Strictly Pleasure

Part 12

Trying to wrangle her heart into a less excited pace, Heidi placed her phone aside. She hadn't expected Jek to text her so quickly after she left and tried not to look too far into it. There had still been plenty of time for him to get his rocks off with someone else before the first text. Still, she couldn't stop from feeling a little pleased.

"What are you grinning at?" Malachai eyed Heidi, the magnification of his glasses enhancing the critical nature of his expression.

"Nothing," she answered as she turned to her son, her phone now abandoned at his bedside table. His pointed ears drooped a little as he sat partially upright in bed, a pillow behind his back.

"Uh-huh. When I smile at my phone, you always presume I'm talking to a crush," he groused, his lips scrunched up behind his tusks.

At twelve, Malachai Harris was fast approaching Heidi's height, though he remained a gangly, light green, skinny lad. A norm, she was told, due to orcs and half-orcs usually possessing a higher metabolism than humans. Which was likely another reason why he had overindulged in the candy. Puberty was also a culprit, she suspected.

Eyeing her son in his pajamas - a ratty old t-shirt about one of his favorite shows and shorts that had, only a month prior, hung to his knees - Heidi made a mental reminder to buy him better fitting clothes yet again.

"Just because I ask about your crushes doesn't mean I'm teasing you," she protested, her own lips mirroring the scrunched up distaste as her nose wrinkled.

Malachai rolled his eyes at her retort, before his gaze settled on his mother fully. Something shifted in the air around him, an influx of guilt as his eyes flickered down to his hands in his lap. "How was the bar with Peri?"

"It was a club, not a bar," Heidi corrected, feeling like spending the night at a bar with other adults was somehow less amenable than a club for whatever reason. Giving a half-shrug, she added, "It was fine. Just a trivia night, so I was not partying."

The boy's jaw shifted a little, before he swallowed and cringed out another question, "Did I, uh, interrupt anything with someone?"

"Do you really want an answer to that?" Heidi raised an eyebrow at her son, leveling an amused but sardonic look at him. He couldn't meet her eye, his shoulders hunched. His body language made a twang go through Heidi's heartstrings. Despite his best efforts to support her dating, she knew it was hard for him. Travis hadn't really been the best male example and Artuk had never been around.

"Not really." Malachai winced and momentarily looked like he would throw up again. She snorted at her son, rolling her eyes at the dramatics of his facial expression. The sickly expression shifted to something more shameful, his pointed ears drooping a little further as his shoulders hunched. "I didn't mean to gorge up the candy. It just happened while I was reading."

"I know." Heidi sighed and smiled, having long ago learned her son caved easily to whims and was easily distractible. His biological father had been similar, though she tried not to think of Artuk often. Pushing away the faint ghostly memories of the past, her voice hardened a little as she tapped her son on the nose, "Hopefully, you learned your lesson this time."

Malachai drew back at the boop, scowling at his mother. Then he looked away and made a sound as if he was iffy about learning much of anything. The pile of candy wrappers had been shoved into a garbage bag, which he eyed with a betrayed expression while carefully ignoring Heidi's unimpressed frown.

Well, if that was how he wanted to play it, she'd have to pull the big guns. Sitting a little straighter on the edge of his bed, Heidi sniffed, "We're going on a candy detox. No sweets in this house for a month."