Page 350 of His Hungry Wolf

“Pretty good. They thanked me for sharing it. There were a few people there who I had been a real dick to in high school and even they thanked me.”

I looked at him confused. “How many people were there?”

“Twenty? Twenty-five?”

I tried not to react. I had told Quin that it was important to get as many people there as he could. But, I was picturing six or seven. Twenty was an army.

I would have given anything to see everyone or even be there. After all, I had been the one to arrange it for the man I love.

“That’s excellent. I’m happy it was so successful. What about practice? How has that been going?”

Nero gave me a rundown of the trivial things he had been dealing with and then looked at me for my next question. The truth was that I didn’t have anything else to ask him. I looked down at my half-eaten sandwich and wondered if I should wrap it up and take it to go.

“What about you?” Nero asked me. “How have you been? Or, am I not supposed to ask. I’m not sure what the rules are.”

I thought about that. I was making things up as I went along so I didn’t know what the rules were either.

“No, you can ask,” I said with a tight-lipped smile.

“Then, how have you been?”

I considered what I should tell him. I certainly couldn’t say how much I had been struggling since requesting we keep things professional. He certainly didn’t have to hear about that.

And he probably didn’t need to know that I had released the spell only to recast it. It wasn’t just that I started getting unusual looks from people around campus, it was that I didn’t want to make things harder for him.

“Oh! I saw someone unexpected recently.”

“Who’s that?”

“Evan Carter.”

As soon as I said the name, Nero’s body tensed. He went from soft puppy dog to fearsome protector in an instant.

“Don’t worry, it was all good.”

“It was good? How?”

“He actually found me on campus.”

“I told him if he came looking for you…”

“No, Nero. Trust me. It was a good thing. Turns out, the reason he was so awful to me in high school was because he’s gay too and I was forcing him to confront his sexuality before he was ready. He actually fell to his knees and begged for my forgiveness. And, it wasn’t because he was scared of you. He felt that bad about it.”

“The fact that you’re smiling tells me that you got a kick out of it,” Nero observed.

“Am I smiling?”

“A lot.”

I was smiling. “Oh. Well, the experience was everything I dreamed would happen.”

“I thought my beating the crap out of him was everything you dreamed of.”

“Before I knew that your beating him up was an option, him on his knees begging for forgiveness was the dream. But, I don’t think he would have done it if you hadn’t balanced the scales a little. So, thank you again for that.”

“It feels good knowing I was able to play at least a small part in your happiness,” he said rediscovering his smile, as bittersweet as it was.

“You’ve played a large part in it,” I admitted vulnerably.