Page 49

Dagger and Suleiman joined Triple T at the LM while they cooked, and Alex sent out their own portions too, before settling with Timi and his mum in the dining room. He had to reintroduce Timi and cajole her to eat what she'd demanded for.

“Richard, is it wrong to eat akara and pap for dinner?” she asked.

Timi shook his head. “No, ma'am. But Alex and I made this for you, won't you at least eat it to appreciate our efforts?”

She pouted as she dug in. “I suppose so. Thank you for being my son's friend. Ever since he returned from that school, he hasn't been himself.”

Timi glanced at Alex. He sat still with his head lowered. Timi's heart felt tenderly crushed. “I'm the one lucky to have him as a friend, ma'am.”

Alex raised his head, and their gazes locked across the glass dining table.

Timi realised then, the important things in his life were no longer only his to enjoy or endure.

The two people sitting across him, who had suffered from life's sadism, had the entirety of him.

And he would do everything in his power to make sure they lived the rest of their lives free and happy .

Later, they did the dishes, with Alex washing and Timi rinsing. And Timi, shame-faced, asked what he'd said to him on that drunken three-minutes phone call.

“I don't think it would interest you to know,” Alex said.

Timi hit him with a wet sieve. “Really? You dare use my spell against me, Potter?”

Alex hit him back with a bowl. “Students are allowed to overtake their masters.”

Timi, not known for retreating, hit him again, and soon the kitchen floor turned into a mini pool as they fought for which plastic could inflict more pain, their laughter bouncing off the wooden surfaces and re-echoing in Timi's heart.

Darkness fell, but Timi still couldn't bring himself to leave.

After a post dinner of diced pineapples and watermelon with Alex, once again, cajoling his mother to take her medicine, they returned to Alex's bedroom, where they took turns showering.

Then, lay sprawled across the bed, a pile of Legos between them.

While they built a knight on a horseback, Timi asked Alex to return to work as soon as his mother was placed in a care home.

Alex built a couple of stages before saying softly, “When I began working, I lived by one rule.

Work to get just enough. If I could make enough to settle bills, everything would work out fine.

Reason I went through many jobs. And when I returned, I continued.

Worked at a dialysis centre, then at a small finance firm, before I met Agu and then you.

The Fash's wanted me stable, so they connected me to their friend running an NGO.”

“The interview you ditched?” Timi asked.

Alex's gaze snapped to his. “How did you—”

“You should close the door when having sensitive convos.”

Alex's breath escaped him in a soft, “Oh.” But when his lips moved to speak, Timi jumped in with a hasty, “Did you really not go because of me?”

He wasn't ready to talk about anything Nejeere-related because it didn't matter. However the future played out for him and Alex, only them would decide .

Alex dropped the Legos and moved up to rest his back against the headboard. “Working for you felt crucial, sure, but I also wasn’t ready for that kind of stability. I enjoyed not being rooted anywhere.”

As he spoke, things got clearer. “You didn't want to accumulate wealth,” Timi murmured. “Like your father.”

Alex hung his head. “Money alienated him, killed him…”

Timi sat up. “And you thought the best alternative was poverty?”

“Not the extreme kind.”

“There's no glory in poverty, extreme or otherwise. You take and take from people till you're full of them and empty of you.”

“So is wealth, y'know? You acquire and acquire till nothing's left of you outside of it.”

“I'm not saying —”

Alex raised a hand. “I know. I get it now. Balance. That's what I needed. Cutting ties with Agu made me see my hypocrisy. He'd been taking care of my mother and giving me the luxury to still think I was a boat adrift at sea. I can’t afford to live like that anymore, Timi. I need to plant my roots.”

Surprisingly, Alex's rejection didn't feel as terrible as he thought it would. He was rejecting the job, not him. “So, you'll plead for another chance with the NGO?”

Alex shook his head. “I want to start baking commercially. I've been toying with this concept. Snacks for diabetics, and for weight loss.”

Something swelled within him, warm and heady. “I totally endorse it. I can design something dated to fit your brand. While you work your magic for people like me who want the muscles and the sweetness of pastries.”

Alex snorted. “Stay completely away from sugar, old man.”

On a sudden burst of euphoria, Timi jumped on him, pinning him to the bed with his body, arms held over his head.

“Say that again,” he dared.

Hunger had melted Alex's eyes. “What? Old man?”

Timi's mouth went dry. “Yeah. That.”

“I just did.”

“Oh, yeah?” He shifted, and something hard nudged his inner thigh.

His body responded immediately. Tightening, lengthening, buzzing, matching the electricity crackling in the air.

It had been so long, the nights so torturous.

Remembering every feel of the body beneath him and how wildly out of control it'd made him. How had he survived the weeks?

“I have something to tell you,” he whispered, his lips tingling with a sharp need to claim the lush ones so close. But the words had to come first.

“What?” Alex's voice came out raspy, his eyes locked on Timi's lips.

“I like you, Alex Iyke.” Alex met his gaze, and it had grown so dark, Timi's gut tightened with answering want.

“The weeks without you, without…this… The reasons for pushing you away stopped making sense.

I don't know how any of this works, but I want to leave my dilapidated house, Alex. I want to enjoy happiness as it comes and to give it in return. I want to learn you till I can write you from memory, and frankly, I only wish to stop when there are no pages left.”

Silence persisted for a long moment before Alex let out a soft, “wow.” Then, his fingers snaked through Timi's hair to lock on his nape. “How could I have forgotten?”

Timi blinked. “Huh?”

But before Alex could respond, a voice came in from the doorway. “Kaka, are you asleep?”

In a blink, Timi was at the other side of the bed, crashing into the pile of abandoned Legos that tumbled to the tiles in a deafening clatter. Timi dove towards the chaos, muttering apologies and gathering up the pieces. He only raised his head when Alex jumped down to guide his mum to her room.

When he returned, Timi lay facing the ceilings, his racing heartbeat slowly dispelling the terror that had sent it to an overdrive when he thought they'd been caught. Alex sat at the edge of the bed, but Timi didn't look at him despite feeling his gaze boring holes into his skin.

Finally, Alex sighed. “What can we do when the body wants what the brain can't allow?”

Timi swallowed the lump growing in his throat. “We're an anomaly. No one can know. No one can understand.”

“Including you? ”

Timi met his gaze with a frown. “I understand. I know how I feel. I'm the one in it.”

“You just called us an anomaly.”

“Aren't we? Normal is tired and boring.”

Alex fell back into the bed, and Timi couldn't help noticing the distance he gave their bodies. “I feel as normal as any human can feel for another human.”

“But we're both men.”

“Really? How did I miss that?”

At Timi's silence, Alex exhaled heavily.

“My first love was a boy,” he said, and Timi tamped down the sour hotness abrading his chest. He had his boy too, but Alex being with anyone other than him just felt…

wrong. The reason he'd refused to ask about him.

“I guess I've had enough time to realise the soul overrides the genitals for me. And this was possible because I had the liberty to explore.” He turned to his side, arms supporting his head.

“You weren't given the chance to work through your fear and accept who you might be.

And I'm ready to walk the path with you, if you want me.”

Timi heard what he wasn't saying but he needed to be clear even if the colours surrounding him had begun to fade. “As friends.”

Alex released a ragged sigh. “Yes, as friends. I'm too weak to have you force me to let you go again. Being friends is…safe. For now.”

Quietness settled for another long while, before Timi let out a heart-felt groan. “Why aren't you a woman?”

Alex chuckled softly. “You think you'll still want me?”

He'd assumed he would when the attraction was still a seedling. But after familiarising himself with every inch of Alex's masculinity, it would take the powers of twenty-one gypsies to bring him close to the height Alex's manly kisses had brought him.

“So, me being the woman, then?” he asked.

Alex's eyes scanned Timi's body. “I think the body part that has the most say in this would object vehemently.”

Timi would have laughed if his dilapidated house hadn't appeared again.

Though this time, as a glitch, because friendship with Alex was way better than nothing with him.

And the journey Alex suggested walking with him could very well lead him to the version of himself who wasn't ruled by fear and uncertainty.

Complete happiness was still within reach.

If only he could summon the courage to grab it.

Later that night, having instructed Suleiman and Dagger to return and come pick him up the next day, he asked Alex one of the major things that had been bothering him.

“Alex, are you Spider?”

Heart thundering, he waited for Alex's reply.

“No,” Alex said, after a long silence. “But I know who is.”