“Hey,” Mal greets, casual as ever, as if he hadn’t shown up unannounced to Rowan’s work.

“What’re you doing here?”

Mal rolls his eyes. “Nice to see you too.”

“Uh, this is Addison. My coworker,” Rowan says, gesturing to the woman on his left and nearly hitting her in the shoulder as he does.

“Nice to meet you…?”

“Hey. Mal.”

“I’m gonna go—” Addison starts, thumbing vaguely in the direction behind her.

“See ya,” Rowan cuts her off, thankful that she didn’t ask to hang around. But as she leaves, the realization that Mal has met, however briefly, someone in Rowan’s life outside of the club rattles around in his brain.

When Addison disappears into the station, Rowan asks, “How’d you know where I work?”

“Only one station this side of town.”

“Gotcha.”

There’s a beat of silence, the two of them taking in each other’s appearance as if they’re seeing each other for the first time.

“Here,” Mal says, handing him a large brown paper bag, the top folded over neatly, concealing the contents.

Rowan’s eyebrows knit together as he takes the bag, opens it and peeks inside, instantly snapping it shut when he sees the rope Mal promised he’d bring him, two bundles of neatly coiled black hemp.

“Oh, thanks. You didn’t need to come all the way here, though. Could’ve waited till Saturday.”

Mal bites his lip. “Yeah, well. Said I’d give it to ya. Practice on yourself if you want, just not on anyone else.” He says it like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, but Rowan doesn’t miss the slight apprehension in his voice or the way he glances quickly to the ground. Scuffles his shoe a bit.

“What do you mean ‘anyone else’?”

“Anyone else you sleep with.”

“Mal, I’m not sleeping with anyone else.”

He makes sure to mirror Mal’s wording and not say “seeing” someone else. Because he and Mal aren’t. Seeing each other, that is. But they are. Sleeping with each other, that is. They’re just fuckin’.

For a brief moment, Mal looks quietly pleased, but says, “You could, though.”

Rowan shrugs. “So can you.”

So did you, he thinks. It’s on the tip of his tongue, almost tumbling out of his mouth, but some part of his brain stops him. The part that had reined him in when Mal pulled out the box of condoms last week. The part that wants to not fucking blow this before he even has a chance to see if it’s gonna go anywhere.

“Yeah….”

His discomfort is palpable, and Rowan tries not to let the little burst of smugness in his chest take root. He quickly changes the subject for both their sakes.

“Are you on lunch break right now?”

“Yeah. You hungry?”

Rowan grins. “Always.”

ROWAN QUICKLY makes his way into the break room to grab his wallet and phone out of his locker and tucks Mal’s rope safely at the bottom of his backpack.