Page 29 of Strip Bare

CHAPTER NINE

I'd waved goodbye to my parents that morning and had genuinely been sorry to see them go—and not just because things with Kit felt awful.

We were polite, courteous, and entirely pleasant with each other, but it felt like we were walking on a tightrope, one wrong look away from falling. As a result, I'd been in an awful mood with everyone else recently.

Ryan had noticed it during our basketball game on Tuesday and even Xander, who tended to be almost as oblivious as me, had asked me if everything was alright. They were being nice, checking in, but having them all peering at me with concern while Kit was there, face studiously blank and unaffected had been maddening.

I'd carried that bad mood with me still on Wednesday morning when I met up with Harley for another tutoring session. He brought another essay along for me to look at and I'd highlighted something in red so brutally I'd torn through the paper with my pen. I'd reluctantly agreed to meet him at Cocoa & Rum because I had been fairly sure Kit wasn't working, but he'd arrived for a shift about ten minutes ago and my mood had worsened with his appearance.

"Leo," Harley said, clearly not for the first time by the slightly exasperated look on his face. "Are you alright?"

"Fine," I said and when he raised his eyebrows at me I sighed. "Just a lot on my mind."

"Well, why don't you come out with me tonight then? They're doing a movie night in the park, blankets, snacks, fairy lights—the works. It's free?"

I thought about it and couldn't see a reason not to go. It would get me out of the house at least and I could stop feeling like my bed was missing something—someone—whenever I was in it. Plus, Harley was… nice. Easy. I didn’t have any complicated feelings for him or a history of friendship that was now possibly ruined. I needed to get over Kit. I owed it to myself to try.

"Okay, sure." I handed him his essay back, slightly sheepishly. "Ah, sorry about the hole."

He chuckled and the sound was full of good humor, his eyes sparkling at me. "No worries. I'll text you the details then?"

"Yeah, thanks. See you tonight."

I stood up and cursed as I bumped into something hard behind me. Kit.

"Hi."

There was a muscle ticking in his jaw but he smiled at me brightly. "Big date?"

I shrugged and Kit nodded slowly.

"Cool. Well, I have to get back to work." But there was something in the tightness of his lips, the frown of his eyebrows, that told me if things had been frosty before then they were even chillier between us now.

No. I needed to move on. We needed to just… get this attraction between us out of our systems for good and then never speak of it again.

I gripped the shoulder strap of my bag tightly as I followed Kit, catching the swinging employees only door with my other hand.

He turned to me, an unreadable emotion on his face. I took the first step forwards and the fire in his eyes made me think I was the one aflame.

“What are you doing back here, Leo?” There was a dangerous silkiness to his voice and I knew we were at a breaking point.

I’d been firm. Resolved in my plan to just sleep with him and finally move on, to get my fill and then forget about it. But actually standing there in front of him, I felt my hands shake.

“Nothing,” I muttered and then scurried back through the door. Fuck. I probably looked like an idiot. What was the right thing to do in this situation?

I nudged my phone out of my pocket and winced as I opened my messages. Three unread voice notes from Kat. She knew I hated them, especially because she tended to ramble, but I couldn’t deny that I needed her advice now. Desperately, if the past five minutes were any indication.

There was an employee-only bay around the back of Cocoa & Rum where the employees sometimes took their breaks and I hurried out of the coffee shop and around to it. Moving felt good, like I was tricking my brain into thinking I was doing something to solve the problem when, in reality, I was just as hopeless now as before.

I was pacing. I couldn't get the rich blue of Kit's eyes, deepened by his hair, out of my mind. I wanted him. He wanted me. Neither of us wanted to risk losing our friendship, but I really wasn’t sure there was much left to save. If anything, this might be what we needed to do if we wanted to move on.

I was strong enough to admit I loved him, had probably loved him for a very long time if I was being wholly honest with myself. Kit cared about me, I knew that. But whatever had been building between us while my parents had been in Sun City had been less about love and more about lust. Want.

I tugged my phone back out of my pocket again and bit my lip before hitting dial.

"...Why would you call me?"

My steps faltered for a second before I resumed pacing around the concrete, my feet scuffing the ground as I walked. "Because I needed to talk to you?"

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