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‘Wait. Damn.’ Matteo slaps his hands onto the table. ‘Are you telling me I was this close to being Jules’s conference fling if I’d played a little harder at the welcome drinks?’
‘Don’t be gross, man.’
Matteo laughs him off. ‘Kidding. So this a one night thing?’
‘No. Throughout the conference.’
Matteo slaps his knee repeatedly. ‘You’ve picked up some game this past year.’
Cameron has a sip of his water. It’s not game, it’s playing to his strengths and minimising risk. If Matteo wants to think he’s some sex-god, that’s fine with him. Jules certainly made him feel that way last night. All those noises she was making, the way her hands were all over him.
Thankfully, their food is delivered before Cameron’s blood travels too far south from the memories.
‘So.’ Matteo dunks a potato chip into some aioli with the energy of a villain stroking a cat. ‘What happens after conference?’
‘Nothing happens,’ Cameron says, spearing off a chunk of apple cake and shoving it into his mouth for further conversational protection.
‘Come on. You’ve got a woman like that interested in you and you’re not considering keeping things up—a fling, or maybe more—beyond the conference?’
‘No, because we’ll be back working together in the office and that’s a bad mix.’
‘Sometimes the combos that sound terrible work the best. Like corn chips and melted chocolate.’
Cameron shudders. He knows Matteo’s going for some kind of meaningful analogy but of anyone in the world, Matteo knows what’s in his past. He should get where he’s coming from.
‘Well, I’ve tried it before,’ he gives Matteo a loaded look, ‘and it’s ruined me for corn chips forever.’
Matteo narrows his eyes. ‘I know I introduced the metaphor, but now I’m lost. Is not eating corn chips the equivalent of not dating women? Because that’s—’ he blows out a huff of air, shaking his head.
‘It’s not dating women I work with.’
‘Right. Okay. Thank goodness. So where do your feelings come into play?’
‘Nowhere. I have no feelings for Jules.’ Sure, he’s imagined taking her to see that Duran Duran cover band next time they’re in town, but that was a subconscious daydream at best and doesn’t count. It’s not like he’s set an alert for concert announcements.
‘No feelings?’ Matteo shakes his head. ‘Man, that’s cold.’
‘Not no feelings. I like her, obviously, but …’ How can he say he’s worried about developing deeper feelings so he’s going to deny himself until his dying breath? That he’s worried they’re already there inside him and this new arrangement is going to bring them out into the open.
‘So the way you were staring at her last night was merely a lustful gaze,’ Matteo says when Cameron falls into silence. ‘And I imagined the envy-monster eyes you got when I held her hand?’
Cameron can tell he’s fishing so he keeps his reply short. ‘Yep.’
Matteo narrows his eyes. ‘You’re full of shit.’
‘I don’t have feelings for Jules, and if I did, it wouldn’t matter anyway, because I don’t want to date someone I work with and she wants a fling. She told me she wants a fling.’
Matteo stills during Cameron’s tirade with a chip halfway to his mouth. His expression still conveys, ‘you’re full of shit’.
Cameron deflates as quickly as the outburst appears. ‘Sorry. Sorry.’
‘No need to apologise. You know bottling emotions up isn’t good for anyone. Got any more you want to let out?’
There he goes using the ‘emotions’ word again. There’s clearly some merit to it since Cameron just raised his voice at his one friend when all Matteo was doing was trying to knock sense into him. Totally wrong sense, but the intentions were honourable.
‘Nope. Nothing.’
‘Okay, well I’ve got something.’ Matteo pops the chip into his mouth and swallows. ‘This new attitude is about Braden, isn’t it? Because you didn’t used to have a no-dating-colleagues rule. In fact, I remember you heavy-handedly trying to set me up with Fen.’
