Ocean Blue 28

Blue leaves Gervais sleeping and knocks on Chris and Larry’s door.

“Bro seriously, it’s early.” Chris complains as Blue enters and wakes the pair.

“Can one of you help me with prep this morning and can the other sit with Gervais?” Blue asks bluntly.

“Is he sick?” Larry asks.

“We had a bit of a weird night.” Blue says and explains.

“How did you not kill him?” Chris asks.

“l don’t know. I have no idea how I stood there and pretended nothing was wrong and didn’t rip his throat out. I guess I was focused on not alerting him or the others that anything was wrong. AB was a superstar though. But G will need a lot of care and attention.” Blue says.

“And you’re back together?” Larry asks gently.

“l think so, I mean we didn’t talk about it but the rift melted away.” Blue says.

“Well that is worth getting up early for. I’ll come work with you.” Chris says jumping out of bed.

“I’ll go stay with G. I guess I best not get too close. Crazy of the four of us he was the last one I expected to lose his shit.” Larry says.

“He hasn’t lost it, he’s just pretty fragile.” Blue says and leaves them to get ready.

Blue lets Gervais carry on sleeping as he knows he was awake much of the night. He smiles at the cutie as he sleeps and feels all his feelings of love wash over him and lightly kisses him on the forehead before leaving.

“Pretty cool us working together. I am sorry that Larry and I dropped out of helping in here. You were right to be mad, ground as hard as it is we weren’t doing much outside. Nothing really other than find places to fuck.” Chris admits.

“l know. It’s better now with us all having shifts and if we turn out to be more than a flash in the pan we’ll hire so help so we can all get working outdoors once the spring comes.” Blue says.

“So, you are staying?” Chris asks.

“I can’t leave Gervais.” Blue says.

“Is that the only reason you’re staying?” Chris asks.

“Yes.” Blue says.

“You don’t really want to be working with me?” Chris asks.

“I’ll help you study, I would like you to get into school and complete you education. Whether we expand for animals or not. I think this is a good area for you to have a practice and you should probably get on to local vets and get working with them once a week or something,” Blue says.

“Bossy older brother!” Chris grins.

“Maybe those are the roles we’d have fallen in to. Maybe not. Maybe we’d both have been crushed by Bea.” Blue says.

“You curious to see her?” Chris asks.

“Not at all. Do you miss her?” Blue asks.

“Yeah I do. I oscillate between hating her and missing her and being jealous as hell that she has her freedom of sorts.” Chris says.

“So do we now. I mean more than we’ve had and you have Larry.” Blue says.

“l do. Funny how it is working out. I really like him, I like how caring he is and his sheer size. He’s going to have such a muscle bod when you set him to work outside.” Chris grins.

“You’re happy together and it shows. How was last night?” Blue asks.

“Great, we trolled some apps looking for a third and decided we didn’t want to share. We had a thing one night here with some guys which was awesome but it wasn’t set up, it just happened. Hell Larry is so creative we don’t need others, but if it comes up like then, well I wouldn’t say no.” Chris says.

“Just be careful.” Blue says.

“We are. You need to get out and let your hair down too.” Chris says.

“When G is better. Actually, I’m going out with Liv tomorrow. Will you babysit?” Blue asks.

“Uh a girl date?” Chris asks.

“Yeah we’re going to a gallery in the city.” Blue says omitting the Birch part.

“That does not sound like letting your hair down, but we will for sure watch G. Maybe we’ll just close tomorrow night. Maybe we should knock Fridays on the head so we can all have a night out.” Chris says.

“We’re not open late on weekends. We get the teens in on Friday nights, I think it is worth doing.” Blue says.

“Just trying to get you to cut back.” Chris laughs.

“I think maybe I will stop working every early shift, if I get the soup for the week done on Mondays and the ice-cream. Then cheesecakes on Fridays the rest you can all do yourselves.” Blue says.

“l don’t think I can do the bread or bake anything more complex than a cookie. But sure Larry and I can do the sandwich prep.” Chris says.

“You could learn. But I take your point. Gervais is a good baker and can do ice-cream when he has recipe, so could you guys. I just enjoy doing it.” Blue grins.

“I love watching you. I get that you want to do the fun bits. Most of your fun stuff is hard to me. I love the results though. Go and take some coffee and cinnamon buns over to the others, now the early rush is done.” Chris says as the last of Ezra’s guys leave. It is more than his crew who order ahead now and the bulk of the day’s work is done when the breakfast rush is over.

Blue nods and sorts out coffee and a couple of buns he’s just iced.

“Leave some for the customers.” Blue grins as Chris looks longingly at the baked goods.

Chris chuckles and gets on with cleaning up and preps some of the salads and replaces some sandwich fillings. He hears a car pull up and sees it is the police. Not surprised he flips the door sign

“Are you after Gary?” Chris asks.

“Yes.” The police say.

“Come on he should be up by now.” Chris says and leads them over.

The three are sat round the kitchen table eating and chatting. They fall silent as Chris comes in with

“You need to speak to Gary? Can I stay with him?” Blue asks.

“Sure, it is just an informal chat.” The cop says.

“Can we get you coffee?” Blue asks.

“We’ll sample your wares afterwards. This shouldn’t take long.” The cop says.

“We’ll get back to work.” Chris says and Larry gets up and follows him out.

The police ask questions and Gervais answers the best he can.

“He is being charged and the FBI will likely take over due to some of the charges. I need to clear up one more thing before they do.” The cop says.

“Sure.” Gervais says quietly, he’s exhausted and wants this to be over.

“While there were complaints that were not taken further. There is no record of anyone with your name attending the school he went to as a student. We have reason to believe you are a part of the same ring and have exposed him due to a falling out. The rest is lies. Whilst we are glad he is off the streets we have a warrant to confiscate your computer equipment.” The cop says and Gervais gasps, they can’t really think he is one of them.

“Before you do, I need to make one call.” Blue says.

“Oh no, we’re not letting you remotely wipe anything.” The cop says.

“Then you best make the call yourself. Here is the number and the contact you need, you know our names.” Blue says shaking his head.

Gervais giggles, he can’t help it. He’s been feeling worse and worse during the questions and springing the warrant on him at the end when he was already exhausted was mean. The way Blue won’t even entertain it is hilarious.

The cop glares at Gervais and this just makes him smile more. He’s mentally trying to work out what is on his computer and whether it links him to Ocean. Will his relationship with Ocean be brought into question?

Gervais has been in a total haze since the night before but his mind has kicked in to clarity at being threatened. He stops thinking for a second and feels proud of himself for coping, not perfectly but he is okay and going to survive this.

“You’re okay.” Blue whispers.

“I know. Thanks for your help.” Gervais whispers.

“It is hard when our past and present conflict like this.” Blue says.

“Ever happened to you before?” Gervais asks.

“No, but I think to Chris.” Blue says.

“You should have registered with us and saved us the trouble.” The cop says hanging up.

“We are not criminals and we have no such requirement.” Blue says.

“Shall I show you where our laptops and tablets are?” Gervais asks.

“No. Bunch of fucking faggots.” The cop mutters as he walks out the door.

“Well that was weird.” Blue laughs.

“l can’t believe he called us that. I bet that warrant was because we are gay and not because he doubted who I am. Just a local hick trying to make himself look good when the feds step in.” Gervais laughs.

“So, the other two are minding the café” Blue grins wiggling his eyebrows.

“Why Blue are you trying to seduce me?” Gervais grins.

“Just take me over this damn table.” Blue grins back.

“What if the cop comes back?” Gervais asks.

“He’ll get a good show.” Blue says and bends over.