Page 7 of Look My Way
Those pale cheeks tint again, and he shakes his head. “I’ve seen pretty much everyone in this town, with it being so small, and I think we would have run into each other more than once if you did is all.”
“Ah. Am I that memorable?”
He snorts. “You sure do insinuate a lot. But then again, not looking both ways and almost getting yourself killed in front of me does help a person stand out more.”
I stifle a laugh. “Yeah, and so does pushing someone out of the way of a moving car. Looks like we both stood out together.”
“Looks like it,” he says, replying back. His shoulders are more relaxed than when he first got here, almost as if he doesn’t allow himself to let his hair down often. He also hasn’t looked out the window or anywhere but at me or his food in a long time. “This was fun. I don’t really do much with other people these days, since I moved an hour away from my family and friends.”
“That mean you’re looking forward to Friday, then?”
“Maybe.” His eyes lower and he goes back to eating his food. We’re mostly quiet for the next hour, and when he gets up to use the restroom, I glance at my phone, muttering a few curse wordsunder my breath. I have to be at work in forty minutes. Normally I’m milking the clock when I have to socialize with others. Felice gives me shit for not wanting to attend more parties and movie dates with her.
I care about her, but I even have my limits when it comes to people I consider family. It hasn’t reached that point with him, though. He’s not so different from anyone else I’ve met, but he also is. I can’t get anything that’s going through my mind currently to make sense. That’s unusual for me. Everything about what happens when I see him is, and I’m enjoying the unpredictability of it all too much to put an end to it.
The chair scraping the floor pulls me from my reverie. He’s back and smiling at me. I have to go. It’s never this hard for me, and I should hate how powerless it’s making me, but I don’t. I live the same life, day in and day out, occasionally pushing the limits outside my comfort zones with new targets, but this is something else entirely. Letting a stranger know so much about me and getting close in a way I never said I would. It’s never done anyone I’ve known any good. Lusting after someone is a weakness that can quickly take you down the wrong path.
I’ve only ever done hookups with no name exchanges, and the time we’ve spent here together has felt more intimate than what I’ve done with others under the sheets. I’ve abandoned my other desires. There was no way to entertain them outside of my head without giving too much of myself to someone. So I closed the door on exploring more of that world and tried to live vicariously through others at BDSM clubs. Watching Daddys with their boys, keeping the jealousy at bay when all the wonderful possibilities were laid out in front of me.
But this lost man who seems too scared to fully come into himself and struggles to relax on his own is proving that that won’t always be enough. His confidence has dwindled, and he deserves to find it again. He’s the type to sell himself short. Icalled him a hero, but he thinks what he did was no big deal. He’s a bigger deal than he gives himself credit for.
“Everything okay? Am I keeping you from something?” His gaze drifts to my fingers gripping my phone tightly.
“I actually have to get to work, but you probably need to get some done too.” I nudge my head in the direction of his bag, which more than likely is holding his laptop.
As I’m standing from my chair, tossing enough money on the table to cover both of our meals plus the tip, he holds his hand in the air. Grabbing his bag, he quickly yanks down the zipper and plucks out a book. “Here. To save you from the trouble of the meeny, miny, moe process,” he quips, smiling sheepishly.
Laughing, I take the item from his hand and flip through the pages. I frown when all pages are missing his signature. “You didn’t sign it.”
“Oh.” He rubs his hands over his pockets and reverts his gaze to his bag. Before he can reach for it again, I remove the pen from my front shirt pocket.
“Let me save you the trouble this time. You can keep it too.”
His lips twitch in the corners and our fingers brush together as he gently tugs it away. He snatches the book back and scribbles quickly on the title page inside. The tip of the pen hits the paper again as his lips pull up into a tight grin and he writes more words.
“Thanks for lunch. Hope you really do only have good things to say about this one on Friday.”
“It’s not like I can say anything if I don’t, right?” I deadpan, winking. “Kidding. I’m sure it’s great.” I examine his signature and small message, wearing a smile and tracing over the phone number he jotted down below. “I’ll text you all the details on Thursday.”
“Sounds good.” He sits back down, shoving his hand in his bag again. His laptop sticks out as he tugs down the front. “Oh, and my name is actually Liam. Lex is—”
“A name you give to weird strangers like me?”
Laughing, he shakes his head, and those damn eyes are practically begging me to sit back down. But Friday will be here before long, and when it is, I’ll make sure there’s no opportunity for him to sit as far from me as he did today. Those hands should be landing on me instead of the arm of the chair, and when he moves in his seat that leg falling to the side is begging to rub over mine. And don’t get me started on the way he keeps sliding forward and back in the chair. All the dirty visuals from earlier resurface, and I just know he’ll look better straddling my lap than any piece of furniture.
“I don’t know why I gave you that name, actually. Kind of was the only thing that came to me in the moment. But it’s also been the main name running through my head lately.”
My stomach tightens. “Boyfriend?”
“I . . . no.” His bottom lip twists between his teeth. “It’s a character of mine. In the current book I’m working on.”
Relief settles in me. Jealousy isn’t ever a good enough reason for me to kill someone, but I was very much considering making an exception for a whole five seconds. “Makes sense. Liam suits you better than Lex anyway. It’s very cute, like you.”
His Adam’s apple bobs, body stiffening. “Well, don’t let me make you late for work,” he says, the words coming out strained. “I’d hate for you to be late because we’re having a discussion over my name.”
My lips tug at the corners. “I’ve been late for worse things. Thanks for the book, Liam.”
“No problem, Zavier. See ya soon.”
