Page 40 of The Cocky Neighbor

That had me flinging my head toward him. “He was jealous? Over me?”

“Just messing around, you say?” Alfred said with a cheeky grin.

I deflated at his words. Hearing that he was jealous over me shouldn’t make me happy because we didn’t have that kind of relationship. And that was the very same reason why there wasn’t a need for me to contact him even though it had almost been a week since I’d last seen him. Correction, it hadonlybeen a week. It was normal for friends to not see each other for weeks at a time.

I plopped on top of my desk again. Alfred smoothed my hair back and gave me a pitying look. “My dear boy. If you want him so much, why don’t you fight for him?”

“I told you it’s not like that. The only thing we have between us is sex and nothing more,” I said with a sigh.

Alfred crossed his arms and wrinkled his nose. “The denial is so strong, I can almost smell it. Look, you obviously feelsomethingfor him. You don’t sleep with the same person twice, and you definitely don’tmopeover someone who’s just a sex friend. Why are you rejecting this so hard?”

I shot up from my seat and slammed my palms so hard against the table that my lucky fountain pen rolled off and fell onto the ground. “Look, you don’t understand. I didn’t want this, any of it. I like not being tied down and having the freedom to do whatever the hell I want. I just wanted to blow off some steam with a hot man and nothing more. And I especially didn’t sign up to have the man constantly invade my thoughts.”

“But he obviously has,” Alfred softly said. I grunted, not wanting to agree with nor deny his observation. If I’d admitted it, then it would all become too real. If I denied it, then it would be a lie.

Alfred studied me for a second, placed his hands on my shoulder, and pushed me back into my seat. “Hon, what are you so afraid of?”

I choked on the words that were stuck in my throat.

Relationships. Being tied down. Love.

Those were all the truths, but they also didn’t feel right. I sighed again, and my shoulders drooped as I glanced up to the standing Alfred with vulnerable eyes as I laid my true feelings out there, “I’m scared of being hurt.”

“Oh, babe,” Alfred said as he wrapped his arms around my shoulders for a tight hug. “I won’t lie and say that you’ll never get hurt, because that’s a risk you take when you form any kind of relationship, even if it’s a friendship. But if you close yourself off because of fear, you might lose something important to you. And I think you’ll regret that more than anything else.”

I thought about his words. It was true that I’d been burned by friends in the past, but I sensed it would hurt a thousand times more if Liam was the one who hurt me. If I didn’t open my heart to him, I wouldn’t run the risk of that happening.

The problem was that the walls surrounding my heart were already crumbling.

TWENTY-SIX

LIAM

This past week was so busy with things at the company that I hadn't had a chance to visit the hotel, which meant that I didn't have an excuse to see Eric. I could have invited him to my house like I had the past weekend, but I was afraid of taking things too far.

I wasn't expecting him to agree to sleep over at my house so easily last Friday night, especially when sex wasn't involved, but he had, and it was wonderful. I was already so addicted to falling asleep with him in my arms that I’d had a hard time falling asleep alone this week. Or maybe I was kept up late into the night because I kept thinking about Eric.

Over the course of last week, I worked on dropping little hints of what it would be like to date me. I showed him that I could take care of him, and I knew he was delighted with the little gifts of food I'd drop by. He would happily give his thanks with a peck on my lips.

That was another development of last weekend at my place. He would initiate random kisses like it was completely normal before going back to whatever he was doing. My heart felt two times too big every time I thought about it.

However, worry crept into my mind wondering if this was enough to get the man to want to date me. I wasn't able to see Eric all week nor had I heard from him, though to be fair, I hadn't reached out to him, either.

I assumed we were both busy, me with the company, and him preparing for Zack and Caleb's wedding this weekend, as Zack's best man. I contemplated asking Eric if he wanted to carpool to the venue together, but Caleb told me thebridal party were all heading over the night before and staying at a hotel.

So I found myself in the backseat of Lucas's car Saturday morning on our way to the wedding. Noah sat in the passenger seat, but he kept looking back at me, asking me how things were going with Eric.

I tried to dodge his questions for the most part since I didn't know what to tell him. In fact, I'd like to know the answer to that question myself.

Lucas shot me pitying glances through the rearview mirror, probably guessing that I wasn't in the greatest of moods. I was thankful when he distracted Noah by diverting his attention to something else.

The rest of the drive went by as I quietly sat and listened to their conversation. I stretched my arms when I got out of the car. The ceremony wasn't for another couple hours, but wedding guests were already roaming the grounds admiring the place. I didn't blame them since the place was beautiful.

The front of the building was filled with lush greenery and a large mermaid fountain. The back, where the ceremony was taking place, had two large red flowering trees with a wooden arch placed in between them. Rows of elegant white chairs were placed on the green grass with a layer of white petals sprinkled down the aisle in the middle.

Along the back wall of the building was a refreshments table for the guests to munch before the reception. I grabbed a drink and grabbed a plate of sweets from the varied assortment that they had available.

I heard they had to coax Caleb to hire someone to make the wedding cake and desserts. The poor man was so busy running around to prepare for the wedding and wanted to make all the desserts himself to save on costs, but thankfully Zack was able to convince him to not run himself dry.

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