Flynn laughed, pulling the shirt back down, and I laughed along with him.Only remembering, after a moment, that I was meant to be angry at him.Or, if not that, then apathetic at best.
“Are you in town for the holidays?”Kyle hadn’t thought of the most imaginative question but I was okay with that, just as long as it took the focus off me.
Flynn nodded.“Quietly going mad at my parents.My mom can be kinda a lot, even at the best of times.”
I buried my snort in my drink, though I wasn’t sure it was entirely effective.
“Sticking around long?”Catherine had, at least, shifted her gaze from Flynn’s chest to his face.
He shook his head.“Headed back tomorrow.Just catching up with some of the old guys while I have the chance.”A nod, to a couple of men at the bar who I vaguely remembered.
“Well,” I said, with what I hoped was a note of finality rather than desperation, “we won’t keep you, then.”
A beat.For a split-second, I thought he was going to argue.Sit down, even - he’d have had to pull up a chair, but the place still wasn’t crowded - and join us.Force me to have the sort of polite conversation that I’d refused to engage in, while we’d been sitting side by side in my truck the other night.
He didn’t, though.Just pulled out his phone.
“Look, let me pay you for the gas, okay?I know you said no, but...well, you saved my ass, didn’t you.You shouldn’t be out of pocket for it.”
I opened my mouth, to protest.
“Oli, please.Just this once, don’t argue?”
He turned the screen, to show me the mobile wallet.Sighing, I fished my own phone out of my pocket.Let him tap his against it, feeling it shiver in my hand as the money transferred.
“See?That wasn’t so hard, was it.”
I wasn’t sure which was preferable: facing Flynn’s very-nearly-smug smile, or the fascinated stares of my friends.
“You didn’t have to,” I said, finally.
Flynn winked.“But I did.So.”
Silence again, for a moment.
“Anyway, it was good seeing you guys again.”He flashed Catherine and Kyle a grin, then looked to me.“Oli, it was...”
“Yeah,” I interrupted, “right.Safe travels back.”
He nodded, and then walked across the room to his friends.
Mine were already watching me intently when I turned back around.
“The gas.”Catherine made it sound like a statement, though I knew life wasn’t so easy.
“I picked him up, in the storm the other night.His car broke down.”Simple, straightforward sentences seemed least likely to be misunderstood.
Kyle pointedly looked over, to where I figured Flynn and his buddies were at the bar, and then back at me.“You and hot stuff there, all alone in your truck, in a big scary storm?Did you cuddle to keep your spirits up?”
I glared at him.“Not funny.”
“No, not at all,” Kyle agreed, grinning.“More sexy, I think.Maybe in the shirt, that you said ‘looked hot on him’?”
“I said ‘good,’” I pointed out.“And your imagination is more exciting than reality.”
“You’re pretty cagey about explaining reality,” Catherine pointed out.
Sighing, I finished my drink.“His car broke down.His mom asked me to go pick him up, which I did.About the most exciting thing that happened was an electrical storm I thought was going to fry us alive.”
