Parmesan mushroom risotto.” Dawson beckons them both to the table, shooing Cal away when he tries to help with plating up. “I managed to get my hands on dairy-free parmesan and cream, so you should be fine.

“You didn’t have to go through the trouble,” Ellis says, sounding surprised.

“Oh, yes, running a shopping errand that took twenty minutes was such trouble.”

Ellis rolls his eyes, the beginnings of a smile settling in the corner of his lips. “Fine, I’ll shut up. It smells amazing, by the way.”

“He’s great in the kitchen,” Cal says proudly. The combined compliment from him and Ellis makes him blush. He busies himself with plating up so nobody notices.

“I’m decent,” he mumbles.

“And a liar,” Cal says with a snort.

“Hey!”

Yeah, Cal liking his food does strange things to Dawson, he can admit that. But then again, Cal’s only point of reference is hospital food. Anything’s better than that.

He listens to Cal and Ellis’ conversation while he works. Ellis is mostly asking about how Cal is healing, pointedly avoiding any questions about his memory.

“A dog-shelter?” he hears Ellis ask.

“Dawson works there. He agreed to show me around, then got all bossy when I wanted to help.”

“Oh, shut up, you!” Dawson spins around, pointing a wooden spoon at Cal in warning. “You were sliced open a couple weeks ago and you expect me to let you do whatever?”

“I’m fine.”

“Nuh-uh. That word is banned from your vocabulary, remember?”

“But it’s true!”

“You fainted.”

“I didn’t faint!”

“You got dizzy.”

“But I didn’t faint.”

“You almost fainted.”

“I—”

“O-kay,” Ellis sing-songs, watching them with a very concerned expression. “I get it. Dawson is bossy, and you’re pushing your limits.”