22 – A Hot Day in June (3)

 

Axel sat in the front seat of his van with the AC cranked up, wondering what was taking his idiot friends so long. Well, he supposed most of the idiocy came from Jake. Sebastian only joined the fight to rescue him.

Poor Sebastian. He hadn’t asked for any of this. Jake seriously needed to learn to keep his mouth shut, and walk away. Times like these, Axel wondered why he was dating him. Surely there were other gay men in Gilran? He, Jake, and Sebastian couldn’t be the only ones. The town wasn’t that small.

And did he even like Jake on a deeper level? Or was his attraction purely physical?

Finally, his two idiots walked out the front door, and to the driveway. Jake opened the passenger door, and allowed Sebastian in first. Sebastian scooted next to Axel, while Jake sat in the passenger’s seat.

Jake closed the door. “Now what?”

“I’m fine with just this.” Sebastian had his sweaty forehead near the air vents.

“If you want to hurt your neck,” Axel commented. His stomach rumbled. “What about food? I’m hungry.”

“I could go for food,” Jake said. “Where to?”

“Not Callahan Mansion,” Sebastian said into the vent. “If the power’s out here, it’s probably out at my house, so my dad might be there.”

“What about that one cafe?” Axel looked at Jake. “Where we had our first date?”

A quiet moan came from Sebastian. Axel frowned at him. “Is that a no?”

“No. I mean, yes. We can go there. If you want.” Sebastian remained glued to the vents.

Weird reaction. Axel looked back at Jake. “You okay with that?”

“Fine with me.”

Axel entered the name in the GPS screen, and the car drove off.

 

They arrived at the cafe to find the building dark, and a “closed” sign on the door.

“I guess they lost power too,” Jake said, as they returned to the coolness of Axel’s van.

“What about that Italian place?’ Sebastian asked.

Axel flinched internally. If it was the restaurant he was thinking of, it was outside his price range. Not only that, but it was on the other side of town.

Jake pulled out his phone. “We should check an outage map first, before going anywhere else. Or does this place not have those?”

“They have those.” Axel just forgot about them. He watched Jake tap and pinch at his phone screen.

“Damn. This outage is, like, the whole town!” Jake showed Axel and Sebastian his screen. A large circle surrounded the Gilran area.

“So, every business in Gilran is closed?” Sebastian held his stomach. “I’m starving!”

“No, there’s one place that still has power.” Jake pointed at an area of the map outside the circle, at the edge of Gilran.

“Callahan Mansion?!” Sebastian tugged at his hair. “I don’t wanna go there!”

“Neither do I.” Jake pocketed his phone. “I’m hella hungry though. If we want to eat, we don’t have much of a choice.”

Axel wanted to bring up all the canned and boxed food he had stored away, but Sebastian would have a lot of questions about that he didn’t want to answer. For reasons Axel couldn’t figure out, he didn’t want Sebastian knowing he lived in his van.

“Why not eat at home?” Sebastian asked. “Make sandwiches or something.”

“Everything at my house involves cooking,” Jake said. “Which is kinda hard to do without power. Unless you all want apples and celery.”

“Is there at least peanut butter for the celery?” Axel asked.

“Peanut butter?”

“Don’t tell me the ES doesn’t have peanut butter.”

“I mean, it has peanuts in it,” Jake said. “What do you think?”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Sebastian asked.

“It’s illegal there. Someone with a peanut allergy could unknowingly come in contact with it and die.”

That sounded like an extreme way to accommodate people with peanut allergies, but Axel was in no mood to start a debate.

Sebastian, however, dared to press the issue. “So you’ve never had peanut butter before?”

“Nope. What if I have a peanut allergy and died?”

Axel pinched the bridge of his nose. “Forget the peanut butter.” He looked at Sebastian. “What food do you have at your house?”

“There’s a slight chance my father is home,” Sebastian said.

“You really think he’d be sitting in a hot house instead of at his friend’s air-conditioned mansion?” Jake asked.

“Good point. We can go look.”

The group arrived at Sebastian’s house, though he checked to make sure the house was empty before letting Axel and Jake in.

It was just as hot in Sebastian’s house as in Jake’s. Axel followed Sebastian into the kitchen, where a large dog laid flat on his side- away from a beam of sunlight shining through a small window. The tile must’ve been cooling for him.

“Tibby!” Sebastian got to his knees. Tibby barely looked up at him. “My parents left you here?”

The dog whined. There was a water dish a few feet away. Sebastian carried it over the sink, dumped it out, and refilled it. He put it next to Tibby’s head. The dog rolled onto his stomach and lapped at it.

“I need to find a way to cool him off,” Sebastian said quickly. “I’m surprised he’s not dying of heat stroke. Or maybe he is. Should I take him to a vet?”

“Let’s put him in Axel’s van,” Jake suggested.

Thanks for asking first, Axel thought. Not that he wouldn’t allow it. He didn’t want the dog to die. “I’ll go start it. Are you able to get him up? Can he walk?”

Sebastian stuck his hands under Tibby’s body, and lifted. Tibby let out a disgruntled grunt, but stayed down. “Come on, boy. We’ll get you somewhere cooler.”

Were they going to have to carry him? He was the largest dog Axel had ever seen. It would take all three of them to lift him, especially in this heat.

Sebastian opened a cupboard, and pulled out a box of dog treats, shaking them. Tibby sat up, ears pricked forward.

“You want one?” Sebastian held out a bone-shaped treat. Tibby walked over to him to take it.

“He’ll live then?” Axel asked.

“Yeah,” Sebastian said. “But I’d still feel better having him somewhere with AC.”

“Once we figure out our eating situation, we can put him in the van with us,” Axel said.

“Right.” Sebastian opened a door to a walk-in pantry. “I’d rather avoid opening the fridge. We don’t know how long the power will be out. So we’re limited to what’s in here.”

The pantry was only large enough for Sebastian to step into. Axel peeked over his shoulder, spotting boxes of noodles, cans of beans, and bags of rice. But nothing that didn’t involve cooking.

“I’ve got one can of fruit cocktail.” Sebastian held out a can too small for the three of them.

It was better than nothing. “Possibly.”

But Jake turned up his nose at it. “If that’s all you got, I’d rather go to my house for real fruit.”

“This is real fruit.”

“Yeah, buried in a sea of high fructose corn syrup.”

Sebastian set it aside on a shelf, and brought out a box of cereal.

“Is that the kind that’s coated in frosted sugar?” Jake asked. “Besides, we’d need milk for that.”

“It’s fine dry.” Axel actually preferred it that way.

Jake crinkled his nose at that response. Sebastian put the cereal next to the fruit can, then held out a box of cheese-flavored crackers. Followed by a bag of barbecue-flavored potato chips.

Jake crossed his arms. “Don’t you have anything remotely healthy?”

“Do you want to starve or not?” Sebastian snapped.

“Alright. I’ll take canned fruit.” Jake reached a hand into the pantry and swiped it. “You got a spoon?”

Sebatsian opened a drawer near the sink, and handed Jake a spoon. “What about you?” he asked Axel.

Cereal, crackers, or chips? The decision was a tough one. Chips would make a mess in his van though. “Either the cereal or the crackers. I can’t decide.”

“We can bring both.” Sebastian handed Axel the cereal. “Let’s get to the van. I can’t stand being in here any longer.”

 

~~~~~

 

Stellaluna and Zailey arrived at the mansion to find it more crowded than usual. They wandered over to the restaurant to find it packed. Barry must be pleased.

“Why are there so many people here?” Zailey asked.

“Maybe the power outage affected them all."

As wife of the owner of the mansion, Stellaluna knew she could easily get a table, ahead of all the people still waiting. But that wasn’t fair. “I can go to the kitchen and ask one of the cooks to make us something quick. We can eat it somewhere else.” Where else was the next problem. It was far too hot to eat outside, and the inside of the mansion had no suitable areas for eating. Maybe an off-limits area, or a random hotel room. (If those weren’t fully booked either.)

Stellaluna and Zailey walked into the bustling kitchen. The chef, Gerald, stood in front of the grill, flipping burgers.

“Anything in particular you want?” Stellaluna asked Zailey.

“Those burgers look good.”

That was a surprise. Stellaluna couldn’t recall the last time she saw Zailey eat a burger. She raised an eyebrow.

“I’m starving and it’s quick.”

Fair point. Stellaluna decided on one too. She addressed the chef. “Gerald.”

Gerald looked at them.

“Could you make us two burgers? Please?”

“Sure. It’s not like I’m busy or anything. Come back in ten minutes.” Gerald grabbed two raw patties from a stack on the counter, and tossed them on the grill, then hurried over to a stove to check on food cooking there.

Stellaluna thanked him, and they left the kitchen to wait.

Once Stellaluna and Zailey had their burgers, they carried their plates and drinks to an area off-limits to guests. They found a couple of decorative chairs against a wall, with a small table in between them, and ate there.

Zailey chatted on about a podcast she heard her hus listening to, while Stellaluna nodded along. A certain servant caught her eye as he walked by. Stellaluna gave Yannick a quick smile of quiet acknowledgment. He returned it with a half-smile and… was that a wink? Stellaluna averted her gaze, towards the table.

“Are you okay?” Zailey asked.

“Yes. Just feeling a little warm.”

But Zailey’s eyes were focused behind her. Stellaluna turned around to see Yannick turn a corridor. Nothing to warrant Zailey’s attention.

Zailey leaned forward, voice lowered. “That servant was looking at you.”

“So?”

“I mean, really looking at you. Like how a man looks at a woman.”

Stellaluna forced her face to remain neutral. “It’s nothing. We’re just on friendly terms.”

“Friendly terms?”

“Sometimes I get really bored, so I find him and we talk.”

“You seek out a servant to talk to when you’re bored?”

“Yes. Don’t you?”

“No.”

She didn’t? Zailey’s husband, while not as rich as Barry, was rich enough to own a large house with plenty of servants to do everything. Surely Zailey struggled to find something to do every day? “What do you do when you’re bored?”

“You know. Watch movies. Crochet. Go shopping. Bother you.” Zailey grinned.

“Don’t you ever tire of those things?”

“Not usually. And certainly not enough to strike up a friendship with a servant. Like, what do we have in common with them?”

You’d be surprised, Stellaluna thought. “You’ve never wondered what their lives are like?”

“No…” Zailey tilted her head to the side, studying Stellaluna. “I think you could benefit from a hobby.”

“You know I’m not good at anything.”

“That’s why you need to pick something and practice at it. Then, you’ll get good. You saw what my earliest crochet pieces looked like.”

It made sense. But the hobbies she had tried, didn’t interest her. “There’s nothing I like.”

“All you’ve tried is crocheting, painting, dancing, and playing violin. Surely there’s something out there you’d enjoy doing. You just have to look for it.”

“Maybe.”

Zailey tapped her watch. A voice from it read out loud, “3:39 pm.”

“It’s that late already?” Stellaluna asked.

“Apparently so! I should go. Nole wanted me home by 4.” The two women exchanged goodbyes, and Stellaluna walked Zailey out.