Chapter 4
Cenred groaned loud when he felt a thud fall on hs stomach, and blinked opened his eyes staring up at a smiling Merlin who was already dressed for the day. Cenred wiped at his eyes sleepily and yawned. "What? What is it?"
Merlin bounced on the bed. " I have to go to the store early, new inventory. How about some lunch later?"
Cenred nodded in agreement. "Yeah, sure. But it'll have to be late, 1 o clock."
Merlin smiled and kissed his soon to be husband. "See you later."
"Hate to see you leave." Cenred tapped Merlin's ass as Merlin jumped off the bed, and Merlin gave the man a smug smirk before leaving out the door.
Cenred couldn't believe the night they had, what with Merlin's so-called ex-boyfriend showing up unexpectedly. When they got home, Merlin explained to Cenred that it was Arthur Pendragon they met that night, which explained everything at once to Cenred. See when they first met, they had no secrets. Merlin told about his past, and Cenred told about his own. Cenred was very surprised to find someone had let Merlin go. Merlin was and still is the most kindess, loving, person Cenred ever met. What didn't surprise Cenred was the fact that the person who let Merlin go, who couldn't see the treasure in front of them was one of those rich cats who always seemed to think they were better than everyone else.
And the way Arthur spoke about Cenred the night before told Cenred everything he needed to verify his thoughts about the Pendragon Prat.
XOXOXOXO
Merlin opened up the box happily as he looked inside like a child during Christmas. He pulled out one of the books and turned it in his hand examing the new shine.
"Excuse me? Do you sell Encyclopedias?"
Merlin looked up and saw the teen with a stack of books in her hands. "Yeah, I have them behind the counter. And I have shopping baskets for your convienience, those look heavy."
"Oh it's fine, I'm already used to it." She lay the books on the counter then pointed to herself. "Second year of college. I need more books than last year, and they're double the price this year."
Merlin nodded. " I know how it is, I'm staying paying mine off. Which ones do you need?"
"Um. . . " She pulled out a paper and scanned through. "K-N." She winced noticably.
Merlin almost winced just as loud. "You know, I do allow students to burrow."
She smiled widely. "Really?"
Merlin nodded and looked under the counter, after a short moment he leaned back up with a small white card. "It'll cost $10 for the card, and the loans are free. You can keep them up to a month. "
The girl almost bounced where she stood. "This is great! I didn't want to burrow from school because they charge, and we aren't allowed to take them from the public library.
Merlin nodded with a smile. "All I have to do is sign the card in and you can burrow right away, and I'll need a school I. know I just want to make sure you are who you say."
She again nodded in agreement and dug into her wallet.
XOXOXOXO
Just as planned Merlin met Cenred that day for lunch and the same resturaunt they'd met, which was also the place they just got engaged a couple of days before. The couple sat and ate as they discussed their close coming wedding plans.
"We only have a couple of months, so we need to do this quick. Now we can only invite 40 people to our back yard, I don't want a huge fight like at the neighbors barb que last summer."
Cenred nodded in agreement. "Right. Now, who?"
"Nim and Nat, definitely." Merlin wrote the two women down.
"Amy and George."
Merlin frowned. "I think Nick's a dip."
Cenred chuckled. "We can't invite his wife and not him."
"Then univite them both." "Merlin grinned.
Cenred tilted his head, scoldingly. "Merlin."
Merlin sighed. "Fine. But keep him away from me. He always smells like vinegar."
Cenred broke into laughter.
By the time it was time to head back to work the couple had their list done and decided to serve roast chicken with lemon mariande, and a choice of white wine, red wine, or apple cider, considering children were going to be there they needed something non-achoholic.
They stopped just outside the resturaunt and shared a long, passionate kiss, there, for everyone to see. Merlin's long arms around Cenred's neck, and Cenred's hands at Merlin's waist.
So neither noticed that when they parted ways, a black, shiny new car followed Merlin towards the store.
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