All spread out in front of them were extravagant side dishes - dishes that Zain had not indulged in since he was transmigrated: corn bread, coleslaw, mash potatoes, macaroni, and baked beans. On his measly wage, buying these kinds of imported goods would be out of the question. It was enough to make him cry internally, but he decided to play it cool; hopefully, if he played his cards right, he could just eat then split ties with Devante, finally.

  In the spur of the moment, he had given some advice that Devante seemed to take to heart, and now the man in question was happily eating a po' boy sandwich whilst humming to himself. This shift in demeanor did not go unnoticed by the proprietress, as she gave him a quizzical look as he bounced in place.

  “Javier told me that you were feelin’ down and all, but I’m findin’ that hard to believe lookin’ at you bouncing around and all…”

  Giving a giant exaggerated nod, he swallowed, then flashed a jovial smile, “I just got confirmation that I should try again to convince her! I don’t know why, every time I ask people they’ve been dancin’ around the subject. But this time I got a definitive answer that really reassured me!” And then, just to hammer nails into the coffin, he turned towards Zain and flashed a wink with a thumbs up.

  Devante continued to eat with merriment, completely oblivious to the look of worry Antoinette was giving him. Having winced as soon as Devante had pointed to him, she gave Zain some pitying stares. Her gaze was trailing around the room, searching for something before she spoke again.

  “I’m not sure you should take the words of a kid to heart, sweety. Think for a sec. How are you going to win an argument against your wife? Maybe you should think about this more…”

  The dogged man shook his head, his brow furrowed as he clenched his fist with determination. “No! I gotta do this! He’s alive and I have to fight to save him! Zain agrees with me! Right, Zain?!” He declared whilst patting Zain’s back, simultaneously lowering his coffin into the ground.

  Silence followed his declaration, tension hung heavily in the air. The previously silent bartender placed a refill for Devante on the counter, slightly louder than usual calling attention to him as he began to speak.

  “So that’s that then? You’re gonna go to Cuddy to try to convince her? You really think you can do it then?”

  “Yeah! I’m not budging on this, Greg. Don’t try to convince me otherwise, it’s not gonna happen.”

  The solemn man nodded in affirmation, picking up an empty glass to polish. He raised his gaze skyward, melancholy faintly creasing his eyes as he began to speak formally. “I had known Devante for quite some time. He was a man of integrity and commitment, filled with so much life. That is why it pains me to see such a young man cut down in his prime- “

  “What are you doing?”

  “Ah- drafting your eulogy. I figure I might as well start on it now.”

  “WHAT?! Cuddy’s not gonna kill me….probably…” Devante looked unsure for a split second before he met eyes with Zain. Much to Zain’s dismay, he wrapped his arm around him pulling him close as he made a more distressing declaration. “I can take Zain with me! Maybe she’ll understand if I have someone with the same mindset there with me.”

  SHITFUCKSHITSHIT

  Zain internally panicked. This was the opposite of what he wanted; now, it felt like Zain would never be able to leave the chaotic gravitational pull of this man. Sweat started to bead on his neck, and dread started to settle in the bottom of his stomach. Brayden’s eyes widened, communicating silently with Zain that he was indeed in dangerous territory.

  Antoinette shot that idea down almost immediately, shaking her head as she tried to steer Devante away from this terrible idea, “I think Cuddy would be pissed if you imply that you hold the opinion of a kid higher than hers. You’d best keep the kid out of it, make it seem like you came up with it on your own.”

  This point appeared to make sense to Devante as he let go of Zain and looked to be thinking, for once. “Yeah, you’re right. That would make her madder. Hmmm…..”

  Zain breathed a sigh of relief, but that was short lived as Devante seemed to be strangely avid that he should be rewarded for his input. He turned, his toothy grin radiating positivity. “I should repay you for setting me straight. See, I was pretty close to giving up, but your words reminded me that there are some things you can’t let go. Thanks man! Maybe I could set you up with a job or something? Ya see, I’m a business owner, so I could put a good word for you. Pay is nice and we travel pretty regularly. I can even recommend you, Brayden! Both of you would be a good addition.”

  All eyes were on Zain again, with looks ranging from horror to pity: Brayden, with the pallor of his skin becoming apparent with the mention of his name, of course leaned towards the horrified end of the spectrum. Antoinette had her head in her hands, watching what could be akin to a runaway train derailing and burning into a clusterfuck of a mess. Greg seemed to be mouthing things to himself, a somber look painting his features as he recited what Zain’s eulogy would likely be.

  The next steps would be crucial in determining if Zain would be rid of this man; it was true that a job recommendation would be tempting, but diving into a blind commitment was not a smart idea. Considering this guy’s skills and overall attitude, he probably dealt with dangerous things. Zain swallowed, and broached the subject carefully, trying his best to keep his composure.

  “Oh? You’re a business owner? What is it that you do, exactly? I’ve only been here for a week so I don’t know that many careers from this world…”

  “WHAT?! You’ve only been here for a week?! Coulda had me fooled man! The kids these days are built different! Hahaha!” He slapped his knee a few times as he seemed completely baffled by the fact that Zain had been there for merely a week. Was it really so strange? It was a good second before he calmed himself enough to answer Zain’s question. “I do real estate. Me and my wife own a few properties in all sectors of Merverre, but I exclusively handle the land outside of the country that we own. Yall have real estate in your own world, right? The ethys I have in my team have told me that so there’s no need for me to explain then? Easy, right?”

  Zain’s shoulders softened a tad, and he felt some relief that he had such a mundane job. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to get a recommendation from this guy after all. Real estate agents get paid good money, plus traveling would be cool.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “Hmm…I guess just a recommendation wouldn’t hurt, since I don’t know what I want to be doing in the future. But Brayden wants to be a teacher, so I’m not sure if he is up for that.” Zain turned to the boy in question when he stopped; because he was right next to him, he could see his friend sweating profusely and his eyes open wide in panic. Brayden was trying to play it cool, but Zain could see the unease in his face.

  “U-um…Yeah, I am planning on being a teacher and I’m already enrolled in the teacher program at the college, sadly. Real estate might be too strenuous for me anyways, I’ve never been good with arduous tasks.” He made eye contact with Brayden, trying to communicate with his dumbass: Real estate was not a good idea, apparently. Zain was getting the sense that he may have dug himself into a deeper hole…

  Arduous? What the hell do real estate agents do here?

  Antoinette, again, tried to help Zain’s stupid ass as she tried to steer the ever random Devante into relenting on this idea. Her tone was slightly more stern as she addressed him, “I don’t think the kid should be doing that, Devante. Plus, if he’s only been here for a week, then he can’t travel without temporary residency. You know that! It’ll be a while before he can do that and by then, he’ll probably know what he wants ta do with his life! If you want to thank him, give him a cookie or something.”

  That point seemed to make some sense to Devante, as he looked up with slight disappointment after that realization. “Aww…you’re right. He needs records first.” But then, for some goddamn reason, the two brain cells in his head clicked together, conjuring an idea at the worst time. “Oh! But Javier was able to get special standing after receiving sponsorship. As long as we do the proper paperwork, I can get him special permission if my agency is able to show that it requires him to travel outside the city!”

  This development made Antoinette literally take a step back, as if Devante using his brain was the last thing she had ever expected. Such an unexpected event caused her to trip over her words for a second, trying to find her footing before she tried to continue to dissuade him. “Umm…doesn’t your wife handle that paperwork? You’re gonna have to get her approval before that. And considering you’d have to explain why you want this kid so badly in the operations, I don’t think that’s gonna work.”

  Devante pursed his lips, furrowing his brow as he tried to think of ways to avoid that scenario.

  Please…stop thinking…

  All of this back and forth was making it seem as if it was a sure thing that Zain was going to be joining the company. The only thing that he had agreed to was a recommendation, and he wasn’t actually going to follow up on it. The look that Brayden had given him was also starting to concern him.

  Even though Brayden had tried to keep his cool, that look he gave Zain signalled that he was going to die. It was evident now that being a real estate agent entailed something different here, but as to what it was, Zain would need to ask later. For now, he would have to make it through this lunch. Hopefully, Devante would forget him, especially since temporary residency took about six months. That was plenty of time for Devante to forget…right?

  Besides, even if he was offered the job, he didn’t have to accept it. Yeah...It’s not like he would be forced to, so as long as he didn’t promise anything now, he was in the clear. Even if he felt slightly bad for turning him down, if it came down to it, he would reject the offer if did come.

  Zain looked down at his gumbo; the stock was low because he had only had the stomach to slurp up the soupy part. He would have to take this to go (along with some of the sides if he could score some).

  Brayden seemed to come up with an excuse to leave as he suddenly spoke up during Devante’s rumination. “I’m sorry, but we might have to leave soon. We have work tomorrow and I still have to go to the laundromat before it closes. Is it okay if we take the rest of our stuff to-go?”

  Good thinking! Nice job, Brayden!

  Zain silently thanked his roommate, praying that they would be let off that easily. Antoinette backed them up as she moved to dismiss them before Devante could pull them back in.”Oh yes, honey! You two are working boys aren’t you! Here, take some more leftovers, I know food is hard to come by when you’re first starting out, so I’ll give y’all some leftovers to take with ya! I insist! Don’t even think about turning me down!” She reached underneath the counter to take out some to-go boxes, then within seconds, she threw together a care package full of sides and entrees. She piled them high, and gently shooed the boys out.

  “Bye, we hope to see y'all again. Sorry again for keeping yall late, you probably got a lot to do on your day off so we won’t keep yall. Yall are such sweethearts! Good luck with your classes!” She waved them off at the entrance, with the impromptu departure happening within seconds.

  Devante didn’t even have time to register what was happening before Antoinette had secured their escape, all he could do in response was confusedly wave goodbye. “Oh…yeah. Bye boys! Hope to see yall again. Zain, think about my offer!”

  And with that, the door was shut behind them. The two of them walked out of the restaurant with haste, then they walked a few blocks for good measure.

  Once they for certain could say that Devante was not there with them, they finally breathed again.

  It was like they had run away from a high stress situation. But Zain had to admit that it was his own folly that had caused a good chunk of it. Guilt weighed on him for pulling Brayden into that situation, but, admittedly, thinking ahead was not his strong suit.

  They both continued to walk, looking over their shoulder periodically in order to make sure Devante was not there.

  “I’m sorry that got out of hand. Most of that was my fault, I should’ve kept my mouth shut.” Zain finally blurted out after a few minutes of walking.

  Brayden sighed, fatigue showing on his face as he shakily responded, “I’m just glad we got out of there. You almost agreed to something dangerous…”

  So his suspicions were right. There was more to the real estate agent job, but why was it so bad…or dangerous.

  “He’s a real estate agent, right? Is it different here? And what do you mean by dangerous?”

  Brayden stopped, looking at Zain from between the tower of to-go boxes he was carrying. Hesitation lingered on his face as he answered, “You remember what I taught you about the history of this world? How, due to the disaster from hundreds of years ago, there is a lot of uninhabited land?”

  Zain nodded, listening carefully. Brayden continued walking at a slower pace, trying his best to summarize his thoughts, “Well, real estate agents kind of encompasses explorers of those uninhabited areas. What they specialize in is finding possible inhabitable areas then selling the rights to own those areas after they have safely cleared them. They have contracts with governments and private investors. It really depends on the person, I hear but… some of them might be less…virtuous.”

  Brayden avoided clarifying, but Zain could get the picture; When you sell private land, off in areas that are isolated, who knows what kind of people would buy that kind of land. You could do anything there depending on what kind of person bought it.

  So that’s why Devante was so good at fighting and so well connected…

  If these dangerous places needed to be cleared, then Devante probably handled fighting some scary things. It was no wonder he handled the crocodile so well.

  Zain swallowed hard, glad that he had not agreed to such a thing. On paper, it sounded like a cool adventure, but thinking about it more, he probably would be better off not involved in shady business. He had indeed dodged a bullet.

  “But at least we could leave before you gave him your contact info! There’s no way he’ll be able to find you without some way to contact you.” Brayden reassured him, pointing out the silver lining that Zain had not even thought about.

  “Yeah! You’re right! Thank god!” Zain felt so relieved! This nightmare was behind him now. He could go about his life like nothing had ever happened.

  With a little more pep in his step, he skipped a little to the bus stop, sitting down with a plop. He hummed a little to himself.

  Brayden sat next to him, also slightly more cheery. He practically melted into the seat at the bus station as he placed the boxes next to him. However, he had to sit back up in order to move his backpack onto his lap. Inside were the bionic legs the cat had given them, which kind of protruded outward and awkwardly in his bag. They both looked at it, reminded of the day they had just had.

  It had been a long day, but they both shrugged. Now it was all behind them. They could rest easy now.

  However, little did they know, that things were never that simple.