AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Touché,” he said, smiling through the darkness that I knew was closing in on him, tendrils stretching for him. I wanted to fight it away, clear the path for him. He was a good guy; I could sense that from the moment we met. His smile deserved to be a permanent fixture on his handsome face.
“I don’t know… I…” Jonah looked down to his scuffed white sneakers, sand speckled across the tops.
And, for some reason I couldn’t pinpoint, I was overwhelmed with a sense of disappointment.
What the fuck was I thinking would happen? He’d come over and we’d realize our undeniable connection, and then we’d kiss and fuck and cuddle and fuck again until the sun came up?
If I could punch myself without being thrown into a straitjacket, I would.
“Listen, don’t worry about it. Have a good night, Jonah. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I didn’t want to pressure him, and I certainly didn’t want to put him in another awkward spot. He could find a hotel and figure things out in private—no need to look to me for comfort.
I turned and started walking, every step I took stirring that oil spill of disappointment that spread through my chest.
11 Jonah Brightly
“Wait!” My voice cracked toward the end. Fox stopped. I was hurrying out of my office, locking the door and going down to the end of the hallway where Fox waited, the ghost of a smile playing on his face, highlighted by the bright office lighting that bounced off the light blue walls.
“Your ‘really comfortable fucking couch’ has my interest.”
Fox was smiling for real now. “All right, let’s get out of here. I only live a few blocks down from here, we can walk.”
“Let’s go.” I followed him out, shutting the lights off behind us. He locked up the main door, and we started down the street, orange street lights guiding our way down the relatively empty streets. We walked past a couple of bars that were still pumping music behind their big black doors, but overall, our walk was quiet. I was mostly thinking about what happened with Wendy, and Fox was… well, who knew what Fox was thinking about.
I wouldn’t mind knowing.
Fox was a little bit of a mystery to me, and I liked that. He had a big heart and always seemed to wear a genuine smile, but there were still walls there. He was holding back, and I wasn’t sure what that was or why he was holding it back. But there was definitely something there, and it was a huge something.
“Just down this street,” he said, his voice filling my senses. Fox did that. He had an all-consuming-type of presence. He took up the space in any room and seemed to get right under your skin somehow. I felt it from the second I met him for the interview, and I felt it now as we walked side by side down a well-lit street, palm trees swaying gently above us, colorful beach houses lining the sides of the street.
The back of our hands brushed against each other.
Sparks flew through my nervous system.
I suppressed the feeling, stuffed it deep down. No need to make things more complicated right now. There was already plenty I had to deal wi—
Again, hands brushed over each other, his knuckles grazing over mine.
Again, sparks shot through me, and again, I suppressed them.
Jesus, how narrow is this damn street?
It wasn’t narrow at all. There was plenty of space for us to walk with two other people between us. But neither of us seemed to be leaving any space for that to happen.
Like magnets.
And on top of the sparks, there was something else going on, too. It was a butterfly feeling that I hadn’t felt in, pfft, decades? Since I was a kid in middle school with a crush that seemed to be the center of my world.
Those butterflies dusted off their wings, blew off the cobwebs that clung to their spindly little legs, and started fluttering around their dusty cave inside my gut.
All because of the man who was walking next to me, currently leading me to his home.
All because of a man. One who I almost kissed.
A man who I desperately wanted to kiss.
“It’s this one.” Fox stopped in front of a one-story house painted a light pink, with white around the windows and a bright blue door popping underneath the street light spilling over the area. It was… not what I was expecting from Fox, but I loved it.
He pushed open the gate of a white picket fence and led me up the short stone path to the door. There were two lawn flamingos on either side of the path, another playful touch that I wasn’t quite expecting.
“Meet Frankie and Freddie. They’re my guard flamingos.” He gave a playful pat to one of them. The pat must have been extra hard because Frankie wobbled and toppled over onto its side. “Wow,” Fox said with a laugh as he crouched down to fix his fallen flamingo.
