âWhy would I deny it?â Cal said, a little too nonchalant for a demon whoâd just been found out, but thatâs how it always was. He never did deny his transgressions when Oliver caught onto him. That was part of the fun, after all, but more than that, it was the linchpin of an unspoken promise, both to himself and to his angel. Cal never lied to Oliver. Never.
This promise was at once all too easy and annoyingly difficult to fulfill. Cal had been lying all his life â had been encouraged to lie all his life. Honesty was not something that got you very far in the Price family business, and his silver tongue was responsible for catapulting him through the ranks all the way to his father's right hand. But, around, Oliver, the lies simply didnât come. It would have been easier in the beginning to lie, to tell Oliver that Calâs family owned a perfectly respectable business. Cal never considered it. Oliver was too important, and from the first he always deserved the truth.
And truth was what Oliver got, whether he liked it or not. Frequently, he didnât. Cal knew that was the price of honesty, but it was also an unexpected perk. Disapproval was a novelty to Cal at first, when heâd never been around someone whoâd frowned on the morally questionable things which Price family considered as normal as eating breakfast. Then it was a reminder that Oliver cared for him in a way his family never could. Cared, and wanted to stay with him in spite of his disapproval.
Oliver really was an angel.
But sometimes he wasnât a very good one.
Oliverâs feigned innocence sent a thrill through Cal, which was probably a little backwards considering its origin stemmed from a nauseatingly earnest prank involving religious bumper stickers on his precious Bentley. Cal couldnât be sure what this bit of Oliver-shaped retaliation was for, exactly, considering his reprisals tended to take some time to be implemented, but it didnât matter. Oliverâs attempts at getting back at Cal for his misdeeds were, quite frankly, too adorable to truly rankle him. So close to brilliance yet ultimately harmless and a little goofy, they could barely even be called pranks, but Cal always appreciated the effort. It meant so much to him when his angel tried so very hard to be bad.
âUneventful,â Cal murmured as he sidled next to Oliver, âapart from some enthusiastic honking from the Baptist church on 7th. Canât imagine what that was about.â Idly, he reached up and brushed some of Oliverâs floppy hair away from his forehead. It wasnât wet now, but the demon in Cal could feel the absence of the water that Oliver had miracled away. Such a small thing, yet this was the kind of power that still amazed Cal, even after all this time. That, and the fact that Oliver was actually taller than him, something that was easy to forget when the angel spent ninety percent of his time stooped over papers and books.
Cal liked that Oliver was taller than him, though. Looking up to someone was also a novelty for him.
âShame about the landlord, though,â Cal said, dropping his hand to pull his phone out of his pocket and stepping away from Oliver, preparing to make the call, if only superficially. If this went the way he thought it would, no one would be making any inconvenient calls to the landlord tonight. âSurely he's going to ask where all the water went after the pipe burst.â Before unlocking his phone, he caught Oliverâs reflection in the glass and affected a patently false sigh. âI wonder what I'll tell him...â