“Morning, Leo. How you feeling?” Furi asked, walking into the kitchen in nothing but a pair of loose basketball shorts.
“Like a bitch that’s been rode hard,” Day grumbled, taking another long drink of the black liquid.
Furi almost choked on his own cup of coffee, laughter bursting out of him. He sat down in the chair next to Day’s. “Okay. That doesn’t sound great, but you promised you’d talk to God today. Put your foot down. All this skirting around the topic and trying to casually slip in a conversation about a wedding date here and there is bullshit, Leo. You deserve an explanation for why God is putting you off like this. Don’t take it anymore. Enough is enough.”
“I agree,” Syn added, walking into the kitchen already fully dressed for work. He bent down, gripping a handful of Furi’s long, brownish-gold mane and pulled his head back, laying a long, loud kiss on his mouth.
“Umm. Should I get up so you guys can use the table?” Day dropped his head in his hands while Syn slapped him on his back hard enough to make his head pound louder.
“Nah, go ahead. We can at least wait until you finish your coffee,” Syn threw over his shoulder, filling his travel mug with orange juice. That meant Syn was ready to go.
Furi walked them to the door, his arm draped over Day’s shoulder. “Leo, you know I love God and all, but you know what, if God won’t get his shit together, maybe you should leave him.”
Day’s head snapped to the side like he’d been popped. “Leave him,” Day grumbled. “I don’t wanna reward him… I just want him to tell me what’s up.”
“Yeah. Leave him. Show him what he’ll be missing. Let him know you won’t be taken for granted and jerked around. There comes a time when you have to take what you deserve. Respect.” Furi crossed his arms over his tattooed chest like his idea made perfect sense, but the way Syn was scowling at Furi made him bring it down a notch. “I just want you to be happy, Leo.”
“That’s enough advice from you, Tony Robbins.” Syn pushed Day out the door like he didn’t want him to hear any more of Furi’s empowering rhetoric.
“Hey, you sure you don’t wanna pick up your car now?”
“No. Furi said he’d tune it up for me later this week. It was riding a little rough. I’ll ride back with God.”
“So you’re going home tonight?” Syn stopped at a light and turned to face him.
“Yeah, I am. This is getting crazy. If Cash won’t give me an answer tonight, I’m telling him the engagement is off… done… taken back. Whatever the fuck you call it. I thought about it all last night, and if all we can be is boyfriends, not husbands… then… then, I can deal with it.” Day shook his head, groaning. “I think.”
“You can. We got your back, you know that,” Syn said, pulling into the station’s busy parking lot. The shifts were changing and cars were pulling in and out, but Day saw God’s big silver truck already there. Feeling his eyes cloud with moisture and frustration, he climbed out of Syn’s car and headed for the front doors without looking to see if his sergeant was with him. As soon as he walked through their department doors, God swiveled around to face him, a look of anger washing across his stern features. Tech looked back and forth between them, then got up and bolted to his equipment room, closing himself inside. If Day hadn’t been so beat and worn, he would’ve laughed.
“You never came home last night, Leonidis.”
Day dropped his bag on the floor next to his desk. “Whoever said you weren’t a great detective, God, was out of their damn mind.”
God rose up from his seat. “You’re going to joke… NOW?”
“And you’re going to come at me… NOW?” Day threw back.
“Take it down,” Syn hissed, finally coming through the door.
“I’m finished,” God said through clenched teeth.
“The hell you are. Both of you go home.” Syn set his mug on his desk hard enough to emphasize that he wasn’t playing and it wasn’t a request, it was an order. “No one is dealing with this shit another day. You two go home and fix it. Immediately. You got everyone around here ducking and hiding when you’re both around, either that or it’s as quiet as a library, everyone too afraid to tell a joke because you’re acting like the world is coming to an end. Now get gone. Both of you. Come back when you’ve come to a solution…” Syn bored God with a hard, dark glare. “Come back after you’ve been completely honest with each other.”
Day swallowed hard. Syn had to know why God was stalling. Syn knew everything but Day didn’t pressure him for answers. Not like Syn would tell him anything anyone told him in confidence. But Day felt a small sliver of hope spring up in his chest. If Syn was sending them home, he must believe that God had something he needed to confess, and it couldn’t be that disastrous because he said to come back when they were honest. Did God want him? Did he still want to marry him?