Oh no. More compliments. My greatest weakness. I was doomed. I had to stop this before it ended up with me throwing myself at him. “We should be friends!” I all but shouted at him.
He reared back as if I had just yelled in his face. Which, to be fair, I had. “What?”
“Friends!” I said, trying not to sound frantic and not quite succeeding. “We need to be friends.”
His brow furrowed. “I thought we kind of were already?”
“Right,” I said hastily. “But… that’s like, work friends. We should be out of work friends too. But not workout friends, because I will fight you to the death before I ever jog on purpose. And I know you’re my boss, but that’s not against the rules, is it? The friend thing, not the killing me to go jogging with you thing. Because that’s murder, and that’s illegal. Right? So even though you’re in a position above me, we can still make this work.”
“I… think so?”
I nodded furiously. “Good. Because while other things might be against the rules, that’s not. And that’s good. Great, even.”
“What other things are you talking—”
I overrode him because I had not meant to say that. My porn brain was wrestling me for control, all but demanding that I tell him to get all up on this while we were still young. “Barbecue!” I said brightly and apropos of nothing.
&
nbsp; Jeremy looked like he had whiplash. Poor guy. “Barbecue.”
“Yes. Yes, a barbecue. Paul’s parents are having one next weekend, and you and your dad are formally invited!” They weren’t having anything of the sort, but I could worry about that later. I was going to be the best friend Jeremy ever had, even if it meant death by blue balls. And everyone knows when you have friends, you invite them to barbecues.
He watched me for a moment. Then, “That sounds… good.”
I exhaled sharply. “Yes, it does. The best, really. And you and Robert can come and meet Matty and Larry.” Oh no. “And Nana.” Oh dear god, no. “And her racist homophobic parrot Johnny Depp.”
“Her racist and homophobic what?”
“Absolutely nothing,” I said, wondering if it was too late to rescind the invite. “Forget I even said anything.”
“I don’t know if I can,” Jeremy said faintly.
“Try harder,” I demanded. I coughed roughly. “I mean, it’s going to be amazing. You’ll see. They’re just going to love you.” If they didn’t, they would face my wrath.
His lips quirked. “Meeting the family, huh? You sure it’s not too soon?”
That motherfucker. Here he was playing 4D chess while I was stuck in goddamn Candy Land. “What!”
“Whoa,” he said. “That was loud.”
“Friends,” I said, resolute. “We’re gonna be such awesome friends. You’ll see. You’ll never have a friend like me.”
“Uh-huh. I’m starting to see that.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “That had better be a good thing.”
And when he smiled and said, “The best thing,” I was four point six seconds away from screeching that my body was ready.
Fortunately I was saved (foiled? No, definitely saved) when the door opened behind him. The sounds of the bar spilled out, and though I was relieved at the interruption, that quickly turned sour when I saw who it was.
The Mr. Leatherman runner-up. The one who’d been cozily pressed up against Jeremy and felt the need to bite his ear. He was lucky Charlie hadn’t given me a sword along with my corset. I would have lopped off his head.
“Hey,” Runner-Up said. “I was looking for you.” He saw me sitting next to Jeremy and frowned. “Oh, am I interrupting something?”
Yes, I wanted to snarl at him. “No,” I said. “Just… talking with Jeremy here.”
“Hey, Griffin,” Jeremy said. “This is my friend Corey. We work together. He came out tonight to support me.”