Page 33 of Double Dared
That was a safe topic to discuss, so we did. And we did it for a solid two hours before we were both a little tipsy and a little disarmed. So when we got up to leave, Jason gave me a hug, and I somehow melted into him.
His arms came around my back, and he held me tight as I buried my face in his hoodie, right there, in the middle of the bar, in front of everyone. I held on to him as strange and wild emotions surged through me, none clear enough to name.
When I finally stepped back, Jason wore a small smile. “Let’s go home.”
“You go ahead,” I said, putting a hand on his shoulder and giving it a squeeze. “I’ll go for a walk first.”
Jason hesitated, then nodded in support.
He turned right, and I turned left after exiting the bar. The air was cooler already, but my head was clear. Well, clear was exactly the wrong way to call it. My head was stuffed with cotton, and my mind was completely fogged, but I had one straight line to stick to, and that was what I did. I followed this one clear thing I was sure of, even if I wasn’t sure of anything else at all.
Because Harrison was too good to lose just like that. As a friend or as…well. I didn’t know. It didn’t make much sense. What I felt just now, as I imagined it, wasn’t too unlike the fluttery excitement of coming up to a girl at the bar. And when I’d kissed him, and when my spine tingled with it, the sensation didn’t end there. It had gone down, lower, pooling in my groin and making heat flow all through my body.
I didn’t even think I stood a chance, but dammit, if I didn’t check, I’d regret it for the rest of my life.
So I followed it, this one thing I thought I knew, to the brownstone building with three steps leading to the door. I pressed the doorbell because I’d seen the light was still on in his apartment.
And when Harrison’s voice crackled from the speaker, I simply said, “It’s me. Let me in.”
Silence.
Then the door unlocked. And maybe, if I played my cards right, a friend lived here.
CHAPTER TWELVE
harrison
I openedthe door as soon as I heard his footsteps approach my landing. The cold light from the hallway beamed into my apartment and highlighted the tired look on Taylor’s face.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey, yourself.”
We stood in the silence that followed, Taylor waiting to be invited, me looking at the sadness in his eyes. Was that a sadness of guilt or regret or indignation? What had happened to us? “You could use a glass of wine,” I decided aloud and moved away from the door, letting him in.
The door closed, shutting out the terrible overhead lights and leaving us in the near darkness of my atmospheric interior design.
I walked into the kitchen, where the bottle was already open and one glass was nearly empty. I foundanother clean glass in the cupboard and set it beside the first, topping up each. “I didn’t expect you here.”
“I came to apologize,” Taylor said.
“Why?” I asked, honestly bewildered. “You didn’t do anything wrong.” And he hadn’t. Just because it had made me feel a little too good to be kissed by him under false pretenses wasn’t Taylor’s fault. He wasn’t guilty of it.
“I think I did,” Taylor said. “I think I kissed you without thinking it through, and it caused a rift between us.”
I handed him the glass and a neat way out. “Taylor, you don’t owe me your friendship.”
Taylor smiled a little, mouth closed, pearly teeth hidden from sight. “I’m starting to understand the language you speak, Harrison. Only starting, though.”
I tilted my head fractionally and let my eyes narrow for half a second.
“I want to be your friend,” Taylor said. “Not because I owe you that, but because I think you’re interesting. And smart. And funny. And you make me feel relaxed and good about myself. What more can you ask a friend to do?”
You make me forget what I want, I thought.Because you look like you’re offering me all the worlds I’d never dared to dream about.“You’re just being kind.”
“And you’re fishing for compliments,” Taylor teased. “Forget about it.”
I laughed and agreed with a nod. “You make mefeel good about myself, too. It’s strange, Taylor, that I sometimes feel like you’re the easiest relationship I’ve ever had.”
