Reconciliation

Today, Sunday 28th.

When Roméo woke up this morning, he almost fell off the couch when he saw Michael staring at him, leaned on the living room's table while sipping his coffee. Roméo laughs nervously and sits on the edge of the couch while rubbing his eyes, Michael seems serious.

- H-hello Michael! How long have you been staring at me..?

-..

Michael keeps on staring at him and then sighs deeply.

- It's almost been two weeks since you started sleeping at my place and..

"That's what I thought, he's going to ask me to leave soon.. I'm not very surprised to be honest. Originally, I wasn't supposed to stay here that long.." is what he thought.

- You still do not participate in household chores. I guess this cohabitation will last longer than expected so I'd want you to help me with the chores such as taking out the trash or cleaning the rooms.

- Huh? You're not asking me to leave..?

- And where would you go? At your girlfriend's? I may be heartless but I remain a policeman, it's my duty to protect people. I can't let a youngster like you wander in the dirty streets of Boston all alone. That's why I'm letting you stay.

- Huh-huh..

"Liar. I don't know how long we're going to pretend it's nothing but.. you can't look at me and say you don't feel anything. It's been days since I noticed that I.. started staring at you with different eyes. And you too. That's why you're letting me stay." is what he thought.

- I'll do it, I owe you that.

Michael pats his head gently and quickly before getting up, takes back his coffee and walks to the kitchen. Roméo stares at him for a few seconds and then finally gets up. Michael turns his head to him.

- So, what's your plan for today? The tournament's not over yet, are you going to see the last matches?

- No.. today I have other plans. I'm bringing Stella somewhere.

- What, like on a date? The young people now are sure hasty. And I bet next week you're going to propose to her huh.

- Sometimes I'm wondering how a cold guy like you can see love everywhere~.. I already told you it's not like that between her and me. How many times will I have to repeat it until you finally understand..

Roméo almost laughs at the end of his sentence, Michael stares at him with doubtful eyes. Then, Roméo, who was searching in the pile of his clothes scattered on the floor, finally found the right outfit to wear. He takes off his t-shirt but at that time, he didn't noticed yet that Michael was still staring at him. Some seconds after taking it off, he glances at Michael and sees he's still here, watching him while sipping his coffee calmly. Roméo's whole face becomes all red. Not only his face and ears turned red but it extend to his shoulders, who're slightly red, and even his neck was colored with this sweet and cute color.

- H-hey, why are you still here.. aren't you supposed to go to work?!..

- Day off.

- Guhh..

Michael walks towards Roméo, he steps back but Michael manages to get close to him, close enough to whisper in his ear,

-.. but looks like it's not the only thing off today.

- Huh?!

Roméo startles, Michael's deep voice travels Roméo's skin quickly, he shivers. Michael chuckles and walks away to his room.

- I hope you'll manage to hook up with her huh. Good luck kid.

And then, Michael closes the door and locks it. Roméo sighs profoundly and hides his face with his both hands. "My god.. he can be so embarrassing sometimes. Really, what was that.." is what he thought.

Some hours later, Stella receives a text from Carter telling her to meet him at the Delacra's restaurant in Dorchester district. She replied as soon as she read it and only an hour later, she was already standing in front of the restaurant. She waits some minutes for Carter to show up in front of her but.. nobody is coming.

Stella decides to text Carter to ask him where he is but after sending this message, a shadow projects above her and as she raises her head, her facial expression changes drastically. She was ready to throw a punch at him, insult him as loud as she can, even make a scene in front of everyone but when she looked carefully in his eyes..

- I'm sorry Stella, that's what I've been struggling to tell you.

- Tch, I don't want your excuses!

- Forgive me.

Roméo's honesty leaves Stella speechless. She's lost between anger and pity, she don't know how to react, what to reply, this situation is tense. Roméo grabs Stella's hand and leads her to a table on the terrace. He sits on a wicker chair and Stella sits on the other chair facing Roméo's. Stella stares at Roméo, waiting for him to explain why she was tricked in meeting him in a restaurant.

- I asked Carter to send you a message because I knew you wouldn't answer mine..

- Obviously, I'm still upset!

- And I totally get that, I really want to apologize properly to you. I was being too rude but..

Roméo grabs Stella's both hands and lowers his head.

- I'm just.. very worried about that. I know I shouldn't, we barely even know each other but still.. I can't help but worrying about you. You're right, I can't know what it's like to be addicted nor growing up in the U.S but if there's something I know for sure it's that you matter to me and as long as you do, I won't stop worrying.

-..

Silence remains. Roméo raises his head at her, tensed. Stella's expression changed.

- Really, you..

And then, she bursts out of laugh. Roméo seems very confused.

- What's with that~? You don't need to be so serious about everything, you know!

- W-what? What do you mean..?

- You're too serious and honest, gosh, nobody ever told you to relax? You could've just buy me a huge piece a meat and everything would've been forgotten, huh!

- Huh??

- Yea, I wasn't angry for real~ I mean, yes, what you said really pissed me off but I'm not the type of person who would leave you over such a thing. I intended to keep on ignoring you for some days but then come back to you, you won't lose me so soon friendo.

- Is that so.. I feel quite embarrassed now..

- Eeeeh~? Why? What you said really touched me in the heart y'know, I was even about to cry~ but when I saw your cute serious face, I couldn't help laughing. Dang, don't you ever fight with your friends? That's always how it's going: you argue with them, they ignore you for a while and some days later your friendship is back on track! I guessed it was the case in France too.

- I just thought I overstepped. I never know what's allowed or not with people, how to draw the line between "okay" and "too private". I tend to speak what I think to the others but it often costed me to lose friends..

- Well if you lost them over stupid things then they weren't your friends since the beginning. When you're friend with someone, there's no such "okay" and "too private" lines you need to find, it means you can say whatever you want! And when your remarks will be a lil' too much, you'll feel it right away.

- Yeah, I guess you're right..

- ALRIGHTY THEN! Let's talk about more serious things..

Stella brings her face closer to Roméo's while holding the menu in her hand.

- Cheeseburger or a good old tacos?

Roméo giggles.

- We're in a restaurant, they don't serve these dishes!

- WHAT? You must be kidding me! Why are we even here?! How the hell can an American restaurant cannot serve us American dishes?!

- We're not in an American restaurant dummy~..

- Huh?

- That's a French restaurant. I wanted you to try our dishes, I bet you'll fall for it!

- Huh, I hope you guys eat a lot of meat 'cause that's all I eat here.

Roméo laughs and raises his hand to call a waiter. The waiter arrived to them, carrying around a notebook to write orders, Roméo smiled at him and pointed a few dishes on the menu he was holding.

- So, to recap, two Blanquette de veau, one Steak tartare, two Crème brûlée, two milkshakes and for the drinks?

- I'll take one coke, maybe Stella you'd take something else?

- Nah, I'll take a coke too please.

- Two cokes coming up, alright!

The waiter writes the entire order and smiles at them before withdrawing to the kitchens to give the orders to the cooks. Roméo looks at Stella with a happy face she never saw before.

- You'll see, these dishes are awesome! I even ordered a steak for you but if it's too much, we could share it.

- Hmph, don't underestimate the storage capacity of my stomach!

Stella looks around the terrace, the whole restaurant seems very expensive yet the food looks tasty from what she sees in the customers' plates. Even if she's not used to this type of food, Stella is curious to try new things, especially something meat involved.

- This restaurant looks expensive as hell.. I thought you were broke man, how come we can eat here?

- Carter knows people, he told me not to worry about the bill, I guess we're going to eat for free today huh!

- Goshhh, how nice to be VIP, feels like we're the kings here!

Roméo giggles and smiles softly to her.

- Ehhh~, I've never seen you being so cute to me, did you really invited me here to apologize or for something else?

- Haha, don't fool around. I really invited you here to apologize and get back on track, I swear.

- Suuuure? So I don't need to worry about a proposal ring hidden in my steak 'cause that's what this looks like to me?

Roméo laughs softly.

- Yea, no worries. If I intended to propose to you I wouldn't choose a steak-.. Maybe the best burger of the state would be better, I'm a gentleman.

- Hmph! How sweet of you, here I thought you'd "simply" give me a random and boooring burger, I can see that you're a true gentleman, Michael better watch out!

- Huh-- I told you he's my cousin! Why are you so obstinate..

- Yeah yeah, "cousin". Y'know, I've got some friends who're dating their siblings, it's not a big deal! At least you know who you're dating, his family and his past right?

- A-anyway, I'm not dating him, he's my family. I'm not the kind of guy who'd date his own siblings..

- Yeah yeah whatever..

Some minutes later, the waiter came back with the order. He brought the salads and Blanquette de veau, Stella looked curious. During their lunch, they joke around, talk about everything, stares at the others customers and imagine what they could be saying to each others.. In the end, Stella was pleasantly surprised by the taste of Blanquette de veau and Steak tartare, she almost fell in love with these two dishes.

When the waiter brought the last meal, the milkshakes, Roméo took out his phone of his pants' pocket and opened the camera app.

- Hey Stella, say cheese!

- Huh?

Roméo orientates his phone in their direction and raises it above their heads to take a cool picture. Stella almost choked of surprised with her milkshake when she realized that Roméo was taking a picture of them, she's not used to pictures.

- Hehe, with that, we'll have a souvenir of our afternoon!

- Damn man, don't take a picture without telling me ahead! You caught me off-guard, look at my face on this picture, I look terrible as hell, damn..

- Naaah, you look cute as.. a pie? I'm not good with comparisons..

- Huh and you suck at taking pictures too!

- Eh! That's not cool! I really did my best! Don't you dare judge my work!

- Work? It's more like a rough draft than an actual work, you suck man~..

- Dumb-ass..

Roméo smacks gently her head and as the afternoon ended peacefully, Roméo and Stella started heading back home together while joking around on their way back. Thanks to this lunch, their relationship reinforced in one afternoon! Roméo is more than happy to see that Stella doesn't resent him anymore. Even if he hides many things from her, and knows she also hides something, for one moment, even if it's only for one afternoon, he felt like having a true friend.

Some hours later Roméo, lying down on Michael's couch, receives a text from an unknown number. It said: "First job next Sunday. TaraDara Night Club, Beacon Hill 7PM." Roméo turns off his phone and sighs profoundly.

- So it's really gonna happen huh..

He closes his eyes, hoping for The dream who will dispel all his fears and pressure.

Next Chapter: An Ally?