Lake glanced over at Davian who had been sulking throughout lunch.
They had finally come to an agreement of sorts, and he didn’t want to ruin that by pointing out the Alpha’s obvious sour mood.
Instead, he tried to find a way to appease him so that the next time he needed to leave the mansion, it wouldn’t be impossible.
"Have any plans for dinner?" He asked harmlessly.
"I was thinking of cooking us something," Davian grumbled, giving an answer despite being upset.
"You don’t know how to cook," Lake pointed out the obvious.
"It can’t be that hard to follow a recipe," Davian cleared his throat.
"I don’t mind cooking-"
"No," Davian deadpanned.
It was the one thing he refused to budge on, and honestly, Lake didn’t mind. It was just the two of them after all, he wouldn’t have to do much.
"Then why don’t we go out to eat?" He suggested.
He didn’t trust Davian to cook something edible, and the Alpha wouldn’t let him cook, so other than their usual of ordering dinner, they could go out to eat instead.
After saying that though, Lake realized how presumptuous he sounded, so he hastily added... "If that’s fine with you."
"It’s fine," Davian said calmly, "I’ll come pick you up."
"Not a chance," Lake was quick to shut down Davian’s sneaky tactics.
At first, he thought that he would come to regret accepting to stay at the mansion.
But if all he had to deal with was petty arguments about leaving the mansion, and what to eat, then he just might turn out alright after all.
Their newfound familiarity might have been caused by them being intimate, but Davian made it rather easy to live with him.
He considered discussing with Davian about his plans for the upkeep of the mansion.
He didn’t know the details of what Davian had done regarding the house staff and Matilda, but meals aside, a group of people were still needed to make sure that the mansion ran smoothly.
After they were done having lunch, he got to his feet and made a move to help out with clearing out the dishes but Davian interrupted.
"I’ll handle it. Go get ready for your visit."
Well, there was no arguing that. He walked out of the dining room and headed for his bedroom.
There were no leftovers this time, so he was a little worried that Davian was still the one cleaning up instead of one of the house staff.
Did he really get rid of all of them? He couldn’t say if that was a good or a bad thing.
Because Davian wouldn’t let him do any menial chore, but the Alpha still had duties to attend to, he couldn’t exactly sit at home playing househusband.
Lake still had to go find Davian after changing out of his bathrobe, but that was easy because there were only a few places he could be.
Lake’s room, his own room which was practically a door away, and his study.
He left their joined bedroom through Davian’s room, unsurprised to find it empty.
What was surprising though was not finding the Alpha in his study.
The only other option was a phone call, one that he swiftly made because he kind of needed Davian to leave.
He didn’t know if he could just stride outside and demand for a car to leave.
He got an answer to the call almost instantly much to his relief, "I couldn’t find you."
"I’m outside, preparing your car..."
Lake already changed his trajectory as soon as Davian said that, but he couldn’t help but wonder once again while he had to do that in person.
He made his way down the front stairs to find Davian doing exactly what he said he was.
"You didn’t have to do this yourself," Lake murmured when he came close enough to Davian.
He had expected to find Davian in his study where he could ask for a car key or the Alpha would make a simple call, and the men outside would drive the car out to the front for him.
"On the contrary," Davian countered while holding the door open for him, leaving no room for arguments.
Lake got in, he had learned to drive because he could. Because owning a car wasn’t something he envisioned in his near future.
He gave Davian a smile as he closed the door, it felt right to because Davian had a nervous expression on.
Really, they needed to talk about his separation anxiety. Lake hoped that it would mellow out after his rut ended but it didn’t look like it did.
He rang Caspian as he drove out of the open gates, putting it on speaker so he could utilize both hands to drive.
"Lake! Hi!" Caspian greeted in his usually cheery way.
"Called to say I’m on my way, sorry I’m a bit late..."
"It’s fine, just glad you’re coming."
"Could you hang up? I’m driving-"
Caspian stared at his phone after hanging up, his brows dipping in the middle.
That’s right, his mate was supposed to teach him to drive. Now that he heard that Lake could drive, his enthusiasm to learn to drive was back.
Lake driving didn’t take away from the fact that his friend would finally be coming over.
If he was being honest, he had been convinced that Lake was calling to tell him that he couldn’t make it after all.
It was just fifteen minutes past three PM but he already had iced tea in the fridge, and games lined up for them to play.
Caspian had told Asher about Lake coming over but that was to keep his mate out of the house until Lake was gone.
But he had a sinking feeling that telling Asher would only make the Alpha come home even earlier. So he had told Jael as well, as a perfect plan B.
Now that he was certain that Lake would be coming over, the wait felt endless.