Rather than watch his brother pacing outside the restaurant window, yelling at whoever had the misfortune to interrupt their lunch, Cal scrolled through his text messages and polished off the last of the char siew pork. Unthinking, he snapped a photo of the plate in front of him sent it to Ben.It was something they’d started doing in the last couple of weeks although he wasn’t sure who’d made the first move. He thought maybe it suited Ben better, hinting at what was going on in his life without words. Sometimes he’d send a shot of his boots and work pants covered in mud up to his knees, and Cal would respond with a picture of the stack of essays he was marking with a glass of whiskey next to it for scale. Ben liked emojis and Cal smiled insanely hard when he used the frowny face as much in cartoon form as he did in real life. There were pictures of his office at work, the shaving cut he’d given himself one morning, his hand down his pants. They’d made the move to video call pretty soon after that one.

It wasn’t always practical to meet up, they were both busy after all, and neither were keen to bring the other into their home. That would be too much like a reality check for either of them and they wanted to hang on to the fantasy they’d created in Harry’s apartment a little longer. Watching the shaky image on his laptop of Ben coming all over his hairy chest’d had Cal’s heart aching to touch, but he still came with Ben’s voice in his ear and his eyes on him which was better than nothing. Ben had looked a little ashamed afterwards though, so Cal wasn’t sure Skype-sex would replace their meetings anytime soon. Not being able to comfort him was unacceptable.

“Everything okay?” Reece dropped back into his seat, pulling his napkin onto his lap and managing to knock the table with his leg so all the tableware clanked together alarmingly.

“Yup,” Cal said, slipping his cell back in his pocket. “You?”

“Some idiot over ordered at the wholesaler.” Reece rolled his eyes. “We’re going to have to put fucking asparagus with everything for the next week.”

Cal frowned. “It’s not even in season?”

Reece splayed out his hands as if to say I know right? But instead asked, “Did you eat all the pork?”

Cal shrugged, unrepentant, shoving the last piece in his mouth. “Just order some more.” He had no qualms about eating all the food. This was one of their regular ‘research’ lunches, wherein Reese dragged him out to some obscure hole-in-the-wall eatery that he’d heard was half-way decent, to scope out the competition and get ideas for the new menu. It was something he could easily do alone or with one of his kitchen staff but for some reason he trusted Cal’s opinion more. And the bill was tax-deductible so…

“What did you think of the laksa?”

Cal shrugged again. “It’s good. Not as good as yours.”

“Better than dad’s?”

Cal leveled his brother with a look that he hope showed his complete distain for that line of questioning. “Nobody’s is better than dad’s. Yours is as good but I couldn’t choose between them, and you’d be an asshole for ever asking me to.”

Reese grunted like he thought Cal was just humoring him. “This rendang though.” Reece dragged his fork through the sauce on his plate as if he could break it into it’s component parts by sheer will alone. “That is good. Can’t quite put my finger on it.”

Cal could only hum in agreement and take another bite of the tender beef. This used to be a game they played as kids. Or rather a competition that their dad would have them act out every time they sat down to eat, much to their mother’s dismay. Flavor profiles, subtleties of texture and depth, guessing the recipe from just one bite. It was probably why Cal had drifted away from anything culinary. And why Reece was still trying to win.

“Do you think it’s the chili? Are they using something other than sambal?”

Reece dropped his fork in a typically dramatic fashion. “It staggers me that someone with your refined fucking palate can’t even boil water, you know that? I should put you on retainer.”

Cal smirked across the table and wiped the sauce from Reece’s plate with a piece of roti. “You’re buying me lunch. Same thing.”

There was a only a second of warning before Reece hit him with his serious face. “Are you doing okay? For money, I mean.”

Cal rolled his eyes. “I’m managing.”

“I still can’t believe you sold your apartment.”

“You didn’t tell dad—”

Reece laughed. “Do I look suicidal? No, he still thinks the money came from the three of us.”

Cal breathed a sigh of relief. “To be honest, I miss my car more. Trying to get down to see them is such a pain in the ass.”

“It looks like the insurance will come through. Dad’s already making noises about paying us back.” Reece took a breath, “but if you need help in the meantime—”

“I’m good, honestly. I, uh, I got a second job for a while but now I can live on my meager wage and my new place isn’t so bad.”

“It’s a shithole, Callum. You deserve better.”

Cal smiled. “Maybe. But it’s temporary.”

His brother hmmed. “You certainly seem happier in a weird way.”

“What’s that suppose to mean?”

Reece shrugged. “I don’t know. You just—” he circled his hand in Cal’s general direction. “Smiling and not being such a bitch about everything.”

Cal clutched his pearls for effect. Or at least the place where pearls should be. “How dare you. I work damn hard to be a bitch.”

Reece laughed and dabbed at his mouth with his napkin. “Whatever. If I didn’t know you any better, I’d say you were dating.”

Cal coughed, the image of Ben’s ‘O’ face and come clinging to his nipple popping into his head, but he managed to shake his mind free of it and say, “I most definitely do not have time for that. Maybe it’s just the laksa,” even when he felt his cell vibrate in his pocket and knew it would be a picture of a burger from the place Ben ordered lunch everyday.