A Royal Christmas Cruise (Stonewall Investigations Miami 2.50)

“Oh, so now you want to leave? Who’s this? Your partner? You two cops?”

Getting this close allowed me to smell the alcohol fumes wafting from between the man’s chapped lips. He was ten times too trashed. I looked around, wondering if anyone could claim this buffoon.

“All right, forget it. You can’t even send a text, much less a paparazzi photo.” Shiro turned, nudging me with his shoulder. “Let’s go.”

Shiro had made a terrible mistake. By turning his back on the drunk asshole, he gave the man an opening. I saw it happening in slow motion. The man reached out with his grubby hands and grabbed Shy’s collar, bunching it up in his fist. He pulled him backward and had another fist ready to crush into Shy’s lower back. I burst into action, lurching forward to grab at the man’s arm. Shouts erupted around us.

The man’s punch never landed. As Shiro got pulled back, he did something pretty extraordinary. He used the momentum to jump upward, using a solid brick wall as purchase for his feet. He seemed like Spider-Man, climbing up the wall and jumping over the drunk man, landing gracefully behind him. He grabbed the man in a headlock, the dude’s eyes bulging out of his skull from the shock mixed with the alcohol. He must not have known which way was up.

“Whoa, whoa!” It was Luna, my protective shadow. She had come running, her colorful floral button-up lifted over her concealed weapon, her hands on the gun, ready to take it out. “What’s going on here?”

“We were just leaving,” Shiro said, throwing the man down onto the ground. He stayed there as we walked away, heading through the market, which now had every eye turned toward us, Luna close behind us.

“What the hell happened?” I asked as we exited the market, walking toward the lit-up ship. “Who was that?”

“Sorry, I thought he was the one who’d been taking the photos. I’ve spotted him around… at least I’m pretty sure I have. And I thought I saw his flash go off. I went over to ask him where he was from and why he was so interested in us. I didn’t expect him to go from one to a hundred out of nowhere.”

“He was trashed. He’s probably been looking for a fight, and you gave it to him.”

I looked over my shoulder, checking to make sure we’d left the guy in the market. I saw Luna walking behind us, her shirt hiding the gun. She was watching us but talking to someone next to her. I realize then it was her mom, whose pencil-thin eyebrows were scrunched together in worry. She threw a glance at me and subtly waved. I had a feeling she wasn’t sure who knew what, so she kept her recognition of me to herself. I shot a smile back before turning my attention back to Shy.

“Do you think it was him?” I asked. The steel panels of the dock trembled underneath us as we approached the ship.

“I asked to see his phone. That’s what got him the most pissed. But he had shown it to me just before you walked over. None of the photos were of us. Plus, I remember seeing a birthmark on the man I was originally suspect of, back at the sweater party, but this guy’s hands didn’t have anything.” Shiro’s head dropped. “I don’t think we’ve found the leaker.”

“That’s okay. We’ll keep looking.” I clapped my hands, not wanting this to destroy the mood. “In the meantime, let’s just have a good time. What’s on the agenda for tonight?”

“Tonight?” He shrugged, a grin spreading across his face. As we walked into the atrium, the lights from the chandelier caught Shy’s eyes, making them glitter like gems. “Well, there’s the blizzard foam party happening in a couple of hours. I think Ace and Rex really wanted us to go with them.”

“Let’s do it, then,” I said, having never been to a foam party before.

“Perfect.” We stopped at the glass elevator. “So, about that aerial stunt move you pulled back there. I didn’t know I was dating James Bond.”

The word slipped out of my mouth as easy as Shiro twirled over that man. I couldn’t take it back either. What was said was said. I looked into his eyes, feeling like I had just stuffed an entire sock into my mouth.

“I’m into parkour,” Shy answered, a mischievous grin playing across his face. “And I’m into dating you, too. By the way.”

“Good,” I said, trying to play it off as if I meant to say it in the first place. In truth, I wasn’t sure of what the situation between us really was. We had started off as a fiery kiss inside of a bookshop to then fall into a fake friendship which exploded into a real relationship in a matter of days. Did I think we were exclusively dating? No, of course not. Did I know I wanted to hang out with Shiro and Shiro only? Hell to the fuck yes I did. I loved falling asleep next to him and waking up next to him, and I loved everything else that happened in between. There was still more to discover about each other, that part was also clear, but wasn’t that the whole point of dating someone? I wanted to have that time of discovery, where I found all the gems inside his soul, even the ones that were cracked for whatever reason.