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29
“Mate!” Travis clapped me on the shoulder, laughing as I jumped a mile at the unexpected contact.He laughed even harder when I swatted at him, jumping out of my reach. “Are you coming to the student union?”
I slid my gaze over to Noah, who was hunched over the dining table with Damon, working on some assignment. We’d somehow managed to keep our distance from each other since that moment in the gym when I’d—fuck, I didn’t even know what I’d been thinking when I’d invited myself into his shower. Or my dick had been doing the thinking for me. Fucking bastard.
Returning my gaze to Travis, I nodded. “Yeah, alright. What time?”
“Now?”
“Are we invited?”
My head shot around to see Damon eyeing Travis expectantly.
“If I say no, are you gonna come anyway?” Travis smirked at him, and he grinned.
“Yeah. We’re almost done with this project, right, Noah?”
Noah glanced up from the book he’d been studying, his brows pulled together in a frown. His eyes darted to mine, then away instantly, and he cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah. If you want, I can finish this bit, then you can read over it tomorrow. I’m gonna give the student union a miss. Shower and an early night for me, I think.”
“Cheers, mate.” Damon wasted no time in climbing to his feet. “I owe you.”
Noah’s gaze returned to his book, and a weird feeling went through me. Fuck my brain, seriously. It couldn’t decide if the feeling was relief or disappointment.
* * *
The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. The girl I’d been making casual conversation with sidled closer, her arm brushing against mine, but I barely even noticed, my gaze fixed on the person standing at the end of the bar.
He said he wasn’t coming tonight.
Noah’s eyes caught mine, and a small smile curved over his lips. In the worst fucking timing ever, the girl I’d been talking to—Jane? Jen? Jan?—slipped her arm around my waist. His smile was instantly wiped away, and the light went out of his eyes. Pushing away from the bar, he stalked away in the opposite direction to me and was swallowed up in the crowd.
“I’m thirsty.” The girl pressed closer into me, pouting in a way that I probably would have found amusing if it hadn’t caused the guy I was into to get the wrong idea about what was going on here.
Before Noah, I would’ve found it hot, even—she was the type of girl I’d always gone for.
The thought made me freeze in place. When was the last time a girl had caught my attention?
Since the first time I’d kissed him, even before then, not one single girl had caught my eye. My dick didn’t show even the slightest bit of interest in girls anymore.
Fuck. I didn’t know what that meant for me, and I knew I’d avoided thinking about it, had buried it deep inside my head, but what I did know was that my dick and my brain were currently in complete agreement.
They wanted Noah. My infuriating, sexy, amazing housemate, who I’d been blowing hot and cold with for way too long.
“I’m thirsty,” she repeated when I gave her no response. Giving my empty pint glass a pointed look, she added, “Aren’t you? We should get another drink.”
Yeah, I was thirsty. But not for anything that was on the menu, and I had the feeling that I’d just fucked up my chances.
But I wasn’t a total dick, even if it seemed that way at times, so I bought drinks for her and her quiet friend that had been sitting at a bar stool, playing on her phone while I chatted with the girl. Then I made it clear that I wasn’t interested. Okay, what I actually did was pull out my phone and send a text to Ander that read “Want a pint of snakebite?” It was our “save me” code that we’d initiated at the beginning of last year, and he was more than happy to come straight over and start chatting both girls up.
I knew I could rely on him.
That sorted, I needed to find my housemate.
By the time I’d scoured the main bar with no sign of Noah, I was beginning to worry that he’d just gone home. I headed into the second, smaller bar area, which was more of a chill-out zone with big sofas and dim lighting. Pausing by the wall, I nodded at JJ, one of the guys who lived next door at number 1, who had his signature flirty smile on his face. He flashed me a grin before turning his attention back to whoever he was hoping to get lucky with tonight.
Not interested in JJ’s latest conquest, I glanced away, scanning the crowd for any sign of Noah.
“Liam!”
