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“It’s fine, really.” I drained my drink, shrugged on my jacket and picked up my bag. “I’ll see you guys later.” I scurried off before Mack could argue any more. But, of course, he caught me before I made it three steps out the door.
“Cheese, hey, wait up.” His voice was like warm honey down my spine. What the hell was wrong with me? He was my friend, my best friend. It didn’t, itcouldn’tgo further than that. Damn that stupid fucking kiss for making things so complicated. Things had never been complicated between us. I hated that it was changing. My eyes fell down to my shoes, the shoes I had not arrived in.
“Forget something?” He waved my boots at me and I snatched them off him.
“Thank you, you can go back inside now.”
“You might not have forgotten them if you didn’t run off like your pants were on fire.”
“I’m not wearing pants.”
His eyes dropped down to my legs, I felt his gaze like a touch. When did this happen? When did he go from being my friend, to this person who made my heart race and my stomach tie itself in knots? Had it happened even before the kiss?Get it together, he is on a date with someone else.
“And I didn’t run off. I said goodbye, and then I left so that I wasn’t a third wheel on your date.”
“You weren’t a third wheel.”
I let out a snort. “I was about to be. And it’s fine. You and Lindsay are having fun, I don’t want to break that up just because Brady is a bag of dicks. I’m tempted to get Franco to fuck up his hot water or something …”
“Chase, you don’t have to leave, why not just finish the game off?”
“Mack, will you stop, I’m terrible, as you noted. It’s fine. I’m fine. Go and enjoy the rest of your date. I’ll speak to you tomorrow.”
“I don’t–I—” He ran a restless hand through his hair. “Text me when you get home, please.”
“Yes, Dad,” I said with a roll of my eyes and shoved him back towards the door, feeling spontaneous tears collecting behind my eyes.
I was spreadout on my couch in a pair of sad, old sweatpants and an oversized hoodie, with a bowl of piping hot curly fries on my chest and my finger hovering over play onThe Great British Bake Offwhen there was a knock at the door. I lay perfectly still, hoping that whoever it was would leave me to my fried potato and feel-good television. Instead I heard a key in the lock and a moment later Mack was in my apartment.
“What are you doing here? Where’s Lindsay?” I glanced behind him like I expected her to be there too.
“At her place, where I left her.” He said it casually enough but he looked tense, antsy. Gorgeous still, obviously, but not quite himself.
“And you are here because?”
He opened his mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. I shifted the bowl to the coffee table and sat up.
“What’s going on, Mack? Is everything okay? Are you okay?” I stood up, feeling the need to close the space between us but unsure if that was what he wanted. He was freaking me out. Mack didn’t do tense or anxious. Mack did cool, calm, and collected almost perpetually.
“Yes–no, it’s not. Everything is not okay.”
“Oh-kay, you wanna stop pacing, you’re making me woozy.” He didn’t stop, in fact he just got faster.
“Brady is an asshole who doesn’t deserve you.”
I tried and failed to reign in my smile. “Agreed. Is that all?” It would be so like him to come barging in here and give me a pep talk about the fact Brady’s actions had nothing to do with me personally.
“No.”
“Okay.”
“I didn’t—I didn't like watching you on a date with him.”
“I didn’t particularly enjoy being on the date with him. I guess it’s lucky he bailed then, right? And it will not be happening again. Is this what’s got you all…” I gestured at him. “Worked up?”
He paced some more and I wasn’t sure he was going to answer when he finally said, “You were the reason I agreed to go tonight.” Oh no, no, no, he was not doing what I thought he was doing.Play dumb.
“Yes, because I was the one who asked. And it wasn’t so bad, right? You and Lindsay actually looked like you were having a good time. I’m happy for you.”
