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12
It was one of those evenings where the house was full, which made life easier. I wasn’t going to hide away in my room. I’d spent most of the afternoon hiding in the library, where I’d made myself feel better by reading Reddit accounts of people getting boners at the most inconvenient of times. Mine paled in comparison to some of the stories.
Still, I had to live with Liam, and at the moment, my humiliation was fresh. So I was using the ‘healthy’ coping mechanism of drinking alcohol and engrossing myself in conversation with literally anyone and everyone that wasn’t Liam. We’d all migrated to the kitchen somehow, and he’d ended up on the opposite side of the room to me, clearly feeling the same about needing space. It was probably more awkward for him than me. Probably.
Over at the kitchen table, Travis, Preston, and Damon were playing poker with a couple of the guys from next door. Liam was across the kitchen from me, leaning casually against the counter, deep in conversation with Ander and another guy who I vaguely recognised as being one of their football teammates. I stood against the opposite counter, half talking to Kira and one of her friends, picking at the label on my beer bottle, and stealing covert glances at Liam. Every time I thought about what had happened at the gym, I could feel my face heating, and I gulped down more alcohol in an effort to forget.
But I couldn’t help looking. My eyes were drawn to him like magnets. Cliché as fuck, but true.
The third time I looked at him, he was watching me.
His cheeks flushed, and he snapped his gaze away instantly. I feigned a sudden interest in Kira’s account of a former reality TV girl who had become a huge YouTuber, but it was almost a compulsion to glance back at Liam.
He was looking at me again.
But again, he immediately wrenched his gaze away from mine.
“Noah! Liam! Ander! Poker?”
Travis’ shout cut through my whirling thoughts, and I spun towards the table to see that some of the poker players had disappeared, leaving just Travis and Preston. Gripping my beer, I made my way over to the table, sinking down onto the empty bench seat.
As soon as I sat down and Ander was sliding into the empty chair that we’d grabbed from the lounge earlier, I realised my mistake. There was only one spare seat, and it was on the bench next to me.
Fucking hell. Just when I was trying to avoid Liam.
I shifted as far over on the bench as I could, but I still felt his body heat when he sank down next to me. He seemed to be staying as far away from me as he could too, angling himself towards the edge of the table, but the gap between us was minimal. Bloody tiny benches.
Travis was quick to deal the cards, which was good because it gave me something else to concentrate on. Something other than Liam’s proximity.
I managed to dredge up a previously unknown talent for acting, throwing myself into the game and gambling my chips recklessly. We weren’t playing for money, anyway, so it didn’t really matter.
Sometime during the game, I realised that both Liam and I had moved closer together, and every time he moved his arm, the fabric of his hoodie brushed against my bare arm. Fuck my body for broadcasting how he was affecting me. Goosebumps, arm hairs standing on end, even a hitch in my breathing that was completely involuntary.
In short, it was pure torture.
When his thigh pressed against mine, I gasped, and although I tried to turn it into a cough, both Travis and Ander gave me suspicious looks. Grabbing my beer, I took a huge gulp, then slammed the bottle back down on the table. “We need more drinks.” I hoped no one could hear the sudden hoarseness in my voice. How had I gone from simply thinking Liam was hot to beingthisaffected by him?
Fuck my life.
“I’ll get them. Another beer?” Travis climbed to his feet, placing his cards face down on the table. When he returned with an armful of beers, he slid two across the table in the direction of Liam and me. Liam took one of the beers and held out the other to me.
Our eyes met, and we were too close for comfort. He bit down on his lip as I took the bottle from him. The tips of his fingers touched mine, and I didn’t miss his sharp intake of breath as his lashes lowered to hide his expression from me.
He’s straight.This is all in your head. If I told myself enough, maybe I’d finally believe the words. False hope was a dangerous, dangerous thing. I’d been down that road before, and I had no intention of going back.
After the longest game in the universe, I managed to escape, making my way to my previous place, leaning against the kitchen counter and falling into conversation with Damon about one of our business professors, who had a reputation that he’d more than justified in our very first lecture, when he’d gone on a massive rant at one of the students in front of the rest of us. But even that wasn’t enough to stop my attention straying to Liam, who’d also taken up his previous position opposite me.
Time passed.
I talked. I drank.
Liam did the same.
I looked at him, and he looked at me.
Then looked away.
Again. And again.
