Good morning friends and readers! Today is an awesome day! And I don't just say that because the sun is shining and it's gorgeous out there. No, today is special because I was able to catch up with my Creature Feature story. This is the last late post! Starting tomorrow posts will be on time and available each Monday morning (knock on wood)- barring some unforeseen occurrence. Are you ready to see how the new job goes for Izzy and Owen? Read on!
Mum's the Word
Chapter Four
Aug 24: He closed his eyes.
Mum's the Word
Chapter Four
Aug 24: He closed his eyes.
“What kind of coffee do mummies drink?”
Owen handed Izzy one of the Styrofoam cups he held and waited for an answer.
“That better not be de-coffinated.” Izzy
accepted the cup and moaned theatrically, closing his eyes after taking a sip.
He was dressed in his lawn care clothes, ragged jeans - the same three hundred
dollar pair he’d worn six years ago, only now they weren’t worth a fraction of
that, they’d been worn so thin and a thin long-sleeved tee.
Owen frowned. “No. It’s fully loaded with
all the caffeine and sugar anyone could wish for.” Why was Izzy dressed to mow
lawns?
Izzy gulped again, this time following the
action with a pout. “Still can’t disguise the fact that this is nasty gas
station coffee. I miss The Human Bean.” He glared at the offending cup.
“Didn’t you quit your job?” Owen demanded.
Izzy may have changed in many respects since they’d first met, but he was still
one of those pretentious coffee snobs. Stoically Owen sipped his own cup. He
fought the grimace the heavy flavor induced. Maybe coffee snobbery was
something he’d picked up from Izzy. There was no denying that this coffee was
not up to snuff. After pay day… then they could splurge on coffee … and turn
the damned air conditioning back on. Seven-thirty in the morning and it was
already as hot as fuck and humid to boot.
Izzy glanced at him then back at the
museum door he’d been watching, hoping for a glimpse of the hot professor no
doubt. “No. I called and asked if I could do it later in the day. They said as
long as I didn’t make noise after eight it didn’t matter when I start. I’ll put
in my eight hours here, then head over to the nursing home and get the lawn
work done then.”
“You don’t have the time for three jobs.”
Owen stiffened, glaring at his roommate.
“I can’t give that one up. Not at fifteen
dollars an hour under the table. Not until we know this one will work out. Did
you quit the pizza place?”
Subsiding, Owen ducked his head. “No,” he
mumbled. “I’m working after here until mid-night.”
Izzy’s response was drowned out by a
thrumming motor that purred to a stop. They swung in unison. Owen didn’t know
what Izzy was expecting to see, but in his experience that purr usually meant
expensive machine. He wasn’t disappointed. The silver grey Audi was way beyond
his budget. The door of the vehicle opened and the professor stepped out.
He’d said to come dressed for work, and
Owen and Izzy had taken him at his word. Apparently, whatever work he intended
to do himself did not require clothes that could get dirty. Professor Gregoire
looked like he’d stepped off a movie set, in a light-weight white summer suit
with a pale blue shirt and a ridiculous white fedora. Owen snorted but the
sound couldn’t drown out Izzy’s sigh.
“God he’s something else.” Izzy nearly
whimpered, not so discreetly shifting himself.
“Something else all right,” Owen muttered.
Suddenly the day seemed less bright, and the bad coffee truly awful. He gulped
the remains and crushed the cup in his hand.
When the professor reached the cement
stoop of the museum, Owen pointedly turned his back and made a show of
disposing of his cup in the metal trash can. Behind him he could hear Izzy
chatting with the man, voice a little breathless, a little high and naive.
Gut tight, Owen turned back to the other
two, forcing a smile to his lips. “So? Let’s go find something fabulous to put
on display so the university can rake in some dough.”
The professor's thick lips split in a
chilling grin. “Indeed. Shall we?” He exchanged a long glance with Izzy before
unlocking the door, and that glance… it made Owen uneasy.
He could see from the pink in Izzy’s
cheeks that his roommate took it as flirtation, but from Owen’s point of view
there was nothing sensual in Gregoire’s body language… just intent.
“I can’t believe we’re going to have the
chance to be in on the ground floor of this!” Izzy enthused, practically
bouncing with excitement.
“It’s not like we’re in the field finding
breakthrough artifacts,” Owen cautioned, but he couldn’t help smiling. All
summer long he’d tried to break through Izzy’s uncharacteristically morose
behavior. The summer had been hard on Izzy. Owen was used to privation… to
going without. He’d been raised in a sterile environment, with clothes from the
Goodwill and food his mom brought home from her job waiting tables. Living in
the freshman dorm had brought him his first taste of air conditioning.
But Izzy? Izzy was used to a more material
lifestyle- to organic produce, five dollar cups of coffee and designer jeans.
Not that the dark haired man had
complained.
“You never know.” Izzy’s eyes sparkled.
“It’s like that antique show on PBS. You know the one where they go through
people’s junk and find valuable treasures? We’ve got a museum full of stuff
that people knew was important enough to preserve. All we have to do is find
the best artifacts and highlight them.”
Izzy’s silent acceptance of their plight
had made Owen feel even worse, like it was his fault the university had
cancelled the summer dig, his fault that Ernesto Gamez had resigned and
vanished, his fault that they ate endless amounts of stale pizza and
preservative laden ramen noodles.
Izzy deserved better. He deserved to be
light-hearted and flirty and to be excited about being an archeologist. “Yeah,”
Owen mustered as much excitement about digging through what he was certain was
going to be mountains of worthless junk as he could and followed as his friend
trailed behind the creepy professor in his white linen suit.
If you enjoyed my post, click on over to the rest of the Orgiasts and read more!
Oh boy, things are getting creepy! I wonder what they'll find inside that old museum? And if the new professor already knows what lies in wait?
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