“Oh, he definitely did.”
Joe failed entirely to hide his desperation, leaning in close, grasping, “Did? ‘Did’ as in past tense?”
Anna gave a little shrug. “I don’t know. He probably still does. Do you want me to talk to him?”
Yes. Yes, he did desperately want that. “No, I couldn’t ask you to do that.”
“No, let me. I need to talk to him about some other things, anyway. Set some things straight. Don’t worry, I’ll be subtle. I’ll just feel it out for you. It’s awful not knowing something like that.”
His head was screaming no, but every beat of his heart begged for an answer. “Maybe just an indication. I don’t even know where I stand with this. But it would be good to know if I should even think about it.”
“I think you should think about it.” She too glanced towards the door with that curious little smile of hers. “I would. Percy’s something else.”
“He’s something else entirely…” That was fact, and even though Anna was in love with Percy’s brother, Joe had often wondered how deep her weakness ran where Percy was concerned. “Are you sure you’re not?—”
With a decidedly shocked face, “Absolutely not!”
And so the little party continued. The group meandered about the apartment, but not once did Joe get to be alone with Percy. Anna played things as cool as she ever did and gave no one any sign that she held Joe’s fate so snugly in the palm of her hand.
It wasn’t until perhaps an hour later that an argument broke out between Anna’s roommate and her girlfriend. They dashed off to the kitchen to fight. Anna’s boyfriend, Evelyn, followed to calm things down, leaving Joe in the living room with Anna and Percy.
She gave him ‘a look’.
“I’m going in there,” Joe announced, none too subtly, and with his heart hammering, he was back in the small, hot, crowded kitchen, waiting to discover his fate.
Waiting for Anna to ask Percy if he liked him…
How was she going to say it?
‘Joe has a crush on you. You know all those times you flirted with him? Did it mean anything? Or do you just like making him blush because you know he can’t do anything? If he reciprocated, would you run a mile? Would you ever consider…’
Every atom in Joe wanted to call it off. From that time, if he let it go ahead, Percy would know, and things would be changed. There would be no going back.
What if he laughed at him? He couldn’t imagine Percy would be that cruel, but still…
More likely, he would simply take a step back, shut off all his humour and sweetness, and present to Joe with the awkward air of an acquaintance. A man who, with his every look, would say, ‘Did you really believe I’d be interested in someone like you?’
“Are you okay?”
Joe looked up into the violet-grey eyes of Percy’s brother, Anna’s boyfriend, Evelyn Worthing. Concerned. Kind. Sweetness personified. The second most beautiful man on the planet.
Maybe Joe should have asked him to help instead of Anna. He trusted Eve to the end of the earth and back, even if he had warned Joe off Percy months earlier. “I’m okay. Just…”
He didn’t bother to finish his sentence. He knew he shouldn’t interrupt Anna, but the tension was killing him. The noisy kitchen, the vodka, the talking, the sweet guy who’d get the truth out of him in about thirty seconds if he pushed.
Joe’s eyes darted to the floor, where he watched his shoes make a line to the door. He was horribly nervous, but ready to see Percy’s face—to read whatever was written there, and to accept his fate now he had put the wheels in motion.
He turned the corner, thrust his head up, and took in the sight that would haunt him for months to come.
Percy, the man of his dreams, stood with his arms around Anna, his lips pressed against hers, in a kiss that Joe would have traded his eternity in heaven for.
Joe had never felt more ridiculous, more hurt, and more betrayed, all at once, than he did at that moment.
And when Percy pulled back and looked across the room at him, something akin to panic in his eyes, Joe’s frail heart cracked in two.
CHAPTER TWO
THE LION’S DEN
