The silence while Finn sought to wrap his head around the information went on for some time. Long enough that the sun went in and out twice more. “So you and he are…?”
“Having sex,” I offered. “Nothing more. I’m attracted to him and he’s attracted to me.”
“Okay.”
“Is it?”
“Like you said, he’s an adult. Funny how you said Luke was too young, though. Mac isn’t that much older.”
“I’m aware,” I said. “But you were dangling Luke in front of me as a potential life partner. Both Mac and I are clear on this just being a bit of fun. He’ll be gone soon, and then I can return to the serious business of dying alone.”
“I hope you both know what you’re doing.”
“So do I,” I said, with a laugh. “Because I certainly don’t need any more complications in my life.”
Chapter Seventeen
The knock at the door came an hour late, but I was growing used to that with Mac. He didn’t operate under the same time constraints as most other people did. Time was more flexible for him. No doubt he’d seen a place he wanted to investigate on the way over, or a person he wanted to have a conversation with. Luckily, he was the one bringing dinner. Or at least he was supposed to be, unless he’d gotten distracted from that as well.
“Hey!” he said with a big smile on his face when I opened the door. He hitched the bag in his arms higher. “Dinner delivery for Monsieur Dupont.”
I stood back so he could come in. There was a moment where it looked like Mac might lean in and kiss me, but he seemed to think better of it, continuing past me to the kitchen instead. “How was work?”
“Uneventful,” I answered honestly. “Which is not a bad thing. Uneventful means a lack of drama.”
“Finn seems to enjoy working there. Or at least, he doesn’t say differently when I’m around. Which is a good job, seeing as hemoved from London to Paris to work there.” Mac was already dividing the food onto two plates. I’d asked for pizza and instead it seemed we were having French tacos, but I was growing used to that as well, the slight unpredictability part of Mac’s charm.
I accepted the plate without comment and sat, Mac holding up a hand just as I was about to dig in. “Wait. One minute. I have something for you.” He delved into his pocket, pulling out a small bag with the name of a popular French jeweler on the side. When I didn’t immediately reach out to take it, he pushed it across the table toward me. “Present.”
“It’s not my birthday for a few months.”
He shrugged. “Late Christmas. Early birthday. Call it what you want.”
I extracted the box from its packaging slowly, my brain struggling to come up with an answer to what it might contain. The box opened easily to leave me staring at a Festina watch with a black leather strap. “Where did you get this?”
Mac smirked. “Well, I didn’t steal it from Cillian, and I didn’t pull off a heist on the jewelers, so conclude what you will from that.”
“You bought it?”
“Yes, I bought it. You don’t have to sound so surprised. My last modeling job came with a fairly hefty pay cheque. Much as Cillian likes to believe I don’t have two pennies to rub together, that’s not the truth.”
I closed the box and pushed it back across the table. “I can’t accept it.”
Mac pushed it straight back. “You can. You don’t know how annoying it is when you keep trying to find out the time from a bare wrist.” He did a terrible impression of what I assumed was supposed to be me, his double-take and subsequent grimace greatly exaggerated.
“The clown training wasn’t completely wasted on you, then,” I observed. I tried to push the box back a second time, but Mac was ready for the move, wedging his hand behind it and refusing to give way no matter how hard I pushed. “Fine. If it annoys you, I’ll buy one. I meant to. I just haven’t gotten around to it. I’ve had other things demanding my attention.” I let my gaze travel slowly down over Mac to make it clear what one of those things had been. “You would have complained if I’d kicked you out of bed to go shopping for a watch.”
“I would have done,” Mac agreed. “What a shame, though, that your workplace is on the moon rather than near a bustling commercial district that sells watches. It must take a great deal of effort to avoidallof those places as you come and go from work.”
“The last thing I feel like doing after work is shopping.”
“And then there’s the internet,” Mac continued. “I appreciate that with the stupendously large age gap between us, I might have a lot more technological know-how than you do, but I hadn’t realized that included being unable to open a browser and shop online. I expect it is rather complicated for someone of your advanced years.”
Rather than rising to the bait, I gave the box containing the watch a bigger shove, Mac taken enough by surprise that his hand slid back. He shook his head. “You’re seriously going to throw this back in my face and then buy another one. What am I supposed to do with it? You could have just said if you didn’t like it.”
“I do like it. I just…”
“You enjoy being difficult more.”
