Billionaire Mafia's Manny-Chapter 153 - 152

Zeno sat on his bed, quietly thinking about what had happened in the meeting room. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Tonight was the most unexpected night of his life; Sebastian had appeared so randomly that he took him unawares.

But Zeno was thankful for something; he was thankful for Sebastian’s distance, and he was happy that Sebastian wasn’t approaching him, it would have been awkward and tense for both of them if Sebastian tried to speak to Zeno.

He stood and walked toward the opened double window, the lightweight white curtain material was gently swirling around as the wind blew it around.

Zeno always loved this room, it was both modern and natural. The window faced a large garden full of flowers carved and trimmed in the shapes of different animals.

He liked going down to the garden for the cool night breeze; thankfully, his room was positioned at the back of the house, so he wouldn’t be disturbing anyone when he was living.

Zeno grabbed his phone from the bed and left his room; he wanted to take a walk in the garden.

Cassian’s room was far away from him, no need to worry about waking him up. Zeno freely went down the long, straight stairs that led to the backyard, buttoning up his blue pajama shirt.

He reached the wooden door and gently pushed it open, thankful for the noiseless mechanism; he would have been a bother to the whole household.

"Ahh..." Zeno inhaled deeply the moment he stepped foot inside the garden.

He looked up and smiled, the moon was beautiful and bright, shining softly over the garden and gently illuminating the animal flower sculptors.

He had a favorite spot; he stared at the cute duckling flower sculpture and slowly started to walk toward it.

His thoughts went back to after the meeting, he wasn’t looking, but he also saw that Sebastian wasn’t looking as he walked out of the meeting room with Mr. Leroy.

Sebastian hadn’t even spared Zeno a single glance. Still, it wasn’t as if Zeno was looking, he just happened to catch a glimpse of the departing man.

Zeno paused in front of a lion flower sculpture and stared at the shadow cast on the ground by the moonlight; his mind lost in his unexpected involvement with Leroy’s family business.

How was he going to navigate his involvement with Sebastian? He hated this.

Cassian had apologized numerous times when he came to bis Zeno goodnight; he begged Zeno to help him out because he wanted his father’s approval regarding his sensuality so that he could finally feel free to date whoever wanted.

Zeno did not forget to remind him that this was just business between them, and Cassian, being the gentleman he was, had kissed Zeno’s hand and promised to always keep in mind that it was business between them.

Zeno sighed, "I guess my life has been too quiet for so long, nature suddenly decided to bring me an adventure... game on, then," He scoffed as he muttered to himself.

He stared at the white bench below the lion flower sculpture and shook his head; he preferred to sit under the duckling’s spread feather; it had the best fire of the mood and the coolest of winds around the garden.

Zeno sighed in satisfaction when he saw the duckling; he lowered himself on the bench with a smile on his face, enjoying the way the smooth coated wood felt against his skin.

He didn’t mind dozing off for a while, so he leaned his head back on the bench and closed his eyes, but he opened it immediately, sitting up with a frown.

Smoke.

Cigarette smoke was polluting his pure night air. Who would be put here smoking by that time of the night?

Zeno was about to stand up and search for the source of the smoke, but he didn’t have to look far... under the huge eagle flower sculpture beside the duckling, Sebastian sat quietly, smoking his cigarette while his unreadable grey eyes remained locked in on Zeno.

He seemed aloof; his white shirt was completely unbuttoned, his hair messy from the wind, and his right leg was elegantly crossed over the left one; he looked unbothered.

Zeno didn’t realize he was staring, he couldn’t get his eyes off the dangerous yet appealing man under the shade of the eagle’s wing.

It was just them, alone again after one year. Zeno was tempted, tempted to speak to him, but it wasn’t about Sebastian.

He was tempted to ask him about Ken; he missed the poor kid. Ken would be seven already, and Zeno didn’t get to stay for Ken’s sixth birthday; it was the month he had traveled out of the country, and it had been one year already, adding another year to Ken.

Zeno was dying to see him and how much he had grown.

But all that would only stay a wish in his head; he wished the boy well. He had a mother now, and he had a loving father; that was all he wished for Ken.

It was unfortunate Ken had an idiot as a Father; Zeno was so tempted to question the proud peacock why he was out here chilling while abandoning his family at home, but it was none of his business.

Zeno suddenly frowned, how was Sebastian here in Cassian’s family home? Did he leave as Zeno thought after the meeting?

He realized he’d been staring at an unmoving man and decided to give himself a break. He had just taken a step back when he felt a hand behind him.

"Who - Oh, hey," Zeno sighed when he saw Cassian behind him.

"Out for a walk as usual?" Cassian’s smooth voice asked.

Zeno slowly nodded, "Yeah... what are you doing out here?" He questioned.

Cassian slowly walked past Zeno, walking toward the eagle, "Nothing... just like you, out here thinking," He replied.

Zeno thought Cassian was going to greet Sebastian, but when he turned back again, Sebastian was nowhere to be found, he’d been distracted by Cassian and didn’t catch Sebastian’s departure.

Zeno chuckled at himself and massaged his temples; maybe he was starting to hallucinate now because he the fuck can one explain such a swift disappearance, even Batman would be shocked.

"I have gone to find you in your room, but you weren’t there; I already knew this was your favorite place, so here I am," Cassian explained.

Zeno saw him now occupying the same bench Sebastian had occupied, but he didn’t look so intimidating like Sebastian; he rather looked as gently as the wind and radiating as the moonlight. He sighed; this view was better, but the other was quite disturbing.

"Sorry about that but what did you want to tell me?" Zeno asked.

Cassian patted the space beside him, "Come sit and I’ll tell you," He called softly.

Zeno shrugged and lowered himself under the duckling’s bench. "I’m listening from over here, just say it,"

"Tomorrow morning, we’ll be going to check out the resort location with Mr. Sebastian... I know you want to go home immediately the next morning, but we’ll be quick I promise, just an in and out something. I’m not informing, I’m asking... please?" Cassian slowly tapped his feet on the soft grass floor.

Zeno almost rolled his eyes, was this how his life was starting to gently mingle with Sebastian’s?

He took a deep breath, one step at a time; he could do this. Hopefully, Sebastian wasn’t supposed to stay long on a business trip; he had a family to take care of and be present in their lives, especially the new baby.

"Sure, I can do that, as long as you get me home before twelve," Zeno replied.

"Deal," Cassian was happy and grateful to Zeno for agreeing to help him up to the length he was going.

He really wished that Zeno might have a change of heart and decide to date him for real.

***

The next morning, Zeno was sitting in Cassian’s car as they drove out of the Leroy family home. Cassian was driving by himself that morning, he said he loved driving by the day but detested it at night.

Zeno was holding a file in his hand and flipping through it as he studied the type of partnership Cassian’s family was engaging in with Sebastian and the British.

It wasn’t something complex; it was just a straightforward business.

"Mr. Sebastian is quite an early bird; one of our men informed me when I had just woken that Mr. Sebastian was already at the resort waiting for us to arrive," Cassian said, pleased by Sebastian’s good attributes.

Zeno hummed quietly, "It seems so," he replied.

No wonder he didn’t see him that morning.

Again, it wasn’t as if he was looking or searching; he just noted that he couldn’t find the mysterious tall figure that always seemed to loom around the building, Luke, some haunting ghost.

"I wonder how Mr. Sebastian managed to engage his fiancée, a man cold and unfeeling lime himself, he must have loved the woman so much to propose," Cassian wanted to make a small, casual talk with Zeno but he didn’t know that he had just ruined all of Zeno’s day by bringing that topic up.

"Yeah... he must love her so much," Zeno replied and looked out of the window, his fists clenching, and throat slowly tightening.

Did Sebastian have to come back into life just when he thought he was healed?

He wondered how he was going to do when they arrived at the resort; speaking to Sebastian was inevitable at this point; he had to grow a ball and get his work done.

He would speak to Sebastian in the same way he’d spoken to all his clients; business was business, period.