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He snorted. “Yeah, the role of being Holt’s bodyguard is pretty uneventful. He’s such a diva, dude. Although Taylor did mention something about the Mafia and a rival wrestling league boss who might be trying to muscle in on Holt’s turf.”

A bemused frown twitched my brows. “Taylor said that?”

“Yeah.” Larkin nodded, chewing on his lip as he gazed at me worriedly. “I hope it’s not true. That would put you in, like, danger.”

My mouth twitched. I was pretty sure Taylor must have been joking, but if he hadn’t been… Well. My job might get a bit more interesting.

“I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for any signs of rival wrestling gang activity,” I told him solemnly. After a few seconds of him staring at me wide-eyed, his nose scrunched up and he laughed.

“You’re just messing with me.” Then he sobered, back to nibbling on his lip. “Right?”

“I’m pretty sure we’d never hear the end of it if someone really was trying to steal business from Holt.”

Larkin chuckled. “Yeah, that’s true. He’d have me stalking them online and creating sock accounts to shit-talk them on social media.”

I had no idea what a sock account was, so I just grinned and turned back to my paper.

“Don’t forget your coffee,” Larkin blurted, nodding at where I’d placed it on the coffee table.

“I won’t. Thank you for getting it.”

“That’s okay. So are we still… um, hanging out later?” A blush stained his cheeks as he shot me a nervous but hopeful grin.

My heart ached. I was feeling a little fragile after last night, but I couldn’t say no to him, and I didn’t want to go back on our plans when they’d already been moved once.

“Uh-huh.” I grinned at him so he wouldn’t detect any of the painful, desperate longing that churned under the surface at the thought of kissing him again, seeing him so vulnerable, being skin to skin with him.

“Cool.” He fiddled with a pen on his desk. “I’m looking forward to it. Not just… Um, I mean I’m looking forward to actually hanging out again too. Unless… uh, unless you don’t want to—”

“You can stay as long as you like, Larkin,” I said calmly. “I’m looking forward to it too.”

And that was my problem. Looking forward. Always looking forward. Already anticipating the pain of this all ending instead of just enjoying what I could have of him now. I had to get my fucking head on straight. I had to stop letting this get to me so much and try to think of the positives, not just how devastating it was eventually going to be.

Larkin and I had gotten closer as friends. I was helping him, which did make me happy—I wanted to help him in any way I could. And I was getting to touch him and kiss him and be close to him in all the ways I’d never thought I’d get to experience. That was enough.

That had to be enough.

—

When Holt and Taylor got to the office a short while later, Holt was wearing his cat-eye sunglasses, which meant he was feeling a little rough. But he was in a good mood, and seemed excited for Taylor’s first day.

“I got you both coffee,” Larkin said quickly, reaching for the cupholder on his desk. “I got you an iced coffee, Taylor, ’cause that’s what you were drinking yesterday.”

“Thanks, Lark.” Taylor beamed at him and accepted both cups, then passed one to Holt. “Did you both have fun yesterday?”

Larkin and I exchanged a very quick look.

“Yeah, man,” he blurted a little too loudly. “Tonnes. Thanks for doing it.”

“It was great,” I added politely.

Holt was busy selecting a donut from one of the four trays they’d picked up on the way in, but Taylor was eyeing us both with a tiny smile on his face. He didn’t say anything else though, just turned to Holt and smoothed a hand up his back.

“Shall we take the rest of these to the backstage area for the wrestlers?” He picked up three of the boxes. “Help yourselves, guys.”

“Thanks, T-bone. Boss man.” Larkin grinned at them as they made their way to the door. The moment they were gone, he snorted and pushed back his chair to bound over to the box on the coffee table. “The wrestlers won’t eat them. They all live on protein shakes and, like, boiled chicken and rice. I could never.”

“Most of them ate the burgers and stuff yesterday,” I pointed out, leaning in to inspect the donuts when Larkin flipped open the box lid.