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“Right, well, this has been fun, as usual, but I need to speak to Maxwell, so—” Sebastian jerked his head at the exit and let the command hang in the air.
A ripple of tension passed through Garrett’s back, and Maxwell thought he might fight Sebastian on it, but then Garrett just gave a disgusted snort and shook his head.
“Whatever.” He swiped the dirty sheets from the floor and walked to the back of the room to dump them in the hamper. Then he came up to Maxwell and put his hand on the small of Maxwell’s back. He leaned toward him and ducked his head down enough that there was at least some semblance of privacy, though Sebastian would still be able to hear every word. “I’ll come bring you breakfast tomorrow before I leave.”
Maxwell rolled his eyes but couldn’t bring himself to pull away from the attentive touch at his back. He should. But he couldn’t. “You don’t need to do that.”
“No, but I’m going to.” Garrett smiled his impish, dimpled smile and stroked his thumb once down Maxwell’s spine before stepping away. “Have a good night.”
Then after exchanging one last mutually poisonous glare with Sebastian, he left. Sebastian waited until the door had fully shut to round on Maxwell.
“You like him.”
Maxwell scoffed and turned around to pull the sheets off the last bed. “You already knew that, Sebastian. He’s perfectly kind to me.”
“No, no.” Sebastian skirted the bed to stand across from Maxwell and planted his hands on it—foiling Maxwell’s attempts to remove the sheets until Maxwell met his accusing gaze. “I mean, you like like him.”
Maxwell suppressed the cold shiver that ran down his spine and rolled his eyes. “What are we, twelve years old?” He tugged on the sheets Sebastian held down. “May I have these, please?”
Sebastian fixed his hands onto his hips instead. “So you don’t deny it?”
“I do deny it.” Maxwell set his lips into a hard frown and brushed past Sebastian to throw the sheets into the hamper with the rest of them. He’d take them to Lillian’s daughter to be washed tomorrow morning. “I have no romantic feelings whatsoever for Garrett Twal.”
Sebastian raised his eyebrows, and Maxwell felt the somewhat familiar desire to shake his stubborn friend. “Mm-hmm, and what about non-romantic, purely carnal feelings?”
Maxwell gave him a dry look and crossed his arms. “I am not lusting after Garrett Twal either, Sebastian.”
Lie. That was a lie.
But Maxwell’s entire existence was a lie. He knew better than anyone the importance of guarding a secret.
Sebastian kept up his challenging, cocky stare, and Maxwell met it calmly until it finally broke, and Sebastian sighed. “Well, whatever it is, he’s around here a lot, and I worry about you.”
Maxwell smiled and patted Sebastian’s shoulder as he walked to his desk. “You don’t need to worry about me.”
“Don’t I? Can you imagine what he’d do if he found out?” Sebastian followed Maxwell to his desk and leaned against it in almost the exact same spot Garrett had. “You know what he’s like.”
Maxwell’s lips twisted. “No one ever really knows what anyone’s like.”
Sebastian frowned, and Maxwell knew he was seeing something more than Maxwell meant to show him. “I just think he could be dangerous.”
“You didn’t listen to me when I told you a man was dangerous.” Maxwell leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. Leon Hess had never seemed like a safe man, and yet Sebastian had fallen hard for him with barely a blink as far as Maxwell could tell.
Sebastian narrowed his eyes. “No, and I still think you’re wrong. Do you think I’m wrong?”
“No.” Something like guilt and something like disappointment twisted in Maxwell’s chest. He could imagine the hurt in Garrett’s eyes if he heard Maxwell say that. “But you don’t need to tell me to be careful about who I get close to.”
Maxwell had already been taught that lesson with devastating effectiveness.
Sebastian drummed his fingers along the surface of the desk. “No. I suppose I don’t.”
Sebastian didn’t know any of the story. Maxwell hadn’t even told him that there was a story. But in his concern for his friend—when trying to warn him off flinging himself into a relationship with their intrepid leader—Maxwell might have hinted at too much. Not that it had done any good. He rubbed his eyes under his glasses and sighed. “Are you here for any particular reason, Sebastian, or just to chat?”
“Right.” Sebastian stood and snapped his fingers. Just like that, his expression went from concerned and contemplative to bright and excited. “Particular reason. We’ve finally got a bit of good news.”
“Really?” Maxwell raised his eyebrows, but Sebastian just grabbed his wrist and pulled him up from his chair.
“I’ll tell you on the way.”
