On the contrary, Day pushed his food to the side and leaned over the table to rest his elbows on the table and his chin in his hands. “You have a pretty smile. I wish you’d show it more often.”

Onyx only hummed his acknowledgment. “Thanks. I wish I could say the same about you.”

Call him cruel but in his mind, he was only serving Day exactly what he ordered. What better way to show him how much of an utter waste of time it was to spend in his presence?

Day’s eyebrows rose quizzically. “So you don’t think I’m attractive? Not even a little?”

Onyx neglected to answer as he shoved another bite of his food into his mouth. Holding Day’s gaze, he asked, “does it really matter what I think of you?”

“Well, no, but that doesn’t make me any less curious.”

Onyx paused, setting his utensil down. “Really? So if I thought you were no more attractive than a troll under a bridge, you would be completely okay with that?”

Day laughed a little, the sound filling the air around the booth with a pleasant aura. “I wouldn’t be completely okay with it. Actually, I’d probably be really depressed about it, but I’m sure that isn’t the case. Right?”

Onyx rolled his eyes. “I guess it wouldn’t surprise me if you modeled professionally.”

Day’s eyes practically lit up at the compliment. “You think I’m good-looking enough?”

Onyx only hummed and took a sip of his water. His face burned, and it irritated him more than parents who refused to watch their brats when he was trying to work at the cafe.

Day’s smile widened. “Even if I wanted to become a model, which I don’t, my dad would never approve. He plans on having me work for his company until he retires and then I’d take over the business. If I ever told him I wanted to do anything else, he’d flip.”

“Do you want to do anything else?”

“Not particularly…” Day answered but Onyx didn’t miss the way his face heated up and gained a dramatic tint of red. Onyx was glad he was no longer the only flustered one of the pair.

“Come on,” Onyx urged, “tell me. I’ve been playing nice and I’ve answered all of your many questions honestly.”

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly say you’ve been playing nice—”

“Just tell me.”

“A game designer,” Day got out with a sigh as if some humongous weight had been lifted from his shoulders. “I know it may sound childish—”

“Childish?” Onyx cocked an eyebrow. “Why would wanting to be a game designer sound childish? A shit ton of work goes into games, you know, and while it may be a lot of work, that career path has always seemed like fun to me.”

“So you’ve looked into it before?”

“I’ve looked into being a graphic designer,” Onyx shrugged. “That was in the past. There’s no damn way that would ever work out now that I’ve dropped out of school.”

Day averted his gaze to the window and began to idly tap his fingers against the table in front of him. He seemed to do that a lot whenever he was in thought. “Have you ever thought about getting back into school? I mean, it hasn’t been that long since you’ve dropped out. You can catch up.” When Onyx scoffed in amusement, Day turned back to meet his eyes in a way that suggested his seriousness; his sincerity. “I mean it. I can help you catch up.”

“I already told you I can’t.”

“But you can,” Day argued. “At the very least, you need to finish school online. If you don’t at least do that, you’re going to regret it when you’re older.”

“If only it were ever that easy, rich boy.” Onyx leaned back in his seat. “Are you going to eat or not?”

“I’ll get it to go,” Day murmured and gestured their waitress over to take care of the bill.

The two of them climbed into the car in silence and as soon as Day started it up and began driving, he recognized that they weren’t going in the direction of his home but instead, they were only going deeper into downtown. 

“Where are you taking me now?” Onyx asked.

“It’s a surprise,” Day answered simply. “Another surprise. After this, I promise I’ll be done dragging you place to place for the rest of the day and I’ll take you home with the money I owe you.” His mouth twitched into a small smile but his words remained soft. “Wouldn’t want to bother you with my presence for too long.”

“You’re not that bad to hang around with,” Onyx admitted. He surprised even himself with the words. He was even more surprised at the realization that he had completely forgotten about the reason he had agreed to any of this in the first place; the promised one hundred dollars for every time they hung out.

“Could’ve fooled me,” Day muttered with a sigh.

“Well, you do ask a ton of unnecessary questions and flaunt your money around like it’s the only thing that makes you interesting,” Onyx said, just for the hell of it. “So there’s that.”

“Can you blame me for any of it?”

“Definitely.” Onyx shrugged despite knowing Day couldn’t see it. “But I won’t.”

“If you could change one thing about the way your life is going at the moment, what would it be?” Day asked. “Anything that doesn’t include me, of course.”

“Here we go with the unnecessary questions again,” Onyx huffed out, leaning his head against the window. 

“Are you happy not going to school—”

“Stop fucking bringing up school,” Onyx practically snapped. “I dropped out of school temporarily; who fucking cares? You seem more bothered about my situation than I do and you barely even know me.”

“I know you enough, and you’re still my soulmate whether you’re hesitant to admit it out loud or not.” Day took a right and parked next to the curb. The streets bustled with people coming in and out of a variety of shops. “And even if I didn’t know a thing about you, is it so bad for me to be sympathetic?”

“Why are we here?” Onyx asked in order to avoid the question. Day was right and every part of him acknowledged it, but that didn’t mean he had to announce it out loud.

“There’s an art store a little bit down that way,” Day said as he pointed a finger in said direction. “I thought it’d be nice to get a few things.”

“You don’t need to—”

“This isn’t only for you,” Day interrupted and turned to Onyx with a grin. “I thought we could make a deal.”

Onyx laughed a bit dubiously. “Another one?”

“I’ll buy you whatever you want from that store if you promise to let me see whatever art you create with it.” Day extended his hand with a raised eyebrow. “Deal?”

Onyx couldn’t help the smile that stretched across his face as he reached a hand out to shake Day’s. He took notice of how warm and soft Day’s hand felt within his own before he waved the thoughts away and instead said, “deal.”