Butterfly Hunter 01 (7 page)

Dave found himself
completely undermined by an unexpected fondness as he contemplated
the folded arms, affronted shoulders, and loftily lifted nose of
his client. He let out a laugh under his breath. “Nicholas,” he
started in mollifying tones –

“
Nicholas … ?
Nicholas Goring!”

It was Charlie, of course.
Nicholas had already turned towards the enquiring voice, and now he
burst into a happy grin. “Charles!” The two men shook hands
enthusiastically, while Dave looked on in bewilderment. “How
marvellous!” Nicholas was saying. “I didn’t dare hope it was you
David was bringing me to meet.”

“
Who else
would it be?” Once Charlie was finally done with Nicholas, he
turned to greet Dave, and they shook hands, too.

“
Hello,
Charlie,” Dave said, not too grudgingly. He wasn’t going to ask,
though. The world was a small place, after all. He already knew
that.

“
We follow
each other on Twitter,” Nicholas explained, and he was actually
sounding friendly, and rather apologetic.

“
Come on,”
Charlie said, leading the way. “Let’s get a table, and some
beer.”

“
I’m sorry,
David. I should have said.”

“
No, I
shouldn’t have assumed.”

“
Nicholas here is
all
right
,” Charlie assured Dave as they all
sat. In fact, Charlie dragged Nicholas down to sit very close
beside him, Dave noted to his own annoyance and chagrin. “Nicholas
has Butterfly Dreaming, you know?”

Nicholas laughed happily.
“Oh, now you’re just flattering me. David’s not going to believe
that any more than I do.”

“
Anyway,
you’re Australian now, Nicholas. You’ve got the hat.”

The man’s cheekbones went
a happy pink. “David gave it to me.”

“
Did he now …
?” Charlie turned a pondering gaze on Dave.

“
I’m sure he
does the same for all his clients.”

“
Not that I
ever heard of,” Charlie replied.

“
Oh shut up,”
Dave grumbled.

“
In
fact
,” Charlie continued as if he
hadn’t even heard, “I’d say you were in like Flynn there, Nicholas
…”

The man’s bashfully
pleased pinkness bloomed further.

Before Charlie added with
regret, “If only Dave weren’t a one–woman man.”

“
Oh God!” Dave
cried. “You all think you know what you’re talking about, but you
don’t. You just don’t.”

“
We don’t?”
Charlie asked.

“
No. That’s
just –” He made it a rule not to swear around clients, even if they
expected him to. “Nonsense. That’s just nonsense.”

Charlie put his head back
and considered Dave for a long long moment … before nudging
Nicholas with an elbow. “In like Flynn, mate.”

Nicholas guffawed quite
happily.

“
Fuck’s sake,”
muttered Dave. And he went to get a round of beer.

Despite the
pub
’s incessant cheerful noise, Dave was
close enough to hear that Charlie and Nicholas were soon nattering
away about Dreamtime sites and blue clouds and stone–curlews. Dave
shook his head in self–mocking disbelief. So much for tact! He was
sure that Charlie would fill him in if they reached any practical
conclusions, so he was happy enough to leave them to it.

While waiting to order,
Dave thumbed through to a browser on his phone. He’d joined Twitter
a couple of years ago, because Denise had gotten into it, but he’d
hardly even looked at it since they’d broken up. He was already
connected to Charlie, of course. And as soon as he started
scrolling through Charlie’s list of followers, he found Nicholas.
His profile image was, unsurprisingly, a photo of a beautiful blue
butterfly. Dave thumbed the Follow button, and then started
browsing the man’s tweets. Nothing particularly significant, beyond
an excitement over the prospect of this trip. Otherwise it seemed
to be chat with a wide variety of friends, interspersed with
vaguely philosophical questions relating to a butterfly’s life and
transformation.
Does the
butterfly remember its former larval self?
Dave read. Another one earlier in the timeline:
What does a pupa dream of while
becoming fabulous?

Nicholas my
man,
Charlie had replied to that
one,
you tell me. What did YOU
dream of?

No, I’m still
the caterpillar. I’m not fabulous yet.

Are you so sure about that, my
friend?

Charles, I’m
hardly even dreaming yet …

Dave looked up, and found
Nicholas’s deep dark blue gaze upon him, and for a moment the world
around them went still and quiet. They stared at each other, and
Dave knew. He knew, somehow, that something within Nicholas had
changed since that exchange of tweets. Something that wouldn’t –
that couldn’t change back. He wondered if …

But then Charlie nudged
Nicholas and indicated a location on the map they had spread before
them, and Rosie behind the bar asked, “You right, Dave?” and the
moment was gone.

Dave frowned, pretending
to be considering which beers they had on tap. But it was a
no–brainer, and Rosie knew it. “Three Cascades, thanks,
mate.”

When he got back to the
table, Nicholas and Charlie still had their heads bent close
together over the map. Charlie sat back, and accepted the beer with
a grateful nod. The glass was already beading with condensation.
Nicholas accepted his, too, with a happy smile – and then he turned
to consider Charlie for a long moment. Took in Charlie’s
thoughtfulness, and then tactfully lowered his gaze. Waiting, with
no expectation. Sipping at his beer.

If Nicholas had looked up
at Dave in those moments, Dave suspected that he would have found a
very fond expression looking back at him. Perhaps it was as well
that he didn’t.

Half of Dave’s Cascade
slid coolly down a welcoming throat.

Eventually Charlie sat up,
and said to Nicholas, “Show me again.”

“
Here,”
murmured Nicholas, one of his long pale fingers marking a rough
circle towards the south–west corner of Queensland. “This sort of
area.”

Charlie nodded, and
glanced at each of them in turn, taking their measure. Then he
pressed a finger–pad to a place within the lower half of the
circle. “Here. Stay north of here, I reckon. That’s just a guess,”
he added, “from an old fella who hasn’t been out that way in
a
long
time.”

“
No, that’s
great,” Dave said, knowing that Charlie had just shared a secret
with them, even if only implicitly. “Thank you.”

“
Thank you,”
Nicholas echoed, with exactly the right quiet restraint. “I really
appreciate it, Charles.”

Charlie sat back again,
relaxed, and downed half his beer. “We’ve got to find you your
butterflies,” he said to Nicholas. “I think … we’ll all learn
something from them.”

“
I’ll do my
best.”

“
Don’t wanna
have come all this way for nothing,” Charlie continued, his
expansive gesture somehow taking in Dave as well as the
butterflies.

Nicholas went pink round
the cheekbones, and laughed. It was a delightful sound. Which Dave
might even have appreciated if he hadn’t been so set on muttering
complaints under his breath.

And Dave wasn’t even
halfway done grumbling yet, when Nicholas obligingly offered, “I’ll
get the next, uh – shout.”

Charlie crowed with
laughter. “You’re even talking Strine now, mate!”

Nicholas grinned, but
dipped his head towards Dave to surreptitiously ask, “What exactly
do I order?”

“
Three
Cascades,” Dave supplied. “And say thanks, not please.”

An uncomplicated pleasure
broadened the grin. “Three Cascades, thanks,” Nicholas
practised.

Dave nodded encouragement,
and ignored Charlie’s wondering look until Nicholas was safely at
the bar, attention fixed on sorting through the colourful
Australian dollar notes in his wallet. And then Dave said, “What?”
despite knowing exactly.

“
You can’t
even stay angry at him,” Charlie observed.

“
Oh God,
will you
please
give it a rest.”

“
Mate, you
didn’t even set him up for a fall just then.”

“
Course not.
He’s a client.”

“
Ah, come on.
Classic chance for a bit of fun, and I know you’ve done it before.
Rosie would have played along, too, and you know it.”

“
Look,” said
Dave, determined to take this chance at least. He propped his
elbows on the table and leaned in closer to talk in confidence.
“How well do you know him? Nicholas, I mean.”

“
Yeah, who
else would you be obsessing over?”

“
How well?”
Dave insisted.

“
Hhhmmm …”
Charlie responded in a quibbling manner.

“
It’s just
that his butler or whatever told me to treat him kindly, but
wouldn’t explain what he meant.”

“
Maybe he
didn’t mean anything.”

“
No, he
did.”

“
Then maybe he
just meant that Nicholas is a nice guy. Worth looking
after.”

It wasn’t enough. Dave
shook his head.

“
And coming
out here all alone,” Charlie persisted. “He just wanted to make
sure that Nicholas could count on you.”

“
There has to
be something more specific. There has to be.”

“
What are you
worried about? He looks fine! Happy as. Nice bit of a glow to
him.”

Dave nodded reluctantly.
“He
has
got more colour to him lately. I reckon it’s being out in
the sun, despite the hat.”

“
See? He’s
fine.”

“
Dunno
…”

“
Davey,” said
Charlie.

“
Yeah?”

“
You
worry too much, mate. You’ll be fine.
Both
of you – will be
fine.”

Well, and Dave could only hope
it was true.

Late that night Dave lay
awake listening to the quiet rustling of rhythmic movement against
bedclothes audible from the next room, and Nicholas’s gentle
panting breaths. Dave wondered if Nicholas was thinking about him.
It already felt inevitable that that was the case. On the other
hand, if Dave was going to leap to such conclusions, he should
probably just get over himself instead. He wasn’t the centre of
anyone’s universe. Not anymore.

Nicholas finished soon enough
with a soft groan, and then quiet fell through the hotel, through
the town, through the countryside surrounding them. The hush was
vibrant, though. Energised with longing. Somehow Dave got the
impression that Nicholas was lying there still awake. Not quite
satisfied.

Dave sighed, and turned away.
Settled himself for sleep with his back towards the wall he shared
with Nicholas. As if even that mattered. He closed his eyes, and
with another lonely sigh slipped away into the dark.

Dave was at the Cruiser
early the next morning with his checklist, making sure they had all
they needed. He couldn
’t think of
anything he’d missed, anything they’d need to visit the Charleville
shops for – and that in itself worried him. It would almost be a
relief to think of something he’d forgotten. Dave sighed, and slid
the checklist away with his other paperwork.

Which was when Nicholas
appeared from the hotel in a bit of a flurry, with his black shirt
buttoned up yet misaligned. He was barefoot, but already had on his
Akubra. “Am I running late? I haven’t packed yet. Won’t take me a
minute, though. Good idea of yours, to have a separate overnight
bag,” Nicholas added, before squinting up at the sky. “But I didn’t
oversleep, did I?”

Dave chuckled. “Nah, I’m
just doing a last check through. Think we’ll be fine – but this is
your last chance for any shopping for a week.”

A cloud passed across that
long mutable face. “I should think that I can manage without
shopping for a week.” The gay man was offended.

“
I just meant
that if you need any essentials …”

But Nicholas was grinning
again, with a mischievous little kick to it. “I know.”

Dave just rolled his eyes.
“
Anyway
,” he continued, “we’ve got to have one of Billy’s full
cooked breakfasts before we go. Won’t need to eat again until we’re
back in civilisation.”

“
Cool, OK. And
then –” Nicholas’s smile was quieter now, but pure and true – and
Dave really had to quit obsessing over the man’s smiles for God’s
sake! “And then we’ll be off for real.”

“
Yup. Off like
a bucket of prawns in the hot sun.”

“
What?”

“
Never mind.
Yeah, we’ll be out into the beyond.” Dave wasn’t immune to the
excitement of it, even after all these years. But he touched a hand
to Nicholas’s suitcase where one side of it appeared amidst all
their belongings and gear and necessaries – and he frowned. “Um …
Got your medication all right?”