─═ڿڰۣڿ♚ڿڰۣڿ═─♥︎─═ڿڰۣڿ♚ڿڰۣڿ═─

Xavier wouldn't stop calling and texting him so Ling blocked him after replying with a final: It's over Xavier. Please stop trying to contact me.

He thought the please was a nice touch. There were other words he had wanted to put in the text, though Ling realised that he was just tired of the whole thing now. Not angry, not sad anymore, just tired of trying in relationships in general. Clearly, Xavier wasn't invested, so why the hell couldn't he just leave it?

As of now, though, Ling was going to sit in his greenhouse workshop and ignore everything else, including the latest Heartbreaker victim that alarmingly mirrored what Ling thought he had seen. Yes, it had been only a few blocks away from where Ling had hallucinated the whole gory scene, though the fact that there was absolutely nothing there when he looked back after Junhui had found him, meant that he had to have been hallucinating.

He was stressed, he'd just stormed out after dumping that prick, and he was tired.

Tonight he'd be having dinner at Zenith Point Tower and the suit he'd ordered had come in yesterday. He had rethought wearing the same tux used in the commercial. That would probably be better worn to this supposed premiere the new label would be throwing.

He went over James's jacket once last time, satisfied with the result. The original designers wouldn't even notice the new stitching. He draped it over a coathanger and slid a plastic sleeve over it.

His phone buzzed, the vibration on the desk making him flinch.

Shit, it was a notification that his bakery order was ready for pickup. He'd forgotten about that. Ling knew for a fact that Junhui would be there today, so neither he nor Wyatt could get it. Ling frowned. Hesitating over the contact he scrolled to, hopefully, it wouldn't be too much of an imposition for him.

"Hey LZ, what's up," greeted a cheery Logan, picking up after the third ring.

"Yeah, hey Logan. Um, I'm not calling at a bad time, am I? Are you busy?"

"Well, I've got a seminar starting in five minutes, so no. You okay?"

Ling scoffed at Logan's lack of dedication, making him feel a little better about asking, "I'm fine. So, I've basically ordered a truck's worth of different types of cakes and pies and I don't know what to do with them. I was wondering if you wanted to take them—"

A clattering sound suddenly came from the other end, like something had fallen on the ground, followed by running, a door slamming open, and the jangle of keys.

"Uh, Logan? Is everything okay?" Another door slammed shut, leaving silence in its wake.

"Hello?" Ling repeated himself, hearing a door open again, just far more calmly.

"Hello, who's this?" asked a male voice Ling didn't recognise.

"Ling, a friend of Logan's. I was just speaking to him. Is everything all right over there? Who's this?"

"Oh hey. I'm Josh, his dormmate. I just passed Logan. He was sprinting down to his car, but he seemed okay. I'll call him back to get his phone."

Ling tried not to laugh at the thought of Logan so desperate to get free food that he forgot his phone.

✦

"Where's Wyatt?" said Logan, though Ling had trouble understanding the footballer who was currently shoveling another forkful of apple pie into his mouth.

They had returned to Ling's house, and the two sat at the same dining table he'd served them pancakes the other week. Logan had arrived at the house at the speed of light and driven them to the Blue Pearl, where Ling had given him his card and asked the food-obsessed twenty-two-year-old to get his order. Logan had marched in and out like he'd won the lottery.

"He's at uni and actually attending a seminar. You didn't see him?"

"Really? I was too busy pretending to be sick so I could avoid today's one. Professor's about as fun as getting kicked in the sack with a metal boot."

Ling nodded, taking that comment in his stride. "Good thing you're a great athlete." He took a bite of the small slice of pavlova he'd cut himself.

He was given a toothy grin in return, but when he spoke it was with a kind but perceptive intonation. "Are you okay? I mean, it was a breakup not the end of the world. And I know you're pretty tough, but you don't always have to act it because you're our senior."

Ling eyed him drolly. "Logan, have you been reading from your mum's fortune cookies again?"

"Hey," defended the accused. "My mum owns a Thai restaurant, not a Chinese one. We don't do fortune cookies." The humour only lasted so long before it settled and he looked back at Ling.

Ling sighed. "I'm fine, really. Like you said, not the end of the world." That was mostly true, even if Ling was feeling disenchanted with the whole concept of romance and love. Now, he'd never been one of those dolts that thought only coupling up would equate to happiness, though it still would be nice to think he wasn't cursed.

Logan nodded in agreement. "Maybe he was intimidated by your success? Not that it gives him a pass to suck the face of a girl at his gym."

Ling giggled like a twelve-year-old at the description. "To be honest, it was a pretty tame breakup compared to some of the others."

Logan's forehead crinkled in intrigued bemusement. "We had one of those parties in the frat house last year, you know, where you have a giant cake that a model springs out of? Anyway, my girlfriend dumped me because she thought I was pushing people out of the way to get to the front to see the model. She didn't believe me when I told her I wanted to catch the top of the cake before it hit the ground."

Ling nearly choked on a strawberry.

"No but seriously!" defended Logan. "The icing was in the shape of a football."

"This guy I was dating for about six months tried to burn down my apartment when I refused to move in with him. I'd already dumped him weeks before, but apparently, he didn't get the memo," countered Ling. "Last I heard he was in either a psyche ward or maximum security."

"Okay, you win," conceded the other after a moment of contemplation.

The two spent the next couple of hours in easy conversation, with Ling letting Logan's story of how he somehow put fireworks in a basketball and set it off in a toilet cubicle wash over him like a gentle tide. It was a nice change. Of course, he loved Wyatt and, he loathed to admit, even Junhui, but the judgemental touting mixed with overprotectiveness that had magnified lately could be a little suffocating.

When Logan finally had to head off, out of concern that his university might actually think that their student had fled to Mexico or something, Ling saw him off and assured him it was fine to take the food.

Then Ling spent the next hour getting ready, happy with his suit. Even though Zenith Point was one of the ritziest restaurants around, he thought a tux would be just a touch too much. As it was, he still went for a black, slim suit, only dressing it up with minimalist silver jewellery and a flower broach.

Dusk fell, and as Ling waited for Wyatt to get back, his phone rang.

"Hey Attie, you almost back?"

"That's why I'm calling," said his friend, the sporadic horn beeping and siren sounding in the call's background. "There's been an accident up ahead, and I seriously doubt I'm going to make it. I'm so sorry. Will you be able to get to the restaurant? Maybe you can call Roux or Junhui?"

"Don't worry about it Wyatt," assured Ling, even if it did put a hitch in Ling's plans. "And you're right, I can call someone else. I'm glad you're okay. I'll see you later tonight."

They said their byes and Ling hung up, wondering if he'd have to resort to calling an uber. Roux may have had a soft spot for him, though Ling and his agent weren't close enough that he could just call the other man for a random lift. And Junhui was busy enough as it was running his own business without having to be at the beck and call of his friend.

Ling really needed to look at getting a licence.

He really didn't want to have to carry James's suit jacket in an uber, though his grousing was interrupted by a knock at the door. Fretfulness crawled under Ling's skin at the thought it could be Xavier. What if he hadn't stopped messaging after he'd been blocked, only to realise that's what Ling must've done? On the bright side, surely it couldn't have been anyone worse than his ex?

Ling swallowed more unease at the sudden image of mutilated corpses and wrenched out hearts. Wyatt would simply unlock the door, and his other friends would call in advance. Refusal to be intimidated and stubbornness still led him to the door, and if it turned out to be the killer, then Junhui could judge him at his funeral.

He opened the door. Speak of the Devil and they shall appear it seemed.

This was unexpected.

"James?"

"Are you feeling all right, Ling?" asked the man wearing a dark, fitted, double-breasted suit, minus a tie, which shimmered midnight-blue under the moonlight.

"Uh..." Ling very eloquently managed.

"You didn't call me Mr. Abel." He raised an amused brow at Ling's nonplussed demeanour. "I thought you might need a lift. And unless your mode of transport is invisible, I assume I am correct?"

Ling did not plan on telling this conceited man he was correct. So he crossed his arms. "Bold of you to assume that Wonder Woman isn't taking me there in her invisible jet." Yeah, good one idiot.

"You have interesting friends," replied the other man with a lopsided smirk that brought out a dimple. His eyes travelled down Ling's outfit then slowly back up to his face.

Ling believed that gaze had the capacity to swallow people whole. Already knowing he could look pretty decent when he put some effort in, Ling refused to self-consciously avert his own gaze at the in-depth appraisal.

"I would tell you to take a picture, but I'm not a zoo exhibit," he sassed.

James breathed out a small laugh. "Anyone who would mistake you for such has no right to your time." He motioned his head to the side, in a querying gesture, and Ling gave in.

James Abel was an interesting man. Unusual and questionably sound of mind, but interesting.

"Just let me grab your jacket."

─═ڿڰۣڿ♚ڿڰۣڿ═─♥︎─═ڿڰۣڿ♚ڿڰۣڿ═─

~ Daci