“I worked for Blossom Nurseries. Their food was fucking pants,andI had to pay for it.”
Sid peeled his banana and ate it in two bites.
Dante watched and let his mind fall into the gutter with zero fucks given. “Did you go to uni to be a gardener?”
Sid nodded and picked up his sandwich. “I did a horticulture degree after my apprenticeship, but I never finished it.”
“Because of your MS?”
“Partly. It was more that I can’t be arsed with classroom shit, though. Or authority. I’m not good at being told that one way is the only way, especially when that way is killing bees and destroying the planet.”
“Eco-warrior, huh?”
“Low level. The only thing I fight these days is myself.” Sid nudged Dante. “Eat? Please? Unless you really are about to throw up.”
“What?”
Sid stuffed a bite of sandwich in his mouth, then threaded his arm around Dante’s shoulders and brought his lips to Dante’s ear. “We can go home if you want. My car is five minutes from here.”
Tempting. But... Sid had said he had shit to buy from the shops, and Dante would die before he was the reason he didn’t have what he needed. “I’m good.”
“Eat then. Put some colour behind those killer cheekbones.”
Dante flushed and picked up the sandwich to hide behind. It was stuffed full of chicken, bacon, tomatoes, and dark green salad. The bread was thick and seedy and nothing like the sandwiches that had come in polystyrene trays in prison. His stomach still hurt from angsting himself into a meltdown, but his mouth watered, and he took a bite without thinking too hard about what would happen if his belly rebelled.
Before he knew it, half the sandwich was gone.
Sid smiled brighter than the sunshine making his hair shine gold. “Better?”
Dante wiped his mouth and reached for the other half. “Shh.”
Sid kept smiling and eating until his tray was empty. Then he relieved Dante of his banana and ate that too. “Just to warn you, I might need a nap before we go anywhere.”
Dante folded his tray into a tiny square. “Where do we need to go?”
“Aldi for the cheap nuts and Treetop Harvest for the posh olive oil, and they’re nowhere near each other, of course, cos that would be too fucking simple.”
“What about the weather?” Dante pointed at the cloudless blue sky. “I was worried—I mean, I thought it might be too hot for you today.”
Sid nudged Dante’s knee with his own. “You don’t have to worry about me.”
“I know. Answer the question.”
“Do you like telling me what to do?” Sid’s eyes sparkled with humour and heat.
Dante flushed again but couldn’t look away. “Yes. But I like it better the other way around.”
“Interesting.”
“It’s really not. Answer me.”
Sid rolled his eyes and propped his head on his bent arm. “It is too hot, for work at least, but I’m fine to wander around a couple of shops, then drive home with the windows open.”
“Promise?”
Sid’s hand twitched as if he wanted to take Dante’s and twine their fingers together. “I promise.”
* * *