“Your friend.”
Jesse stared at Mason for a long moment before accepting that he could trust him and that he wasn’t lying about working on Worm’s case or for Lieutenant Godfrey. Once the waitress, who’d introduced herself as Erlene, had cleared their empty plates, she quickly brought over a plate of a half dozen hot glazed donuts and set them between them.
“They’re on the house. Enjoy.” She smiled, then stood there watching Mason as if she had more to say.
“Yes, Erlene?” Mason chuckled.
She blushed in the cutest way Jesse had ever seen, before asking politely, “So how’s Joshua doing today?”
“Clark is good, Erlene. Probably already camped out in front of his television for a long evening of ESPN highlights and Hungry Man frozen meals.”
She scoffed and waved her hand. “Ugh, that sounds dreadful.”
“Maybe you should call him and see if he’s up for a little something healthier?” Mason said casually, but Jesse could see he was playing matchmaker. “He’s been told to watch his salt intake, but… you know us men.”
“Oh no. High cholesterol can be deadly if not managed properly,” she said with her eyebrows raised almost to her silver hairline. “You really think he wouldn’t mind if I called?”
“Absolutely not,” Jesse and Mason said at the same time, then smiled—dare he say—flirtatiously at each other.
Erlene giggled, and Jesse fell a little more for her. If he’d had a grandmother—if she hadn’t abandoned her only daughter—Jesse would’ve wanted her to be just like Erlene. “You boys enjoy the donuts.”
Jesse waited until she was far enough away, then gave Mason an incredulous look. “Donuts… seriously?”
“Some stereotypes are hard to avoid,” Mason said, then moaned after taking a bite of the fried goodness. “Try one and you’ll see.”
Jesse didn’t hesitate to dig in. He didn’t moan loud and seductively like Mason… but he wanted to. They were delicious. And as they drank hot coffee and ate the best donuts made on the East Coast, Jesse confided all he could. It’d been a lot easier than he thought because Mason wasn’t difficult to talk to. He listened well and asked questions but not the prying, that’s-none-of-your-business kind.
“So no sooner did you get off the bus from North Carolina than your friend who you were supposed to be staying with was arrested.”
“Yeah. And all of our lives I’ve had to come to Worm’s rescue for one reason or another. I’m twenty-four years old, and being back in Felix’s world again feels like I’ve aged an entire lifetime.” Jesse took a deep breath and held it before releasing it slowly. He shook his head in shock. “I actually needed him, really needed my friend this time, and instead of being there, what does he do? He goes and gets himself in trouble. Leaving me out in the cold… literally.”
“And you don’t want to tell me any more about his crime or his name? I can ask a few department heads—”
“No, Ellis. Stay out of it. I’m not fixing it for Worm, and I’m not sending anyone to fix it. He didn’t do anything monstrous like murder or assault a person, but it was a crime. Maybe if he suffers a little, he’ll wise up and do better.” Jesse sat back in the booth, fighting exhaustion especially after eating so much. “I don’t know anyone else here, or where to go, or what’s a safe area and what’s not. If I was suddenly homeless in Baltimore or Winston-Salem, I would probably fare better than what I’m doing now.”
“If you could get the money to go back home… would you go?”
“That’s a clever way for you to ‘not ask’ why I left home,” Jesse said with a sly smile to show Mason he wasn’t upset about it.
Mason’s dark cheeks colored beneath his neatly trimmed stubble.
“It’s okay,” Jesse answered. “If I had the money, no. I’d go anywhere but back to my aunt’s. She wants to believe I’m a liar… but she knows that I’m not. That’s why she said it was best if I left. She trusts my word, always has… but what she doesn’t trust is her husband under the same roof as me.”
Understanding seemed to set in, and Mason’s warm expression turned pinched and serious. “I’m really sorry to hear that.”
“Yeah. The closeted gay uncle. It’s a classic tale with all the usual narrative when he got confronted. He immediately went from hurling gay slurs to the ‘I have no clue what he’s talking about’ clear down to the ‘he’s the one that came on to me’ emergency lie.”
Mason shook his head.
“What?”
“You have an interesting way of speaking to be so young.” Mason’s eyes lowered to Jesse’s mouth for a brief moment before he schooled his features. “I like it. You have a kind of dark humor.”
“And you find that… attractive?”
“I was gonna say creepy.” Mason chuckled, then stared at Jesse as if he was a complicated riddle. “And maybe a little attractive. Where’d you go to college?”