Page 59 of Left on Read

“Are you a cuddler?”

“Yes?”

“Good. I am too.”

I settled on the couch, squeezing between him and the back cushions, and threaded my arms under him.

It took some wiggling, but we managed to shift around until he was snuggled up against my chest and I could hold him close.

I wanted to tell him how amazing that had been and how much I’d enjoyed it, but I didn’t know if it was the right time.

“You liked that?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah. A lot.” I gently stroked my fingers through his soft hair.

We lay in silence for a while, and for the first time in forever, my mind was completely blank.

Letting out a deep breath, I closed my eyes and relaxed into the moment. I’d have to get up and get ready to go to work soon, but I wanted to enjoy the afterglow as long as possible.

Being with Hayden was as easy as breathing. I just hoped I didn’t fuck things up by being myself.

10

HAYDEN

The ping of my phone drew my attention away from Ryan and the story he was currently telling me about how one of the guys in his office had spiked his soup with a fast-acting laxative to figure out who kept eating his lunches. He’d managed to ferret out the culprit, but the office was divided on whether he’d gone too far.

Ryan and I were both team laxative, but half the office was solidly team lunch stealer.

“Go ahead and check it.” Ryan rolled his eyes and took a bite of one of the celery sticks that had come with our wings.

“It can wait.”

“Sure it can.” He smirked and dunked the celery in the last of the dip. “And we both know you’ll be totally present and not thinking about your phone and whatever message a certain someone sent you if you don’t look.”

“Shut up.” I dug my phone out of my pocket and checked my texts.

River and I had been texting nonstop all week, but it hadn’t been about anything serious or meaningful.

“Why does your face look like that?” Ryan took a sip of his beer.

“Like what?” I played stupid and put my phone face down on the table.

We’d met up at Celtic Cross after work. It was one of the rare Fridays where I hadn’t had to supervise the social justice club, so I’d gotten out of work at a decent hour.

In that time, we’d finished a plate of nachos and an order of wings, and we were on our second beers.

Ryan had been careful to keep the conversation away from River, but it looked like that was about to end.

“Like you’re trying to pretend there’s nothing going on when, clearly, something is.”

“I don’t really know. I’m confused.”

“About?”

“I’m not sure. It’s just…when we’re together, we have these amazing conversations, but over text, it’s just silly memes or GIFs or anecdotes about our days and other random stuff.”

Ryan nodded thoughtfully and shoved the last of the celery in his mouth. “And that’s bothering you?” he asked around the celery.

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