Three minutes passed.
Ruaan poured more grape juice and Cullen drank it like a man who had no idea what was coming for him, which was the funniest thing Ruaan had ever witnessed.
He ate more chicken.
He had not eaten like this since before the arrest. Was it the best meal of his life? No. Did it feel like it right now? Absolutely yes. He was not going to waste a single piece.
Ruaan poured another cup and stretched it to Cullen. Cullen gently pushed the next cup away. "Enough." He turned toward Ruaan with that slow, heavy-lidded look. "I didn't bring you here to watch you eat."
His hand landed back on Ruaan's thigh as he slid up slowly.
Ruaan shifted in the chair and thought,
'Harolin gave me fake pills. Those were absolutely fake pills. Nothing is happening. Nothing is going to—'
Cullen's hand continued to go up as Cullen's hand gripped Ruaan's hair tightly. He was about to force Ruaan to look at him but suddenly, Cullen's hand softened.
He pulled it slowly to his own stomach.
Ruaan watched him.
He watched as Cullen pressed his hand flat against his stomach with a slight frown. Like he'd felt something. Like something was moving around in there that hadn't been there before. His brows came together for just a second.
Then his expression cleared and he leaned toward Ruaan again. His lips moved toward Ruaan's neck, warm breath already making contact—
PRRRRRUUUUPPP.
The sound that came out of Cullen Ray was not a fart.
It was more of a 'declaration.' A full, loud, wet, deeply committed declaration that silenced the entire room in under a second.
Everyone stopped what they were doing. Whether they were eating, laughing, crying or fucking.
The top two stopped.
The top three stopped.
Whatever was happening at the other tables came to a halt.
Ruaan stopped.
Cullen froze.
The kind of freeze that needed a moment to assess the 'full damage.'
Ruaan looked at Cullen's face. At the very specific, very terrible expression moving across it. He looked at the ceiling. He pressed his lips together so hard they went white.
'The pill. Don't tell me,' he thought. 'LILY, YOU ABSOLUTE—'
"Are you alright?" Ruaan asked, with every ounce of composure he had ever possessed in his entire life.
"Shut. Up." Cullen's voice came out strangled.
He stood.
Another one.
Smaller this time but somehow worse because of where they were in the attempt to stand.
The top two and top three made eye contact with each other across the room. Nobody said a word. Nobody was going to say a word.
Cullen pointed at Ruaan without looking at him. "Stay there and finish the food. I'll be back."
He walked to the door very carefully.
The door slammed.
Ruaan looked at the top two.
The top two looked at the table.
The top three looked at the ceiling.
Ruaan picked up a piece of bread and took a bite. He chewed slowly.
He was doing so well. He was being so professional. He could feel the laughter building somewhere behind his sternum like pressure in a sealed bottle, rising and rising, and he was 'fine,' he was completely—
He buried his face in the cushion of the chair next to him.
The sound that came out was muffled but it was 'loud.' His shoulders shook. His eyes were watering. He came up for air, wiped his face, looked at the ceiling, pressed his lips together again.
'The almighty Cullen Ray,' he thought. 'Reduced to that.'
He sniffed hard and picked up the chicken again. Who knew when he'd eat like this next? He was not wasting it.
.
.
Ten minutes later the door opened.
Fresh uniform. Hair fixed. Expression arranged into something that said 'nothing happened and if you think something happened you are wrong.'
Cullen sat back down next to Ruaan like a man reclaiming his dignity one chair at a time.
"Do you want to eat?" Ruaan asked politely.
"No." A pause. "I've had enough to drink today."
"Okay."
Cullen turned toward him. The heavy-lidded look was back. His hand moved to Ruaan's back, rubbing slow circles.
"So," he said. "Where were we?"
'Oh! This psycho won't leave me the fuck alone?'
Ruaan closed his eyes.
The hand moved to his waist.
His side.
Cullen leaned in to grab him again.
'BRRRUUUPPP.'
This one came with a follow-up.
And a follow-up to the follow-up.
Cullen shot off the chair so fast it scraped back across the floor. He was at the door in three steps, legs pressed together, one hand flat on the wall, the other on the handle.
Ruaan stood up. "Are you okay? Should I—"
"'Shut up,'" Cullen said through his teeth. "Sit. 'Down.'"
He looked at the top two and top three with a terrifying expression. "Send them out. All of them. 'Now.'"
The tables cleared in seconds.
The top two snapped into action. "Are you okay, Boss? Should we—"
"Do I look okay?"
A pause.
"...No, Boss."
"Then 'move me.'"
The top two moved toward him carefully. Like approaching something explosive.
"Wait." Cullen's voice dropped to a whisper. "Don't touch men"
They froze.
He stood completely still with his eyes closed and his jaw tightened. Both legs pressed together like he was trying to hold the entire situation together through sheer willpower.
"Boss?" The top three said carefully. "Are you holding something?"
Cullen said nothing.
"Did you — pick something up? Do you need us to—"
"If I move," Cullen said, very quietly and very seriously, with something glistening at the corner of his eye, "it's going to fall."
Everyone stared.
"What's going to fall, Boss?"
"What are you holding?"
"Should we get something to catch it?"
Ruaan raised his hand. "Are you talking about your sh—"
"I TOLD YOU TO SHUT UP AND EAT." Cullen pointed at him with a shaking finger. Then, with the devastated dignity of a man who had run out of options: "'YES. IT'S THE SHIT. IT'S GOING TO FALL. PICK ME UP YOU TWO IDIOTS AND CARRY ME TO THE TOILET RIGHT NOW—'"
They grabbed him.
One leg each.
Cullen made a sound like a man going into battle as they moved him toward the bathroom.
Ruaan walked to the door and opened it for them. He watched them carry the most feared man in Blackmere down the short corridor sideways.
"I hope you feel better," Ruaan yelled.
The bathroom door slammed.
Ruaan closed the VIP cafeteria door.
He took one step and his knees hit the floor.
The laugh came out of him like something that had been waiting days to exist — loud and ugly and completely out of control, tears streaming, one hand slapping the floor repeatedly, the other pressed against his chest like he needed to hold himself together.
'Cullen Ray,' he thought, wiping his face. 'TOP ONE. Carried to the toilet by his own men.'
He stayed on the floor until the laughing quieted into hiccups and then into silence. He wiped his eyes, sniffed and sat back against the door and stared at the ceiling like he had won something.
'Those people that were with the top two and three better spread this,' he thought. 'Every single one of them.'
He was still on the floor, head back, grinning at nothing, when the door behind him opened.
He almost screamed, thinking Cullen was back.
He scrambled forward, spun around, and found Harolin standing in the doorway looking down at him with both hands in his pockets.
"Did you have fun?" Harolin asked.