Page 40 of Just Between Us

It’s silly, but strangely it makes me warm all over. I quickly recover shooting him a smirk.“I think you’ve already been successful.”

Next to me, Cole laughs, “Oh, I haven’t even started.”

Heat travels down my spine and to places it should not be going so early into the night. “Is that a threat?”

“More of a promise.” The way he smiles makes me believe him.

Levi is seated on the plush couch, his legs crossed under a fluffy cream throw that matches the couch. He’s frowning at something on his laptop but when his eyes snap up, he gives me a warm smile, his eyes forming narrow crescents.

“Hey, Kai,” he says. He’s wearing his glasses; his hair is in its usual disarray.

“Hey,” I say. “Are you working?”

Levi waves a hand. “Just finishing up emails,” he says. “The powers that be demand I respond by this evening. I’ll be done soon.”

After having lunch with us for the first time a few weeks ago, Levi has joined us whenever he’s free. Sometimes lunch is with both Connor and Marie, sometimes it’s just us. He’s funny and kind to everyone. A few more people from my team have begun to join us for lunch whenever he’s around.

“Want to come pick out a new book in the meantime?” Cole asks next to me.

I glance at him and nod. “Sure.”

“It’s like a library in here,” I say when I walk in. There are tall wooden shelves on each side of the room, all lined with countless books. His wooden desk faces the door, arched framed windows looking out onto the garden. My eyes roam over them, spotting a few old English classics, and I’m pretty sure half of them are special editions.

“Most of them belong to my grandparents but they left it all behind when they moved to New York.”

“Are you close with them?”

My grandfather passed away when I was still young, and my grandmother died when my mother was still in primary school. Sometimes I wish they had been around when I was growing up. Maybe they would have been able to help.

“I am,” Cole says. “I moved in with them when I was fourteen.”

“How come?” I ask. I glance back at him and he’s watching me, a look I can’t read on his face. I quickly turn back to the shelves.

“I’m not very close with my own family,” he says.

I want to ask more but I know it’s not any of my business. I don’t even know if they consider me a friend. Does having mind-blowing sex every other night, exchanging books and having lunch at work together make you friends?

To distract myself from that loaded question, I land my eyes on a special edition hardback of The Picture of Dorian Grey.

“Oscar Wilde fan?” Cole asks, coming to stand next to me.

“Classics aren’t my thing, but we had to study this for my GCSEs. More nostalgia than anything.”

“You can have it.”

I stare at him for a moment.“Oh, no, that’s okay.”

Cole laughs, his eyes crinkling at the sides. “Really, it’s fine. No one will miss it. You’ll probably care more about it than I do. Seriously, take it.”

I look at the book and then back at him again. “Um, thank you.”

He shrugs and moves over to the other end of the bookshelf, but I can’t seem to move. It’s like my heart flips inside me and I have to swallow it down back into place. My ears feel hot all of a sudden.

“Ah, there it is,” Cole says, picking out a worn paperback and a creased spine.

“Midnight Echoes,” I read. “Sounds menacing.”

“Oh, it is,” Cole says with a grin that looks boyish on him. “I’ll let you know once I get through the six-hundred-page monstrosity you gave me.”

---