Stupid Love (Stumbling into Love 1)

When we got to our doors, we lingered there for a moment, like a couple of idiots.

“Well…good night. Thanks again.”

“No problem,” Shaw replied. “I’ll see you Tuesday, then. Should I bring anything? I have a bottle of rosé.”

I smiled stupidly. “Yeah, you can bring that. It’d be nice.”

Shaw smiled, nodded. “Good night, Elijah.” He turned his back to me, unlocked his door, and went inside, and I kept standing there. Why was I standing there?

Maybe the bigger question was, how come I had so much fun tonight?

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Shaw

I was being weird.

I didn’t know how else to explain it, but yeah, ever since my dinner with Elijah on Saturday, I was being weird.

I didn’t like being weird.

I didn’t do weird.

Only, right now I did.

Stupid pretty boys with attitudes were fucking with my head. Well, one stupid pretty boy with an attitude—and he did have an attitude. He thought he was better than me, and sometimes he could be judgy, but then I thought maybe he had low self-esteem. That he didn’t see how gorgeous he was, or that there was more for him out there than Danny. Not that there was anything wrong with Danny. He was fucking sexy, so I got why Elijah felt that way, but I still didn’t think he loved him. I thought he was confused because Danny had always been there for him.

And I also thought Elijah was really fucking hard on himself. The dance thing proved that. He stopped dancing because he didn’t get into Juilliard?

Hence my weirdness. I couldn’t stop thinking about dinner and examining every single thing in a way that made me want to call this off, or bang my head into a wall, or…I didn’t know…hook up with him and evict this weirdness from my system.

So when Will called and asked if I wanted to meet him at the gym, I took him up on it. Exercising was a safer option than thinking about screwing my neighbor who thought he was in love with someone else and didn’t like no-strings-attached.

I’d just finished showing a house, so I made the drive to Midtown Gym, then grabbed the duffel bag I kept in the back seat.

Will was on his phone out front when I arrived.

“Hey, man. What’s up?” he asked.

“Not much, really. Ready to outrun you on the treadmill, is all.”

Will pulled the door open and stepped inside. “You wish, Hastings.”

We might have been a bit competitive with each other, but it was all in good fun. “Yeah, it’s probably about time I let you win again. I know how you get when you lose too many times in a row.”

He flipped me off, laughing as we made our way to the locker room and began to get changed.

“So…Saturday night. You and the cute neighbor twink?” Will tugged on a pair of shorts.

“No. I told you that night I wasn’t trying to hook up with him. We’re…” The words lingered there because I didn’t know exactly what we were. “Friends?”

“Oh, because that’s convincing. You sound like you’re asking me, not telling me.”

He wasn’t wrong. I finished unbuttoning my shirt and tugged on my tee. “I wasn’t asking you. We’re friends.” When his brows pinched together and he still looked confused, I added, “What? Is it so weird for me to be friends with someone?”

“Of course not. I don’t know. Seems strange, is all. You guys never used to talk. You said he hated you, and then you passed up on a guy who definitely did like you to go hang out with him? And now you’re looking at me like a deer in the headlights. What the fuck, Shaw? I’m freaking out here. Are you dying or something? And you told your judgy neighborhood bendyman before me?”

A laugh tumbled from between my lips. “You’re an idiot.”

“Takes one to know one.”

As I continued to get changed, I said, “I’m not dying. I walked away the other night because I knew if I stayed, our dancing partner would have gone home with me instead of you, and I thought, hell, why not toss a guy a bone.”

“Oh, fuck off. You wish.”

“And Elijah is my friend. It just happened. I don’t really understand how it did. He’s not as judgmental as I thought, and I’m actually having dinner at his apartment with him and his buddy.” I figured it was better to get it out in the open now.

“Wait, what? I’m feeling left out. If he gets to bring his best friend, why don’t you? Tell your new boyfriend we’re a package deal!”

“He’s not my—” I started, then stopped. He wasn’t my boyfriend, and I didn’t want Will to think he was. But I also knew we were supposed to be fooling Danny. Midtown was a small area, and gossip traveled, especially in the gayborhood.

“Oh my God. He’s your fucking boyfriend? You never have a boyfriend. Now my ass better get invited. Remember my last girl thought I spent too much time with you.”