Comfort Zone (Awkward Love 4)

I smile as I think back on that first day. Becca walking into my classroom had really topped off a shit of a week. I’d offered to look after my grandmother’s cat while she settled into her new nursing home, unaware that Andrew was getting over surgery and needed medication every two hours. That was fine, I could take him to work with me. I am a trained veterinary surgeon, after all. Things went smoothly, until Andrew got into my lunch. Grammy had neglected to tell me Andrew had a severe allergy to seafood. All it took was a sniff of that tuna fish sandwich to send him into anaphylactic shock.

The next thing I knew, his heart gave out, and I was frantically trying to save him. Thankfully, he survived, and I kept the incident to myself. Not even Grammy knew that the thing she loved more than life itself nearly died that day.

“What’s going on?” I look up and smile at Jake as he throws his arm around my shoulder. “You know the party is over that way,” he adds.

“I’m well aware of that, thanks.” I raise my eyebrows and point at the sign hanging on the wall in front of us. “I was trying to buy you a lap dance, but then I saw this. No defecating on the dancers, no watersports and strictly no pegging.” I give him a sympathetic smile. “Sorry, man. I guess that rules you out.”

“Hey, you know I have a phobia when it comes to bodily fluids.” Jake grins wickedly at me. “And I don’t even want to know what pegging is.” He glances over at Becca, who is sitting alone at the bar. “I thought you might be over here because you’re avoiding someone.”

“Yeah, Garry can get quite clingy, can’t he?” I quip.

We walk back in the direction of our group. Jake raises his eyebrows at me as we pass Becca. I study her as she downs another shot. She puts the empty glass down on the bar and then she stands up, dancing her way back over to the group. Jake’s laughter snaps me out of my daydream and I turn and glower at him, ready to dismiss whatever it is he’s thinking.

“Oh, come on. I saw the way you were just looking at her,” he teases. “You’re into her, aren’t you?”

“You know what? You’re like the little brother I never had. Nosy and annoying,” I grumble, while my face heats up like I’m a thirteen year old girl. “If I was staring at her, then it’s because I’m in a strip club with one of my students. Of course that’s going to throw me off.”

“You and your student.” Jake strokes his imaginary beard, deep in thought. “Together in a strip club. Isn’t that pretty much how every fantasy—”

“Ends. That’s how it all ends,” I cut in with a smirk. “Trust me, even if I wanted to, it would be a bad idea. Almost as much as that shirt was a bad idea.”

He glances down, then looks back up in shock.

“Hey. This cost me nearly a week’s wage.”

“Yep, they definitely saw you coming,” I tease.

“Asshole.” Jake laughs and punches me in the arm. “Really, though. It’s great having you back, Liam. I missed you.”

“Yeah, me too.” I ignore the churning in my stomach, and smile at Jake. “So, are you having fun?”

“I’m not sure,” he admits. He looks around and laughs. “This is not really my kind of scene, which I guess is why Becca arranged it. She has this knack of bringing out the awkward in every situation.”

Don’t I know it.

“True, but your idea of a wild night is a complicated chess move,” I tease him. “This is good for you. You need to relax and let loose. What better way to do that than to enjoy your last few days of freedom?”

“Yeah, tell my fiancée that,” he mutters. He sighs and crosses his arms over his chest. “Brooke is convinced that Becca set all this up just to annoy her. I’ve tried explaining to her that this is just the way Becca is, but she wasn’t buying it.” He pauses. “Of course, there’s a good chance she is doing all of this to annoy Brooke.”

“So, those two aren’t friends?”

Jake laughs and shakes his head.

“God no. If Brooke had her way, Becs wouldn’t even be coming to the wedding. Hell, she wouldn’t be in my life at all.”

“Harsh,” I murmur.

I’d met Brooke a few times, and neither gave me the impression she was that insecure. I wonder if there was more to that story than Jake knows?

“I still can’t believe you’re getting married.” I grin.

“Yeah, well, I can’t believe you’re not married yet,” he retorts. “You are kind of…old, Liam.”

“Real funny,” I grumble, throwing my arm around his neck.

He laughs, trying to struggle free as I mess up his short, blond hair. I used to do that to him all the time when we were little, so it was good to know I was still stronger than him.