Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Once the front door had clicked shut, all he could hear was the rushing of blood in his ears above the silence. Dumping his bag on the kitchen counter, Elijah fiddled with the controls and turned the AC lower. The compressor that sat outside underneath the kitchen window thrummed into life, and the vents began to pump out cooler air into the small home, pushing aside the humid New Orleans heat.
Elijah let out a long sigh as he took his shoes off, rubbing his feet on the carpet, before heading over to the fridge’s water dispenser and filling his travel cup nearly to the brim. Sinking nearly half of it in one go, the man moved into the adjacent living room and flopped onto the sofa where he remained for the next twenty minutes dissociating.
Without moving more than just an arm, he found his Playstation controller, turning on the console remotely, which in turn kicked the TV on. The startup chime filled the room, which was joined by a cacophony of sudden yowling from the adjoining hallway.
“Hey baby, I’m in here,” Elijah called out to the room. A standard issue black cat appeared on the back of the sofa, butting his head into Elijah’s in greeting as he received large amounts of fussing. “Yeah, I missed you too, buddy. Busy day sleeping? Guess I woke you, huh?”
Julius sat down on the man’s lap, purring much louder than his size suggested as Elijah stroked the top of the cat’s head.
While his game loaded, Elijah looked around the room. It was slightly more spartan than it had been just over a month ago. There were gaps here and there where things had once been and not replaced. Empty shelves on the bookcase, a missing desk by the big window, a large section of the wardrobe now vacant.
Demetrius, Demi , and he had been together for slightly over a year, and it had been pretty good. Nothing groundbreaking, but they made each other laugh, and the sex was decent. Demi had moved in and Elijah got to cook for him, stretching his culinary muscles beyond a few dishes that rotated out through the week. His boyfriend was too precious and busy to cook, and Elijah sussed pretty quick that the man didn’t actually know his way round a kitchen beyond turning on the coffee maker. Two black men from Louisiana living together, and only one of them knew the business end of a spatula.
Then a job offer in California had arrived out of nowhere. Elijah never quite got to the bottom of if he’d been headhunted or if Demi had applied for the job, because it had been a whirlwind of upheaval thereafter. There was a hurt in Elijah’s chest that Demi had never even considered staying and turning the offer down. It was all just so much ‘ It’s been great, see you around someday’ along with a few days of sorting and packing, and then… gone. The speed hurt, the abandonment hurt, the quiet now hurt.
Elijah’s face scrunched up and he pulled Julius tightly to his chest. He had turned 31 last birthday and that meant he was supposed to be above this bullshit teenage heartbreak thing by now. Maybe one day, that might even be true.
*
An hour of gaming and a shower later, Elijah decided to treat himself for dinner. It was Friday and he deserved it, damn it. A fresh shirt, his locs pulled back into a loose ponytail, a spritz of some Hugo Boss, and off he strolled into the neighborhood. It wasn’t as directionless as it first seemed, Elijah had a firm idea of what he wanted and where he was getting it.
A few blocks away into the Garden District, and just off Magazine Street was the Gold Tiger Diner. A family-run ‘hole in the wall but with ambition’ eatery run by Robert and Donna Becnel for the past 10 years, it served up comfort food in big portions, and that’s exactly what Elijah was in the mood for. To be fed and made to feel welcome. He’d stumbled across the place a couple of years back when he’d first moved into his house, and since then it had been a semi-regular port of call.
“Elijah! So good to see you!” Donna said as he walked in the front door. A shortish bottle blonde white woman in a casual suit, she was standing by the small front desk rolling silverware into cloth napkin bundles and paused to look behind him. “Just you?”
“Just me.”
“No Demi?”
Elijah exhaled deeply. “Not any more.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, baby,” she said, pulling him into an awkward hug. Elijah had had enough of them from various aunts and grandparents and cousins that he just let it happen. It felt good though, admittedly.
“It’s ok, thank you though. He got a job offer cross country and had to take it.”
Donna snorted, finally letting him go. “He didn’t have to.”
“Yeah… I know.”
“You want a drink, baby? On the house.”
“No, it’s okay,” protested Elijah.
“I insist. You’re good people, Eli, you deserve to be treated better.”
“Can I get a sazerac?”
“Of course, sha. You take a seat and I’ll bring it over,” she said, handing him a menu and wandering off to the small bar area on one side.
Elijah moved over to a small table by the window, crossing the dining room and nodded to Donna’s husband Robert who was just visible through the kitchen’s large serving window. The large, bald black man worked away in front of a stove, his face a frown of concentration. Elijah was a shade over 6 foot, but Robert dwarfed him.
The place was fairly busy, which was understandable for Friday night, with over half the tables full and bustling. Because the Gold Tiger was a family business, this meant their kids had also been press ganged into service for the night.
From where he sat, he could see Donna and Robert’s sixteen year old daughter Maya working as a server, while their fourteen year old son Henry bussed tables. It was Henry that came over with Elijah’s sazerac. He smiled at Elijah as he placed it on the table.
“Hey Henry, thanks for this,” said Elijah, returning the grin and turning on teacher-student mode for a moment. “How’s it looking?”
Henry was a skinny kid waiting for his growth spurt, a geek with an afro fade that reminded Elijah a lot of himself. There was a cuteness to his features, and Elijah was sure the boy was on the precipice of breaking hearts any day now.
“It’s going! Just you tonight?” probed Henry.
There came a sigh and a thoughtful noise. “Mmm. Just me from now on.”
Ah. “Sorry to hear that. You need some water, Mr Brown?” Henry rallied.
“Elijah. I’m only ‘Mr Brown’ in my classes, and you go to the wrong school for that,” teased Elijah. “You must have just started ninth grade?”
“Yes sir. High school’s already more than I expected.”
“Well, you need any help, you let me know.”
Henry nodded eagerly at the suggestion.
“But yeah, water would be good.”
Henry vanished and returned in mere moments. He shot Elijah a cheesy but adorable grin and disappeared again just as quick.
Good kid, thought Elijah, flipping open the menu to look at the daily specials flyer.
***
Henry’s shift had begun several hours before, and it was already catching up on him. It was his own fault, of course. There’d been some Playstation up till one or two in the morning, sleep had vaguely happened at some point, and then he’d had to get up again at six-thirty for school. That had been a struggle from the moment Henry woke up to walking back indoors at three. He’d fallen straight into bed and crashed out for an hour and change before having to get up again for the shift at his parents’ restaurant.
Of course, he wasn’t officially an employee at the Diner, didn’t have fixed hours as such, and really shouldn’t be scheduled like he was on the clock. Maybe he could be a more laissez-faire worker, perhaps, only working the occasional Friday or Saturday. But whenever he’d brought this up to his parents, there’d been tones that suggested if he liked receiving an allowance, he’d do well to not push it.
It had turned out to be a fairly regular Friday crowd, and the occasional soda kept his energy levels up enough to work the throng. Henry was at least thankful that bussing tables required very little brain power, and he could zone through it. Pick up the dirty dishes, stack them in the bus tub, carry them out to the kitchen for the dishwasher, come back, set the table for the next party. As such, Henry spent a lot of time in his own head, or he’d have one earbud in with music or a podcast playing.
Exiting the kitchen with his tub, Henry saw his mom looking pointedly at him from behind the bar. He made a beeline over and leaned on the countertop while she mixed a drink.
“Take this over to Elijah,” she said, her eyes gesturing at the man sat by himself over at a window table.
Oh, it’s him. Henry perked up on seeing the table’s occupant, unconsciously standing up a little more straight. Elijah had swam through the boy’s thoughts a few times, and it always made his heart slightly increase its tempo on seeing him in the restaurant. Mr Brown was tall and quite good looking in a thick Winston Duke kind of way, which contrasted him from the other guy he’d often come in with, who was shorter and and ten times more zesty. Seeing other gay people actually out in the wild comforted Henry a lot. Other gay people , he thought. Other than myself.
Donna twisted a lemon peel over the glass, dropped it into the drink, and then handed it to the boy. Weaving through the tables, Henry realized Elijah was sitting alone. Where was his boyfriend?
A few moments later, Henry returned to the kitchen to grab his tub. Mr Brown, Elijah , had smiled at him, looked him right in the eye, and spoken to him . From the kitchen’s serving window, Henry watched his sister take Elijah ’s order while making small talk with him.
Maya walked up to the serving window, still writing on her small notepad.
“Table twelve, pickle chips, shrimp and grits,” said Maya, clipping the ticket onto the counter in front of her dad.
Robert nodded, and barked out orders to his other chefs. Henry loved watching the kitchen work, everyone beavering away like a well-oiled machine. It was off to one side that he stood until his mother suddenly appeared, bugging him back to work. To his chagrin, he didn’t manage to get back around to Elijah again until the man was already settling up.
Maya was finishing up sorting out his check when Henry appeared behind her. She handed him back his card, and went off to the register, stuffing some newly acquired dollar bills into her apron pocket as she walked.
Elijah pushed back from the table and stood up, his chair bumping into Henry as the boy passed around the back of the man, sending him slightly flying.
“Oh my bad,” said Elijah, spinning round to see what he’d hit.
“I’m OK!” replied Henry from the floor.
Quick to offer a hand, Elijah helped the boy up, looking suitably embarrassed throughout. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know you were there! You’re all right though?”
“I’m good, don’t worry,” said Henry quickly, smiling to reassure the man who had both hands on his shoulders. He’s so close and man he’s tall and his eyes are wow and and, his thoughts clattered like a train through his head.
Elijah let go and smiled at the boy on hearing this. “OK, good. I can’t be injuring people here if I wanna come back, right?”
“You’re coming back?” said Henry, merely latching onto the final words in his mild daze.
“Of course, but probably not today,” laughed Elijah. “See y’all soon, you hear?”
With one final nod and a smile, Elijah walked out. Henry dazedly watched him mosey down the street until he was out of sight.