Page 13 of Until We're More
“Me, possibly. Put me out of my misery.”
A few people glanced our way, and I was trying not to be rude, even as my cheeks flamed. Once Liam focused on something, though, he wasn’t easily distracted. I tookmyCoke out of my cupholder, lifted the armrest, and scooted closer to him.
I quickly and quietly relayed how the kid next to me kept giving me weird looks whenever I took a drink of my soda—Liam leaned forward like he was going to take care of it, and I pushed him back with a hand to his very firm chest, while wishing I didn’t notice the firmness of my best friend’s chest. Then I finished off my story by telling him how it was the kid’s drink, not mine.
A laugh exploded out of him, and without the fighting and grunting noises onscreen, it sounded extra loud. I ducked my head on his chest again, too embarrassed to keep eye contact.
We managed to make it through the rest of the movie, but as we exited, Liam began laughing again, and I knew it wasn’t about the ending—it hadn’t been a funny ending. I’d literally rolled my eyes. Screenwriters for action movies should be required to read a certain amount of romance novels before they attempted to add “romance” to their movies, because they had a long way to go in that department. Just saying.
“I should never have told you about the accidental soda stealing,” I said, heat crawling up my neck again—I had the sort of pale skin that flushed bright red, too, so there was no hiding it. “Should’ve just taken it to my grave.”
“But then how would you have explained why you had to carry outtwocups?”
I shoved both red cups into the overflowing trash can, squishing them down so they wouldn’t fall out, while also trying not to touch the rest of the sticky trash—ew, why was it always so sticky?
“I would’ve made up a really good convincing story. Like, like… I got it! That I snuck out for another soda, but you just missed it, the way you don’t notice plot holes.”
Liam raised an eyebrow. “That’s not something I’d miss. You’re way too noticeable.”
If another guy said the same thing, I would’ve thought he was flirting and swooned. And okay, maybe I accidentally swooned a tiny bit anyway, especially since he’d also put his hand on the small of my back. But clearly he wasn’t flirting.
Since my luck was just that awesome, we reached the exit doors at the same time as the teen boy who’d been sitting next to me. He whispered to his friend, something I assumed was close to,There’s the crazy girl who drankmysoda.
So much for all the confidence I built up earlier today.
“Should I ask him if he’s got any candy to share?” Liam asked with a teasing grin, and I shoved him out the door.
“I’m seriously never telling you anything again.”
“Oh, good. Now I don’t have to hear about how many plot holes the movie had or how the female lead should’ve been wearing pants instead of a tiny dress.”
I opened my mouth to argue, then clamped it shut, showing him that Icouldhold it back. I would stay silent the entire drive, and when we made it to the apartment, I’d stick to one-word answers. Pretty soon he’d bebeggingme to talk.
Two minutes from the parking lot, I couldn’t take it anymore. “She had a chance to change into pants! If it were me, I would’ve prioritized getting pants and proper shoes over having sex in a hotel room.”
“You must not be having the right kind of sex, then,” Liam said, and while it’d surprised me, judging from the way he snapped his mouth closed and averted his eyes, it’d surprised him, too.
I willed my face to stay normal-colored, even as heat flooded it for the billionth time since the soda incident. I picked at the remains of my pink fingernail polish. Technically he was right, especially since I’d never had sex. Just some heavy making out lead-up, but I’d never crossed that line. Of course, that wasn’t something you confessed to your male best friend after what was supposed to be a joke, particularly if you’d sometimes wondered what sex with him would be like…
I swallowed past my dry throat, forcing my tongue into motion when it stuck to the roof of my mouth. “Okay, maybe I would’ve chosen it over eating. It’s hard to run right after you eat anyway.” I worked to keep my voice light and quippy, but I still couldn’t bring myself to look at him. Not yet. My emotions were too all over the place, and I’d embarrassed myself plenty for the day already.
“Good point.” The cab fell silent again, and Liam bumped up the radio a couple notches.
I inhaled a deep breath and then sat back. “You know what does always impress me about action heroes?”
“How they look shirtless?”
Good. We were back to normal teasing. And like normal, I didn’t bother telling him that seeing him shirtless had pretty much ruined all other men for me.Hey, thanks for that, by the way. Now I look at the actors most women swoon over and think,Meh. I’ve seen better.
How am I ever supposed to settle for a normal, nice guy?
Totally unfair of me to think that way, especially since it wasn’t like I was a knockout. Whoever dated me got small boobs and out-of-control hair, not to mention sentences blurted out at the wrong time—oh yeah, I’d ruined the mood on more than one occasion with my big mouth. Other times, my plans to finally have sex had been foiled by my overthinking and second-guessing.
“Chels?”
“What?” It took me a second to realize I’d begun a conversation in order to stop thinking about the “right kind of sex” and get things back to light and easy. Aka, stop thinking about Liam shirtless. “I mean, yeah. No. What I was trying to say is that it impresses me how after the hero gets painted into a corner, he magically knows what he needs to do to take out, like, ten guys. He just leaps into action, and within a matter of minutes, it’s all over with. Sometimes when I go to make a sandwich, I’m not even sure what to start with, and it takes me longer than a few minutes.”
Amusement danced across Liam’s features.
