“You guys went out to dinner?” Danny asked. There was no reason he wouldn’t ask. He knew Shaw and I weren’t friends. He knew my neighbor annoyed the hell out of me, and I was pretty sure he realized he would know if I’d gone to dinner with him…but then, it wasn’t like I always knew what Danny was doing.
“Yeah, we were heading out at the same time. It took some maneuvering on my part. He thinks I’m cocky.” Shaw put his arm around me, like this was normal for us. Like we were buddies or fuck buddies or anything other than what we were. “But we went, it was fun, and now I want to dance with him.”
Shaw looked at me with those green eyes that were almost the color of Granny Smith apples. My heart suddenly started punching at my chest. I had no idea what he was doing. Okay, I take that back. I wasn’t an idiot, so I understood what he was doing, but I didn’t get why.
“You gonna dance with me or what?” he asked in this smooth, sexy, deep voice that if it were anyone other than Shaw, I might have swooned. “Please?” He winked, and I was caught between wanting to say yes and wanting to punch him because he definitely knew what he was doing and he was enjoying it. But then I looked at Danny, and his brows were knitted tightly together as if he wasn’t sure what to think, and…maybe Shaw was onto something here.
“Yeah, sure,” I replied.
Shaw’s smile grew. He grabbed my hand and began tugging me away. The second we disappeared into the crowd, I pulled out of his hold. “What are you doing?” I snapped.
“Dancing with you.”
“Ha. Ha. You know what I mean.”
He kept walking, and I kept following. “I would assume it’s obvious. I’m saving your ass. You’re welcome.”
There was a good distance between us and Danny now, basically the whole length of the bar. We were close to the wall on the other side of the room, and while my brain had already put the pieces together, I still clung to the little bit of hope left inside me. “Saving me from what? I’m not sure what you mean or why you lied about us having dinner.”
Shaw rolled his eyes. “Yeah, because that’s believable. If you didn’t know, you wouldn’t have come with me. Or run out on me the other night. You’re trying to get the D.” He pointed over his shoulder toward Danny. “Which I still think is funny as fuck, by the way. Lots of Ds out there that aren’t attached to your bestie, Eli. And you’ve also been messaging me as ILWMBF, which is a mouthful, so we’re gonna have to think of a better nickname.”
I clutched my stomach, which suddenly started cramping. I was going to be sick. Or…I was going to die or something. Cue the dramatics, but I didn’t care. “I’m gonna puke.”
Shaw rolled his eyes again. “Yeah, we went over that the other night. You’re fine. I think you’re forgetting you have a pretty big secret on me too. No one, and I mean no one, knows I’m Anonymous.”
That caught my attention. I straightened up and looked at him. “No one?”
“No. And I’d like to keep it that way.”
There was a hint of vulnerability to Shaw’s words I’d never heard there before. It didn’t matter that I didn’t like him much. I would never betray this. “I won’t tell anyone. I swear. I wouldn’t do that.”
He sighed. “I know. I didn’t think you would. I don’t know why. It’s not like you’re very nice.”
“Hey! I’m nice!”
“Yeah, okay,” Shaw said sarcastically.
“Oh, fuck you. I am.”
“I said okay,” he countered.
“But you said it mockingly. I’m not stupid.”
“Guilty conscience, or what?” He shrugged. “If the shoe fits…”
I held up my hand. Between the two of us, we could do this all night, and I didn’t want to do this all night with him. I didn’t want to do anything with him…I didn’t think. I did like Anonymous, and it wasn’t cool that they were the same person. That was still fucking with my head. “Did you know the whole time?” I made myself ask. “Because if you did…”
“Hey.” Shaw cupped my cheek and turned my face so I looked at him. I hadn’t even realized I’d turned away. “I didn’t know the whole time. I wouldn’t do that. How would I have even known? I didn’t figure it out until tonight.”
I nodded, finding myself believing him. It wasn’t like he’d forced me to message him, and I hadn’t given anything away at first. “So, what are we doing here?”
Shaw grabbed my hips and pulled me close. “Dancing. It has to look realistic, right?” Insert cocky grin here. Ugh. The guy would be the death of me.