Page 9

Joey

Both Callum and my eyes were drawn to the sight of what looked like an impeccably dressed middle-aged male with his hands around his throat stumbling to his feet and his face turning a worrying shade of deep red.

“It’s go time,” Callum muttered, already jumping out of his seat. As he hurried over, he looked back at me over his shoulder, his face the most serious I’d ever seen it. “Joey, I need you.”

It never even occurred to me to ignore him. I dashed over behind him, seeing people in my periphery with their phones out. Some were talking on the phone, while others were filming what was happening.

None were physically helping the couple.

While we were both moving through the mess of discarded chairs in the restaurant, the man, Matthew, went down. There was an audible thump as his body hit the floor, which only made his wife or girlfriend scream louder.

“Matthew! What do I do? Oh, God!”

Callum shoved a chair out of his way, its legs screeching against the tiled floor, while he turned his head again to call to me over the increasing din, “You look after her, I’ll look after him, okay?”

Working purely on instinct alone, I nodded and headed around the last table that stood between us and them while Callum dove for the guy now choking on the floor, his fingers digging into his neck enough to draw blood. The sounds of him gasping for breath echoed around the restaurant, with every inhale becoming harder and harder to take.

Callum grabbed hold of Matthew’s cheeks and closed his eyes tight, the corners scrunching up as he concentrated.

By that time, I’d made it to the wife or girlfriend and had a hold of her by the shoulders. I leaned down slightly, then turned her towards me and away from what Callum was doing with Matthew before putting my face directly in front of hers so I was the only one she could focus on. “It’s okay. He’ll be okay.” Her eyes were wide as they stared into mine, panic causing her breathing to come hard and fast, but at least she was breathing. Matthew, however, was getting worse by the second.

I heard Callum release a quick sigh of relief, and he swiveled on his knees to look for me. “I need your EpiPen, Joey.”

“Okay.” I let go of the wife or girlfriend and dove one hand into my pocket where I knew my EpiPen lived. Once it was free, I got it out of the protective case, uncapped it, and tossed it to him.

He caught it smoothly, swung it around so it was needle point down, and slammed it into Matthew’s thigh and held it there.

Within seconds, Matthew’s breathing began to ease.

Without moving the EpiPen from Matthew’s thigh, Callum leaned over so he could look Matthew straight in the eye. “Matthew, you’ve had an allergic reaction. An ambulance is on its way. Just keep breathing for me, okay?”

Matthew nodded, his head jerking from the effort and his eyes still wild and dazed, but everyone in the immediate vicinity could hear his breathing settling.

His wife or girlfriend fell to her knees on the other side of him and grabbed Matthew’s hand, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Oh, Matthew! I thought I’d lost you!”

“Nah,” Callum said with a slight grin before letting out a deep breath. He pressed his hand to her bare shoulder in a comforting way, but I could see his eyes glaze over. “He’s going to live a long and healthy life. As will you.”

Knowing that he was telling them the truth even if neither of them knew it, I choked back a huff of relieved laughter and redirected the conversation before things got weird. Well, more weird. “Has he ever had an allergic reaction like this before?”

It wasn’t uncommon for allergies to make an appearance later in life, especially when it came to seafood. I glanced at their table, and sure enough, there was a large dish in the middle holding a barely touched lobster.

“Never,” the woman said, shaking her head while one of her hands shakily caressed Matthew’s cheek. “We’ve been married ten years. This was supposed to be our anniversary dinner. We decided to splurge a little; try something new...” She leaned down and kissed her husband on the forehead before looking at Callum. “Thank you.” Her teary eyes found mine. “Thank you both. If you hadn’t been here…”

“It’s okay,” I said to her, my hands twisting as the shock of what had just happened began to hit me. I’d never seen anyone go through anaphylaxis before, and the last time I’d gone through it myself, I was a child and barely remembered it. All I knew was that I had to carry my EpiPen everywhere. That knowledge had undoubtedly saved a man’s life tonight. “Unfortunately, these things happen. The paramedics will tell you the same thing when they arrive. I’m glad we could help.”

Both Callum and I stayed close to Matthew and his wife, who we learned was named Christine, while we waited for the paramedics to arrive. Christine started babbling nervously about how they’d left their two children home with her sister so they could celebrate their milestone anniversary in style. They’d both decided to try lobster for the first time as a gift to themselves. Matthew had barely swallowed a single bite before his throat started closing.

The paramedics arrived when I was explaining to them both that sometimes shellfish allergies show up suddenly in adults. If Matthew had never had an allergic reaction in the past to anything, there was no way either of them could have expected this sort of thing to happen.

Callum and I moved back to let the paramedics do their thing; they strapped Matthew into the gurney once they were confident that he was stable enough to move. Christine kept repeating what had occurred, which I assumed was her way of working through her shock. The paramedics were incredibly patient with her, and one of them thanked us once he found out what we’d done before they headed to the nearest hospital.

Once we knew we weren’t needed anymore, we retreated to our table where Callum sat down with a relieved sigh, his elbows on the table while he scratched at his chin and stared at our now cleared tabletop.

I ran my still trembling fingers through my hair before pinning Callum with a look. “How’d you know?”

He raised his head at my question. “Know what?”

I tilted my head to the side. “Right at the start, you said something like it’s time . You knew, didn’t you?”

He flicked his eyes around the room, where people were still milling about, discussing Matthew’s near-death experience like it was the best reality TV show they’d ever seen. Callum heaved a deep breath in and as he let it out slowly, he shook his head. “Not here.” He gathered his things from the table. “Let’s take a walk.”

Pressing my lips together, I nodded once. “Okay.” I stood up from my seat and grabbed my leather jacket to put on.

Callum paused and stared at it. “Is that…?”

I felt my cheeks heat as I looked down at what used to be his jacket. “Yeah, it’s yours. You accidentally left it at home four years ago.” I held it in my hands, fumbling a little. “You can have it back. Just let me wear it for the rest of the night? It’s cold outside.”

The softest smile I’d seen yet slowly emerged on Callum’s face. “It wasn’t an accident.” He came around the table, took the jacket in his hands, and helped me into it before he leaned into my side and murmured into my ear, “I left it for you.”

A shudder ran through me that differed from the slight adrenaline trembling that had been plaguing me since Matthew’s mishap. This one settled in my groin, heating me from the inside. I felt my cock plump a little at both Callum’s words and his proximity. He held onto my shoulders once I had the jacket on, squeezing gently to remind me how close he was.

I felt myself lean into him and shivered when I felt his lips graze my earlobe, my eyes falling shut as I let out a quiet sigh. I’d never felt like this before, not even in the entire two years I’d been with Amelia. His warmth settled into me, making me feel more settled than I had ever been before.

“Let’s get out of here,” he said, nuzzling my ear softly as he ran his fingers down my arm and took my hand in his.

In a daze, I nodded before I opened my eyes and followed him to the front counter.

Our server and the host were huddled together but pulled apart when we approached. The server nodded once at the host before he glanced at us and disappeared back into the restaurant.

“How was your meal, sirs?” the host asked as her fingernails sharply tapped away at her screen. “I trust you enjoyed it?”

I looked to Callum, letting him take the lead like he’d done all night so far.

“Yes, thank you. It was quite enjoyable,” he said with an amiable smile. “Please pass our compliments to the chef.”

“I will. Thank you,” she responded, slightly distracted as she frowned a little at her screen. She tapped in two different places before her face lit up. “Ah, there we go.” Finally, bringing her full attention to us, she clasped her fingers loosely in front of her. “On behalf of The Majestic, we’d like to thank you for your calm response to our other guest’s emergency. As such, your meals have been fully compensated with our heartfelt gratitude.”

Shocked, I blinked and turned to stare at Callum, who had already retrieved his wallet from his back pocket and was in the process of getting his card out to pay.

He paused for just a moment, tapping his card on his wallet before handing her his card. “Thank you for your kind words, but I’d feel better if I could settle our bill, please.”

“Sir, you misunderstand. There is nothing left to settle.”

He tilted his head to the side and studied her for a moment before pursing his lips. “Okay then. Could you please let me know how much the total had come to before it was settled?”

The slightest smile graced her face before she calmly lifted her tablet from the stand and showed him the screen.

Callum glanced at it quickly and, with no change in his expression whatsoever, offered his card to her again. “Please process the total, plus an additional twenty percent as a tip to be shared with you and your staff.”

She inclined her head and took the card. “As you wish, sir. Thank you.”

We waited for the transaction to go through before we left the building. The frigid air enveloped us as soon as we opened the door and stepped outside. It wasn’t freezing cold yet, but both of us really needed our jackets with the night mist that permeated the air.

Callum motioned me away from the parking lot and we wandered slowly down the sidewalk. He was quiet, but I didn’t feel any need to fill the silence. I let him decide when he wanted to answer my question.

Seeing as night had fallen completely while we were in the restaurant, the only light we had was from the almost full moon reflecting off the clouds in the sky above us and the lampposts that littered the sidewalk. Between the mist and the lack of people, the night felt eerie.

He stopped at a stepping-stone path that led down the side of the on-ramp to a multilane freeway that spanned the road we were currently on. There was damp greenery that ran along both sides of the path, climbing high into the sky, creating a natural canopy above the path. An illuminated LED guard rail hung from posts on both sides of the path, creating a rather unique ambience.

“There’s a children’s play park down this path,” said Callum, looking into the shadows. “It’ll probably be the quietest place around here that we can talk uninterrupted at this time of the night.” He turned his head to peer at me. “What do you think?”

I looked from him to the path and back again, weighing our options. I didn’t want the night to end because I enjoyed Callum’s company, even though he seemed to thoroughly enjoy being all mysterious. He also owed me a ton of answers, which I was starting to think I might need whether or not I wanted to hear them.

“Let’s do it,” I said as I shrugged, trying to give off an indifferent vibe even though I was admittedly a little creeped out by the night air. The same feeling I’d had before I met up with him tonight, which had told me I needed to make sure I had my EpiPen with me, was telling me I was more than safe with Callum. He wouldn’t let anything bad happen to me, regardless of how much our date had gone pear-shaped.

Could we still call it a date? We’d definitely shared a meal and chatted about different things, just like how a typical date would go. And I definitely felt more for my stepbrother than I should rightly be feeling.

Callum went ahead, leading me down the path and into the night.